We have seen our share of eBoutiques,  Online Blog Shops and even Online Blog Resellers on shoppingNsales.com; often we have many trying to put up their “offers & sales” as a pseudo comment on our website, for most-parts, its often filtered as a spam, and most of you don’t see it, but on ocassions they slip through.

Nevertheless, we have seen an increase in online blog shops .. they are popping up all over the online blogsphere. We figured this article (below) featured on Star is timely and would be useful to some of you; and may even encourage some others to start a similiiar thing; especially with the economic situation around us getting dimmer and dimmer.

Check out these key directory listings, so that you can be assured you’re not alone, if you wanna start up your own Blog Shop :  Emmagem Fashion Directory , MOFSD Listing and Malaysian Babes’ Blogshop

One of our friends also started her own online thingy called Choobs, where they specialized in Trinkets & Baubles and she’s saying that business is overwhelming!

So we guess, if you have an online BlogShop and you would like to share with us your experiences and also what you have to offer, we will “switch off” the spam filters for today! Tell us what u have available on this Post!!

And for the rest of u, do you want to start an eBoutique or an Online BlogShop on your own?  Read on . . .

The next best thing to having a successful online boutique is taking it offline.

ALL is going well at the Youth ‘09 bazaar in Kuala Lumpur for Goh Rui Yee, or “Venetia”, as she is known on her online boutique. So many people have stopped by at her stall; some have bought from her, while others received her name cards directing them to her blog (sassychic32.blogspot.com).

Venetia, 22, has had an online boutique for almost a year now. Late last year, she discovered “offline” bazaars, and decided to try setting up stall at one in December.

One-on-one time: By going offline, online boutique bloggers get to make a personal connection with their customers.

“I liked the idea of meeting my customers face-to-face, and since I was on holiday, I decided to do it,” says the college student.

There are many others like Venetia; these days, it’s sometimes not enough to just run an e-boutique from behind a computer screen.

Online boutiques are nothing new. Run by young fashion enthusiasts who buy their products in bulk, locally and overseas, there are hundreds of e-boutiques craving publicity and attention to boost their businesses.

Showing proof: Venetia Goh Rui Yee believes that offline bazaars are a good way to show customers that products sold online are of good quality.

Enter the offline bazaars – a space for e-boutique owners to meet their customers face-to-face, interact with other vendors, and step away from their computer screens once in a while.

How these vendors run their stalls is entirely up to them. Some bring all their stock to the bazaar, while others showcase their old stock and new arrivals, and direct their customers to the website for other sizes and colours of goods on display.

“There is still a large group of people who are sceptical about online shopping. To instill more trust, we have to come offline to show them that our products are not merely nice pictures. This is a way of proving that our items are up to standard, and also a good opportunity to promote our website to a larger crowd,” explains Venetia.

Promoting it: Patricia Sharon Ponisa gets owners of e-boutiques to take part in bazaars by announcing them on her blog (www.pinkypiggyscloset.blogspot.com).

At the recent Youth ‘09 event, more than 30,000 youths thronged the halls of the Putra World Trade Centre, browsing through the 80 stalls at the bazaar.

The trend is catching on fast. Two weeks ago, at least five bazaars were held in the Klang Valley at various venues. On most weekends, there is at least one medium-scale bazaar happening in the city.

Offline bazaars are even happening in campuses. At the recent Universiti College Sedaya International (UCSI) Unifest event in KL, e-boutique owner and aspiring businesswoman Patricia Sharon Ponisa, 19, stood proudly among the vendors of a bazaar she curated.

Customer service: Grace Chew May Jern enjoys offline bazaars because she gets to meet her customers face-to-face.

“I have an e-boutique which sells items bought in bulk, and also designs by a friend of mine. Organising bazaars is a good idea because it brings website owners out into the public, especially in universities. This is because our stuff is quite affordable to students,” explains Patricia, who operates pinkypiggyscloset.blogspot.com.

Grace Chew May Jern, 20, a vendor at the same bazaar, is a shopaholic who just loves to share her fashion sense with the public.

“The point is to establish trust,” she says. “It’s a way of meeting current, and potential customers, which make transactions more interesting as I can personally give fashion advice and negotiate prices.”

Grace estimates revenue to be about the same offline and online.

Your choice: If you’re wary about buying stuff online, you may want to go to an offline bazaar to check out the products first.

“Of course, sales generated in two or three days in offline bazaars exceed a two-to-three-day online sale, but after deducting the cost of operating during the bazaar, it comes up to about the same,” says Grace, who operates the blog lushserendipity.blogspot.com.

Not everything is rosy all the time at bazaars, howevr. Vendors and organisers have their fair share of problems when it comes to working together.

