How much do you take per month?

[PrettyPaws]

No, it's not - the other (correct) choice is not to sell that particular product/range.

Ok.......:|

 

[bernielady]

PP, If its any use, I've seen Selfridges selling alot of animal products (especially in their big London store) such as pet clothes, and also jewellery, pet picnic hampers etc, ranging from about £5 up to £1,000,000 diamond studded leather collar. Might be worth a visit just to make a list of manufacturers to do some research on.

Hope this idea may be of any value

Mike

 

[Miranda]

We stock the biggest names in the market but will keep looking. Maybe I need to look at something a little different which is available dropship with £500 + profit margin.....any ideas

One of my suppliers, (Michaela at www.nappiesbyminki.co.uk) has a super dupa embroidery machine and made me a really lovely tartan dog bed (removable cover,over a waterproof bean bag), with an embroidered collie dog + his name when we adopted an elderly collie from the recue centre.
Unfortunately the dog is an ex farm dog, not used to dog beds and is frightened of the noise of the beads in it!

I'm sure there's a huge market for named dog beds, and being bespoke made I'd imagine would command a reasonably good margin.

 

[PrettyPaws]

PP, If its any use, I've seen Selfridges selling alot of animal products (especially in their big London store) such as pet clothes, and also jewellery, pet picnic hampers etc, ranging from about £5 up to £1,000,000 diamond studded leather collar. Might be worth a visit just to make a list of manufacturers to do some research on.

Hope this idea may be of any value

Mike

That is a good idea Mike, we deal with some people who supply Selfridges already but it's got to be worth a peep.

 

[Steve2507]

I agree with what you say about SEO, the thing is we're doing really well at it and I can't see us going much higher! We are first page of Google for "Dog Collars", "ID Tags", "Dog Clothes", "Dog Clothing", "Dog Accessories" Page 2 for "Cat collars" , "Dog harnesses" (I'm working on these!)

I think you've done really well with your SEO, but you are closing quite a few doors. You do very well for "dog clothes", but I can't find you for "small dog clothes" or "discount dog clothes" which both get a fair few searches.

The point I'm trying to make (not very well) is that don't go solely for the short tail phrases start going for long tail as well. These have the added bonus of helping with the long tail phrases as well.

Also start optimising the individual products as well. For instance the page http://www.prettypawsaccessories.co.uk/pucci-pac-a-mac-16-p.asp is optimised for "Pucci Pac-a-Mac" (I think). But no one searches for that phrase (according to wordtracker). Look at increasing the size of your description and optimise for a keyphrase that will give you a better return.

We sell over 6,000 products and I'm currently rewriting every description so that each product will be optimised for a different keyphrase. That's the route would take with your site now.

There's definitely plenty more SEO work for you to do to increase your rankings and so increase your turnover/profit.

Good luck.

 

[loub]

my local dog shop is selling this bed for £1295
and this for £1495

Just a few potential higher end products for you to consider

 

[RayB]

The point I'm trying to make (not very well) is that don't go solely for the short tail phrases start going for long tail as well. These have the added bonus of helping with the long tail phrases as well.

Very good point

We get organic traffic for 800 to 900 different long tail phrases per month. Sure, they are not all converting phrases, but it is mostly targeted traffic.

And if you keep adding content (a blog on your domain is great for this), you'll get found for more and more

 

[Steve2507]

Forgot to ask, do you do any fairs in the Summer? We have a neighbour on our industrial estate who sells pet beds and they are always doing fairs at the weekends.

Would it be worth branching out into pet food? Or how about pet accessories for other pets (fish, rabbits, ferrets etc).

 

[PrettyPaws]

Although this thread is not at all what I intended it to be I must thank you all for your ideas. Our efforts are limited (to a point) by our shopping cart software EKM. On the whole it's great but at the end of the day as with all out of the box solutions it does have it's limits (like the puchi pac a mac for example!)

I'll look into the beds, thanks for that.

 

[SillyJokes]

You have some fancy dress but I would recommend more dog fancy dress, in particular a bee costume

http://www.beedogs.com

try Rubies for this. It is a growth area - huge in the States.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Miss / Mrs Paws

I would suggest contacting your local further education facility and asking who does the fashion courses, then try and contact the head of depatment and explain you are looking for a designer for dogs / cats clothing but very limited money and could they put you onto one of their students

That way you can get someone who needs to build up a portfolio to assist you on the cheap with some designs

Next advertise in the local paper for a freelance sewing machinist to make them up or else go to a habadashery and ask around for someone.

The previouse mention of embroidery is a quick and easy way to personalise garments and you can even include an embroidered picture of either the animal or the owner

 

[PIGDOG]

To answer your original question, my company has a t/o of approximately £1.8 million with an average GP of £50-£60k per month.

 

[Optegris]

To answer your original question, my company has a t/o of approximately £1.8 million with an average GP of £50-£60k per month.

What do you do out of interest?

 

[PrettyPaws]

What do you do out of interest?

Count his money! lol

 

[PrettyPaws]

I think you've done really well with your SEO, but you are closing quite a few doors. You do very well for "dog clothes", but I can't find you for "small dog clothes" or "discount dog clothes" which both get a fair few searches.

