Mother of Three Earns Six-Figures with eCommerce Website
Reprinted with permission of VotanWeb.com
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 Florida . She went home and listed it for sale on her website. Several days later it sold for $14,200. She'd recognized the watch as the signature style of a designer famous for his unusual creations.
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 Florida to die," she says. "But the stores I sold to wouldn't buy them."
Ms. Kline fell in love with vintage watches in the early 1990s while working as a clerk at the local jewelry store.