The entrepreneur has a choice of several channels to sell their products. These choices do not all have the same implications in terms of cost and logistics.
There are a wide variety of ways to reach your customers. It is a question of choosing the method that enables you to target your customer more accurately and to provide them with what they need at the right time and in the right quantities. To do this, the entrepreneur needs to know:
- Where their target audience makes their purchases;
- When they make their purchases;
- How many times a week, month or year they need the product being offered;
- What their requirements are in terms of speed of delivery and after-sales service.
This helps choose the most suitable distribution channel, such as:
- A store
- The internet
- A mail-order catalog
- The telephone
- The street
- etc.
These various options do not present the same profile in terms of cost (e.g. selling on the internet costs less than buying or renting a physical space) and logistics (e.g. companies trading online or by phone need the infrastructure necessary to make deliveries). The purchasing experience will not be the same either (e.g. on the internet, the consumer cannot touch the goods, but can buy them when they want without queuing at the till).
Creative alternatives
It is worth thinking outside the box and coming up with alternative and original sale channels which make you stand out from the competition. Why not offer a home hairdressing service for seniors? Or sell your vegetables directly at the farmer’s market rather than delivering them to the supermarket?
Ease of access
Whatever the channel chosen, customers must be able to access it easily. If the goods are sold in shops, these must be clearly labelled and easy to find. This requires clear company signs and the shop window design must be coordinated with the goods inside the shop. Street vendors must wear clothing with the company logo.
It is also recommended to ensure that you are well represented on social networks and geolocalisation platforms, such as Yelp (directory of local businesses), Zagat (gastronomy and travel guide) or Google My Business (to update company information in Google search, on Google Maps and Google+).
For non-physical locations, the Internet is the key element. It is essential to ensure that the company - and especially the product - is easy to find on the main search engines (Google, Bing, Ecosia, etc.).
Commercial partnership
Sometimes, a company is too small or too new to have its own distribution channel. It should then join forces with a commercial partner. But it must first ask the following questions:
- Does my product suit my commercial partner’s offering and target market?
- Does my commercial partner have sufficient know-how to handle marketing of my product?
- Does their reputation correspond to my company's image?
- What sales is a partner able to guarantee me?
- Will I need to pay them? And if so, what will the impact of this partnership be on my margin?
Source: Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies, Barbara Findlay Schenck, John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2012.
