Is your supplier also your competitor?

There are certain things some businesses do that make me scratch my head and wonder if they’ve thought of the implications behind their actions. One in particular is the way they’ve designed their websites that are not e-commerce capable. How many sites have you been to where they list the brands that they carry, usually with a link to that brand’s website, thereby taking you away from their own site?

Now, I understand why some retailers do this. Rather than paying a web developer to constantly update the product offerings, it’s easier to just link to the brand page and you can see the product there. Even better, the brand does a much better job at selling the product that they can do on their own page right? That’s perfect; except for one thing . . . the brand site is also an e-commerce site.

In essence, the retailer is sending their customer to another store that carries their product which invites that customer to purchase online. This would be the equivalent of sending them across town to the competition. Make no mistake; the supplier has no qualms about taking your sale. Sure you may have a territorial agreement but that usually does not cover web orders, and most suppliers will not have agreements in place to send the orders to various stores for fulfillment. Why would they? They just made the sale themselves and thanks to the retailer their site got free promotion.

So my suggestion would be that if you do this on your site, check the links you have going to your suppliers and see if they sell those products online. If so, you may want to reconsider sending your customers to their site. My second suggestion is this. If your customer can find you on the web, and find your product on the web, why aren’t you letting them buy from you on the web?

Competition is quickly heating up as customers buy more and more product online. Don’t give all your sales away to someone else; it’s not good for business.

Can E-Commerce Help Seasonal Retailers?

On my most recent vacation to the east coast of Canada I had the opportunity to visit a lot of small towns in PEI, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Our timing was great as these towns were just heading into their off season, so there were lots of specials to be had and not a lot of line ups to participate in things that make these places so much fun to visit. Lots of shops were offering great sales and we took advantage of as many great deals as we could.

One thing struck me as interesting though. Almost all of these small specialty shops advertised that they ship anywhere in the world. When I asked them if I could order from them online, most said no, but I could just call them and place an order or just send them an e-mail for more information. There were others though that did allow me to go to their sites and place orders. This was important for me because there were some shops that had great products that I wanted to get for Christmas gifts but didn’t want the hassle of taking them on the plane, or simply didn’t want to blow my entire budget.

By using the old way of doing business, a seasonal retailer is virtually limited by the traffic that comes into the store during their busy season. With e-commerce that season is extended all year round and they are no longer dependent upon foot traffic. This is even more apparent for specialty retailers that produce or make unique items not available anywhere else.

Consider this example for some of the opportunities that e-commerce provides. I found this great shop in Nova Scotia that specialized in making unique jewelry from sea glass collected from the nearby beach. I bought several gifts for my family but I knew more people that would love this type of stuff. After purchasing a few necklaces, I got the website address so one day I could order more. When my girlfriend wore hers out one night, people were commenting on it and asked where we got it. When I told them, two of our friends went online and purchased some for gifts and one of them even posted it on their Facebook Wall.

Had this small (and I do mean small) retailer not had an e-commerce site we never would have had the opportunity to buy more when we got back and they never would have sold to our friends who had never even been to Nova Scotia. This little shop was not a giant retailer or even a large one for that matter, but they are learning to make money even when the tourists are gone. On top of that, we get updates through Facebook when the owner has made more new and unique items and we can just purchase it from their site.

I guess my question to everyone out there is what are you doing to ensure your season is extended all year? How easy is it for your customers to find, buy and share your items with their friends? How much money are you leaving on the table?