Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Retailing

Having worked for some of the Philippines fast-growing E-commerce pioneers such as Lazada.com.ph, and had one way or the other communicated with top titans of Philippine E-commerce business such as the managing director of CashCashPinoy, Business Development Managers of Ensogo, Managing Director of Zalora.com.ph. Indeed the e-commerce landscape business in the Philippines has made some dramatic turn around from several years ago.  Filipino individuals and households now embrace convenience online shopping and has avoided the dreaded Metro traffic turns to online marketplace to get their essential needs and wants such as gadgets, mobile phones, kitchen appliances, dining wares, clothings, shoes, and even freebies on spa, skincare products and many more.

Online retailing is growing at an astonishing rate, with online sales now accounting for around one quarter of the total retail market. Retailers who ignore e-commerce may see their trade lessening as customers continue to shift to ordering products online. However, you need to think carefully and weigh all the advantages and disadvantages - backed by good market research - before deciding on whether or not to trade online.

Advantages of online retail

The benefits of retailing online include:

·         Easy access to market - in many ways the access to market for entrepreneurs has never been easier. Online marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon allow anyone to set up a simple online shop and sell products within minutes.

·         Reduced overheads - selling online can remove the need for expensive retail premises and customer-facing staff, allowing you to invest in better marketing and customer experience on your e-commerce site.

·         Potential for rapid growth - selling on the internet means traditional constraints to retail growth - eg finding and paying for larger - are not major factors. With a good digital marketing strategy and a plan a scale up order fulfilment systems, you can respond and boost growing sales.

·         Widen your market / export - one major advantage over premises-based retailers is the ability expand your market beyond local customers very quickly. You may discover a strong demand for your products in other countries which you can respond to by targeted marketing, offering your website in a different language, or perhaps partnering with an overseas company.

·         Customer intelligence - ability to use online marketing tools to target new customers and website analysis tools to gain insight into your customers’ needs. For more information on driving sales through online advertising see how to develop an e-marketing plan, and for advice on improving your customer’s on-site experience.

Disadvantages of online retail

Some negatives of online retail include: 

·         Website costs - planning, designing, creating, hosting, securing and maintaining a professional e-commerce website isn’t cheap, especially if you expect large and growing sales volumes.

·         Infrastructure costs - even if you aren’t paying the cost of customer-facing premises, you’ll need to think about the costs of physical space for order fulfillment, warehousing goods, dealing with returns and staffing for these tasks.

·         Security and fraud - the growth of online retail market has attracted the attention of sophisticated criminal elements. The reputation of your business could be fatally damaged if you don’t invest in the latest security systems to protect your website and transaction processes.

·         Legal issues - getting to grips with e-commerce and the law can be a challenge and you’ll need to be aware of, and plan to cope with, the additional customer rights which are attached to online sales.

·         Advertising costs - while online marketing can be a very efficient way of getting the right customers to your products, it demands a generous budget. This is especially true if you are competing in a crowded sector or for popular keywords.

·         Customer trust - it can be difficult to establish a trusted brand name, especially without a physical business with a track record and face-to-face interaction between customers and sales staff. You need to consider the costs or setting up a good customer service system as part of your online offering. 

Amazing Amazon

In recent months, after joining a company that does business at Amazon.com, I get a bigger picture of what the world’s largest online retailer in the US has been doing differently that attracts millions of people to its website and sells alot of books, and merchandise.  Amazon has turned out to be the world’s profitable retailer even beating Walmart.

From its humble start in 1995 selling books online to expand into a more diverse range of home improvement products, toys, kids stuffs, electronic gadgets, jewellery, watches, sporting goods, lawn equipments and home care equipment products and available in many other countries such as Canada, UK, France, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, China Japan and India. This remarkable company has grown into a behemoth of retail worldwide.

Many upstart entrepreneurs who even big companies have joined the fray in setting up an online store with Amazon, the best part is, you get your orders promptly when ordered at Amazon within 2-3 days time.  Much of the customer’s review also reveals an honest to goodness customer feedback, at times these are solicited in exchange for a free product or a discounted coupons.

