Online sales....your thoughts?

[Brush to Bay]

In the next month or so , we will have 3D cart set up on our website to be able to purchase specific items and will have the ability to ship to customer's door. I'd like to get any thoughts on this.

1. Do you feel online sales have damaged pro shop sales? Customers have the ability to purchase pretty much anything they want online except top end bow lines.

2. What items would you like to see listed for purchase on our website?


3. Would you like to see a "clearance" section with rock bottom pricing on items that are discontinued?

[panhandlehunter]

I have a small business, online sales have helped me. We still do great in our shop, but we're able to reach a bigger audience of people with on-line sales. Not everybody can make it to your shop to buy something, but they can still purchase your products online. The only issue I've run into is shipping. I have a full time job so it's tough at times for me to honor our same day shipping. We also do a clearance section.

[Playa]

1. Yes but as a consumer I don't care. Online stores are the markets desire, get with it or suffer a painful financial death. If I want "pro" advice I will look for it.

3. Yes.

[gingib]

1 & 3: Absolutely

2: Anything. Feeders also but only pickup at the store. Game cameras also

[Blinds]

I think online sales helped your business.

[JT12]

Yes! arrows ! It would be great to custom order arrows from a trusted dealer


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[boh347]

90% of what I buy is online.

[10132297]

This

1. Yes but as a consumer I don't care. Online stores are the markets desire, get with it or suffer a painful financial death. If I want "pro" advice I will look for it.

3. Yes.

This

[jaspermac]

It all boils down to price and shipping it out quickly

[kd350]

It all boils down to price and shipping it out quickly

This, if you have fast dependable shipping like Amazon and midway, people will order once the word gets out.

I second arrows, fletched and shafts. Wraps, fletchings, nockturnals, broadheads as well

[popup_menace]

I think that the ability to effectively promote your business on the internet via online sales is a great tool and strategy. You don't HAVE to do it, but it will definitely bolster gross sales. The key to an effective online catalog is your ability to provide those good with minimal processing cost to your business, so it may not be in your best interest to do so unless you expect to have everything set up to take advantage of mailing volume discounts and such.

I do think that online sales have hurt pro shops, especially Lancaster. I purchase archery items through them over eBay, Amazon, and any others simply because I can chat with a tech and their customer service is pretty good.

I shop for small things online, except for the occasional piece of tuning equipment that I have to order, like a bow press. I'll buy releases, quivers, rests, peeps, serving thread, d loop material, and other things like that. Anything that isn't overly sensitive to shipping.

I am not really a clearance shopper, so I couldn't tell you. Nothing I use for archery is ever discontinued

[popup_menace]

Another thought... if you're going to do online sales, get PayPal linked into your platform. It makes things so much faster for the consumer and it is one reason I go back to online shopping over other methods.

[Rat]

I ALWAYS go to my local shop to see if they have what I need first, if not I order it online. IF they had an online shop I would also check there first. It would also be nice to have a drop shipping capability so we could order something that you don't stock in the store, but could have drop shipped.

An example, from my local shop, would be Spot Hogg sights. They don't stock them in the store, but they are a dealer and can order them; it would be nice to just order the sight from them and have it drop shipped from Spot Hogg.

1) Yes I think online sales have hurt pro shops who do not have an online presence.

2) Everything I need.

3) Not really a clearance shopper, but if you have it on clearance it would be nice to have a separate section for those items.

[Brush to Bay]

paypal

We already use paypal to process our CC's so it will link up rather well.

[Brush to Bay]

These are all excellent suggestions. I'm taking all of these into consideration when getting our online business going. A few things to note:

-Paypal will be linked to the "Buy Now" feature so all CC payments are easily done.

-We have bulk shipping rates via our partnership with Foreverlast, Inc. , so we will be able to charge lower shipping rates (anywhere in US) and even give free shipping on select items.

-I love drop ships as we don't have to handle the merchandise at all. I will work with manufacturers to see which will allow drop ships for customers.

-Clearance items will typically be crazy silly cheap. These will include bows, bow
packages, feeders, etc.

-The primary reason we have not set up our online market yet is strictly out of caution. As a new business, we needed to see if this area would sustain an archery/fishing business. After 2 years (May 4th), we've seen that it definitely will.