| Merchant News From TIAS.com the 1-18-09 |
Merchant News From TIAS.com the 1-18-09
News for TIAS, Antique Arts, Collectoronline and
Earthling Merchants
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1. Welcome to 2009!
2. A welcome to Architecturals.net merchants
3. Yes, sales are down everywhere. Here is what you can do to improve your sales.
4. New features in your online store
5. The Yard Sale at TIAS
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1. Welcome to 2009!
With the extremely tight economic situation here in the U.S. and abroad, this year is going to be a challenge for all of us. To get you started on the right foot, we've put together some tips that could make a significant difference to your bottom line. If after reading these ideas you have other suggestions you would like to share, please drop me an email at Phil@tias.com or give me a call at 1-888-653-7883
Kind regards,
Phil Davies
TIAS.com Inc.
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2. A welcome to Architecturals.net merchants
TIAS.com working with Architecturals.net earlier this week announced that we have successfully transferred thousands of items offered by over 400 merchants, from the Architecturals.net Web site, to the TIAS.com classified ads located at http://classifieds.tias.com. This move coincides with the December 12th 2008 announcement by Architecturals.net that they will be discontinuing their marketplace for antique dealers, artisans and craftsmen. We want to welcome these new merchants to TIAS. If you have any questions about the move, please contact support@tias.com
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3. Yes, sales are down everywhere. Here is what you can do to improve your sales.
The economy is bad. When people are concerned about money, they try spend less and buy when they feel they are getting a bargain. To increase your sales in this tough market, you have to do two things.
* Increase the visibility of your store and your merchandise online - In this market, if you don't do anything while every other store on the Internet is working hard to take your customers, your sales will just continue to decline. To avoid this fate, you need to get a calendar and setup a promotion schedule for your store. Here are some ideas for your calendar:
a) Twice each week, make sure you are using the TIAS press release system. Press release can be about a sale, new merchandise and special offers
b) Use the News-Antique.com press release system - This is a free service that allows you to publish press releases and articles that are 90% of the time picked up by Google News. Your article/release will also me included in an email that goes out to over 8000 writers, editors, clubs and collectors that cover the want info about the antiques and collectibles trade. This is the #1 site on the Web for "Antique News" and is viewed by over 60,000 people each month. If you need help writing a 200 word release, take a look at: http://www.bignews.biz/blog/?p=13
c) Write articles about antiques and collectibles that you are familiar with - Let the world know you are an expert by publishing articles related to your expertise. People find these articles than visit your Web site. More information about writing articles and where to publish them can be found here: http://www.bignews.biz/blog/?p=15
d) If you can't write, then find someone to do it for you - Need to find someone to write the press releases and articles for you? Check out the section titled "How to Hire a writer"
* Evaluate your asking prices - Is your merchandise marked at the current market value? - The market value is what items are currently selling for, not book value or what the items sold for last year at auction. To determine what you merchandise is actually being sold for in this market, you have to do what your customers are doing and run a search on Google as well as an eBay advanced search for recently sold items.
People are shopping by price and it takes them just a few minutes to do a price comparison across the entire Internet, so if items in your store can be found for less at another online store, you are going to lose that sale.
TIAS gets thousands of shoppers a day. Many of them are ready to buy now. The hard part is converting those shoppers into buyers. If while browsing on TIAS a shopper finds an interesting item, then runs a search on Google and eBay for that item and finds 2-3 other sellers with that same item for less $, who do you think is going to get that sale?
Successful dealers have told me many times that they make their money when BUYING their merchandise. The less they pay for it means that they can then offer it for less and sell it quicker.
Starting today, get into your store and CHECK YOUR PRICES!
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4. New features in your online store
Login to your TIAS members page at http://www.tias.com/members and scroll down the first page to the "Dealers News" sections on your store's "management dashboard". Nancy has been busy this month building several new features.
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5. The Yard Sale at TIAS
This month at TIAS we've been offering $1 classifieds at http://classifieds.tias.com . To place a $1 classified, just enter the coupon code YARDSALE122908 during checkout and $9 will be taken off of a $10 classified during the month of January 2009 only. Many of these "Yard Sale" ads are also being featured in the TIAS newsletter each week as well for free.
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Comments? Questions?
Drop us an email at support@tias.com and we will be happy to help!
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