Every online seller at Amazon has been clamoring to gain a foothold on the top page of Amazon when certain keywords are being type in the search bars by the customers looking for their product of choice.  These valuable keywords are imbedded within the product titles or descriptions that makes the search searchable.  Getting into the first two pages of the search result is one thing, and staying on top is another matter. 

If Amazon targeted towards home use buyers and retail customers is not enough, Amazon also offers, In 2005, Amazon announced the creation of Amazon Prime, a membership offering free two-day shipping within the contiguous United States on all eligible purchases for a flat annual fee of $79 (equivalent to $99 in 2015), as well as discounted one-day shipping rates.   Amazon launched the program in Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom in 2007; in France (as "Amazon Premium") in 2008, in Italy in 2011, and in Canada in 2013.

Though considered to be a retail powerhouse, Amazon constantly evolves and conceptualizes new things such as coming up with Amazon Fresh and Amazon Business, This is one great company that never rest on its achievement but constantly comes up with better ways to help different customer’s needs and wants. 

This by far ensures Amazon will always be on top of its game, in an ever changing time and consumer preference.  A business model that will be hard to beat.

Brands you would wear on your T-shirt

Just a thought, since there are countless brands and products in the market today, and most of us have preferences and are even loyal to those brands, the question just came to mind is, what brands would we would wear on a T-shirt. We pay a little more to get them, go out of our way to find them, even wait in line for them.  Please note that what I am talking about are brands that are not related to any apparel lines that we can easily purchase in the department stores or clothing boutiques.

These non-apparel line brands that has endeared us if given a chance to be on a T-shirt, would we want to flaunt and walk around in them.  These can be our favorite online games, what we eat or drink, our favorite catsup, favorite energy drinks, electronic gadgets, beer, liquor, cigarette, automotive, hobby thing etc.  Some brands may be bizarre looking to be on a T-shirt, some may look cool and hip, others may be an attractive colorful design to be worn.  Whatever that favorite brands we have, wouldn't we be glad if we can wear them too.

It was interesting to discuss the reasons we would wear a T-shirt advertising a brand—particularly for people in the branding industry who, ironically, seem more hesitant to wear a branded T-shirt. For some it was about a niche product they were fans of.  The brand is almost like a tribal affiliation. For others it was the graphics. They liked the design of the mark and were not particularly interested in the product. For more than a few it was about the ironic value. For all of us it was a very personal story. When we wear a T-shirt advertising a brand, it means we have an emotional connection to that brand.

If we think about it, these are brands that defines us, that speaks best of our culture, our belief and most of the time it attracts us because of their colorful graphics and designs, thus we want them to be on our T-shirts that we can deliver the message of loyalty and our emotional attachment towards that particular brands.

So whether your T-shirt says Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Honda, Mercedez-Benz, Intel, Lotte, US Robotics, Walmart, Watson’s, Mitsubishi, Coke, Pepsi, Gillette, it means something to you. And the reasons may be ineffable. But one thing is clear: Whether it stirs a feeling or creates an association with a community, or something else entirely, the T-shirt signifies your connection to a brand that goes beyond a transactional product-consumer relationship. It’s branding at its best.

Weigh in on our social channels: What are your favorite branded T-shirts, and why would you wear them?

Using Cool in Youth Marketing

Youth Generation is not only driving the nation’s economy, but also its way of thinking. While many brands define the younger generations—Gen Y and Gen Z—as their primary targets, how many brands are actually able to speak their language?

To connect with this target audience, we recognized that coolness finds huge traction with younger generations. To comprehend coolness, it was imperative to understand the elements that make up the sensibility. We delved into the components of coolness, discovering that although one demographics definition of cool do not necessarily translate to other locales, there are quintessential ingredients—we call them “cool mantras”—that are widely accepted indicators of coolness for the youth. The cool mantras in turn infuse brands with their “cool quotient,” or degree of coolness.

To better understand this cool quotient, we looked to brands that have already decoded coolness and made it a part of their brand DNA. By analyzing these brands, we then established a “cool toolkit” to help brands that are still finding their way. Here is an introduction to the cool toolkit for marketers who wish to add a cool quotient to their brands.

