Hat Blog

The Latest Ecommerce Marketing Strategy

I’m at 29,000 feet, flying back to San Diego after four days at an Internet retailing conference in Chicago.  5,000 attendees and 500 more speakers and exhibitors gathered for the purpose of figuring out how to sell us more stuff.  In past years, the major takeaways (biz talk for tangible things learned) may have been the way to use technology to probe our specific interests so that marketing messages could be pushed our way, or how to tap into our social interests to do the same, the importance of coupon deals and free shipping, etc.  Strategies like these were still discussed aplenty. 

But - this year - the big-idea; the 21st Century cutting edge theme in online marketing, hot off the presses is . . . .  Ready?  RESPOND TO THE NEEDS OF YOUR CUSTOMER.  I am not making this up.  The biggest marketing gurus in the country, the keynote and featured speakers kept saying this over and over again (some as if it was a new idea).  Customers want authenticity, service, a good long-term relationship with a merchant.  Research, in fact, concludes that “price” is not as important as many may think. 

People are smart and not easily manipulated.  Customers know and do what they want.  Good marketing simply shines a light on one’s business as the right place for people to find what they’re looking for, and that means the entire shopping experience. 

We hope you’ve picked up the fact that VillageHatShop.comhas always been about these values.  If not, the $1,000+ per head admission to this trade show has certainly reminded me that we need to work unfailingly to demonstrate that our same mission of the past 29-years remains clear.

Thank you for your patronage,

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com

PS.  Check out the newest video – Rotary Downs “Djinni Stomp” – at our Hat Videos and Short Films page.

Customers Review Hats at VillageHatShop.com

A few months age VillageHatshop.com introduced Product Reviews at their site. Hats at the site have received hundreds of reviews and as a result of the feedback VHS says it will continue to improve their offerings.

Some highlights among the most highly reviewed hats will follow [5 stars is tops]:

For Men:

1. The Jaxon Crushable C-crown Fedora and Jaxon Crushable Pinch-front Fedora have received 32 reviews and 16 reviews respectively. C-crown averages 4.69 stars and Pinch-front averages 5.0 stars (all reviews are 5-star!) These two hats are very similar. Price is $28.95.
2. Wool Greek Fisherman’s Cap has 26 reviews averaging 4.88 stars. $19.95, made in Greece.
3. Indiana Jones Fur Felt has 24 reviews averaging 4.88 stars. $105. (New Indy movie is coming this spring.)
4. Golden Gate Panther has 9 reviews averaging 4.89 stars. $72, made in the USA.
5. Bailey’s packable/crushable hats all receive great reviews. Made in the USA.

For Women:

1. The Betmar Enchanted Cloche has 4 reviews (3 are 5-star and one is 4-star). $52. Many of the Betmar hats have been reviewed.
2. The Plaza Suite Bryant Park has 3 reviews, all 5-star. $125.
3. All the Canadian made sur la tete cotton berets – 10.5-inch Beret, 11.5-inch Beret and the Pointelle Beret – have good reviews. $12.95, $13.95, and $24.95 respectively.
4. The Lanakai by Scala is available in a large selection of colors and is very highly reviewed.
5. Ivy Caps and Eight-quarter Caps are very popular with women right now. The reviews have mostly been great.

For Either Men or Women:

1. Virtually every Beret has been reviewed and people like them all. The big winner is The Jaxon Basque Beret with 11 reviews - all 5-star! We import this beret directly from Basque Country, in the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain. $48.
2. The Kangol 504 Cap has 15 reviews averaging 4.87 stars. $33.60.
3. The Maroon Fez with a Black Tassel has 6 reviews, all 5-star. We offer many different fez/tassel color combinations in this same quality all-wool Fez. $16.95.
4. The French Pith Helmet and the Indian Pith Helmet have of 4 reviews each - 5 are 5-star and 3 are 4-star. $28.95.
5. The USA made Deerstalker (Sherlock Holmes) Hat has 7 reviews averaging 4.43 stars. $25.95.

By far, the Jaxon line is the brand with the most reviews. People seem are nuts for these hats.

Importantly, you no longer need to take VillageHatShop.com’s word alone with regard their products. These customer reviews add a lot of information.

Finding the Bones in Retail Business

Some dogs dart and dash around in the fields like crazy chickens. They dig up the ground without rhyme or reason. Others saunter over to a specific spot with a kind of divining-rod witchery, and dig up the bones. Where does this knack come from? Is it a sixth sense or a keener five senses? I’ve never given much credence to clairvoyance; so I suspect the latter. These more successful dogs are essentially more clear-eyed (or clear-nosed). It’s simply obvious to them where the bones are.

