Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

This is a mini-series of posts about making your consignment, resale, or thrift shop’s do what  you want it to do:
to get shoppers into your actual, physical, bricks-&-mortar, REAL store.

Getting Internet visitors to actually come shopping is a goal not shared by the majority of web  sites, perhaps: those sites where their customers do something on line (order, download,  watch or listen) or sites which are simply “building a brand” (Ford, Coke, Crayola) rather than  asking folks to step away from the electronics and come get physical. This is the challenge  we’re examining in this mini-series. At the end of the week, we’ll have a self-help quiz which you  can apply to your shop’s web site.

Today, we’re assuming that your current or potential client has seen your home page and wants .

to know more. Let’s take a look at the best way to present your “About” page.

Why? Because, besides the page your visitor landed on (your home page or any other page), the probabilities that they will click on “About Us” next are real close to 100%. So doesn’t it make sense to consider your “About Us” page as crucial? Let’s take a look at two consignment, resale, thrift shop sites and examine their “About Us” pages.

First up: Selective Seconds in Indiana. Selective Seconds actually has two “About Us” pages… each excellent in its own right. I would  only suggest that the two pages be combined into one… even though a click doesn’t take up a  millidecisixteenth-calorie, people prefer to press that click less. Vena’s two pages are  http://www.selectiveseconds.com/our-story/ and
http://www.selectiveseconds.com/meet-the-staff/

See what you think.

(An aside here: Vena’s photo-portrait is one I often use to illustrate how a picture is worth 3000  words if you get 3 aspects into it: here’s Vena’s smiling face, her window lettering with name,  phone, and mostly-visible hours, and the third aspect: an open door! (See yesterday’s post re “open”!) )

Another example: Camille’s Closet should really be Camilles’s Closet, for they are a mother-daughter team. This  is a very appealing fact to play up, as they do on their “About Us” page… but a portrait or two of the team would go a long way in making the relationship a keystone of the way they do  business… “I would tell my mom/ daughter honestly what she looks best in” could be the  rallying call of their shop!

(Another aside: I do have a teeny issue with the wording: saying that they started the  shop as a second choice after the first career went south, and that she grew up refusing to buy  secondhand, are not choices I would highlight. But maybe I am just too close to the industry  and “regular” people would be encouraged by this honesty. What do you think?)

Now, seven out of my 13 “volunteer” shop sites do not have any “About Us” page at all.

And three of the 6 shops which DO have an “About Us” present ad-speak about the shop,  rather than a more local, warm, personable page that would give the future client a feel for what the personality of the shop is like. This might be fine, if you would rather remain  impersonal and business-like. But can’t folks get THAT at Walmart? Why would they “shop  local”… if they don’t

know and care about the people

they will encounter, the people who will  help them, the people they could trust?

Here’s an “About Us” page for any retail business should contain, at the minimum:

• A photo of the owner and/or manager.
• That photo should be in the shop, with the shop name, hopefully, visible or added via a little  photo fixing.
• That photo would be even better if the owner is interacting with other people.
• Don’t like photos of yourself? There are ways around that… hide behind the customer you’re  helping, or even turn your back to the camera as you work.
• In addition to the photo: a few words indicating some things about the owner. This could be  simple “cocktail party chatter” like Demi loves horses, and you’ll often see her wearing her  consignment-shop prize find: a previously-loved Hermes scarf with their signature bridle bits on  it!

So how does your “About Us” page stack up… or do you even have one? Should you? What would you say? Or do you disagree? Comment below, if you wish to discuss this further.

Read more:

How important is your business “About Us” page?
“About Us” Pages Are Hard But Important
Captivating (Non-Resale) “About Us” Pages
Ignore the video, read the words on this post.