Buying Online

Well what a lovely summer we've enjoyed here in the UK. If any of you missed it, it was last weekend, so I hope you made the most of it.

This week, I want to talk about the benefits of buying from companies who host the majority of their business on line. I'll list them in no particular order:

1. They might be cheaper

That's the end of the list.

Of course these companies are going to be cheaper. The majority of them are based in the back bedrooms of people who are showing a little entrepreneurial spirit. I say good luck to them - for the most part. Whenever I am shopping for a new piece of technical equipment, my first port of call is always eBay - not because I want to necessarily buy something second hand, but because a lot of people run eBay stores using a principle known as dropshipping.

Dropshipping is brilliant. People open stores online offering a fantastic selection of brand new merchandise at competitive prices. The truly brilliant part is that these people are not holding any stock. They will take your order, send it through to the factory where your goods are being held, pay that factory and then keep their own markup for themselves.

The factory send the goods directly and will even handle any complaints or technical faults, so everybody wins.

Fantastic in the 'retail' world, but are the same benefits in play when it comes to corporate sales, more specifically, promotional merchandise? Obviously not, because the benefits of working with someone who might be cheaper are far outweighed by the pitfalls, and let's see if we can list some of those:

1. Less quality control
2. Difficult to find a decent solution when there's a problem with your order]
3. No personal service - you are just a number
4. No creativity - you pick what you want from their site and they supply it to you
5. No long term view - it's all about revenue
6. Limited options - if it's not on the site, you won't get to see it
7. No focus on results

And of course, there are loads more, but you get the point don't you? If price is the only consideration that you have, then you're really taking a short term view. That may actually work for you. If, for example, you've got one charity event per year and you just want to give out some badges, then it makes sense to get them for as little as you can.

However, I'd like to think that the majority of people reading this blog are working within companies that want to excel in the marketplace and make the very most of their marketing budget.

One other point to consider is that I emphasised that these Internet firms might be cheaper. The fact is that larger providers have stronger buying powers and will most likely be in a position to offer you a competitive rate, along with all of the other benefits that I've mentioned.

So by all means shop around, unless you're looking to be successful, in which case just give me a call and let's get down to business.

Have a good week.