Have you ever noticed that all of the shoe stores in the mall are all clustered together in one spot? All the trendy, hip clothing stores are located in the same part of town. And there's a Starbucks on every corner.
Seems weird, right? Shouldn't these businesses be more concerned about their competition stealing their customers?
Well, it's not that they don't understand about competition, its that they understand that consumers do 'destination' shopping. Take fast-food restaurants, for example. They are almost always in groups. You'll see KFC, Burger King, Taco Bell and McDonalds, all in a row. The Taco Bell might even be selling Pizza Hut items. My local KFC sells Long John Silvers fish.
So what happens is, when someone is hungry, they start instinctively moving toward this area. Usually I start moving before I even decide where I want to eat. Co-locating is good for everyone's business in this case. When a new fast-food place opens up, they find a ready-made customer base already in place and expectant.
Consequently I'm pretty happy to be a part of a crafty consortium. Not only does it make the business of selling online less lonely, its a great way to help my customer do 'destination' shopping.
The group that I joined is Etsy Team Columbus. This is a large, broadly and deeply talented group of artisans, who have shops on Etsy, all located in the Columbus, Ohio area. If you live in the Central Ohio area, you can go to the ETC group to "buy handmade, buy local". The ETC group is growing rapidly, and gets involved in lots of shows and arty activities.
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