Life is tough in a crowded, competitive market, with multiple brands doing the same thing in the same space. Businesses try to outplay their competitors by striving to be the best – with better features, service, or price.

But what difference will a slightly better offer make in winning the customers’ loyalty? Very little. You’re still just another frog in a big pond. And how long will it take competitors to match your hard-won advantage? Not long. Just look at the automobile industry. They crowd each other and fight each other, but business does not seem to be getting much better for most of them.

It’s time to re-draw the competitive map. Instead of trying to be better than your competition, just be different. Being different or unique will get you noticed: rather than playing your competitors’ game, you’ll be foremost in customers’ hearts and minds if you give them something unique that they need.

Toyota did this in the 90’s when they launched the Previa: Instead of needing to make do with a souped-up delivery van, families could buy a good-looking car-like vehicle, designed for the specific needs of family life.

This doesn’t mean you have to invest time and money to develop a whole new product. Your aim is simply to add value for your (and your retailer’s) customers.

Perhaps all you need is to roll out online guided selling. Guided selling tools are hot right now. They make it so much easier to choose a product – and therefore, to promote and sell products. This year, Google started using them to help sell phones and music.

Shop Assistant is an online guided selling system for your (and your retailers’) website. It shows customers which of your products will best suit their needs. It’s incredibly helpful for customers trying to negotiate a crowded technological landscape, when they just want to make a clear choice in a succinct timeframe. As customers engage with the selection process, they can clearly see how your product can add value to their lives.

Unique things never stay that way for long. Just look how crowded the people-mover market got!

Leapfrog while you can. Read the Whitepaper, or call us.

Photo by Adam Fagen.

The post Leapfrog your competitors, before it is too late first appeared on Online Shop Assistant.

As a manufacturer with a large product range, how can you help your customers choose and buy? Retailers are great – but they can’t represent your full range. With manufacturers facing ever-increasing demand for product upgrades, retailers are pushed to keep up with even a selected range, let alone confidently recommend the “right” product.

As a gut reaction, the solution would seem to be to cut out the middle man and sell direct. But this simple solution is too simplistic, and ignores some complex realities.

Selling direct risks alienating retailers. This can play into the hands of competitors who still have the retailers on side. And anyway, manufacturers still need retailers, with their sales expertise and their physical stores where buyers can handle products and view them close-up. Also, for consumers, visiting a manufacturer’s website can be like walking into a huge store without a sales person to advise them.

The solution to this conundrum may lie with Connective Retailing. Connective Retailing, as the name implies, is a guided selling approach that brings manufacturers, retailers, and customers closer together.

Our whitepaper “Sell direct, without selling directly”, shows how manufacturers can connect with customers – without ruining their relationship with their distribution partners – if they use purpose-built software that digitally replicates in-store experiences.

The post How to sell direct, without selling directly first appeared on Online Shop Assistant.

Wise manufacturers see their retailers as key allies, with networks, real estate, and expertise to sell things better than they can – but the temptation to go direct is real.

Our previous post discussed the perils of manufacturers being left out of the sales process. When retailers alone understand customers’ buying choices, manufacturers have poor information on which to base development and stock control decisions.

So why would a manufacturer not set up shop online? Because there are risks.

Profit, or rather, the loss of profit, is the foremost risk. A manufacturer can get caught between the slow ramp-up of direct sales on the one hand, and indirect sales plummeting because alienated retailers will recommend and promote competing brands. Stepping on the retailers’ toes may not be the best strategy.

The logistics involved with direct sales follows as a close second. The manufacturer will have to learn all about deliveries, warranties, returns, servicing and support. Customers expect all of these services to be top-notch. When logistics fall below anything other than excellence, customer find their loyalty to the brand slipping away.

So it turns out that selling through a retailer is not a bad idea after all. The reality is that manufacturers and retailers need each other.

But what about getting closer to customers? Is that not more important than profit, logistics and keeping legal? Of course it is. The good news is that manufacturers can have their cake and eat it, because Connective Retail is about creating win-win-win situations.

When manufacturers embrace Connective Retailing, they build manufacturer-retailer partnerships that maximise individual strengths. E-commerce can be refined through collective knowledge, promotions can be co-branded and measured, and new data can be added back into the pool of knowledge.

When manufacturers and retailers work together to get closer to the customer, the outcome is better products, good margins, and happier customers.

Read more about this idea in our whitepaper “Sell direct without selling directly”

Photo by Curtis Malinowski.

The post When manufacturers and retailers partner online first appeared on Online Shop Assistant.

What manufacturers do best: designing great products. What retailers do best: selling those products to consumers. This three-way relationship has become an accepted norm, deemed to benefit each party.

While all appears well and good on the surface, the lack of contact between manufacturers and customers is a huge, often under-recognised problem.

With products assigned to retailers, manufacturers cede control, and are usually out of the loop sales-wise. They don’t hear the in-store purchasing questions or post-purchase niggles. Instead of being connected to their market, manufacturers are dependent on the quality of the retailers’ sales skills, knowledge, and feedback. If they’re not getting the full picture, they may not even know it.

We have forgotten that understanding customer needs is vital for sales, stock decisions, and product development. Without this understanding, manufacturers tend to build ever-higher specs in an effort to sell more units or, even worse, get sucked into price wars.

But more features or cutthroat prices don’t necessarily equate to more sales. Research on smartphones, for example, place simple things like durability and long battery life at the top of shoppers’ wish lists[1].

Manufacturers’ websites, their version of a shop floor, are often far from simple, with screeds of products and technical lingo. While modern consumers are happy to do online research, most do not understand industry-specific specifications and lack the experience to select the products that best fit their unique needs.

What’s needed? Connective Retailing, which brings manufacturers, retailers and customers closer to each other.

Manufacturers that weave the human touch of Connective Retailing into their websites find themselves able to ask questions and make recommendations, like a great salesperson would. Customers are better informed towards a buying decision. Manufacturers get feedback on responses via their website, and can use those to better align their products. The manufacturer may sell products at this point, or more commonly, simply assist with a buyer’s research leading up to a retail sale. Both manufacturers and retailers benefit.

But most importantly, Connective Retailing allows manufacturers to rediscover their most precious resource – their customers.

References

1. What Do Consumers Want In A New Smartphone?

Photo by Saranya Ghosh.

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