Gifted Retailer: Fresh Bet
By Jane Kitchen -- Gifts and Dec, 1/4/2010 12:00:00 AM
For the past eleven years, Bet Law has run a successful niche business selling home fragrances, bath and body products, and other “smelly things,” as she calls them.
The unusual part about Law’s Central, NC, Fresh Bet store is that everything is sold online — as in via the Internet, where you can’t actually smell all those heavenly “smelly things.” Law combats that problem by stocking reputable brands that many of her clientele know and re-order year after year. But she admits that finding that sweet spot is tougher than it looks.
“It’s a fine line between finding a product well known enough that customers recognize, but that isn’t oversold on the web — or undersold,” says Law.
Catering to the Brand Loyal
Brands like Aromatique, Green Leaf, Claire Burke, Enchanted Meadow and Woodwick are the core of her business, which is perched nicely in the mid-range of fragrances.
Fresh Bet caters mostly to women in their 50s and 60s and who generally have extreme brand loyalties, and Law has succeeded in establishing herself as an expert of sorts with her clientele through her freshbetbits.com blog site.
Informing and Relating
Through the blog, Law informs her customers of soon-to-be discontinued scents that she’s stocked up on, newly released fragrances from trusted brands, as well as shipping specials and other deals.
“My customers love the blog site — they respond to polls, and leave comments,” says Law. “I try to maintain a real personal relationship.”
For example, a recent blog post alerted customers about a scent that had been on the market since 1955 that was being discontinued — and Fresh Bet had done its customers a favor by stocking up on as much of the merchandise as it could.
“The blog is only about fragrance — that’s all we do: smelly things,” says Law. That means for customers interested in those “smelly things,” Law is the one to turn to for expert advice.
A New Audience of Customer
The blog also helps bring customers to her site via Google searches, and establishes Law as a trusted expert in her niche market.
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Former Fresh Bet main street store |
“They sense that somebody is really in that business,” says Law. “…It’s one of the least expensive and best tools that we’ve ever brought on board.”
Law also regularly sends out a personable newsletter to her list of 7,000 customers, which keeps her in constant contact with her regulars.
A Shop on Main Street
But after eight years of success in the online world, Law thought it was time to expand her horizons and branch out into the world of brick and mortar retail. In 2006, she opened a small store on her small town’s Main Street, and brought her “smelly things” to a place where customers could actually smell them.
“We loved having a retail store,” says Law. “It was just wonderful doing window displays.”
The timing couldn’t have been worse, however — soon after Law’s venture into brick-and-mortar, the economy began to collapse, and by September of 2009, Law said, “sales absolutely fell off a cliff.”
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Current Fresh Bet shipping workshop |
Back to the Core Business
So she decided to cut everything that wasn’t her bread-and-butter and focus on her core strength: her website.
“We hated to leave the retail store, but it’s given us a new lease on life going into 2010,” says Law. “We’ve offloaded all the overhead, we’re still selling, and we still have jobs.”
Customers are shopping again, says Law, though they’re not spending as much as they used to — average tickets are down. Still, the economy isn’t all bad news.
“There’s just something about scent and how it affects your mood and your memories,” says Law. “Especially in tough times, sometimes a lady can make a small purchase and treat herself to something that perks up her spirits.”
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