How to Use Established Brands to Your Advantage When Creating Your Own Profitable Online Store

Although many new businesses will want to create their own products and brand name, it is not necessarily essential. For instance, you could opt to sell items that are made by other companies that carry a brand name of their own. This will mean that you can concentrate on your store and your customer service rather than investing money into product development and trying to build a brand from the ground up. Having products that are ready for sale from day one can mean that you see profit incredibly quickly, but it is important to remember that your profit margins per item may be a lot smaller than if the product and brand name were yours to begin with.

#1 Find high-demand products

First on your ‘to do’ list is to research products that are already on the market and that are in high demand. Selecting a niche such as vaping will mean that you have an area to focus all your efforts on, as no doubt there is more to selling vapes online as you will also be able to offer your customers vaping accessories as well.

Of course, when looking to do this, you will want to look at those brand names within the vaping niche that are already well-known and therefore have a strong customer desire in existence. For example, visiting https://vapeglobe.co.uk/ should be your first port of call. Their products will also be of good quality so that you can build your business on the back of providing reliable and genuine vapes to your customers.

#2 Use brand recognition in your marketing techniques

These can also be used to your advantage in your marketing strategies as they will already be easily recognisable to those that have an interest in vaping. Brand names tend to have packaging that stands out and is easily associated with their products tying the name to the product in customers' minds. Using this, you can draw customer’s attention so that they know they can purchase their favourite vaping brand at your online store rather than having to hunt around local shops to find the brand that they want.

#3 Create exclusive offers

You will, however, in order to stand out from your competitors, have to make the products in your online store attractive to potential customers. This could mean creating exclusive offers every now and then on selected vape brands or accessories.

In order to inform your existing customers of these fantastic offers that they are not going to want to miss, you need to offer them the chance to sign up for your monthly (or fortnightly) newsletter. In this, you can highlight new product ranges that you will be stocking or bring focus to the brands and their products that you need to improve your sales on.

#4 Provide excellent customer service

As touched on briefly above, as you will be selling existing brand name products you will be able to concentrate on providing the best customer service that you possibly can. Many businesses are built on excellent customer service, and although CRM software can take you so far, the main hard work will have to come from you and your employees.

Ensuring that your customers can contact your company in a variety of ways, such as telephone, text, email and live chat (with chatbots and humans where possible), will mean that help will always be available to those who require it. In addition to this, a handwritten ‘thank you for your order’ on packing notes can be a nice touch with the occasional freebie or custom swag item thrown in with a large order can have your customers coming back time and time again.

#5 Initiate a loyalty programme

Another way you can show your thanks to your customers while also encouraging them to purchase from you regularly is to offer them a loyalty programme. In this, you will be able to provide them with personalised discounts over a period of time or special offers for their birthday or for recommending a friend to your store. Of course, mainly you will be rewarding them for purchasing from your business rather than taking their custom to one of your many competitors. You will be able to do this with a points system based on the amount of money that they spend with your company over the course of a year. The more money they spend, the more points they will gain and therefore the more discounts, gifts or bonuses they will be able to receive from your company.

So, to wrap it all up

Even if you have no product or brand yourself, you can still turn a profit selling branded products that are made and supplied by other companies. Of course, you will have to choose a niche to concentrate on and then locate the best-selling products within it in order to stock your store. This can be a great way to start a small business and grow your reputation quickly, concentrating on the service that you are providing to your customers as the products are already at the top of their game.