The search for cool

After studying more than 100 brands to understand their histories, products, and communication styles, I’ve identified specific brands that are widely considered to be fundamentally cool. This was a relatively subjective classification based on empirical data: Looking at online conversations about brands, considered prior contributions by these brands toward shaping some aspect of youth culture, and determined which brands best resonate with a youth audience. These learnings were then distilled into the cool mantras and shaped into actionable points as part of the cool toolkit to help brands increase their cool quotient.

What makes something cool?

Cool transcends algorithms and logical definitions. Throughout history, cool has resulted from all sorts of different trends and lifestyles. But all things cool, when studied closely, can ultimately be condensed to a few common characteristics. In Asia, these include:

Cool is silent rebellion: Subtle hair highlights or hidden tattoos are symbols of nonconformity that make a statement without shouting.

Cool is a source of respect: Being cool means earning the respect of peers, and sometimes even their envy. Coolness achieves something extraordinary that’s difficult to replicate. Perhaps that’s why the stunt-driven, task-oriented reality show Roadies called its eleventh season “ride for respect.”

Cool seeks detachment but craves attention: Indian youth may plug in their headphones and update their profile pictures by the hour, but they inwardly crave attention while outwardly seeking to look detached.

Cool does more, but talks less: Many brands like Lenovo  bring this truth alive through initiatives that glorify an action-oriented, can-do way of life.

Cool is the equilibrium between individuality and belonging: Stand out too much and you’re weird, blend in too well and you’re inconspicuous. Cool is the perfect balance between these polarities.

Cool is paradoxically competitive: Cool is a ferociously competitive spirit disguised in a nonchalant, unruffled refusal to play the conventional game. Blockbuster movies like Student of the Year bring this duality to the forefront.

Cool creates its own causes: As a generation without central causes or great wars to unite it, India’s youth see movements like lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights or the Stop Online Piracy Act as causes to rally around.

Finding a cool positioning

Whether a brand is considered cool is also driven by how it is viewed by the people who are not its target audience. This group becomes “the others,” those whose reaction to and viewpoint on a particular brand drives the core target audience to adopt, embrace, or flaunt the brand.

When positioning a brand as the next cool thing, understanding how it will be viewed by people outside the target audience is just as important as considering how the brand will be perceived by the core target audience. These outsiders can love or hate the brand, they can accept it or consider it taboo, but either way, their reactions will impact how the core target audience feels about the brand.

To fully grasp the measure of a brand’s cool quotient and understand the cultural space it occupies, it can help to plot the brand on a positioning chart, considering both the target audience and the outsider’s perspective on the brand. Generally, the target’s perspective and outsider’s perspective are opposite one another.

Since cool is mutable, it’s important to note that brands can move across these quadrants depending on the cultural pulse of the moment. Strategic shifts from one quadrant to another can be brought about by specific activities that focus on reinforcing the brand’s cool image in the following ways:

From generic to distinctive

When a cool brand begins to become generic, it’s time for the brand to do something disruptive to align to its tribe. It’s okay to be hated a little by those outside the brand’s target audience, as this reinforces the brand’s cool image.

From niche to mass

When trying to maintain diehard fans, brands can sometimes become inaccessible to certain audiences, alienating them by pushing them too far outside their comfort zone. This is the time for brands to dial up their desirability and likability quotient with the outsiders.

From passé to the in thing

As culture evolves, brands may suddenly find that their edge has waned—what was once trendy is now ordinary. When this occurs, it’s time to have fun and be a little quirky to break from the sea of sameness.

From “young” to “youth”

There is a difference between those who have a young mindset and those who are young in years. A brand that becomes a symbol of youth often begins to trend with an older crowd. When this happens, it’s time for the brand to do something a little shocking or intriguing to set it apart as a youth brand rather than as a young brand.

The cool mantras: What do Indian youth consider cool?

