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Traditional brick and mortar stores will always have a place on the high street. They provide customers with some real, face to face interaction and they allow people to check out goods in real life before committing to buying them. But it’s extremely important that you are aware of the other means of selling that are available to you as a small business owner. Put simply, it’s best to have a finger in all of the pies. This can help you to maximise sales and reach out to a much larger audience of consumers than you would be able to by trading through your brick and mortar store alone. So, let’s take a moment to look at a couple of different options that exist and can prove to be extremely profitable!
Trade Fairs
Trade fairs and exhibitions are similar to trading through a brick and mortar store in several ways. Customers can come face to face with you and the products that you are selling. They can receive great customer service. They can see things in real life and try them out. However, they don’t necessarily have to come to your store in order to be able to do this. A trade fair is essentially a large scale show set up by an independent company who then offer space to large numbers of sellers. You can rent one of these spaces and set up a temporary, small scale store. Consumers then purchase tickets to the show and browse all of the different stalls that have been set up. The benefit of this? You can reach out to new areas and you know that people attending these shows are heading in with the intention of buying products and spending money. Start out with a small stall (this will generally come with a smaller price tag) and see how things go. If you experience success, you can always upgrade to a larger stall at the next one you attend!
E-Commerce
We are living in the digital age and if you aren’t already selling online, now is the time to set up. Whether you personally like shopping online or not, it’s important to remember that this is a thriving area of commerce that can prove extremely lucrative. There are just so many benefits that come hand in hand with operating online for customers and sellers alike! You can operate around the clock (as the web doesn’t have opening and closing times), you can reach out to an international audience through the simple addition of international shipping, and you can generally offer products at a lower price, as you don’t have as many overheads when selling online!
These are just a couple of different ways that you can begin to trade outside of your traditional brick and mortar store. Sure, you may feel a little out of your comfort zone. But you will soon get used to them and you could end up raking in serious amounts of money in the process!