The industry has weathered several years of shifting enthusiasm, and several indicators are showing very positive activity in the world of antiques and collectibles. Sales are indicating consumers are buying vintage items not only as collectibles, but for utilitarian purposes. And antique stores are full of items Made In America; and people are buying more solid items and less from the disposable products culture.
Your involvement, means: (1) you are taking positive steps to rebuild the romance with antiques; (2) showing others your business in working to be more involved in the online world and part of an online community. Youll also be networking with other antique businesses that understand the need to be involved in the virtual world.
If you run an antiques business, you should understand that sharing your ideas, thoughts and tips to operating your business with others isnt revealing secrets, its broadening the abilities of others in your industry. The more places working to revitalize the antiques market is good for every store around.
We encourage strong outreach to younger antique collectors. The future involves reaching new customers and collectors. By taking your business outside your walls, you are able to reach a new group of people that may not have ever been to your store.
Remember, the new collectors of today, can be the antiques dealers of tomorrow.
What iAntique.com can do in your antique mall or shop:
1. Increase enthusiasm with your antique dealers. For the most part, other than occasional sales; the daily activity in the antiques business is pretty basic. Start a few new activities and see interest start to grow.
The time is ripe for the rebirth of excitement to this industry. Weve seen it happen already.
2. In antique malls, dealer enthusiasm seems to equal better merchandise from the dealers.
3. What benefit is making short videos in our store / mall ? This is actually one of the more fun activities. We found that just making the videos, grabs peoples attention. Youll be asked What are you doing?, Whats it for, Where can I see it? Collectors love seeing what other people collect. Plus, with the popularity of social networking, people are spending more time on the Internet looking at topics they are interested in.
We've found that doing a combination of booth tour videos, item specific videos and even workshops generates a lot of interest.
4. Video chats
5. What about listing items for sale on iAntique.com? Heres another great example of working in view of your customers / dealers. As you begin using iAntiques free classifieds system to list items for sale online, dealers and customers see your efforts and not only acknowledge your positive actions, but will actually share with other dealers and potential customers of whats going on in your store.
6. Allows networking between stores.
7. Classifieds
8. Dealers bring in better quality of merchandise when they feel good about what is going on in the store. Dealers see there are positive things going on to sell / promote their merchandise.
9. Changes in dealer attitude - to more positive. Dealers are able to communicate with other dealers in their area of collecting.
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Steps an antique mall or store can take to become involved with iAntique.com online activities:
(We provide you live video support to get all this done).
1. Obtain equipment to be involved in live events / chats. ( web cam, headset )
2. Create a couple test classifieds.
3. Call a meeting with your dealers and explain to them how these activities will create new interests & enthusiasm.
4. Schedule a live event to broadcast from your store. Have a camera-friendly collector to give a ten or fifteen minute talk on what they collect.
5. Begin listing items in the classifieds. See the attached information about how to list items with the best success.
6. Create a few booth tour videos each week. Find that on-camera person that is knowledgeable and enjoys talking about antiques. Dont forget to create these videos during business hours - customers love to see things happening. And dont be shy about talking to customers about iAntique - by continuing their collecting interests after visiting, they will become stronger customers.
7. Schedule workshops & host live, online events. Give customers a reason to come back to your store, and you will give new customers a reason to visit.
If you would like to download this information, click here