In our exploration into the world of Indian youth, we discovered that their hyperconnected, socially active, and globally influenced lives have made them quick to judge and unafraid to voice their thoughts. In the process, we uncovered some uniquely Indian characteristics of coolness:

It is cool to pursue your dreams, even if you fail

Inheriting wealth, legacy, or tradition is not considered cool anymore. Youth want to break free and become the authors of their own destinies. We witness this in the rise of campus startups and alternate career options that young people are pursuing, leaving behind often-lucrative family professions for uncertainty and independence.

It is cool to take the lead and change the status quo

The days of Asian citizens being bystanders are coming to a close. There is a growing emphasis on taking the lead and remedying problems. From using technology in constructive ways to raising voices against injustice, the status quo is shifting. People are no longer accepting things as they are or have been, but are looking to the future and focused on change.

It is cool to break taboos

Indian culture has long been riddled with taboos and social distaste for deviation from the norm. But the current crop of youth in India is happy to embrace deviations, even breaking some long-held taboos themselves. Openness to divorce, acceptance of same-sex relationships, and acknowledgement of premarital and extramarital sex are all topics discussed more openly in homes across the country.

It is cool to be social; it’s even cooler to be on social media

Brands like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter have ousted soft drinks as the quintessentially cool brands in India.3 Today in cafés across the country, friends can be seen sitting together hooked into their own electronic devices. The only time the group actually converses is to discuss what was said or done on social media. However, while social media is cool, brands on social media are at best ignored, and more often, lambasted.

It is cool to be hedonistic

Unlike previous generations that believed in abstinence and self-restraint, young India is a hedonistic generation. Whether it’s eating out, going to the movies, or frequenting pubs and discos, the super-fast growth of categories like restaurants, hospitality, multiplexes, and lifestyle goods bears testimony to this fact.

It is cool to be tech-savvy

With a significant share of discretionary spending on tech and tech-enabled services like cellular data, Internet connections, and mobile phones, technology is a clear favorite among the youth. This is also reflected in the fact that Samsung was named the most trusted brand in 2016 and the most exciting brand in the mobile category in a study conducted by the Economic Times.

Market Adjust To Changes

Market systems are favored by Neoclassical economists for three primary reasons. First, agents only need information about their own objectives and alternatives. The markets provide information to agents that may be used to identify and evaluate alternative choices that might be used to achieve objectives. Second, each agent acting in a market has incentives to react to the information provided. Third, given the information and incentives, agents within markets can adjust to changes. The process of market adjustment can be visualized as changes in demand and/or supply.

Shifts or Changes in Demand

The demand function was defined from two perspectives:

A schedule of quantities that individuals were willing and able to buy at a schedule of prices during a given period, ceteris paribus.

The maximum prices that individuals are willing and able to pay for a schedule of quantities or a good during a given time period, ceteris paribus.

In both cases the demand function is perceived as a negative or inverse relationship between price and the quantity of a good that will be bought. The relationship between price and quantity is shaped by other factors or variables. Income, prices of substitutes, prices of compliments, preferences, number of buyers and expectations are among the many possible variables that influence the demand relationship. The demand function was expressed:

Qx = fx(Px, Pc, Ps, M, Preferences, #buyers, . . . )

Pc is the price of complimentary goods. Ps is the price of substitutes. M is income. Such proxies as gender, age, ethnicity, religion, etc represent preferences. Remember that a change in the price of the good (Px) is a change in quantity demanded or a movement along a demand function. A change in any other related variable will result in a shift of the demand function or a change in demand.

Shift of Supply

Remember that the supply function was expressed,

Qxs = fs (Px, Pinputs, Tech, regulations, # sellers, . . . #S)

A change in the price of the good changes the quantity supplied. A change in any of the other variables will shift the supply function. An increase in supply can be visualized as a shift to the right, at each price a larger quantity is produced and offered for sale. A decrease in supply is a shift to the left; at each possible price a smaller quantity is offered for sale. If the supply shifts and demand remains constant, the equilibrium price and quantity will be altered.

An increase in supply (while demand is constant) will cause the equilibrium price to decrease and the equilibrium quantity to increase. A decrease in supply will result in an increase is the equilibrium price and a decrease in equilibrium quantity.

