Why using factory blemishes could be one of your best marketing tactics.

Your offer a great quality product at a great price. You combine this with great service and then you stand behind the products that you sell. Next you add in a great selection with fast shipping. It's the recipe for a solid business model that will build a loyal following over time and generate the repeat customers that will keep your business on the road to success. These are tried and true practices that will never let you down.

But what can you do to spur interest, create buzz, and bring in more traffic that can be converted to customers?

Ah, well, this is a question that gets asked a lot. And for good reason. The simple math shows that more traffic leads to more customers. Especially when combined with the tried-and-true tactics and principles mentioned above. Effective advertising is a key component. The trick here is to have “effective” advertising. It’s easy to spend money, create ads and hope for the best. But without an attractive offer, you will most likely get only a few lookers and browsers (aka surfers) that never convert. Potential customers are looking for a deal they can’t refuse.

Factory blemishes can be a great tool to help. With the much lower price point, you can use them to offer deals that your customers will love and create that buzz your want. The kind of buzz that they will tell their friends about.

What are factory blems? These are the second string of the product world!

These items are just like I was in high school. I played football but I never was quite good enough to make the starting team. I knew the plays, made every practice, and worked as hard as anyone on the field. But I was really small (5'2" and 120 lbs). So, even though I could certainly do the job, I just didn't quite make the cut for the starting team.

These products are a lot like I was back then. They may be good quality items but, due to some small blemish, they just didn't quite make the cut for the starting line up. A good factory blemish shouldn’t have gaping holes or rips or huge grease marks. They will have small irregularities that don't affect wear or function. For example, the dye lot or wash load may have been a shade off. The blue may have not been blue enough to meet the spec required by our 1st quality standard. Or the sizing may be off ever so slightly but they can't be put it in the premium package and called “First quality” Whatever the irregularity is, it should be minor in nature and not affect the wear and use of the item.

Photo by Artem Beliaikin from Pexels

What can you do with a blemished item? A lot!

They offer a way to combine and blast out offers that get attention. You can use them to create deals that make customers want to act fast. Here is a list of some things that we have seen do well for our customers over the years with our factory blemishes.

• Offer them as a "Loss Leader" to draw people into your store. Mark them down to almost cost (or less) to draw a bigger crowd into your store where they will buy more, higher margin products.

• Combine them with other products to make a buy one-get one deal. You could slightly increase the price on a product enough to cover your cost and give a blemished item when they buy the other item.

• Offer free items for someone to subscribe to your email list. (That list isn't gonna build itself ya know!)

• Do a charitable promotion and donate 1 for a certain amount sold. We love this one! You can get a tax write off and do something awesome for someone in need. This can be done as a buy one (or whatever amount you want) and donate one scenario, made famous by companies like Bombas Socks or Tom's Shoes. We even had one customer that held a big promotion where they donated over 10,000 pair of socks to the local shelter when they hit a certain number of sales in a given time period. This type of deal is  a true win-win, and your customers will love the fact that they are helping make a difference with their purchase.

These are just a few of the many possibilities that utilizing blemished products can offer you to propel your store to success. Be sure and check out our Factory Blemished category to see our good quality irregulars at great prices. The products in this category change often, (giving you the ability to offer ever changing deals to your customers and keep things fresh and exciting) So, check back frequently.

We would love to hear how you use blems in your marketing and the results you have. Let us know how you use them and we will feature it in a case study for the future! 

Happy selling!