By David F.
For a basic consumer, he or she had no choice but to buy his supplies, be it the basic necessity or lifestyle enhancement at the local retail markets. The retailers due to their strong buying power procure their variety of goods from wholesalers, wholesalers from the manufacturers and so on.
The rules of engagement had changed although we didn’t necessary notice it. Now, for grocery we shop at big hypermarket where we can buy bulk for some cost saving, the wholesalers boosted their buying and negotiation powers with the manufacturers where terms payment of up to 6 months are not uncommon.
Most neighborhood retailer went out of business except for those which operate at franchise concepts where they offer value added services to consumers, for emergency supplies and banking/postage/bill payment/ lottery needs with 24 hours accessibility.
The digital revolution had changed all this at least for the digital community where they are on-line most of the times for work, pleasures and others needs, People with internet access and credit cards can shop on line for the items he or she interested in to compare specification, features, comments, review and most importantly pricing. Online procurement can be carried out instantly just like mail order, TV, telephone and Radio telemarketing. This is so-called the 4th channel of distribution. It already started and will continue to drastically change our lifestyle.
For country like in Japan where on daily basis, 100 over million of working class commute to work by public transportation where they had the highest penetration of 3G network, using the cell-phone, they can access thru the internet thru broadband and it is an increasing trends that people browse thru the catalogs on all sort of products selling on the website, checking out the spec, color and the pricing and making the transaction thru their cell-phones. The items can be arranged for delivery or collection at location which are convenient for the buyers.
If compare to our previous generation, many things had changed thanks to the technology advancement and human basic inspiration to enjoy more of their life and work less. The fundamental key change was actually the accessibility to information, like what the French had said, there are 3 fundamental key elements of life, Water, Air and Information. Information was once used as a controlling tool by higher level management is now open up to all. Like opening up the Kimono. All sort of information are available at fingertips accessible by all. How to manage and filter them become another new challenge for all.
The trend is not going to stop, in future, information will be customized for the individuals at anyplace, anywhere and anytime he or she needed, The way we spend our hard-earn money will be dictated how information was brought to us, the branding campaign where the manufacturer spent million of dollars to bombard us for a force association with they products will only become increasingly in intensity, they are diverting the main bulk of the advertising from main stream TV media to Internet platform. As the younger generation who had solid spending power spend lesser time on TV but more on internet, to capture their attention and flashing the brand on the monitor screen are becoming more critical.
Now, where are the opportunities for you and me in this? Whoever can predict the future will be the winner, imagine this 5 years down the roads;
one wakes up by the alarm on his/her PDA smart phone where Wifi connectivity will run program to search for articles, news interested, on breakfast table, a LCD screen with WiFi can be engage to pop up the customized morning newspaper online, the stock market summary, the index results, the financial news, new job opportunities which meet the criteria set previously, appointments notice and so on,
On the drive to work, the GPS navigation system will interact on the nearby shops when driving by for today promotional items, the ad will be flashed on the GPS screen with voice announcing the special items which was on sale. The driver can arrange for his or her daily chores thru the GPS voice activation system, like booking for the movie tickets in the evening, making an appointment with the dentist at 3pm and so on.
While in the office, the msn, skype and yahoo are running at all times, where one can make a VoIP call to his business partner, checking out on the quotation and so on. Basically, all call/emailing/text messaging will be handled by the internet on his laptop/PC in office and also on his Smart PDA phone.
So, it seemed like all the usages can be free of charge, yes, it definitely going to e free of charge, but who is paying the bills, yes, you are right, the advertisers are footing in the expenses for all these FOC services, they pay the service provides thru many ways, it can be pay per click, or affiliation or certain cut if the product/services are being transacted.
As a results, where are the opportunities? Yes indeed, it is on online marketing, bring your services and products online for the consumer to see, there are hundreds of thousands or even million of online users seeing your advertisements on their screens, so long you had what they wanted and your cost price are the lowest, your will definitely strike a deals some where, Just imagine if you open up a retail store on the busiest shopping street in the world, where thousands of people passing thru daily, no matter what you sell, the sales revenue are more of less guaranteed, like what they said in property, it is “Location, Location and Locationâ€Â. On online marketing, it is the strategic marketing approach that will bring you in the revenue.
So, unless the trend of technology advancement changes drastically in the next 5 years, being online to market your products/services are one of the many opportunities that one cant afford not to take part. It works in all aspect of life, Online resume searching around in big corporation job database for a better career prospects, buying and selling some stocks that you are investing thru using the automated scripts running online to search for buying/selling pattern and alert you automatically, searching for an ideal car which meet the price and performance and even color and so on. Information are now needed to be digested due to the sheer amount of them and you ultimately is making the final decision, in future, your preference, tolerance, capacity, age, social status, medical condition, earning and spending power will be used as a criteria to digest the information by electronic information service broker to bring you the essential key information you needed, recommendations are given with all the analysis, Pro and Cons considered, Of course the final decision is still up to you, It’s is like having the Company of a online Lawyer, Accountant and Doctors at all times giving you the valuable advices one needed in life to minimize costly mistakes.
One can easily start by getting online, as a free-lance individual on-line merchant on Yahoo, Ebay and other platform, source products/services that one is passionate about in life and market them online to others. On information on effective sourcing/import from
China, pls visit our website for more info.
Author is the founding member of the of the “ http://www.china-import-guide.com
david@china-import-guide.com
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