Changes in both Supply and Demand

When supply and demand both change, the direction of the change of either equilibrium price or quantity can be known but the effect on the other is indeterminate. An increase in supply will push the market price down and quantity up while an increase in demand will push both market price and quantity up. The effect on quantity of an increase in both supply and demand will increase the equilibrium quantity while the effect on price is dependent on the magnitude of the shifts and relative structure (slopes) of supply and demand.

Should demand decrease and supply increase, both push the equilibrium price down. However, the decrease in demand reduces the equilibrium quantity while the increase in supply pushes the equilibrium quantity up. The price must fall, the quantity may rise, fall or remain the same. Again it depends on the relative magnitudes of the shifts in supply and demand and their slopes.

When supply and demand both shift, the direction of change in either equilibrium price or quantity can be known but direction of change in the value of the other is indeterminate.

Equilibrium and the Market

Whether equilibrium is a stable condition from which there "is no endogenous tendency to change," or and outcome which the economic process is tending toward," equilibrium represents a coordination of objectives among buyers and sellers. The demand function represents a set of equilibrium conditions of buyers given the incomes, relative prices and preferences. Each individual buyer acts to maximize his or her utility, ceteris paribus. The supply function represents a set of equilibrium conditions given the objectives of sellers, the prices of inputs, prices of outputs, technology, the production function and other factors.

The condition of equilibrium in a market, where supply and demand functions intersect ("quantity supplied is equal to the quantity demanded") implies equilibrium conditions for both buyers and sellers.

Crowdsourcing Innovation

Let me see if this situation sounds familiar: you’ve promised your boss that you’ll generate at least one percent growth over last year. You’ve been racking your brain with ideas about how to improve your product or develop a new offering or finding new efficiencies which will help your margins, but the few ideas that you’ve come up with haven’t had legs and pages keep coming off the calendar.

We realized that we need to find more ideas and they need to be able to deliver on those ideas quickly and we realized that crowdsourcing innovation actually gives us not only more ideas, but better ones, and it cuts the development lifecycle almost in half.

Open innovation dissolves the boundaries between you and your potential solutions. Now anyone from anywhere in a company (from anywhere in the world, for that matter) can help you meet that growth goal, whether it’s someone from your company’s leadership or someone from the maintenance team.

But even if you know that this is what you need to do, it’s not always clear what you need to know before you launch a crowdsourced innovation program. Here are the top four things that people have questions about before they begin:

How to Get Buy-In from Leadership:

There are lots of proven crowdsourcing use cases that show how groups of people have performed better even then the experts, but these stories aren’t always known. First, you have to become an expert and teach your leaders how to change the way that they approach ideation.

How to Define Objectives:

How do you know if you’ve succeeded? If you’re like the person I was talking about before, their objective might be 1% top-line growth, but how do they know what they’ll need to get there? It’s not just about gathering ideas. It’s about impacting your business.

How to Create a Process:

Every organization looks a little bit different, but ideas usually need to go through a refinement and approval process before they can go live. What sort of program would work best at your institution?

How to Create a Communications Plan:

If you’re going to collaborate with the crowd, then you need to know how to communicate with them. You need to add value to the conversation, communicate your incentives program, and make them understand why participating is meaningful to them.

Content Marketing in my eyeview

Rather than bore your customers with ads, inspire them with content.

People on the Web search for relevant information – content marketing provides it

In today’s digital world, people are inundated with advertisements. As a result, businesses struggle to get their corporate message noticed by consumers. In 2011, a study conducted by the Custom Content Council showed that more than 70 percent of users preferred to get their information from articles rather than from corporate advertisements. Now, to reach their target audience, an increasing number of businesses are relying on a promising new strategy: content marketing.

What is content marketing?

The purpose of online research is to find relevant information and high-quality content. That means that text, imagery and video content have to provide information that is relevant and interesting to people searching for information on the Internet. Content marketing is the practice of creating and distributing content that is entertaining, informative and helpful to potential customers. Good content then directs those customers back to your brand website, where you can capture leads and sell products. Successful content marketing creates positive associations to your brand – without the hassle of product marketing.

