Mary Kay retailer increases sales 20X with ProStores
We were happy when we started selling $500 to $1,000 a day through ProStores. But that was just the beginning. Our business just keeps getting bigger and bigger–we can hardly believe it ourselves.
Scott Weber, Owner of www.touchofpinkcosmetics.com
ProStores helps cosmetics seller expand their market past the million-dollar mark
Scott and Amy Weber had a nice business selling on eBay, but they wanted to expand to a larger market. They looked at other Web store options, but they were too complicated. Then they saw a link on eBay about ProStores. It was easy to set up, and sales soon surpassed all their expectations. "We started selling three years ago on eBay, and are still selling $5,000 to $10,000 a month there. But the bulk of our business is now on ProStores. Two years ago, we learned about ProStores through a link on eBay and opened up our Web store. Since then, our sales have skyrocketed. We were happy when we started selling $500 to $1,000 a day through ProStores. But that was just the beginning. Our business just keeps getting bigger and bigger–we can hardly believe it ourselves! Our sales have grown tremendously; we're now selling $5,000 to $7,000 a day on ProStores. About 50% of our customers are repeat buyers, and we keep getting new ones, so our sales keep growing. The fees are low on ProStores as well, so our percentage of profits have grown right along with our sales."
"We used to do $90,000 to $100,000 in sales a year on eBay, but ProStores has expanded our market beyond our wildest dreams. Our first year on ProStores we did $350,000. This year, our second year, we expect to do $1.5 to $2 million in sales. I would have never thought that when I started our ProStores Web store in my basement 2 years ago."
Simple to set up, simple for buyers
The Webers don't have a technical background, so they wanted to find a Web store that was easy to create and use. They tried other providers, but the products were too complicated and difficult. But ProStores is designed for all levels of experience, which helped the Webers get off to a quick start. "ProStores is very easy to set up. The wizards guide you through every step, and the quick reference menus make it easy to find what you need. Listing products and loading photos is fast and simple."
The Webers' customer base includes many senior buyers, who get confused and frustrated by complex ordering systems with pop-ups. ProStores makes buying simple and easy for everyone. "For our customers, it's simple to navigate and search for products. It's great for our older customers–they like simple. We love the feature that lets us display the quantity of each item available. People see the scarcity, which encourages them to buy more–sometimes all we have of an item."
ProStores' automation helps ease growing pains
Rapid growth can be difficult for companies to adjust to, but ProStores' automation and compatibility with eBay helps makes the business more manageable for the Webers. "It's a lot of work keeping up with the volume of our business–we're taking about 4,500 orders a month, averaging about 5 items each. That triples in November and December. Thankfully ProStores makes it as easy as possible for us. The Web store is very simple to run. We use PayPal for our payment processing, which saves us a lot of time. ProStores is very compatible with eBay, so we can manage those businesses together. We love the reporting tools, and check on how we are doing two to three times a day. The Design Studio is great for updating pages. We change our specials each week, and the tools help us update the site quickly."
Reliable service and support keeps business running smooth
Scott and Amy have their hands full dealing with a high volume of orders, so any technical problems could put a major crimp in their ability to process sales. Thankfully with ProStores' dependable service, they can focus on their business instead of fixing glitches. "The service is very reliable, it's up and running all the time. When we first got started, we were calling technical service twice a day to get the help we needed setting up, and they were great. But these days we rarely have reason to call, because now that we know what we're doing, we haven't had any problems."
Driving new traffic pays off
Effective traffic generation has played a big part in Touch of Pink Cosmetics' success. ProStores offers a suite of free tools to help, but an investment in advertising takes the Webers' sales even higher. "To get new customers, we do pay-per-click advertising on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. We spend about $300 to $400 a day on advertising. But that helps us generate $5,000 to $10,000 a day in sales, so it's well worth the investment. We also use the Search Engine Optimization feature to get customers from natural search, and use the shopping feeds to Yahoo, Shopping.com and Google Base. We're now getting 1,800 to 2,000 hits a day on our site."
ProStores' free tools help generate 50% of sales
While pay-per-click advertising plays a big role in getting new customers, a large percentage of the Weber's sales come from a very affordable source–ProStores' built-in Email Marketing tools. The success of their Email Marketing and repeat customers percentage helps keep profits high in relation to their ad spend. "We use ProStores' Email Marketing program to drive repeat sales. We send emails every other week with offers, such as a free gift or free shipping. Our customers love it–about two-thirds of our emails get opened, which we hear is outstanding for email marketing. We track the success of the emails with the reporting tools, and after sending out an email, about half of our sales are from the emails!"
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