Ask HN: How would you market an online shoe store?

2 points by truthseeker 14 years ago | 3 comments

Hello Hackers,

I have an opportunity to market a brand new online shoe site. A few avenues that I am investigating: 1. Blog about fashion/shoes. 2. Stores on shopify, amazon and ebay.

With Google Adwords, facebook ads out of the question for the category, do you have any suggestions for marketing the ecommerce site?

What kind of budget should I be looking at? Would 1000$ a month get enough visitors to the site? Are there any effective channels that work well for ecommerce sites?

thanks

Renaldoe 14 years ago |

Disclaimer: I am not an active entrepreneur nor am I engaged in e-commerce. Just a reader, chiming in.

I'm assuming you have a good and working product so I won't talk about "making the best product that fits your clientele." I'd suggest finding forums on which the products you sell are discussed. Don't put up spam posts on the forums. Instead, involve yourself in the discussion of a particular and show that you have knowledge because you sell that item in your (online) store. In other words, don't cram your store into peoples' eyeballs. Show them what you know, how you know, and where to go if they're interested in more.

Blogging is also a good idea. Seems like blogs are almost required for startups these days.

Goodluck.

there 14 years ago |

are you manufacturing shoes or just selling them like zappos?

truthseeker 14 years ago | |

The backend of the operation is a hookup with a manufacturer who will supply them to us.

They are not major brand names like Nike or Steve Madden but quite nice.

I have the responsibility of driving traffic to the website and get sales.