Good content endures

Having captured potential customers’ interest, your biggest priority is to continually reinforce the connection between them and your company. Content marketing has an especially long-lasting effect as high-quality content entices users to continue reading, clicking and exploring. A website that has been properly outfitted with good content can potentially generate traffic over the course of months or even years. In addition, Google rewards websites that feature good content with improved rankings in search results.

Content marketing in practice

Looking at this graph, it is clear that the popularity of the search term “content marketing” has risen steeply since 2011.

Because of this increase, many large companies, including giants such as Red Bull and IKEA, have placed their bets on marketing with content. According to a recent survey conducted by the renowned “Content Marketing Institute”, B2B companies in the United States invest, on average, about 30 percent of their marketing budget in content marketing. In addition, an increasing number of smaller and mid-sized companies are taking advantage of opportunities the Web provides for efficient content marketing. Communication channels today are more diverse than ever, meaning there are almost no limits to a publication’s potential reach. Also, it has never been cheaper for a business to publish its own content. For that reason, many companies maintain their own blogs; publish white papers, e-books and infographics; or produce videos to demonstrate their expertise.

The content generated by businesses is as diverse as the types of publication used to circulate it. Web shops offer professional product or purchase advice; members of upper management comment on current developments within the company on the corporate blog; and brand-name product manufacturers publish e-books providing tips on the best way to use the company’s products.

What can content marketing do?

Many marketing decision makers have come to recognize the benefits and efficiency of a good content marketing strategy. According to a study by PR agency Waggener Edstrom Communications, 61 percent of marketers polled noticed increased sales figures after implementing a content marketing strategy. Content marketing also helps businesses to achieve a number of other corporate objectives, including:

Lead generation: If customers are impressed by the content provided, there is a high probability that they will be willing to leave their contact details – whether out of an interest in the product or simply a desire to get to more content.

Increased reach and name recognition: Often, high-quality content that addresses current or controversial topics is disseminated via social networks. By taking advantage of this trend, a company can increase its prominence and reach.

Image development: Releasing high-quality publications on a regular basis allows businesses to establish themselves as thought leaders, which strengthens the corporate brand.

Customer development : Content that offers useful information connects the customer to the company for the long term. By consistently offering good content, companies generate interest in their website and entice users to return.

Checklist for successful Content Marketing:

Checklist for successful Content Marketing: What interests your target audience? From the perspective of content marketing, only content that is truly relevant to a given target audience can contribute to your company achieving its goals.

High-quality content: Well-written, appealing content demonstrates the business’s competence. And it should go without saying that the text be error-free, structured and reader-friendly.

Unique Content: Unique content improves search engine rankings. On the other hand, sites with copied content or content that is of no real use to users is relegated to the back pages.

SEO: Successful online content is not just unique, well-written and focused on a specific target group, it is also search engine optimized with keywords, headlines, clear structure and useful links.

Do you lack the resources to produce high-quality content at scale?

According to the Content Marketing Institute, the biggest challenges facing companies trying to break into content marketing are insufficient time and a lack of opportunities to produce enough content…high-quality, customized content – the foundation of every good content marketing strategy. 

Generate New Ideas Competitiveness

In a time when innovation and new product development are vital to remain competitive, large organizations are looking for ways to generate and execute new product ideas while mitigating risk. Increasingly, these companies seek to create a startup culture as a means to generate innovation.

While many potentially valid ideas are identified, few are pursued when a company lacks the strategy and infrastructure to bring these ideas to fruition. Many companies do not have the ability to produce ideas, even if only to develop prototypes and put them in users’ hands in a reasonable time frame.

Developing an efficient mechanism for getting products from the idea phase to initial prototype (and then to market) has significant benefits:

• Quicker idea validation. The product development cycle begins much sooner and the time to validation is shortened. This enables the company to arrive at a “go/no go” product decision within weeks rather than quarters.
• Cheaper and lower risk idea evaluation versus a full blown product launch .
• Management has the opportunity to be involved in product evaluation, rather than being removed from the product development and validation process.
• An increased sense of reward for the idea generator(s), fostering a culture of innovation for the company as a whole.

