Saturday, October 11, 2008

Business Survival in Today's Retail World

Chicken Little never had such a wonderful week--seems for a lot of us, the sky really is falling...

Case in point, after ten months in a retail location, our brick and mortar gift store is closing its doors. The economy was a big factor but so were a lot of tedius obstacles such as limited to no signage allowed in or in front of the shopping center, a two story wine store pops up in front or ours after the lease is signed (no visibility from the street), other tenants have totally unrelated markets than ours, and a few more I wouldn't want to bore you with (unless you need good advice on what NOT to do).

Our store wasn't the only one--five others in town with the same market focus folded before we did. Ours was the last to go---but guess what? We are the only one of those five who will still be in business! What's the big difference? Our busines is ONLINE--has been for three years. So we can happily announce to our customers "We are not going out of business--just moving it to our website". That's where they are shopping anyway, so goodbye landlord.

Businesses see the crunch of gas shortages--even ours made the news:
http://www.pr.com/press-release/108176

Now more than ever---a business online just makes a lot of sense. Beyond the savings in overhead over a brick and mortar store is the ability to own lots and lots of internet "real estate". More websites, more businesses and business formats to pursue. Physical products, digital products, drop ship, affiliate programs, referral commissions--what a plethera of options! And only one electric bill to pay...

Getting started with a business online is on the mind of people of all walks of life. Many a grandmother would shock you with the sales they make online. Why not you?
If getting that first website up is a challenge, read what I had to say about it on my blog at

http://how2booksandvideos.blogspot.com/ A really great tool is offered there that you just might want to check out if you are curious about where to start and need the right "toolbox".





2 comments:

Jussi Koiranen said...

Nice story! E-commerce grows and will explode to true magnificence in the coming years. What I'd like from the web though and especially affiliate marketers to write more about their own experiences and reviews about the products. I rarely read testimonials that are placed on a page from someone elses mouth. I like to know what the person himself or herself thinks about the product.

Jay Russo said...

Thanks for your comment, Jussi. You are right about the lack of "testimonials" from marketers. Go ahead and email them anyway and make them stand by their words-you just may get a little closer to learning what works and what doesn't.
Jay