Each of the major MODs have some popular brands in their marketplace. CafePress has American Idol and Twilight Eclipse. Zazzle has Disney and Barbie. Spreadshirt has CNN and Nissan. Just from these examples, what might you surmise about the typical customer in each POD? One reasonable conclusion would be that CafePress attracts teenagers and young adults, Zazzle attracts children and “tweens”, and Spreadshirt attracts older adults.
The major brands serve the same purpose as the “anchor” stores in a traditional shopping mall. An anchor store is usually the largest store in a mall, and is usually located at one of the ends of a mall. Shoppers are more likely to visit a mall that has anchor stores that appeal to them. They begin by entering the anchor store at the end of the mall, but then they often walk further into the mall and visit other stores.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
Decision Factors for Choosing a POD
When considering which POD will get your business, what do you think is the most important factor to compare? You may think that it is the cost of running a shop – some PODs charge a fee while others are free. Or you may think that the most important factor is ease-of-use. How easy are the POD’s set-up templates and product creation tools? Cost and ease-of-use are certainly worth considering, but in fact they are not distinguishing characteristics of the PODs. Fees are usually quite small and not a “deal breaker”. And once you get comfortable with a POD, its templates and tools will become second nature to you.
The most important factor to consider when choosing a POD for your business is the volume of shoppers in its marketplace that match your target market.
Sure, you want to have your products in a POD marketplace that gets tons of shoppers every day. So the POD has to be pretty popular with the general public. But all these shoppers won’t be of much value to you if they don’t look like your ideal customer. If a POD’s marketplace is frequented primarily by baby boomers, and you are selling skateboard designs that appeal to teenage boys, a POD with fewer total shoppers but more teenage boy shoppers may be the best choice for you.
It also helps to choose a POD that does not already have a lot of shopkeepers who will be your competitors. In the skateboard design example, you would choose a POD that does not already have many shopkeepers selling products with skateboard designs. When a shopper arrives at your POD’s marketplace and types “skateboard” into the search field, you want your shop to come up as one of the first results in that POD marketplace. Even if the POD gets a million shoppers a day, it doesn’t help you much if it already has a thousand shopkeepers who will be competing directly with your shop’s theme.
The most important factor to consider when choosing a POD for your business is the volume of shoppers in its marketplace that match your target market.
Sure, you want to have your products in a POD marketplace that gets tons of shoppers every day. So the POD has to be pretty popular with the general public. But all these shoppers won’t be of much value to you if they don’t look like your ideal customer. If a POD’s marketplace is frequented primarily by baby boomers, and you are selling skateboard designs that appeal to teenage boys, a POD with fewer total shoppers but more teenage boy shoppers may be the best choice for you.
It also helps to choose a POD that does not already have a lot of shopkeepers who will be your competitors. In the skateboard design example, you would choose a POD that does not already have many shopkeepers selling products with skateboard designs. When a shopper arrives at your POD’s marketplace and types “skateboard” into the search field, you want your shop to come up as one of the first results in that POD marketplace. Even if the POD gets a million shoppers a day, it doesn’t help you much if it already has a thousand shopkeepers who will be competing directly with your shop’s theme.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Finally - more affordable water bottles on CafePress
Got an e-mail from CP today saying that they have added new water bottles ("stainless" bottles with base prices about 40% less than their original Sigg bottles) and new thermos products (like the type you used to carry to school for soup.) This alone is good news, but I was even more excited when CP's e-mail told me that they were going to automatically add these products with my images to the marketplace. The deal is that CP will take the images that I've already put on similar CP products, and put those images on the new products for me. Then I'll have the option to import the new products into my shop, or delete them. Hey, I'm all for someone else doing the heavy lifting for me! It's just that CP gave no indication of exactly when this will occur. I'll be watching my CP account to see when they do this, and how well they do it. Watch this blog for my update.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Time To Prep Your Holiday Products
The holiday season is the perfect fit for merchandise-on-demand. No need to build up inventories and then risk having to get rid of unsold products with an After-Christmas sale. Just bulk up your virtual shelves with products that are especially appealing at this time of year. Good choices are the 2011 calendars from CafePress, the scarves from Spreadshirt, and the mugs from Zazzle.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)