Elaines Space

Although Children’s Rooms is still doing extremely well despite the credit crunch and we are (very) excited about the future and the improvements that are in the pipeline, which could, hopefully, enable us to take on extra staff in the Spring/Summer months, we are still very aware how difficult it could get out there and the need to be ever vigilant concerning our revenue paths.

Since Christmas we have  kept a close eye on our competitors and rivals in the children’s bedding and bedroom accessories arena – as they do us – and have found it to be a very illuminating and ‘rewarding’ experience.  I’ve implemented several new practices and, more importantly, learnt what not to do. Here’s a few things I’ve found

DO’S

Take a good stock inventory and get rid of those stagnant lines – visitors like bargains, use Ebay if necessary.

Check pages for simple SEO fixes – a few new keywords can make all the difference to those lucrative ‘long tail’ keywords, as can rising a few places in the Search Engines

Think about increasing your product descriptions or inserting some new relevant content – Google likes fresh food

Keep an eye on bargains from relevant sites – we’ve managed to buy some items from one of our main competitors at an excellent price – and they were happy to sell to us.

Consider joining forces with a friendly competitor – yes they are out there – to buy in bulk and negotiate a better price with suppliers

Be flexible with paying invoices – some suppliers are already suffering because of the big firms going bust,  be willing to pay upfront  – karma!

Keep an eye on your PPC campaigns, with so many January Discount Sales happening it might be prudent to pause them, if you’re bidding against competitors who appear to offer better discounts and prices, and are willing to waste pay good money for high positions.

Keep on eye on Google – see which shopping directories are appearing regularly on the first page – it might be worth while applying to have your site listed.

Is Google Checkout worth using – do some visitors prefer this option?  Is Google Base an option for you?

Do keep an eye on your competitor’s prices, can you afford to tweak your’s and match them? or are their prices low because they’re not VAT registered and don’t have your overheads – you can’t compete on price with these companies – BUT they’ll either go under or have to start charging VAT eventually.  In the meantime concentrate on good customer service and getting that ‘free’ traffic.

DON’TS

Think carefully before buying those crazy bargains that suppliers are keen to offer this time of the year – if you can’t shift it, it’s not a bargain.

Don’t be tempted to put on a false sale ie Increase your prices just before you start your 10% sale – bound to come back and bite you on the legs!

Definately don’t be tempted to use ‘black hat’ methods to climb the SERPS – one of our competitors has been hacking vulnerable blogs to place back links – I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he will be penalized.

Don’t use automated software to get your link into hundreds and thousands of crappy sites.

Be careful if you’re thinking of paying for links – I definitely wouldn’t do this – the immediate benefits might be substantial – the long term penalty a sod to recover from.

Don’t be tempted to load your pages with tons of keywords (keyword stuffing) in the guise of content – Google’s not daft

Be careful when formulating a ‘Winter Sale plan’, look at your margins and overheads – 15% discount might bring in the customers, but if you’re paying for most of your visitors then that 15% will easily rise. If you’re also running an affiliate programme offering 8-10% commission, don’t forget to factor that in – that 15% discount might turn into 25% – and even more if you’ve forgotten about the current ‘free p&p over £25? voucher code – not many businesses survive if they’re actually losing money on the majority of sales!

Since implementing and taking note of all of the above we have found that over the last 10 days we have out performed last January’s figures – no mean feat in this economic nightmare – so the key is DON’T PANIC and remember Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity

first posted January 15th, 2009

Categorized as Children's Rooms