What is the purpose of an online shop?
To provide the company with a shop open 24/7 which can drive non-credit account customers, to pay for products before they are manufactured, reducing internal sales, pre sales, pre-production and finance interaction with the customers’ requests.
What are some of the pros and cons of setting up an online account?
| Pros | Cons |
| You will receive cash up front for jobs.You will get advance notice of incoming jobs You will reduce time spent explaining production options You will increase sales, by reducing the friction in the sales process.You will have an online price list You will get customers details up front including a return address and e-mail.You will start to build an online marketing database of previous customers.
You can offer attractive discounts for return visits. (already calculated in original web pricing) You can incentivise digital delivery You can direct all small project sales to enter details through web form, and prepayment route. |
You needs to have staff that self-train themselves on the online sales page process.You needs to set up the sales page.
You will have to pay subscription for sales cart application, or upfront fee or monthly recurring You will lose a percentage of the sale to the payment system. You need to constantly update the sales page with pricing, new offers and new products. |
What other zero stock items could we supply from our shop?
We could tie up with a supplier of relevant accessories and sell these items on your online shop, selling them as an additional purchase with the primary product that will be at a more attractive price, all the time adding a markup on the extra goods, having the supplier send the accessories only when the order is made, we should be paying for the items sold this way with 30 days credit (becoming a small business, with zero inventory!)
We could tie up with other suppliers to offer stock items, which we’d sell at retail pricing paying our discounted price and only buying the stock with the customer’s order. (Zero Inventory)
We could offer a basic line of alternative products relevant to the field and not directly related to the companies actual product, again finding a stock supplier and holding zero inventory locally.
You could tie up with an open minded international partner to offer services that can’t easily be duplicated locally, with the thought of having a reciprocal service agreement for high quality finishing from your own company.
How have you gone about creating a digital shop front window?