Mother of Three Earns Six-Figures with eCommerce Website
In January, Sarah Kline bought an old watch for three dollars at a small thrift store she stumbled upon in a tiny town near her home in
A sharp eye for authentic vintage watches -- watches no longer being made -- and the ability to connect with customers who want it are Ms. Kline’s secrets to success on the internet.
The 36-year-old housewife has been selling to jewelry stores for years. In early 2002, a computer-savvy store owner and friend suggested she turn to the internet to widen her market. By selling directly to customers online, she could cut out the middleman.
Ms. Kline wasn't an experienced Internet user, but she found an existing website listed for sale on VotanWeb. She bought the website when the owner agreed to help her until she had a thorough grasp of the website. His instructions were easy to follow. "It was all new to me, but I learned quickly," she says. "I also did a lot of research by looking at how successful websites set up their auctions -- the categories they listed their products in and the descriptions they used."
Ms. Kline began holding auctions. Within weeks, her online sales exceeded those of her off-line business, and she decided to commit entirely to the internet. She now runs about 75 auctions a week, and her annual sales have doubled in the past year to about $420,000. The watch, for example, sold on the internet for about 20 times the amount she estimates it would have gone for had she solicited a local retailer.
She's also no longer dependent on local buyers' tastes, since over 90% of her sales are to out-of-state customers. "I couldn't sell everything I had to stores because a lot were particular about what they wanted," she says. For example, most wouldn't buy large quantities of high-end vintage watches. "I found a lot of nice vintage watches from the estates of all the old people who move to
Ms. Kline fell in love with vintage watches in the early 1990s while working as a clerk at the local jewelry store. "Vintage watches were really trendy at the time, and I liked a lot of the styles I saw people wearing," she explains.
Over the next few years Ms. Kline amassed boxes full of vintage watches -- too many, she admits. When a friend suggested selling watches she'd lost interest in, "It seemed like a good way to clean out my closet while earning cash at the same time," she says.
A few years later, Ms. Kline was spending weekends scouring flea markets, estate sales and yard sales for vintage watches she could resell to local vintage and jewelry stores. She quit her bookstore job and taught herself to recognize high-end vintage styles by studying old magazines and patterns, searching the Internet and networking with industry professionals. "I learned to tell if a watch is high-end, low-end, or just plain old junk," she explains.
Ms. Kline spends most weekends shopping for her product at locations within two hours of her home. On Mondays and Tuesdays she writes detailed descriptions about each item, photographs them, and posts them on her website. She packages and ships sold items throughout the week after payments arrive. She ships out about 150 items a week to buyers, with help from her fiancé, and does the accounting.
"This job takes a lot out of me," she says. "I really give it my all, and I enjoy every minute of it."
In less than two years, Ms. Kline has learned many valuable tactics that have increased her online revenues. Here are some of her suggestions:
Offer excellent customer service and buyers will remain loyal.
William Foster, a vice president of a local bank, loves wearing old watches, but the only place he shops online to find them is Ms. Kline’s website. That's because it allows unsatisfied buyers to return items, so "there's no risk," he says.
Buying from other online sellers is a gamble, he says. "Most have policies where all sales are final," he explains, which is why his dresser includes, for example, a busted old watch he bought online that he was not permitted to return.
Ms. Kline has a high satisfaction rating from internet buyers. Ms. Kline says her customers have shared horror stories about online purchases. "Shopping online isn't easy. After all, you can tell only so much from a photo," she says. Recently a customer asked to return a watch she'd bought through an auction for $2000 because her husband didn't like it. Ms. Kline gave a full refund and put the item up for sale again. This time it sold for $4000.
Ms. Kline purchased an existing website which already had strong traffic. The virtual shop allows her to sell products to consumers at a set price as well as hold online auctions. "It's the best of both worlds" she says.
Having a store doesn't defeat the purpose of holding auctions. Customers appreciate having two options, she says. They can buy an item immediately for a nonnegotiable fee or engage in bidding for a set period of time to possibly get a better deal. When her auctions fail to draw bidders, she moves the items to her the internet store, where they eventually sell, she says.
She is considering upgrading her website in the near future. In addition to boosting exposure, an upgrade would provide her with sales and traffic reports. But she's not sure she can handle the extra work of filling the additional listings. "I would probably need to hire someone, and I'm not keen on doing that since I work out of my home," she says. In 2006, she expects to dramatically increase sales now that she's become adept at running auctions and managing her store.
Watches sell better when photographed on a person versus lying on a table. Ms. Kline models her own used watches and has family and friends model men's watches. "As soon as I started doing that, sales skyrocketed," she says.
It is best to start auction prices low. This helps attract a first bidder, which is crucial, says Ms. Kline. Shoppers tend to look at items that have at least one bid, she explains.
You must track shipping. Recently, Ms. Kline had to reimburse a buyer who claimed he never received a watch he'd bought through one of her auctions. "I didn't have any way to prove that he got it," she says. So now she tracks all her shipping to protect against customer fraud.