Find a product people are willing to pay for, give them good service and you have yourself a good business. Perhaps it’s an oversimplification but I’d like us to focus on the first part, finding a product that people are willing to pay for. We cannot choose what people place value on, we can only play to it. While this is not true for every person out there one thing that people seem to be very happy to spend money on is their kitchenware.

The kitchenware craze

Kitchenware is a whole craze. You might think if you are uninitiated, that a kettle is a kettle but that is not the case. Sure there is your basic water boiling kettles, then we have smart kettles which can cost 7 to 10 times as much and then we have what can only be described as fashion statement kettles which retails for 20 to 30 times as much as the basic kettle. That means the kitchenware market is very deep in addition to being very wide in terms of the variety of products. Think about this sort of variety across the many kitchenware appliances and items which include but are certainly not limited to toasters, pressure cookers, oil fryers, air fryers, blenders, juicers, mixers, grills, knives, cutlery, crockery and so much more.

Brand importance

By now you should’ve caught on that in many cases you are selling more than a product. What I mean by this is ordinarily something like a set of knives really has on the job; cutting. Perhaps we could divide cutting into its different forms such as chopping, dicing, cleaving, pairing and filleting. It’s still cutting. I will concede that there are cases where manufacturing processes make certain knives higher value because they stay sharp longer or have a narrower sharp edge and therefore cut better but where those processes are comparable you start selling based on brands and identities. So you will have to be cognizant of that in your marketing and selling.

Marketing

As you will be dealing with brands and perceptions this is really going to inform your marketing. Fortunately for you when dealing with big brands they have already done a lot of the marketing work for you. Names such as Mellerware, Phillips, Russell Hobbs and SMEG have all established themself and their market positions. What you have to do is make yourself a trusted name for the supply of those brands or whichever brands you choose to deal with. How you treat your customers will count big. I don’t just mean how you talk to customers during a conversation, think of your entire process. Is it easy? Is it designed to please the customer or you? It all comes together.

eCommerce

You’ll do yourself a world of good to consider eCommerce if you want to go into the kitchenware business. Kitchenware items tend to be small items with the biggest items being microwaves. To that end, shipping them isn’t that difficult. This will greatly widen your reach. One thing I would strongly advise is to make full use of the existing infrastructure. You’re selling established products that are manufactured by someone else. Even where the brand or item may not be known to people you approach it is already known to the world and that is very important. Before I buy anything online I look for review and unboxing videos and preferably by reputable third parties. Whatever you’re selling likely has third party review videos available online. Take the guesswork out of things and point people to them. You will find this shortens your sales process massively for both offline and online sales.

Function over style

One final tip that you will find helpful in this business is to think function over style. Now I said earlier in this business you are dealing with trends. A new appliance or kitchen item pops up on the scene and through exposure, via peers or social media, it starts becoming popular. Just remember why it’s becoming popular. Function. So make sure when selling to people you talk function. This is a great way of customer onboarding that will also help you defend against competitors if done right.