Planet Soho storefront for small businesses
While current marketplaces like Etsy are thriving, for some Sohos (small offices / home offices), there is a need for more tools surrounding the marketplace, not just a storefront online. Enter Planet Soho which allows businesses to set up their own storefront in the cloud and begin selling goods online, built for people who have an expertise in their field, but not necessarily the time or worry to become an expert in ecommerce.
Planet Soho is a free web-based management tool suite that help SOHOs get promoted, get organized, and get paid, offering tools to run the business from invoicing and emailers to discounts on TurboTax and the like. The company started off in 2010 and has grown to over one million customers since its inception.
Planet Soho Storefront
The Soho Storefront rounds out the suite of cloud-based tools Planet Soho provides, and the online store setup not only pre-populates items from users’ accounts, they are all shareable through social networks like Facebook, making it an affordable option to the 25 million SOHOs in the United States.
The company points to Katy Kassian, owner of Buffalo Gals Bakery & Country Store in Regan, North Dakota, recently created her own Soho Storefront to expand her biscotti-and-specialty-cookies business and to help streamline operations. Kassian started the business two years ago from her kitchen when requests for her grandmother’s 100-year-old cookie recipe increased.
“Since joining PlanetSoho, my business has grown 25%. I don’t just bake cookies now; I create goods from coffee and burlap bags. I live on a farm that’s 40 miles away from the closest city, so an online shop is exactly what I need in order to take my little operation to the next level. I was able to set up and link to my storefront in mere minutes,” said Kassian. “I can’t think of a better way to get the word out!”
“Just add water”
“It’s the whole ‘just add water’ concept,” said Ron Daniel, founder and CEO of PlanetSoho. “We’ve already built and set up your online store for you – all you have to do is claim it and share the link with your contacts. Even if you’ve never sold online before, you can easily start selling through Soho Storefront.”
Members can get started for free, and they can upgrade to Soho VIP for as low as $4.95 a month for full access to Soho Storefront. Other Soho VIP features include easy group-email marketing, up to 10GB of cloud-storage space and 24/7 phone support. Soho VIP member benefits also include discounts from TurboTax, FedEx Office and Office Depot, as well as $100 worth of Google AdWords.
