fudjj thankyou that was really helpful and clear. so do u reckon selling at shops and markets through face to face contact is a better option to make money?
Thanks Adam, appreciated.
To answer your question, I think anyone with both offline and online selling experience will tell you that offline products have a much better margin.
It's a bit of a pay of, with online selling giving you potential access to far more shoppers than any offline trading can. however with that benefit comes heavy cut throat competition, and your margin has to be reduced to even have a chance of competing in most situations.
Offline trading usually means that the competition is less, and it gives you the ability to deal with a customer one on one, so now customer service and sales skills play an important role, where online selling is all about marketing and price.
Offline trading also gives you the ability to value ad to close a deal, where as an online transaction is pretty cut and dry, here is the product, if you want it just buy it, which is why marketing plays such a large role with online sales.
Because the competition is usually less, and you have the extra tools at you disposal to close a sale, you can make better margin, but that has to be balanced against the size of your market.
Of course the major downside to offline sales is the cost and effort often required to get yourself established.
Marketing research has shown that people buy emotionally, and emotions can be manipulated by stimulating a persons senses. Sound, Sight, Taste, Smell, Touch. The right sounds can generate a sale, just has the wrong sounds can lose a sale, as it is the same with all the other senses.
I used to have a sales manager a long time ago that would say 'a generous smile is worth a sale, and it costs nothing'
He was absolutely right, never underestimate the power of good personal interaction when it comes to sales. It's what sorts the successful from the not so!
The true art of selling is mastering the manipulation of a customers senses to the maximum that your selling environment will allow. That of course means that you should give careful consideration to your selling location, because just relying on your products alone to generate you sales is a recipe for failure.
Offline selling is like building a house, and your selling environment, along with your mastering of it when it comes to manipulating customers senses is the foundation on which you are building.
Build a house on sand and you are asking for trouble!
No doubt offline trading has far more flexibility that allows you to make a sale, however you need the right product, and the right position to make the most of the advantages that offline selling offers. No good trying to sell ice to Eskimos, if you know what I mean.
Hope that rambling will be some help : )