I gotta do chain mail.
Posted on 05/30/2009 2:28:23 PM PDT by lefthenright
I have been faithful lurker for several years and this is my first post. I have many years of apparel experience along with my wife. Anything and everything to do with clothing we have accomplished. Retailing, manufacturing, buying, etc.
I have been trying to come up with an idea that could benefit conservative and traditional minded Americans. Why not put together a website that would provide access to hundreds of retailers that would give conservatives great deals on clothing, shoes, books, services, etc., and provide rebates to help fund their favorite charities or bloggers?
Why not put our hard earned dollars toward retailers that support us and want our business? I have talked to people that would be more than happy to do this. I feel that one way to assert power is not to boycott businesses but to buy from their competitors. Put together a large enough group and they they will come to us.
I want to know if this is something that could gain support or not? Please let me know your opinions and or advice. I believe in the wisdom of crowds and think the people of Free Republic have a plentiful supply.
There is a site, Deals of America, that directs viewers to retailers selling good deals. The site gets a cut of the profit for directing shoppers to the deals.
http://www.dealsofamerica.com/
Perhaps this model can help.
“Frankly, I don’t like to see patriotism tied to commercial promotions.”
Au contraire, my friend, if one doesn’t like socialism, to patronize socialists means one is helping their business make money. Some of that profit goes to fund the destruction of the Republic.
I think the way to patronize socialist owned businesses it to go to their bankruptcy sales looking for bargains.
In fact, I am hoping to find a socialist owned business bankruptcy sale where I can buy many things. As Heinlein’s character Jubel Harshaw said, “I’ve got a little list.”
It’s possible that there could be a problem with businesses being associated with a conservative- traditional site, but there are many well known retailers that advertise on well known conservative or liberal sites. My proposition is go to these retailers and tell them we have thousands of members who will gladly support them, and we will give them great PR by helping charity. With the corporations being unfairly demonized these days I think this could be good for all involved.
If being a capitalist and loving our country is controversial, so be it. We have money, we buy all sorts of products. I have a feeling they will come to us. After all if Oprah endorses certain companies and products and their sales explode, why can’t we do the same thing? It’s just a matter of numbers. Let’s join together and utilize our spending power.
I’m a bit confused now. You’re talking about dealing with retailers? You’ve got to think cost of goods and markup. The retailers certainly are. 50 - 80% is not unusual at all, and is even necessary to make a go of it in many instances, and you’re talking a percentage to charity out of this.
Amazon itself is a retailer. They’re not paying Borders or Barns & Noble for their product. They’re buying direct from the publisher or at least wholesale from a distributor. They can well afford to pay a percentage for clickthrough from the originating site that offered a given book, CD, whatever for sale and then “referred” the customer.
It’s going to be tough to find enough money to go around, if you’re not proposing to do something similar.
You’re not looking to warehouse any inventory, I take it, so you want manufacturers or distributors that drop-ship.
bump
You start with smaller independent retailers. I know the mark up of clothing. If one is a manufacturer-retailer they have a lot to play with. Right now there are quite a few smaller companies hurting for sales. I have talked with many, they are ready to do what’s necessary to survive and prosper.
Of course different companies have different margins, but we can work with them on an individual basis. I advocate starting small and working up to the big boys. What I need to know is how to bring this together technologically. If anyone wants to help with that or has suggestions, I’ll be happy to hear them.
You’re talking fairly sophisticated e-commerce, to be able to track clickthrough and purchase, back through to the referring site or party. Plenty of companies do it, though, from Googe AdSense, to Amazon, to a number of multilevels, so it wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel. An existing solution is out there.
In my experience, the cost of producing and mailing a small direct mail catalog is fairly comparable to setting up a good e-commerce site, from around $10K on up to $30K and beyond, depending upon the number of SKUs you’re going to sell on the site. If you’re not looking to throw a lot of money at the startup, partnering with someone who has a strong background in the tech side of e-commerce would be one way around it.
Appreciate that people are finally being driven personally to stand for the right (conservative) values in any way they are individually capable. That’s one reason this great country became what it once was: The Best.
You never know. Ideas such as yours may get the ball rolling for a lot of folks in varied ways that can have a great effect for the betterment of all our lives in the long run.
Hence my ...
BTTT
I’d certainly do my part for such an idea so please keep me posted.
Best Regards,
BR
the only redemption is, I’m a golfer and I get away with matching plaids and stripes.
So wrong is wrong. There is no free-form spelling.
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