Asking Others

Asking for opinions is good…but keep in mind why you started this biz.

What about this?…start an ideas journal. Record thoughts about what you want the biz to look like, colours you choose, design your logo in this notebook, what you want from your biz …

Take this journal everywhere ‘cause who knows when you’ll be inspired! Show it to your friends and family. Know that everyone will have their own opinion and that’s OK. Know that you are developing the backbone of your biz and are the only one who really has the vision for it. This biz may take some time to evolve and why the journal will come in handy. Stay true to your original thoughts about your biz.

Asking for opinions helps to understand how others vision your biz. Is it the same as you vision it? They may also help fill in details you have not yet thought about. Let all ideas percolate over time and settle into place. Careful…don’t let others opinions divert you from your original path. Consider, then let them go if they just don’t fit your vision.

Live Chic has grown and developed over our first 5 years by accepting great suggestions from customers and our own students and allowing others to fill in some of the missed details but always staying true to our LC brand online and in store.

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Building the Live Chic brand…

If you have been reading past posts in this blog you will have noticed all of the biz decisions are made based on ideas around how the owner wants the brand to look and be experienced by the customer.

Choices about products, colours (logo, website, products, hang tags, packaging, etc.), fonts in the logo, blog, website, as well as voice and tone of any written work right down to how the phone is answered are all part of developing a biz.

Live Chic at Fanshawe College is unique in that there are several students and faculty involved in making decisions about this biz and brand. Staying with a consistent message is key in presenting all aspects of Live Chic…and it’s not about being boring either. It’s all about telling a consistent story about the biz.

Deviation from the story causes confusion to the customer so purposely making careful choices are important to the brand’s success.

Students of the Fashion Merchandising program are responsible for every aspect of running Live Chic online and in-store. Learning to deliver consistency in all areas of running a biz is extremely important. They are all involved in buying, marketing, and merchandising in store and online at livechic.ca

Takeaway here…always use the same logo proportion, colour, font, etc., etc., etc. on everything…hang tags, biz cards.

But, consistency extends beyond the logo. Think of the products offered to customers. What should they grown to expect? Trendy, colourful products or classic styling, beachwear, or bridal. Offer up similarly themed products and your customer will come to remember you.

At Live Chic, we offer a variety of products students can use in their everyday life while studying at Fanshawe College. Products such as casual clothing, jewellery, purses, nail polish, scarves, journal books, tea and accessories as well as dorm decoratives.

Adding Value…

This is where your biz starts branding itself…imagine your customer looking through your online catalogue and that of another store. They have choices of where they wish to spend their money.
What can you offer as a little extra? That’s value…but before you can give value to a customer you should know who they are. Where they just came from, what are they currently doing, what is important in their life at this moment. It is only when you know who is coming to your site that you can offer something that would be interesting, relevant, and personal to them.

Value is intangible and value should lead to a feel good moment for your customer. So what is value?

Value is many ‘things’…it is a money or time saver, pleasant surprize, helpful piece of information, a small take-away, something free, reminder, birthday wish, pick me up, recognition, free or low cost shipping, hassle free returns, etc.

Value is something small but recognizable.

A business that shows they are sincerely adding value for their customer will ultimately win their hearts and mind. When they are online and looking for same or similar items, they will think of your biz and they may even tell others about it.

Adding value is a necessary part of running an online business. Think of it from a customer’s point of view…a parcel received from your biz enclosed with a simple and sincere gift, a beautifully packaged parcel, a coupon for next purchase or a link to helpful info about your product from the supplier. Any of these suggestions are low cost and appreciated by a customer.

Livechic.ca took this conversation to the classroom and asked the Fashion Merchandising students at Fanshawe College their opinions about what was valuable to our potential customers. Here is what they decided…fast and free shipping was important to our customer, beautiful packaging, nice selection of fashionable products, easy to navigate online store, and quick response to all enquiries-email, Facebook & twitter.

It’s a good start…

Pricing your products…

It’s pretty exciting when your first product arrives. Pricing your products is one of the many decisions in your starting your own biz list and sets the tone for selling so sharpen your pencil and calculate the retail price of your products.

 

 

 

 

Consider…

• What will your customers pay for the product?
• Cost of shipping because it needs to be added into the price.
• Profit you want to make on each product.

Visit your competition in-store and online. How does your competition price their products? How you want to place your biz in the market will determine if you undercut, match or price your products higher than your competitor’s prices. This is your pricing strategy.

• Undercutting prices is a difficult pricing strategy to maintain and larger businesses will beat you at this game hands down. Don’t go there!

• Price matching is a good strategy but be sure you can offer something else about your biz that the competition doesn’t have. If you and another retailer offer the same products…same price why would the consumer buy from you? Offer them more value! Show them how you are unique!

• Above competitor pricing is also a difficult pricing strategy but if you are offering services, being community minded or offering a unique version of the same product you may have the edge over the competition. Starbucks sells expensive coffee…or do they? Time spent reading “The Starbucks Experience” by JosephA.Michelli will be well worth it.

Building a biz is an interwoven set of decisions that are unique to your biz alone. Each decision like the one you are making here helps to build your unique brand.

While exploring the idea of moving online with Live Chic and livechic.ca; our class came to realize how important it was to price shipping and add it as part of the pricing strategy. Shipping can be very costly especially if you have large or heavy goods. Someone has to pay for transporting the merchandise from the supplier to the biz to the consumer. Be sure to add shipping into the retail price.

Determining how much you as a retailer would like to make on each piece is an important part of biz success. If you don’t add enough you can’t pay the bills and yourself. Too much and no one will buy from you.

Watch your competitors and make good choices when it comes to your biz.

Live Chic…shipping

When setting up an online store there are so many things to do…it’s more than setting up the website. That’s the easy part! So far in our blog posts have named and chosen the types of products to sell.

spring/summer 2016

Next, how to ship products to our customers?

In our eCommerce class, we discussed various shipping methods and services within Canada. Calgary, Thunder Bay and Toronto were chosen as examples to get pricing estimates.

The findings were disappointing. We discovered the costs were varied widely, ranging from $9.40 to $50.83 for the same parcel at various levels of service. Crazy right! In the end, we discovered our best rate was found within Fanshawe College’s shipping department at $5.00. Why? As it turns out, Fanshawe College ships and receives many parcels everyday. It was a good teaching moment of ‘economy of scale’. Shipping can make or break an opportunity to sell online.

Customers are looking for fast and free delivery, how this happens is all part of the merchandising and marketing of products and services online.

Advice…check out your options early because it will affect your pricing strategy.