Comparing Online stores with Bricks and mortar stores

Online shopping is fast becoming the norm with people buying everything on internet from books to DVDs, and cosmetics to heavy machinery. You can purchase just about anything, anytime on internet. There is a tremendous growth in the numbers of dollars spent every year on online shopping, which is fast, far more convenient and economical, all at the same time. However, shopping from an online store is an entirely different experience and not everyone is at ease while buying from a website, especially those who are not on the ball and well-informed about new technologies.
Let’s compare online stores with conventional stores and look at its advantages or disadvantages.

Advantages:
Online shopping is all about expediency, ease for both buyers and sellers is the biggest plus point of online shopping. To start with the buyer, first of all you don’t need to store products in large quantities, instead you can place images of products at your website and purchase from manufacturer only when someone place an order (especially when you are acting as a dropshipper). The real advantage that online shopping brings to the customers is the option of carrying out research and price comparisons on internet. It’s a matter of minutes to get hold of the information about different products, including their features, reviews, customer experiences and price comparisons for any given requirement. Even those who don’t buy online, likes to surf around for some information regarding a particular product. Such extensive information and research is almost impossible in a traditional store where you are stuck with limited options. Also, online stores are open 24 hours, whole product selection and payment takes little time and the product is delivered to your doorstep.


Disadvantages:
Biggest disadvantage at the moment is probably the access factor, not everybody has the access or the knowledge required to use internet for shopping purpose. One needs to be adept in searching and surfing internet, because the nature of online shopping makes internet an ideal place for scammers. In case you’re caught in the trap of some scammer, it’s really hard to recover your money, once you’ve made the payment. Therefore, some people are always reluctant to buy online; there are very few laws and regulations to keep online businesses under check. Even if the supplier is not fraud, the actual product can turn out to be completely opposite to what you had conceived after looking at the image. If you are running an online store, you must consider these reservations.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers

Is franchising the right business plan for you?

Talk of the franchising business and the first thing that comes to your mind is all those fast food chains scattered everywhere in your town. However, that’s not the only industry that uses franchising to enhance the availability and distribution of their products, you will find similar setups in fashion and garments, IT services, Salons, education sector, etc. Franchising is a type of collaboration between franchisor and franchisee, where franchisee gets the name, product (already successful or some newly launched product with huge prospects), techniques and training while the franchisor gets the opportunity to quickly grow as a brand throughout the cities or even nationwide. Franchising is quite a unique business model for both parties, being a franchisee; you invest the capital however you are not really free to run the business in your own way, whereas being a franchisor you make all the decisions about the product or prices, still you don’t really own the business.

Franchising as a Business opportunity:

At first glance, franchising looks like an ideal business opportunity if you have got the money and basic business management skills. You can instantly get a hot running product, so you don’t need to bother about the manufacturing or marketing stuff. You can also benefit from the experience and expertise of franchiser. In short, it is a ready-made business, all you need to do is to invest some capital and select an appropriate spot for franchise, and you are all set for a jump start. You don’t need to arrange for raw materials, set up manufacturing plants or go around spending big amounts on marketing, as the franchiser will be taking care of these aspects.

However, no business opportunity comes without negative aspects and there are some down sides in franchising business as well. First, you've got little or no control over the proceedings of the business. Most of the times, you have no say into the decisions of actual company or product, you are obliged to operate under the boundaries set by the franchiser, and at times it can get a little annoying.

Therefore, when you are looking to start a franchise, you must try to get in touch with other franchisees dealing with the same franchiser and ask about their experience so far. Also, be mindful when choosing location of the franchise as it is going to play an important role in your initial success or failure.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers

Using Marketing Information System to Perfection

What is the difference between a good marketer and an average marketer? Probably the most vital one is the ability to anticipate the demands and trends in the targeted market; it is in fact the essence of marketing. Marketing manager, who can foresee coming trends or demands, is a piece of good fortune for the business. Given these forecasts are based on actual information and figures, rather than just gut feelings. The businesses that can “smell the blood” (anticipating changes) and “go for the kill” (prepare for the upcoming boom in demand) always manage to get their hands on the biggest share of market.

To help managers foresee the change in market or customer’s preferences, you need a sound information system, which is known as marketing information system. Marketing information system collects the relevant data; organize it into something meaningful, make recommendations based on these figures and than stock it up for future use. Any marketing information system that lacks in any of these three departments is nothing but an encumbrance for the business.

Among these three components, the first one is also the most important one, because the effectiveness of the entire system depends on the availability and correctness of information. There are two types of resources, normally used for collecting data. Primary resources, where the company carries out the research itself, through different means (interviews, observing consumers behavior, etc) and the secondary resources, where research work of some outside party is used (e.g. government or some research specialist firms). All of these resources have their own pros and cons and the people involved in the decision making should choose the source carefully, consistent with the quality of the data required and the cost.

Then comes the organizing part, where this raw data is sorted out and organized into something purposeful. If the information was collected through primary resources, then this task of organizing the information should not be much of a problem, however if secondary resources were used, it may take some time to segregate required bit of information. Even that has been made easy by powerful computers and data stored in electronic forms.

Last part is deriving results and making decisions based on these figures. This is done mostly by the management, but the success of these decisions is based entirely on the figures originated from the marketing information system. As you can see, marketing information system is a basic requisite for the most important decisions; still many businesses continue to operate without a proper MkIS.

Source:
Wholesale