Spiritual Stock
Unlike our idea on Religious artefacts in idea #010 this idea relates to the mystic and potentially stretches as far as the occult. Your stock might include simple items such as crystals with reputed healing or other powers, tarot cards, incense or crystal balls. The key is your target audience, who are likely to be those who have an interest in the spiritual world without necessarily practicing.
This business will work best if it is an area in which you already have an interest. The skills that you use for marketing your products will be similar to those that we encourage for other product lines, but without being genuine you will find it harder to market to this small(ish) target market.
Make sure you understand what is required by your potential customers by attending a conference/exhibition or two. Look at what is on sale at the stalls and see if you can make some contacts to talk to later if you run into difficulties.
Once you are ready to get going we suggest the following strategies: -
Ebay
Website
Clubs/societies
Direct Response
Shop
Ebay has more than 500 listings for Tarot cards and 1800 for crystal ball, in terms of other main stream products this is not that competitive but clearly shows an interest in the mainstream online community for this product set. You are likely to sell more here by differentiating your product than by selling at the cheapest price.
Building a website is a great way to tap into the online community; many spiritually motivated groups are secretive in nature to avoid being persecuted by the mainstream population. The internet gives them a voice and access to a wider community, plus it creates an advantage for you as a potential supplier, you may never find many of these people as individuals but you can find them in chat rooms and bulletin boards all over the internet. Put your url in every message you send as a signature block and traffic will come to your site.
Clubs and societies may have strange names like covens and many will see their activities as religious rites. Your place is not to judge this, or to be scared by it, if these are your customers then you will need at a minimum to empathise with their position and by attending some low level meetings and discussing your stock and items that you don’t currently carry endear the group to you such that you gain future sales. Finding these groups will probably be easier online than off, although some shops that stock accessories will also have a small notice-board advertising groups, meetings etc.
Direct Response may be another winner for you, in the same way that the internet will be; as it effectively protects the identity of the buyer. Advertising in local newspapers will bring you a surprising response, but a more expensive advertisement in an occult, or spiritualist magazine is likely to drive the best responses. Focus on one or two product lines rather than listing everything you have and make sure you carry a headline that suggest you have more stock items such as “for all your spiritual needs”.
There are plenty of little shops that cater to this group of people; they tend to be small and in less accessible locations. Many are in tourist areas, where they act as a curiosity to tourists as well as serving their main audience. The benefit of this is that you do not need to get a prime location if you decide to open up a store. Be aware though that you may get negative responses from more mainstream religious groups. There is also a cost involved in setting up a shop of any size in any location that you should bear in mind before going ahead.Sites like www.alibaba.com can provide you with most of the stock you will require. You will need to speak to different suppliers to build a solid base of stock, so take your time to research carefully and remember that to offer competitive pricing you will need to be able to buy in bulk. Another option is to source a wholesaler in your own country or even state and buy in smaller lots from them, but still below retail prices. The benefit of this when you start is that you should be able to get everything you need in one place.
There are two groups that you will serve, the curious and the very serious. Providing you are sympathetic to both you are unlikely to offend either.
You will hear some weird and wonderful stories if you get involved in this business, providing you are simply providing stock to those who practise you are not in danger.
There is a chance that local mainstream religious groups will be upset by this business. Understand the demographics of your area and make a decision before you start as to how wise this is.