“Space is definitely one problem, as there’s no way of knowing what the space will be like when you arrive, and sometimes a few vendors can be inconsiderate by eating up more space than they’re entitled to,” explains Venetia.

“Plus, there are some vendors who smoke at the trading area, which is bad because then it will stink up our clothes on sale. Thus, it is very important that you get good neighbour vendors,” she adds.

On the part of the organisers, Patricia agrees that there are some common problems, for example meeting vendor’s expectations.

“There are often disputes about space, racks and tables, and it’s difficult to please everyone. There’s also the issue of electricity, fans and so on. It’s all about being able to communicate properly and understanding one another’s needs,”says Patricia.

“As an organiser, I have to keep searching for events to hold the bazaars. This takes up time and it’s a balancing act between focusing on my studies, and running my e-boutique.”

For Venetia, Patricia and Grace, apart from having their businesses blossom in “real” life, as opposed to in cyberspace, the best part about being in a bazaar is meeting people.

“To see the happy smiles on our customer’s faces when they find something they like at our stalls is priceless. It’s also good to be able to exchange ideas and insight with neighbouring vendors, to improve our businesses,” says Venetia.

“Bazaars are a place where we can share fashion, earn pocket money, and gain experience in running a business,” says Patricia.

Business with soul

Almost every weekend, one-off bazaars are hosted in and around the Klang Valley, featuring e-boutique owners, creative entrepreneurs, and second-hand items stall owners.

Young women, many of whom are students, throng these bazaars, either as vendors or customers. They are eager to interact, network, and shop.

One of the first bazaars of this kind to attract public attention was Bijou Bazaar, pioneered by Maryam Samirah Shamsuddin, 29, who runs the project with her friend, Nirwana Tuan Sariff.

The women behind Bijou Bazaar: Maryam Samirah Shamsuddin (left) and Nirwana Tuan Sariff. — Pictures by MOHD FADZA ISHAK

Bijou Bazaar has grown from a hobby of creating handmade accessories and re-fashioning old clothes to a massive lifestyle event with up to 180 vendors, food, fashion shows, and acoustic music performances.

“I grew up watching my mum run a duty free retail set up. When I was doing my A-Levels, I followed her on buying trips and sat in negotiations with designers or brand houses because that was the only time I got to see her,” explains Maryam.

“I learned a lot from watching her, and this was the trigger to my interest and passion in retail,” adds Maryam, who left her job as a business development manager to pursue her passion.

Maryam started out by selling her handmade accessories. But when the orders exceeded her capacity to produce them, she chose to build up Bijou Bazaar.

The first bazaar, which was held a little over a year ago, had only around 30 vendors. Their vendors now have grown to 180, depending on the scale of the event.

“To be honest, I would have loved to keep it small,” says Maryam. “When building managements and big event organisers invited us to hold Bijou Bazaar with them, I agreed so that more vendors and retails enthusiasts could benefit.”

According to Maryam, the sprawling shopping malls and cookie-cutter boutiques in the local retail landscape are impressive, but unfulfilling.

Growing business: Bijou Bazaar started out as a handmade accessories project by Maryam. It is now a major event involving at least 30 vendors at a time.

“It’s no more just products the shoppers crave, but an exchange of ideas, knowledge, and experience. Today’s soulless shopping landscape needs a corrective, we seek to do so by yoking commerce to culture,” she says.

At Bijou Bazaar, fashion is mixed with creative entrepreneurship. E-boutique owners, vintage fashion retailers, fashion designers and fashion enthusiasts selling their selections converge with creative entrepreneurs selling their own work.

All this makes for a good mixture of products and personalities at the bazaar, made more exciting by live acoustic performances by Indie musicians, an addition that Maryam believes makes the event more than just a “regular flea market”.

She likes to think of Bijou Bazaar as a “business with soul”, an environment that encourages vendors to make friends and help one another out.

“We see a lot of collaborations, sharing, support groups and win-win partnerships within the independent scene. We are not purely profit motivated, we are about our community; we are looking at nurturing young micro retailers and creative entrepreneurs within Bijou Bazaar.”

On the booming phenomenon of e-shopping, Maryam believes it is attributed to convenience.

“People today are more receptive to online retail for the convenience it offers. Life is complicated enough as it is, anything that whispers convenience will be well received.”

The next Bijou Bazaar will be happening on Feb 14 and 15, at Soho KL, Solaris Mont Kiara in KL.

To keep abreast with what’s happening with Bijou Bazaar, visit their website at bijoubazaar.blogspot.com.

Source : Star1 & Star2

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 3:38 pm and is filed under news, online. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.