Running an antique business is one of those niche things that seems to be dying out. Whether it is down to the fact that collectors aren’t interested in what you specialize in anymore, or it seems to be less popular in your business’s location, there are a lot of different reasons as to why it might be struggling a little bit. So, this calls for you to push back and put your business back into the limelight. Here are some top tips on how you can keep your antiquities business on the map.
#1 Make sure that you invest in the right moving services to get your products where they need to be
Making sure that you are investing in the right moving services is vitally important. For instance, if you sell a large piece of furniture to somebody on the other side of the state, it won’t be worth anything like what the customer has paid for it if it gets damaged in transit.
So, top of your list of things to do is to find specialists in fragile goods transport who can help you when it comes to moving fragile items long or short distances. This is not just for online customers (more on that next) but also for customers who might be shopping while they are on vacation and need your goods transported to them over a long distance.
#2 You are going to need to invest in your website and marketing
Your website and your marketing are all incredibly important, even to an antique business. Collectors all around the world are going to want to see what you have to offer, and this is where your website can come in useful. You should be mindful, however, of people trying to steal things of high value that they have seen paraded around, so you are going to need very high security.
However, by getting this extra bit of visibility, you might find that you have got another means to attract customers to your business and bring your website higher on search engine results pages, which is what you are going to need to get ahead of your competition.
#3 You are also going to need to think seriously about store presentation
As an antique shop, your window displays are going to need to be on point. This is important for drawing customers as they are passing by and are captivated by what they see in your window.
For maximum effect, you should think about experimenting with flora and outside displays to catch the eye, such as using vintage bikes as flowerpots with brightly-colored blooms to attract attention. The same goes for beautiful and slightly cluttered window displays and an excellent shop layout. It might be beneficial to have a one-way system in your shop so people can spend their time looking at all of the shelves and display units.
You should also think about using all of the height available in your shop to really show off what you have on offer and give your potential customers as much of your stock to look at as possible.
