Party Supplies
Everyone loves a party, from toddlers to octogenarians. What better than being together with the people you care about in a spirit of celebration? Reasons for parties vary, but some fundamentals seem to stay the same regardless of the culture or age participants. Walk into a party anywhere in the world and you will know what is going on….unless of course you walk into a class of 14 year olds with the teacher absent, which could also be mistaken for a party.
Whilst tastes vary as to what a party should entail the fundamentals boil down to the same things. Decorations may change in colour and materials, alcohol may or may not be present, there is usually dancing and food and maybe gifts.
Many parties are organised at the last minute, so you need to be visible and local. This doesn’t mean that you cannot sell on the internet, but try to think of people who plan parties well in advance as the exception and you will generate less competition, and more sales. I would use strategies such as emergency telephone umber after normal closing hours, and a delivery service for orders over a specified size to help to differentiate yourself.
Possible ways of marketing your business include: -
Yellow Pages / Local Newspaper
Local Online Directory listings
Party Planning
Restaurants/Bars
Ebay
Website
Advertising in the Yellow Pages and your local newspaper will make you easy to find. This is where you should advertise your emergency delivery, late opening hours or other gimmicks. Try to choose a name that will stand out, or pay for a larger advert than the standard.
Local online directories are also a must, as some people now jump online as a first point of call when looking for something. You will probably need a website for this, but it can be as simple as a 1 page advert built on “My space” or similar. Include an email address that you will check regularly and phone number.
Party planning here refers to holding parties, or small gatherings to show off your wares. The approach is best known from selling Tupperware but can be applied to all sorts of products. Try to target your gatherings at specific groups, e.g. mums with kids, people approaching landmark birthdays (21, 30 etc.). Make sure that everyone has a good time, and let them “experience” your stock. Give away a few party poppers, put up some streamers etc. You may get some orders on the day but the main thing is to get people to enjoy themselves and to remember you when they start planning their events. You can start this with your own contacts, but ask after your party whether anyone would like to host one for their friends.
If you are feeling ambitious you could take the party planning to another level by throwing a large event, and having your new business “sponsor” it. This ensures a much wider audience but in many ways is less personal. If you can get some local press coverage or some people with big networks to come then it may be worthwhile.
Restaurants and bars regularly throw promotional events; they will typically celebrate major festivals such as Xmas and Easter but also more minor events such as St Patrick ’s Day and Halloween. This gives you at least 4 events a year that you could help them prepare for. Provide decorations, and party favours and instead of bumping up the prices offer a discount is more than 2 bars/restaurants order together. Most bar managers know each other and you can pick up a lot of extra business like this. Don’t approach managers on a Friday night after a skin full of beer, make sure that you call early evening before they are busy and make an appointment to talk further at a time that suits them.
Having built a viable local business, and managed to source bulk discounts you should now be in a position to post your items on Ebay. Remember that this is very competitive with more than 7000 results on a search for “party supplies” but individual items such as party poppers and streamers produce significantly fewer results. This means more work posting but should be worth it in terms of orders.
Note that I have not recommended a website as a primary strategy here; with more than 12 million results in Google I suspect that the market place is just too crowded. Having said which, if you or someone you know is good at search engine placement then you should have a go once your business is up and running.
Searching on www.Alibaba.com gives thousands of results for party supplies, and the first few do not look at all suitable. Individual item searches such as <birthday candles> and <party poppers> are more manageable but you may not want to try importing in bulk until you have proved your concept.
Provided you can get your supplies at, or around the same price as the local cash and carry you should be cheap enough for most customers. The key will be to have sufficient numbers of items that people feel they have more choice with you. You can get your stock from online wholesalers and make sure that you ask for volume discounts. Try www.partypop.com and www.partysupplieshut.com or search on Google for something closer to home.
You will get invited to a lot of parties if you are successful in this business, don’t make a fool of yourself but do make sure you mingle and let people know that you supplied many of the items for the party.