“Shipping Service Helps Bring Quirky Products to Overseas Buyers” on EcommerceBytes.com
07/07/2013
By Greg Holden for EcommerceBytes.com
You can't always predict just what your hottest selling items will be. That's especially applicable to overseas markets. Sometimes, foreign buyers provide additional sales for products that are already your best sellers at home. Other times, they express their enthusiasm in surprising ways.
Take the example of 80sTees.com. Owner Kevin Stecko sells quirky, 1980s-style clothing and T-shirts like those worn by the character Sheldon in the popular TV show The Big Bang Theory. His clothing items feature cartoon and TV characters of that era such as the Transformers. Stecko says more than 20 percent of his revenue comes from international markets like the UK. So he wasn't surprised when the Optimus Prime Costume Hoodie, which was already a big seller in the U.S., took off in Australia and Japan.
But for Adam Sheridan, owner of The Purple Store, international sales came as a surprise after one of his Facebook posts went viral. Sheridan's store, based in Seattle, WA, sells more than 800 items that have one thing in common - they're purple in color, ranging from watch bands to trash cans to sofas.
