If you are handmade business is suffering because of the coronavirus.
I want to help in this video.
I'm going to show you five ways to get your business back in shape and making sales again.
Hi, my name is Mei and I help makers artists
and designers create a consistent income from selling their handmade products online.
If you're still freaking out because of the coronavirus I get it.
It's affecting everyone and on top of all the personal stuff you
need to take care of like buying toilet paper
or staying inside with the kids
for what feels like forever or so much hand-washing and all the new safety health habits.
You have to adopt as if there's not enough to worry about you all.
So have to think about your business. I'm not going to beat around the bush.
The coronavirus outbreak is devastating for many small businesses.
It's a scary time so many things are uncertain.
There's no playbook for what to do.
And that's why I want to help
because these tips I'm about to share with you have been proven to work by
my and other people's businesses during this tough time.
I've been in the online business World long enough to notice some Trends in
a time of Crisis most customers cut back on luxury
items and a lot of Discretionary spending,
right but they don't stop spending completely.
In fact, I've seen firsthand that people will continue to spend money in ways
that make their lives more comfortable interesting.
Right? So today I'm going to talk about strategies for micro pivoting.
There are many ways. You can pivot your business without completely Reinventing
it but I'd like to focus on your product specifically that is how can you highlight your
products that will appeal to To customers in the current circumstances.
This is the micro pivot look at your products with fresh set of eyes
and change your marketing strategy accordingly.
But of course, we're not going to be sleazy, right?
We're not going to start hoarding and selling hand sanitizer at insanely high prices.
The goal is to keep our business going though.
So here are a few strategies that I'm seeing working for businesses right now,
including my own which has maintained in sales compared to the same time last year
for my jewelry business.
Tiny hands and for me and my husband's new print-on-demand art shop online.
We're making really big months. I'm talking like $40,000 in sales months.
It's crazy. So number one appeal to comfort that's in large part why people
are still spending despite the economy going down
and people losing jobs people are stressed out.
And yes, there are a lot of free ways to de-stress like gardening
or exercising or meditating or talking to friends,
but let's not forget. Get one major way of relieving stress
is shopping treating yourself to presents
and things that make you feel good is something lots of people
do people will never stop spending money.
It gives people a dose of dopamine,
right which makes them feel happy.
So let me give you an example think of things like chocolate chip cookies or warm apple pie.
Makes you feel Comfort it right.
So if you sell soaps or candles, for example,
you might want to place increased emphasis on promoting these
comforting sense also spend some time thinking
about what people like to do at home.
A lot of my friends are painting their living rooms.
Do you sell home decor or can you turn your products into something home
decor related something that makes your home more cozy
and you know what this applies to clothing as well.
Think about it right people by Easy things to wear at home sales of hoodies are up dresses are down.
So brainstorm ways. You can help people be happy at home.
Number to give your customers something to do people are obviously spending time at home.
So think about if you have any products that offer people something to do like an activity
and if you don't have a product like that could you easily make a spin-off product
of that without totally making a completely new shop do
you or can you sell kits?
For example, one of my friends livers the Loden mix jewelry
and she usually sells finished jewelry ready-to-wear
but in light of covid-19 Started selling quarantine craft kits to make your own bracelets.
It is such a brilliant idea and it makes for a really great gift other ideas for you guys.
If your artists or illustrators, can you make coloring pages of your illustrations
or fun games and activities another friend of mine Kimberly Taylor pastel from Les slate.com
makes a printable download called the indoor doing kids activities pack.
It's filled with super cute and Whimsical illustration.
And she hand draws herself
and it includes 20 different activities kids can do like games puzzles coloring pages
and even crafts.
It's super cute anything that can entertain kids or even grown-ups is flying out the door.
If you're an illustrator. Can you convert your art to black
and white and make it into a coloring page?
Can you make your printables downloadables number three make shopping
with you easy if customers can't get outside much to do.
Popping and it's in your supply chain consider offering your single items as part of a whole kit.
For example, if you sell yarn consider making an entire knitting bundle
or if you make soaps put together a bath package with a
loofah and maybe even a playlist of relaxing songs.
Yeah, you know, it definitely involves a little bit more work,
but if you can go above and beyond you can make this work
and you're giving people reasons to buy from
you while you're supporting them through this weird rough time and sales are a good thing.
Right? Like let's look at Larisa load
and again as another example
because she's such a Savvy businesswoman
and she does a lot of things right plus every time I go to our site.
I just want to buy everything. I actually do own a few pieces of her work,
but I am not affiliated. I'm just friends with her.
So Larissa sells jewelry, right,
but she's recently started selling greeting cards as well because knowing her customers,
she knows many of them are Her jewelry as gifts.
So while I'm sure it was a bit of work for Larissa to Source greeting cards,
or maybe even designed them herself and get them printed now,
she's become a One-Stop gift shop
and she's making people's shopping experience easier and more enjoyable.
It's a no-brainer for them to buy from her.
I've also seen bigger businesses do something similar to this.
I was actually browsing through door - last
week and a sandwich restaurant here in La was offering The items on
their menu in addition to their regular ready-made
food so you could buy things like bread or milk or avocados or vegetables eggs and things like that.
Of course, they're charging a premium.
You know that if you bought them at a regular Supermarket,
but you're getting convenience and lots of people are willing to pay a premium for that number four.
Do you have items available for people with smaller budgets?
We're going through tighter Financial Times right now and introducing a range of lower.
Christ more accessible products will appeal to a wider range of customers.
Maybe you can offer a smaller version of your products
or a Twist of your pot that takes you less time to produce you don't get creative customers.
Do you acquire now will likely stay with you in the pandemic is
over as they're probably more supportive of small businesses
and they'll come back for your full-scale products later on
even if the coronavirus wasn't happening right now.
I always believed and taught my students.
That you should always have a diverse range of product prices.
You should aim to have three tiers One upscale high-end premium tier a middle tier
and a lower more affordable tear a lot of customers start out
and buy initially at the lowest tier and then over months and years eventually,
they level up to buying or more premium products later on
and it's literally a barking strategy where businesses will spend the time
and resources creating a higher end product with no.
In at all to even sell it
but the sole purpose is to help price anger
and set the tone for the perceived value of the other products in their shop.
And you know what happens it makes their middle tier products become that much more attractive
and people flock to buy those things only
because it had the help of a higher price product to set the
expectation number five consider running a sale.
It's not a secret that for people who've been laid off.
Money is tight and you may be sitting on extra inventory because sales are down.
I've always hoped that you don't want your money or cash to be stuck in too much inventory,
you know, all those print a t-shirt sitting in a box in your garage.
That's money, but it's not worth anything to anyone if it's just sitting there collecting dust.
So if it works for you, this could be the time to offer a discount to keep your income stream
rolling more people are shopping online than ever before
so consider running a sale.
Or a fun event to grab some of those Shoppers
and don't worry about this idea that running sales trains
your customers to wait to buy from you only
when you're doing a sale because number one if people wanted
to buy something they're going to buy it.
Now. Most people do not have the patience to wait months until you run a sale.
It's like an itch that needs to be scratched
and to you're definitely not at risk of this
unless you're doing a sale like every month if you're doing it just a few times a year.
No one. In is going to remember your last
sale because most people aren't going to be paying that close attention to your shop.
You know, they got too much going on
and their attention is pulled by so many other brands and shops and content out there.