Why You Need Technology In Your Antique Business

Antiques and technology seem to be at the opposite ends of the spectrum, and unfortunately too many antique dealers wish to keep them apart. But to be successful in antiques today, you need technology in your antiques business.

Every antique store and mall needs their own web site, even more so if your store is located away from other antique stores. I recently built two web sites for two of the antique malls near us. One had the best sales they have had in ten years. The other said they are seeing customers who they had never seen before and several mentioned they found us on the internet. Having a web site should be a necessity. But it HAS to be done correctly. Before I made myself an expert in doing this myself, I hired someone to build a site for me. It looked great, but it wasn’t built so people would find the site. This is not like in ” Field of Dreams,” just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come. There are some tricks of the trade in building a site to make sure it ranks high and people can find it. I didn’t write this to advertise my services, but I can build a web site that will get noticed and bring you customers. So contact me if you need a site, there is a contact link at the top of the page. I know the antique business and I am very reasonable. Here are  two sites I built that got results, Mountaintop Antiques and Hartlex Antiques. I update the videos on these sites several times a year.

Next you need to be listed in Google Places, again there are ways to get your store to the top of the listings or at least very close, again so people will find you. It amazes me that people aren’t listed here and take advantage of this. I wrote an entire article on getting ranked in Google Places. You can Google “antiques Decatur, AL” and “antiques Madison AL” and see where the two stores are ranked. Mountaintop was nowhere to be found on the first page of Google until I “did my thing.”

You also need to get a Facebook Page (I can do all of these for a discounted package price.) The more competitive the antique market is where you are , the more you need all of this. But even if you are the only store in town, out of town visitors find where to shop when traveling by looking on the internet.

Then you need a decent computer. It doesn’t have to be the latest and greatest unless you are a real geek. A $499 to $699 computer should work fine. Here is a comparison chart of five that will work fine. They are great for finding information about your antiques.

 You might want to start selling on the internet. My suggestion is to not try to do this on your own site. Again, I wrote a whole article on selling antiques online. Different parts of the country prefer different types of antiques. When we were in Dallas, it was English and French, but here in Alabama, American is preferred. But when you sell online, your items will be seen by people all over the country and even all over the world. I shipped things to Europe and Australia selling online. One customer in Sweden bought from me several times. A few months I sold more online than I did in the store. We sold everything from small inexpensive items to large leather sofas costing over $5,000. So don’t underestimate what you can sell online.

You will also need a digital camera, some phones have good cameras now, but digital cameras are very helpful and are really inexpensive. Again here is a comparison chart showing some of my favorites. They come out with new ones all of the time. But to post photos online, you  want to keep the images simple at one of the lowest resolutions, so don’t try to get the one with all the fancy bells and whistles.

Finally, a tablet computer can be extremely helpful. These are getting pretty cheap also with the introduction of the new Kindle Fire. I know you are saying, “Now why on earth would I need one of those new fangled gadgets?” How many times have you been at an auction or just out shopping and have come across something that you wondered, “How much are those selling for now?” Pull out your tablet and look it up on the internet. Stay in touch with your customers and emails when traveling without having to carry around a heavier notebook computer. They will pay for themselves either by stopping you from paying too much for something or allow you to make a good buy because you know what a certain item is worth. Otherwise you will make mistakes by paying too much or passing on something you would have bought if you knew their worth.

Maybe you are antique dealer that realizes why you need technology in your antique business. If not, I hope you can now see why it is important. Let me know what you think of the article and leave a comment if you have questions. I would really appreciate it if you would consider clicking the “Like“ button and sharing it with your friends. If you see things that you need to do to bring technology into your business, please take action.

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