When I opened the first Village Hat Shop in early 1980, people, knowing that I had zero background in the hat business, would ask me, “How do you know what to do?” I would answer, not being smug, “I just respond to the obvious.” At first, I put some hats out for sale (primarily relying on the suggestions of my first vendors) and if people bought them, I’d buy some more. When someone would ask me for a hat that I didn’t carry, I’d order it for him/her. If a store display worked (i.e. hats sold from it), I’d keep the display up. If hats didn’t sell, I’d take it down. If a customer wanted to chat, I chatted. If a customer wanted to be left alone, I left her/him alone. I never said, “May I help you” because it was obvious if help was required or not. Rather, I watched and listened and responded. Eavesdropping, I’d hear a customer say to a friend “I wish they had a hat like this in black.” I showed this customer a hat like that in black. Rocket science, huh?

It’s astonishing how many people in business can’t or don’t do this. Many hire “Retail Consultants” (I’ll pay you if you show me where the bones are). Invariably, the person doing this hiring is without a clue as to what’s happening on the front lines of the business-the floor of the retail store where the merchant meets the customer, i.e.-where the bones are! You can’t respond to the obvious if you never get yourself in a position to sniff it out.

So, if you find yourself running around in circles, chasing your tail, stop, find a customer, observe and respond. Extend whatever you learn from this encounter into a universal law within your business. Then do this again. And again. Instead of hiring that expensive MBA-type, split the savings between adding more value for your customers and starting your cache of bones.

Here’s To More Good Businesses in the World!

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com
www.Berets.com
www.JaxonHats.com

The Secret to High Natural Rankings at the Search Engines

Friends, family, business acquaintances, friends-of-friends, .et .al are constantly asking me (and I assume other ecommerce merchants and marketers get like queries), “What’s the trick that gets my business web site highly ranked at Google (or any other search engine)?” Today I am going to reveal this secret to the world. (And from now on I will simply forward this article to all who ask me this question.)

There are three steps and they must be executed in this order:

1. Be a good business. This step has nothing to do with computers or new technology. It has everything to do with good products, competitive prices, responding to the needs of your customers, good communication with customers/employees/vendors, flexibility, treating employees well (among other reasons, as a model for how you want your staff to treat your customers), fair policies, and the myriad of product and service issues that make a good business apparent to all who visit it (on or off line). This is the most important step. Your ultimate objective will fail, if this step is not followed.

2. Create a good web site. This step has nothing to do with directly striving to optimize your site for the search engines (SEO). It has everything to do with building a site that is attractive, easy to navigate, loads quickly, is free of irrelevant ads/banners/pop-ups (and like garbage), contains lots of good general information relevant to your product and expertise, etc. This site includes good images, good product descriptions, a good site search tool, an easy to use shopping cart, options for the customer to purchase from or communicate with the merchant in the way that he/she prefers (e.g. online, via telephone, fax, mail), etc. This site reflects and reinforces the fact that number one is in place.

3. Do nothing, be patient, and continue to improve #1 and #2. Here’s why: The search engines (Google and Yahoo for example) are in the business of returning good, relevant search results to their site visitors. In other words, the business of being a good search engine is to execute “#1” and “#2” above. In the arena of ecommerce, the search engine business succeeds when it helps its visitors find good merchants with good sites. Their formula for doing this successfully is improving all the time. [Trying to crack the algorithm is waste of time anyway; you might as well be trying to get into Fort Knox.] More importantly, this formula is predicated on how successfully an ecommerce site is being appreciated by the Internet audience. Examples include how many “good quality” links are there to your site (good quality means links from other good businesses and good sites). Or, how many search engine visitors click through to your site when your link is returned on a page along with your competitors (for example: the Google visitor searches “cat t-shirts for sale.” Ten merchants line up on the Google page returned for this search criteria, each with two lines of text. Visitors like your two lines of text better than the other ones and therefore click through to your site more than to your competitors’ sites. This “vote” likely raises your ranking.) The search engine is looking for the same thing a customer is looking for i.e. good businesses [#1] with good sites [#2]. If you are not this, you may be able to trick the results for a while, but the formula will change eventually and weed you out. There is a lot more to the formula, but I think you get my point-don’t bother all that much with it per se. Instead, work at being a better business and making a better site; that’s the means to accomplish the ends.

There you have it, three steps for achieving good natural search engine rankings (that in fact are implemented in two steps). Not incidentally, the strategy for ecommerce success is the same.

Here’s to More Good Businesses in the World!

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com
www.Berets.com
www.JaxonHats.com