Identified below are several tools for getting products from the idea generation phase through initial prototype and then to market:

Rapid prototyping

One lower cost, lower risk method for testing product viability and bringing products and services to market is Rapid Prototyping. This involves instituting processes to quickly convert ideas, even if they are only 25-50% complete, into live products that can be placed the hands of potential users or testers. Zynga, the social gaming company, was a pioneer of releasing games that were less than 100% complete and leveraging user feedback for product enhancement. While Zynga’s overall business model has been tested over the past several years, their ability to rapidly develop, iterate and improve their games can be leveraged broadly in software and product development.

Rapid prototyping has several requirements and attributes, including:

• Robust and flexible product development expertise, as the ideas may be broad in nature.
• Expedited development capabilities, often executed without a complete set of user requirements.
• Internal rapid development capability or effective outsourcing via strong third party relationships. Both approaches typically require introducing external personnel and methodologies.

Leveraging internal resources for idea generation

Tapping into an organization’s typically underutilized internal resources can help generate solutions to customer pain points. In the process, however, the organization may produce an unmanageable number of ideas, many of which are not product-worthy or supported by a strong business model. While only one in 20 ideas may be worth exploring, several high impact products may result from internal idea generating efforts.

In order to properly generate and manage internally sourced ideas, companies should address the following:

• Create a repository of ideas, generated from across the organization, including problem addressed, features, use cases and authors.
• Develop a straightforward methodology to evaluate ideas.
• Rank ideas based on customer need and commercial success probability.
• Estimate resources required for initial prototyping and minimum viable product (MVP).
• Create a feedback loop for ideas that pass the initial screening. Keep the originator informed and provide him or her the opportunity to stay involved with the idea as it advances through the testing and development phases.

Corporate “Labs”

Some large, multinational organizations, such as MasterCard and Deutsche Telekom, have developed internal “labs” to generate new product ideas and bring these products to market. These labs have several objectives, including:

• Develop a platform and methodology for new idea generation.
• Create internal awareness of the company’s quest for new products.
• Establish a vehicle for internal product development and validation.
• Create a platform to interface with third party developers and partners.
• Signal to the market that the organization is interested in external partnering and collaboration.
• Identify potential partners and/or acquisition targets.

While an internal lab can be an effective vehicle for generating ideas and developing products, it can also create the perception internally that the group is merely a “skunk works” initiative and not core to the business. Management must be diligent in integrating the lab’s message, methodology, and personnel into the broader organization in order to facilitate effective company-wide collaboration.

Conclusion

Product innovation and getting new product to market quickly is increasingly important but often difficult to execute. Management can help by developing an environment that supports rapid prototyping, harvesting internal ideas, taking calculated risks, and eliminating friction in getting products developed and into the hands of potential users. Internally generated products often solve customer pain points, and with proper recognition, inspired employees may continue to produce innovative ideas for years to come.

Why different groceries sells at varying prices

Prices deviate between stores for countless reasons, and a higher price on the same item doesn’t mean that store is trying to get rich off of you.  Here are a few reasons you may find price differences as you shop around. It’s not all apples to apples or milk to milk.

1. Different Distributor Pricing

Supermarkets pay different prices for the same product through distributors. Some stores pay what’s listed in the distributor’s catalog, while others get a blanket discount off of all products, based on volume.

The more product collectively that a retailer purchases, the larger their discount. That organic soup your small co-op sells for thirty cents more than the large chain store down the street cost them considerably more. Cut them some slack, and save them a few bucks by bringing your own bag.

2. Difference in Quality

Assessing quality isn’t scientific, but in some cases looking at labels will reveal that not all is equal. Taste, ingredients and process may be vastly different.

Some produce is more expensive because someone's in the back room, sorting through the vegetables before putting them on the floor rather than cutting open a box, slapping a sale sign on it, and hoping for the best. Buy one super-cheap yet half rotted onion, and you'll know what I mean.

And take meat, for example. Does the price of chicken or sliced ham seem too good to be true? Take a look at the percentage of saline on the label. Fifteen percent of the weight of conventional poultry is a solution of water and salt.

