Motorcycling Thread for MrX, Matty, and I

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Matty
Yeah, that seems to be what everyone is saying on the eBay forums. Gotta look into getting UPCs for Amazon.
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UPC's are pretty simple to get. I just had to buy a 10,000 block with a company prefix from GS1. There is a Canadian site for GS1 to get an officially registered UPC. (http://www.gs1ca.org) You can buy single UPC's for $60 it appears.
 
Matty
I'm doing everything organically so far. I optimize the web shop the best I can and hope Google notices.

Paid strategies like Adwords are -EV for small biz. Large companies overbid on just about every valuable keyword. They don't care.

All my sales so far (other than to GL and friends/family) have come from a motorcycle forum. I've given away 4 pairs too to get my name out there. There's tons more forums to post at, Ima tackle them all one by one.
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You don't have to hope. You can use Google Webmaster Tools, Google Trends, and Google Analytics to see how well you're doing and adjust from there.
 
I do check Analytics several times a day. I just meant, since it's my first week in business, I'm at Level 1 SEO-wise. Hoping to rank for "touchscreen motorcycle gloves" sooner than later.
 
MonkeyF0cker
UPC's are pretty simple to get. I just had to buy a 10,000 block with a company prefix from GS1. There is a Canadian site for GS1 to get an officially registered UPC. (http://www.gs1ca.org) You can buy single UPC's for $60 it appears.
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Nice, thanks for that.
 
My brain hurts. So I'm a home-based company with one location and one product with 5 variations. Do I just need one GLN and 5 GTINs for now? I know I should plan for more GTINs, I'm just asking whether I understand the basic idea. The terminology on that website is completely opaque to me.
 
Matty
My brain hurts. So I'm a home-based company with one location and one product with 5 variations. Do I just need one GLN and 5 GTINs for now? I know I should plan for more GTINs, I'm just asking whether I understand the basic idea. The terminology on that website is completely opaque to me.
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You don't need a GLN. Totally optional. Just GTIN's.

Looks like you can buy individual or 10-packs of GTIN's in Canada. You would need 5 for now. So, however you'd want to do it. Can use the 5 unused at a later date. You don't actually register the individual products with them. The GTIN's/UPC's can be used however you'd like.

http://www.gs1ca.org/pages/n/subscription/index.asp

You guys have much cheaper prices than us. I think I paid $6k or so with a company prefix and 10k GTIN's.
 
Cool, thanks. Now, why are you the one buying GTINs if you're the distributor? Wouldn't the retailer have to deal with that?

I guess you have the same relationship with retailers that I have with end users. I think I just answered my own question.
 
Matty
Cool, thanks. Now, why are you the one buying GTINs if you're the distributor? Wouldn't the retailer have to deal with that?

I guess you have the same relationship with retailers that I have with end users. I think I just answered my own question.
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Because a lot of our products come from China with either no UPC-12's or they don't differentiate colors. We use the UPC's for point of sale (store owners that come to the warehouse to purchase or mobile sales vans that visit stores). Makes taking inventory of warehouses in the ERP system easier as well (using barcode scanners).
 
Retail stores can use our UPC's as well. Up to them. They typically don't because they either don't order all of their products through us or don't have a point of sale system capable of using them. But it's an option with the products they buy from us. It's an added bonus for our wholesale customers if they have a point of sale system that can utilize the barcoding.
 
Typically, it's the manufacturer that purchases the GTIN's and places the UPC's on their packaging. But, like I said, Chinese manufacturers in our industry aren't very reliable about it.
 
Speaking of which, how do you like dealing with Asian suppliers? It's been pretty painful for my glove thing. Four months of back and forths just to get a final prototype done. :banghead:
 
It is what it is I guess. A lot of our orders get filled in multiple shipments. If we order 5k of a newly released item, we might only get 500 when they first ship or we might get the whole order. So, we can't really run a presale or anything because we're not sure what will arrive or when. I guess it's just the nature of the industry and of overall manufacturing today. Something we have to deal with the best we can.
 
Hey, these are great!

They're a lighter weight than I expected, which is perfect since I already have winter gloves.

But, yeah, they feel great. Haven't ridden with them yet.

Might want to pick up a pair for our friend in SF. Is the small small enough for an average woman, would you think?
 
MrX
Hey, these are great!

They're a lighter weight than I expected, which is perfect since I already have winter gloves.

But, yeah, they feel great. Haven't ridden with them yet.

Might want to pick up a pair for our friend in SF. Is the small small enough for an average woman, would you think?
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Glad you seem to like them! :moped: That Paki leather is really soft and light. I've used the gloves in cold temps and they're comfy down to 50f or so. Definitely not full-blown-winter gloves.

Afraid even the Small would be way too big for the average woman. I thought they would run smaller than they do - I'm normally an XL but the L fits me fine.

I got several requests for women's sizes though so I'll order a bunch when I reup.
 
They kind of remind me of ski gloves.

Specifically like the racing gloves with the protection on the knuckles.
 
This thing's quickly growing out of control boys. I've got short gloves, jeans, keychains, t-shirts and a sample jacket on the way.

:pope:

Who wants a t-shirt?

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