In the internet age, it's difficult for a small shop to survive. In an economic sense, profits will be slim as internet companies such as Amazon will overall have lower unit costs due to size. Thus the small shop today is under a lot more pressure today to survive than in previous decades such as the 2000's. So, what can they do to survive?
1) Diversification
In today's competitive environment, a small shop must offer more than one service/product. If demand is volatile, it is essential to offer consumers choice. This essentially mitigates the issue of one stream of income to multiple helping to see normal/supernormal profits which may have existed a decade ago. A one product/service store today would be business suicide.
2) Market place
In the internet age, a shops consumer is no longer just footfall. The 150/1500 people who walked past your store are not only your customers today. Instead, x/26.5 million could be your additional customers once you market yourselves just on Amazon. And that's just Amazon! There are many different marketplaces and thus you should advertise your product ASAP. Of course, there will be charges but your profit margins should be sufficient enough for this to be a minimal cost for you.
3) Costs
The profit equation is profit = revenue - costs. As we've dealt with increasing revenue, the next stage is reducing costs. Fixed costs such as rent, employees salary and utilities should all be looked at. It's likely that you may not have used comparison sites on your water/electricity/phone/internet bills and thus this should be an immediate start. Your variable costs which need reducing include credit card fees and materials. Both can be reduced by shopping around.
1) Diversification
In today's competitive environment, a small shop must offer more than one service/product. If demand is volatile, it is essential to offer consumers choice. This essentially mitigates the issue of one stream of income to multiple helping to see normal/supernormal profits which may have existed a decade ago. A one product/service store today would be business suicide.
2) Market place
In the internet age, a shops consumer is no longer just footfall. The 150/1500 people who walked past your store are not only your customers today. Instead, x/26.5 million could be your additional customers once you market yourselves just on Amazon. And that's just Amazon! There are many different marketplaces and thus you should advertise your product ASAP. Of course, there will be charges but your profit margins should be sufficient enough for this to be a minimal cost for you.
The profit equation is profit = revenue - costs. As we've dealt with increasing revenue, the next stage is reducing costs. Fixed costs such as rent, employees salary and utilities should all be looked at. It's likely that you may not have used comparison sites on your water/electricity/phone/internet bills and thus this should be an immediate start. Your variable costs which need reducing include credit card fees and materials. Both can be reduced by shopping around.
4) Google
It's surprising how many businesses are not using Google. Google My Business is a free analytics software which helps customers see your business. It enables you to change the photos which customers see so they have a shop floor experience without being at a store.
At a recent work experience, I implemented a Google review scheme making it easier for customers to leave reviews for the business.
Further to this, I worked with SEO and SEM. This required inserting labels on 'Google My Business' so the business would be listed first when a customer would use Google search.
These small measures have drastically improved the sales of the business as highlighted below.
Comments
Post a Comment