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Selling retail and (exclusive) wholesale on a website.

by mjustburn94
3 replies
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Hey Warriors,

I'm currently building an ecommerce website; I want to sell wholesale (mainly) and retail. However I'd like to have some form of exclusivity with all of the items - I don't want anyone to be able to view the items (retail or wholesale).

So my questions are:
1) Are ecommerce site (in the fashion niche) with strict membership requirements generally successful?

2) Can someone please enlighten as to successful model used for at least selling retail item while having the whole items exclusive??

I've been going back and forth with this and I'd like some advice on this.
Thanks guys!
#exclusive #retail #selling #website #wholesale
  • Profile picture of the author RobertLong
    Picking niche for creating a website will become a biggest hurdle, which most of the people face when they start a online business. If do it with great effort and sense then it will be successful to take a membership requirement for ecommerce site. By applying distinct scheme and ideas to your website you can easily build a successful model for atleast selling item.
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    • Profile picture of the author mikehermy
      This is only my opinion, but building a successful ecommerce store under either one of these two models is challenging enough and each come with their own set of hurdles to overcome that I would never suggest trying to do both. We have 1 store that is doing what you are suggesting (entirely different niche altogether) and it is challenging. I would suggest optimizing your site for one model or the other, but not both.
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  • Profile picture of the author Etoot
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    • Profile picture of the author Solid Commerce
      I would agree with this idea.

      I think it's important to show potential customers as much as what you have to offer, so that they have a good reason to become a member.

      Content marketing could very well be one of the best ways that you can do this. If you can start a blog that is catered not to your business, but to the interests of your target audience (this is incredibly easy to do with a fashion store), that's a great way to build your audience, spread the word about your site, and generate trust and authority in a really big way.

      It's also a good way to showcase your inventory and drive subscriptions. Pinterest, in particular, will be your BEST friend in a huge, huge way with this.

      Alongside your blog, work out a really killer social strategy. Focus on creating really eye-catching content that showcases your brand in interesting and engaging ways.

      This is another great thing about having a clothing site -- CLOTHING, all by itself, is a hobby for some people. So you can get away with just talking about your inventory a lot more than you can on other sites. You've just got to do it in ways that seems like content that people would actually read. So don't go filling your blog with posts that say stuff like, "We just got a new shipment of these shirts in; here are some pictures of them." Rather, try to create and/or curate content that is COMPLEMENTED by your inventory, rather than simply focusing on it. Native advertising and content marketing are subjects you should research on Google.

      Hope that helps! Feel free to ping me back with any further questions.
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