Specialty producers (often with a higher per-pound price point) are selling 100% meat, which may just balance the pricing out.

So—as with most grocery purchases—read labels and ask questions.

3. Different Supplier Deals

Some retailers lose the middleman (the distributor) and secure lower pricing directly from the makers.

Some grocery stores skips distributors, doesn’t take on debt, and pays its producers on delivery (instead of 30 to 90 days later, after that toothpaste has sold). This promise of quick payments helps secure lower pricing from the companies that stock the grocer's shelf.

Some retailers works with brands that lower their own margins to sell products en masse directly to the warehouse club. Often, producers make grocer-specific items that can't be found anywhere else and therefore aren't available for comparable pricing.

The Takeaway: Shop Around and Consider All the Factors

If you're lucky enough to have wiggle room in your wallet, consider the non-tangibles you value from your shopping experience when making purchases. Convenience, customer service, values (saving the planet!) and selection are all ways retailers can compete beyond price. And if you're on a strict budget, don't forget to consider your own time (or gas money) when driving around time for the next best deal.

Do you have any insights into your own local grocery stores and how or why they differ in price? It also never hurts to ask if they can match prices from one store to another, so it pays to know the spread.

Visual Merchandise Strategy

Effective Merchandise Display Strategy

A Good merchandise display strategy will increase the customer's desire for the product on display. It is important that the need of the customer is the number one focus in the display strategy.

Every profitable retail store has the following three components: a well organized product display, a tidy store and professional and friendly store associates.

A good visual display strategy can result in increased customer flow which ultimately translates into increased sales.

The essence of an effective display strategy is to ensure that merchandise is prominently located on the shop floor to persuade potential customers to buy. One of the best strategies for implementing an effective display is the grouping of products. When products are grouped together, they make the buying decision and overall process easy for prospective customers.

When preparing a merchandise display it is imperative that products are displayed with minimal resources available. The essence of the exercise is not just about the allocation of resources, but the message that is being conveyed to prospective customers. It is therefore essential that the process starts and ends with focus on the target market.

What Are the Best Visual Merchandise Display Strategies?

The most effective visual merchandise displays are those that group products together in relation to their: color, size, class and price.

When products are displayed individually, effort must be made to enhance impact through the innovative use of lighting, mannequins and other display fixtures or props.

How to Implement a Good Merchandise Display Strategy:

Follow the steps below to implement an effective good display strategy

Step One - When allocating display space and resources it is imperative to take into account the target market.

Step Two - Ensure the display is neat and well organised. A well organised display will attract and entice customers to purchase.

Step Three - Do not over-complicate the display however ensure it conveys a clear and unambiguous message about your brand to prospects.

Step Four - Create a contextual display by merging similar products together. This makes buying decisions easier for customers.

Step Five - Display small items prominently with the effective use of lighting to make them easily visible and accessible to customers.

Step Six - Ensure display fixtures, color, background and size complements each other. The theme of the display must be expressed through the use of the most appropriate color combination, fixtures and background.

Step Seven- Enhance certain products by suspending them from either the ceiling or floor using hooks, hangers, or pedestals.

Back to School Shopping

We hate to say it, but many start back at school in a few weeks. The question is, have you started your back to school shopping? We’re not just referring to school supplies, but also apparel, shoes, bags and new gadgets. We’re here to recommend some items that you must buy, to really feel like it’s the start of a new school year!

A Pair of Shoes

Nothing says “I’m ready” like buying and wearing a new pair of shoes. If you’re going back to school, then a nice pair of lifestyle shoes is probably what you’re looking for. Nike, Adidas, Jordan and Converse are all known for their lifestyle shoes and you’ll have a sweet pair of shoes to sport.  If you’re the one teaching and going back to work, then splurge on a pair of comfortable, dressy shoes.

Backpack/ Book bag

For some it will be a heavy duty knapsack and for others, a shoulder bag (if you’re a teacher, usually). 

New Laptop

Windows or Mac? Well, what are you interested in? What are you going to school for? What sort of work will need to be done on your laptop? Those are all questions to take into consideration, but you know that!