CAN YOU REALLY COMPETE WITH E-COMMERCE SITES / MALLS / BIG BRANDS???

Today every shop keeper or  a small business owner has one question in their minds, how to compete with e-commerce sites/ malls/ big brands who have deep pockets to market like anything and also they can offer huge discounts??!!! Can small business owner survive these strategies? or it is time to end or change the business?!!


1. Respect your customers : You will say what's new in this point, we know how to deal with customers! Many times our behavior leaves a negative impact on customer's mind when they come to shop for something. Customer has a right to check, compare and know all the things about the product they want to buy. A shopkeeper has to show him all the options available and without making faces and taunting him, one should assist him to buy what he needs! Sometimes a customer will end up the visit without buying anything, but this should never be the reason to disrespect the customer.  Sometimes owner is very well behaved but the staff is kinda rude towards handling the customer. Here staff should be strictly instructed about proper behavior with the customers. Remember if customer feels that shopkeeper or service provider is acting rude then that customer will be lost forever and he will tell this about others as well. So behave well with your customers.

2.  Offer discounts to the customers :  Most of the customer who buys online or from the malls have only one reason: "they offer discounts!" Yes that is true! Though in some cases there are no upfront discounts, some changes MRP and again its lowered to show it as a discount. But what we have to understand that humans like discount and when they give lower money than what they are asked make them feel good about it! Psychologically this might be boosting their ego and they feel like getting a victory in a war! so why not let your customer have that winning feeling every time when they come to shop. Let's assume that any business allows 5-50% of the profit margin. So can't we share small part of our profit with these customers? Remember a small discount offered to customer will  make him return to shop. So choice is yours!

3. Give your customer a experience rather than a business transaction:  Every time a customer comes to shop or sometimes just for inquiries , let them be comfortable in your business place. If customer does not feel comfortable, he will stop visiting your shop. You can give him something extra by providing a home delivery, extra carry bag, small discount, some credit if you are knowing him, free sample or just a smiling face! Is this very difficult? we have to understand that everyone expects to get something extra than what he actually pays. So let's not disappoint the customer and give them a great shopping experience.

4. Quality will never put you out of competition : Sometimes to attract customers, shopkeepers compromises the quality of the product to reduce the cost and increase the profits. However in long run bad quality or lower quality products will affect you negatively. It is better to educate customer about the quality and price of the product rather than giving him lowered quality product at low rate! This will build trust and customer will feel that he will never get cheated in your shop!

5. After sales service is not a rocket science : When customer buys certain products which comes under warranty they have a faith that local shopkeeper will be helpful when it comes to warranty or change the product. sometime customer can return the product after trying or may be size change is needed. So never let your customers down when it comes to after sales service. Let it be repairing or checking the product onsite, replacement or changing the part or whatever it  takes, stand with your customer if you want him to come again at your shop!

6. Be a friend to your customers: eCommerce sites and big brands have CRM where they remember all the important dates of customer like birthday, anniversaries etc. A person will feel good  if he/she gets a message and special offer for shopping on their special day. There is no need for important software for this. You can use calendar feature on your phone and set a reminder of every year. See the magic

7. Arrange expo once in a while : A different set of vendors can come together and can organize a exhibition kind of thing in festive season or off season so customers can come and they can have feel of shopping mall and get all the items under one roof. shopkeepers of food stuff, clothes, cosmetics, jewelry, grocery etc can come together and give customer a feeling of mall culture. Vendors can keep this exhibition in bigger halls or banquets. This will beneficial to both customers and vendors. Every vendors will get other vendor's customers and all the customers will come in contact with new vendors. They can market this expo well in advance with newspaper ads, pamphlets etc so customer won't go to malls especially in festive seasons or off season sale.

8. Vendors can buy together for bulk quantity and discounted rates: Nowadays people can use new ideas to increase profitability in business. Particular vendors of a region can come together and buy products together so they can negotiate better with the upper level and ask for additional discount. This will increase the profitability and they can compete with malls and eCommerce sites. This is not very simple but if once can implement this effectively it will give them huge advantage.

