>I am wondering if small museums, those lesser known internationally for
>example, find having online stores to be beneficial for making money. What
>kinds of items sell? How do you garner attention?
>Thanks,
>Lise Hull
>Museums Journal

Had to respond to this one ;-) .. For those who are unfamiliar with "me and
my website" http://www.museumstuff.com .. it's a gateway to a wide variety
of museum-related information, including a section devoted to online shops.
And before I continue .. PLEASE no listing requests at this time .. (the
site is being overhauled and I'm trying to maintain a deathgrip on sanity
during the process)

Now my observations:

(1) Approximately half of the traffic that I get to the shopping area is
search engine generated. People looking for "museum shops" "museum gifts"
etc etc. The other half .. what I might best describe as incidental traffic
from visitors to other areas of MuseumStuff.com

(2) I make, on average, one sale per 200 visits. (I have an affiliate
relationship with MuseumShop.com). It takes about 100 "clickthroughs" from
my site to the MuseumShop site to make a sale. My stats tell me that I
deliver clickthroughs to individual museum's shoping areas at approximately
equal numbers to traffic to MuseumShop.com (despite the overwhelming
promotion I provide to MuseumShop.com through my guide)

(3) What I have infered from this is that many people seem to enjoy
visiting individual museum shops. On the other hand, many enjoy the "many
shops in one" experience that MuseumShop.com provides. Yes, I am a rocket
scientist ;-)

(4) What kind of products are people buying? (from MuseumShop.com) .. All
kinds. I sell a lot of jewelry, and statuary (smaller desktop variety) ..
clothing does well, books, not too popular. Though this may be a result of
the limited number available.

(5) This is interesting ---> I have found that approximately 10-20 percent
of my sales are made by individuals who have visited .. then come back a
few hours (or days) later to buy. Read into that what you will.

 ..... Oh, I could go on and on about this "stuff" .. and in fact did so in
an article of mine that was recently published in a trade magazine. .. (One
of the recommendations that I made was to promote your online shop to your
REALWORLD visitors. Make take-one cards available in your shop. Turn
instore buyers into online buyers. Anecdotal evidence suggest that this
does not canibalize your instore sales, but rather compliments it.

Hope this has been of value .. and now, back to the saltmines of web-code
finagling ...

Roy Hemmat
[log in to unmask]
http://www.museumstuff.com

(5)

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).