Tips on maintaining a successful blog shop
By Tay Zoe-Yi
Starting an online blog shop is easier than ever now with convenient access to the Internet and a huge variety of online media platforms to choose from. That is why it takes a lot more hard work to make your brand stand out from the rest in this competitive field. However, once you’ve achieved this milestone, you’ll face yet another obstacle: now that you have an established and successful blog shop business running, how are you going to keep this up? Here’s some tips on how you can make your business last.
Nicole Ng Lin Lei, 21, majoring in International Business and Marketing at Taylor’s Business School is the co-owner of the highly established blog shop, My Bags Bunny that currently has 22,000 followers on Instagram. Her shop collects authentic pre-loved designer bags and sells them at a lower price. The shop also provides an alternate platform for owners who wish to dispose designer bags that are no longer in use.
“We started out on Instagram just like all the other shops. At that time it wasn’t that popular to market through Instagram yet, so we used many hashtags to improve visibility, and we also followed others to provide awareness for our shop. We kept doing this and in one year we achieved 20,000 followers,” Ng explained.
So here’s tip number one in maintaining a successful online business: Promote, promote, promote. No matter how well known your brand is, always keep a humble stance and work hard. Don’t let success get to your head, but instead, use this opportunity to keep reaching out to new potential customers and expand your followings. Use hashtags for easy access to your shop’s products, as they are useful tools to keep your customers and followers updated on your shop’s latest items or promotions.
Next is to always be ready to venture out and expand your brand on to other media platforms. Don’t be afraid to experiment or take risks with new networks or media. In a competitive environment like the ever-changing online market, it is important to spread brand awareness and to reach out to customers through different social networking sites.
“For online shops we have to increase our visibility online. This means going out to other channels to sell such as Facebook, Mudah, and so on instead of just maintaining an Instagram account,” Ng shared.
In short, it is okay to start out your online business on a chosen platform that would best reach your potential market. But if you want to maintain the success of your shop or business, it is best to have an account for your business on at least two social networking sites or any other alternative media platforms.
When it comes to maintenance, time management is crucial. It is important to allocate your time wisely so you don’t neglect your studies or your blog shop, especially if you are a final year student with tons of assignments to rush and a 10,000-word thesis paper to complete by the end of semester. And in order to exercise good time management, make it a rule to always plan ahead.
“Yes it is quite difficult as there are many things to do when it comes to running your own business such as supplying, customers, sellers, but it’s still manageable with a partner and proper time management. We just had to find time to work and do assignments,” Ng said, then continued, “one of the difficulties is meeting up with customers as we have classes, so we really have to plan our time to prevent clashes.”
Running your own business also means dealing with all sorts of customers and suppliers. The trick to managing your online blog shop business also relies on your human relations and communication skills. It is important to be friendly and conversational when you liaise with your customers. You will have to meet up with all kinds of customers whether online and offline and while this is good in establishing your network of connections, it also takes a lot of patience to handle such a wide variety of different personalities.
“The most unforgettable experience I had with a customer was when I first started the shop. The customer was late for an hour. I called but nobody picked up. I texted her on Whatsapp, she saw but didn’t reply. I was so angry I actually scolded her after our deal,” Ng exclaimed. “But come to think of it, it was a pretty stupid move to be rude to your customers,” she added.
The final tip in managing a successful online blog shop is to remember these two keywords: ‘persistence’ and ‘hard work’. While you may have worked just as hard as any other blog shop to get to where you are today, that is no excuse to rest. It is the will to go that extra mile that will determine the success of your blog shop and lead your business to stand out among your competitors.
“There’s a tight competition for online businesses due to low entry barriers, so you have to keep up and be competitive at all times, you cannot give up easily. Always differentiate your shop and ensure that there is something better in your shop compared to others,” Ng advised those wish to follow her footsteps in the online business.
To sum it up, always strive for better results and keep working and competing with higher goals and targets as your shop progresses. Always be consistent and find time to upgrade your shop regularly so your shop remains fresh and interesting to your customers and followers. And most importantly, no matter how difficult it gets, never give up.