In this way any shopkeeper can survive the difficult time where Ecommerce sites and malls are ruling the market. They can try implement above pointers and see themselves what is the difference they can feel. Nothing is permanent and nothing is impossible. If you have a will and you don't mind going for an extra mile for your customers then no one can you throw out of your business!

Cheers!

Why some well doing business have to face shutdown?

We have seen many business around us which were doing quite well before 10-15 years, but suddenly with the time they lost their charm and fade out slowly. We keep wondering that how come a well doing business was suddenly out of business r shut down?! Most of these business are traditional business which are operated by generations of family! Let's see what happens in these kind of cases?

1.  Humans do not like "CHANGE" : Let's agree that generally we don't want any changes in the practices we follow. Let it be business,habits,lifestyle or anything. We have a feeling that every change will be burden and will ask extra effort from ourselves. Not all changes are bad for our business. It might take extra effort and time from our side but it will be very much beneficial  for our business in long run! You have to be flexible and you should accommodate all the positive changes if you want to grow your business.
   
2. Not adapting to new technology for business: When business is running successfully, that is the best time to do experiments. When computers introduced, they changes the entire way of business operations. From stock handling to accounts, taxes to invoices, ERP to CRM everything was changed. This made business much easier. However one has to welcome these technology with positively.It takes time and effort to learn this. Either you can learn or you can hire a person who knows this stuff else surviving in business world for long run seems difficult.
   
3. People working for you are not the decision maker: Generally in traditional business there is no such practice where people working for you get up-gradation in their knowledge and the kind of  the work they do! People have a feeling that if they make their staff 'smart' then they will learn all the secrets and takeover the business! This one thought is enough to kill all the benefits one can have if their staff keep updated with knowledge and new business practices. If you have smart staff then you can give them more responsibility and you can involve yourself in other activities which grow your business. but this thing doesn't happen in most of the cases.
   
4. New generation is not trusted or not given enough opportunities : When a next generation join their family run business after studies, they have lots of new ideas which they think to apply to their business. However in mos of the cases elders give advice that they don't need any new idea or technology for this business as their business already doing well. If they do something new, that will harm their business. Also when there is time to take important decisions, new gen people are not asked what they feel or their opinion is ignored before evaluation. Thus slowly decision making power and will goes low and this affects business very badly.
   
5. People fail to anticipate change in govt. policy : Govt. policies play important role in any business. Successful people always keep an eye on what is happening with the govt. policies like tax, export-import duties, surcharges etc. Sometimes a small change in these policies make a huge impact on the business.So it is better to be aware rather than struggling later.
   
6. Don't neglect your competitor and the competition : When your business is years old and very well doing at that time you should not be over confident about competitors and competition. A good businessman never underestimates competition.Though today competitor's size is small, but with coming years he can also grow and make you run for your money. 
   
7. Stakeholders are not valued : People who make business alive are its stakeholders. Suppliers, customers, staff and many other people are directly or indirectly connected with the business. When business is operating well, owners seem less worried about their stakeholders and take them for granted. They feel that their business is gonna permanent and stakeholders will stick to them even if they don't value them! This is a big misconception which drives away all the stakeholders. This is the key point which makes your competitor more powerful.
   
8. Not depending on marketing and E-commerce : Generally people have a feeling that they don't need any marketing. People will come searching for them! This happened few years ago but  today everything is available at everywhere. Even E-commerce is making things easier for customers. So it is very advisable thing to market your product/services. Though you will spend some money, but it will grow your business if you market efficiently. you can also use E-commerce for selling your product/services.
   

These were the few points which are not taken in consideration in traditional business or family business. And slowly business is reduced or shutdown with the time. It's better to work hand in hand with the new generation who wants to join the business and take it to the new heights. The combination of experience and courage of new ones will definitely take your business ahead.