As owners of several online retail sites, we thought we’d
share our thoughts and experiences with anyone who might be interested.
We have owned bikerleathers for about 8 years now but
since moving to Las Vegas, we are in the process of re-branding ourselves Biker
Leathers Las Vegas. As such, we sell a
pretty wide variety of leather clothing and accessories. Our main concern is to make it affordable and
of good quality.
The difficulty of being in the business of selling clothing
on line is sizing. We try to be pretty
specific in our size charts, but not everything fits everybody the same. For women, there are hardly any women we know
who only have one size in their closets.
Women’s clothing varies … A LOT.
Men are shocked to find out that they can’t just order a Medium because
that’s what they “usually” wear. Some
jackets fit tighter around the middle and a guy with a generous girth has to
take that into consideration when he buys a leather jacket or vest.
People these days are always looking for free shipping, so
you have to be cognizant of your bottom line when you give someone free
shipping and then you have to exchange for a different size. We expect the customer to pay to ship it back
and, if it is a heavy item, we expect them to at least pay half of the shipping
on the new sized jacket. Some people
don’t like that and we understand. But
we also can’t lose money on the sale. We
try to work with our customers to make it fair for everybody.
It’s a competitive world out there, so you have to find a
way to stand out. We try to give really
great customer service. We have been
seeking products that are made in America – without pricing them out of reach
for most people.
First of all, we met a guy who advertised his expertise at
photography and marketing. For a
reasonable price, he gave us ideas and has continued to work with us on our
meager budget. As we are in Vegas, we
decided to reach out to local celebrities to help endorse our products. We had run into magician Murray Sawchuck at a
number of events, so we offered him a leather jacket in return for a few hours
of posing for photos and a short video.
You can see the video here: Leather and Lace Clothing
Our new associate also encouraged us to create our own line
of clothing and we came up with a design for the first piece in the line. We are trying hard to make every piece made
in America and made from environmentally friendly material. It is coming together, along with a name and
logo. Still keeping that all under wraps
since it is not done yet.
We are pretty friendly, outgoing people, so we have
continued to make contacts with local celebrities who will appear in
advertising. We are on the verge of signing a spokes-model and have some rock
musicians lined up as well.
When you have a tight budget, it’s important to make every
dollar spent work for you. We find that
advertising on Facebook and Amazon pays off but Google adwords costs more than
it’s worth due to the competition we have in the leather
clothing business. We aren’t trying to
compete with the superstores that have unlimited funds for advertising. We are creating our own niche with unique
products and personal customer service.