Just having a look at this as I thought it was a great idea! When looking at Keyword discovery though I'm a bit disappointed.

dog clothes27414 (7th) small dog clothes1981 designer dog clothes596(1st)

The search terms after "Dog clothes" are massively less traffic! Checking wordtracker "dog clothes" and "designer dog clothes" are the top terms, both of which we are on page one for

 

[PIGDOG]

What do you do out of interest?[

electronic component distribution/brokerage

 

[Steve2507]

Just having a look at this as I thought it was a great idea! When looking at Keyword discovery though I'm a bit disappointed.

dog clothes27414 (7th) small dog clothes1981 designer dog clothes596(1st)

The search terms after "Dog clothes" are massively less traffic! Checking wordtracker "dog clothes" and "designer dog clothes" are the top terms, both of which we are on page one for

Yes, but being on page one for 200 terms is far better than being on page one for 20 terms.

You are on page one for your main terms which is good, but think how much better it could be if you were on page one for loads of other terms as well.

 

[SillyJokes]

Yes, but being on page one for 200 terms is far better than being on page one for 20 terms.

You are on page one for your main terms which is good, but think how much better it could be if you were on page one for loads of other terms as well.

You talking about the long waggy tail?

 

[RayB]

You are on page one for your main terms which is good, but think how much better it could be if you were on page one for loads of other terms as well.

Agreed. That approach has helped us grow our online sales by 600% in 12 months. Long tail is vital

 

[Steve2507]

You talking about the long waggy tail?

Yep, the very waggy variety.

According to wordtracker "dog clothes" has a count of 532 and "designer dog clothes" 187 giving a total of 719.

The following have the results:
trendy dog clothes 122
discount dog clothes 104
luxury dog clothes 98
small dog clothes 96
yorkie dog clothes 63
big dog clothes 30
stylish dog clothes 32
tiny dog clothes 26
cheap dog clothes 17
large dog clothes 13
TOTAL 601

So by looking at incorporating the above into product descriptions you have increased your reach from 719 to 1320 an 83% increase and that is only a fraction of what is available (and I've only included a few 3 word phrases).

Before anyone says it I know this is a very simplistic analysis and that you should obtain the KEI of each phrase to work out the best ones to go for, but it shows the point I am making.

 

[Steve2507]

Agreed. That approach has helped us grow our online sales by 600% in 12 months. Long tail is vital

We are looking at increasing our reach by about 5-600% as well when all the product descriptions have been completed. Unfortunately it may take a little longer than 12 months (looking at 24 months target with 6,000 products).

 

[PrettyPaws]

Yep, the very waggy variety.

According to wordtracker "dog clothes" has a count of 532 and "designer dog clothes" 187 giving a total of 719.

The following have the results:
trendy dog clothes 122
discount dog clothes 104
luxury dog clothes 98
small dog clothes 96
yorkie dog clothes 63
big dog clothes 30
stylish dog clothes 32
tiny dog clothes 26
cheap dog clothes 17
large dog clothes 13
TOTAL 601

So by looking at incorporating the above into product descriptions you have increased your reach from 719 to 1320 an 83% increase and that is only a fraction of what is available (and I've only included a few 3 word phrases).

Before anyone says it I know this is a very simplistic analysis and that you should obtain the KEI of each phrase to work out the best ones to go for, but it shows the point I am making.

Yes I see what you mean but many people target these as their main key phrases. How can you beat them when these are less important terms on your own page?

 

[RayB]

Yes I see what you mean but many people target these as their main key phrases. How can you beat them when these are less important terms on your own page?

By creating a new page for each term

 

[maria102]

I've tried to read this thread thoroughly, however all the SEO stuff baffles me....anyhow, I do know who would buy high end pet stuff, and that's people with the pink pound. My GBF, yes, gay best friend, spends loads on his pooch and would only be seen out with the best collar (last seen combat) however, designer - Burberry do stuff for pets, Louis Vuitton do pet carriers I think - I noticed at Christmas even BHS have tapped into this market, and IKEA - though my guys wouldn't like that sort of thing. The level of detail they go into for eye-candy is untold, every aspect of how they look, live is based on aesthetics......and loads of them have pets ;-)

 

[northern-imaging]

dog clothing hmmm

well i used to work with a guy who worked at a factory in bolton that made all the designer stuff like the burberry leads etc and he bought a dozen and sold them on ebay for a small fortune if you want il try source you a lead on it he he

 

[PrettyPaws]

I've tried to read this thread thoroughly, however all the SEO stuff baffles me....anyhow, I do know who would buy high end pet stuff, and that's people with the pink pound. My GBF, yes, gay best friend, spends loads on his pooch and would only be seen out with the best collar (last seen combat) however, designer - Burberry do stuff for pets, Louis Vuitton do pet carriers I think - I noticed at Christmas even BHS have tapped into this market, and IKEA - though my guys wouldn't like that sort of thing. The level of detail they go into for eye-candy is untold, every aspect of how they look, live is based on aesthetics......and loads of them have pets ;-)

Please pass on our website details

 

[Steve2507]

Yes I see what you mean but many people target these as their main key phrases. How can you beat them when these are less important terms on your own page?

Everyone can be beaten, it just takes more effort to beat some.

Sorry, I don't understand how a term can not be important if it is a term people are searching for.

If you are in business to make a living then you need to use all the resources at your disposal, long tail keyphrases and incorporating them into your product descriptions are some of those resources.

 

[adventurelife]

You need to find higher value products with a higher margin. You also need to bundle products so you can raise you average order value.

If you are in the low purchase price bracket of £1-£20 per item you need a lot of volume to make a business produce a decent return. I personally do not like getting involved with anything less than £25 per item unless their is massive demand. Due to your sector you are obviously going to have to have a wide mix

I took over a business that was on its knees four years back, and I focused on 3 things

Increasing the average order value

Increasing the gp margin

Increasing the order voulme

Online is obviously a very fast way to grow but it is only just one part of the marketing mix