“How long you been here?” is a question designed to drive any resaler CRAZY. You spend and spend on advertising, signage, bag-stuffers and all that, and still, people don’t seem to know you’re there: as in “open for business, reputable store, cool joint, must-see shop in town.”
Happens to everyone, so don’t feel bad. But on the other hand, fight tooth-and-nail against it.
Are you aware that over 2/3s, yes, over 66% of Americans have Internet access… and use it? Are you there, for them to find? Or do you get consigned to the “must not be a REAL store since they don’t have a web site” category?
Example: I wanted to go visit a resale store that is out-of-the-way for me here in Sarasota. Not really too far, but I don’t normally travel to Venice. But I’d go, if I knew they’d be open. Let’s see, what’s the name again? So I google consignment + Venice, get lots of Venice CA results. Try again with Venice FL…. nothing.
Now mind you, I know this shop exists. I’ve even done an article about it.
Ah, there. I found it on Google. Which pointed, ah-hem, to my site, Too Good to be Threw. But that was an article, not shop info.
So I guess I’ll be one of those shoppers who do not visit that shop this weekend.
Shame, too, because I could really use a resale fix about now. Money’s just itchin’ to jump outta my wallet.
My point? Get your name out there on the Internet. Loving your potential customer is never having to say, “We don’t care enough about you to tell you about us.”
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
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Our website definately does work for us. I get comments daily about items mentioned on it or our blog. It took me years to get around to building a site … and it was sooo easy once I finally made the decision to just do it!
My kids store is 15 minutes from a city of 1,000,000 – but for some residents of the city, we’re a good hour from their homes. So why do they still come in droves just to check us out, and then become regulars? Because our website convinced them we were cool and unique enough to be worth the drive!
We have noticed a dramatic increase since starting our website.
I put our website on everything we do. It is in our signature emails. I list craigslist and put it there. Our ebay listings Any Ad’s we do, our brochurs etc…
People want to learn about you on their time. By having a website it allows ppl access 24/7 to your shop. Maybe someone cant make it into the shop but by having the website, they can check it out to see if it is worth a trip.
I had one woman find us on the web, liked the site and drove 2 hours to see us. She was thrilled and I gave her directions to the 4 other shops in the area.
We pay 4.99 a month and have more traffic from our website than we have ever gotten from a newspaper ad. Heck I don’t even get a paper in my own house because all I need is on the WWW I guess it is a sign of the times!
Patricia
http://www.oncorehome.com/
Couldn’t agree with Kate more! Not only am I part of that 66%, but I am a chronic “Googler.” If I can’t find you on the internet, I’m not going to visit you…sorry. This morning I wanted to visit the new scrapbooking place about 15 min up the road, but I have no idea if they are open. They have a website, WITHOUT their store hours on it! I could call, but I probably won’t. Their website wasn’t user friendly ~ are they?