E-Commerce - It's a Coordinated Effort

When you're depending primarily on e-commerce as your sales venue it takes a coordinated approach. There are tens of thousands of people selling wooden bowls on the internet from all countries in all price ranges. That is a lot of competition! How can you stand out?

I decided in the beginning that my goal was not to find things to make that would sell. I’ve had lots of suggestions from well meaning friends and relatives of things I could make “that would really sell!”. What I really wanted to do was become a talented professional wooden bowl maker. I wanted to make heirloom, gallery quality functional bowls from interesting, beautiful, primarily locally sourced wood. I knew there was a market for them, I just needed to get my work in front of the people that value what I make.

I use Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to showcase my work and drive business to my website. I am currently on an odyssey with a very talented web marketing professional to learn how to use these more effectively. To this day I’ve never used a hashtag, in fact, I’m not sure I even knew what one was and why you would use it. Next week I will begin using hashtags (remember, never say never) because I’m learning how they help me reach my target audience more effectively.

A baker goes to work very early every morning if he wants to have fresh, warm baked goods ready when his customers arrive in the morning. A woodturner spends many hours a day on the computer if he wants people to find his work in the sea of possibilities on the internet. Who knew!