Why Sell Online?

Last week, Marka and the FEI tribe went over a few reasons why businesses should consider selling through online channels. This week, the discussion continues. Remember, fire = print.

One cloudy afternoon, Lucy, Numo and Marka entered Zoot’s office to find him working at his O-puter.

“Hey tribe,” he said. “The O-net is great! I was looking at my prospect’s O-book page when I saw a friend request from a long-lost relative.”

Lucy glanced at Zoot’s screen. “You’re related to a Cyclops? Why am I not surprised? The O-web is useful for much more than just networking, Zoot. It’s also a sales channel with a distinct set of advantages for retail, direct sales and other distribution methods we’ve discussed.”

“Tell me more,” Zoot said.

Lucy pulled a piece of coal from her toga and scribbled on the chalkboard fastened to Zoot’s office wall.

Less Overhead

“If a company’s O-line sales efforts are flourishing, it may decide to divert more resources to that channel and away from its own brick-and-mortar stores,” Lucy explained. “Businesses that sell primarily O-line can substantially reduce their investments in the most costly resource of all—manpower.”

“If O-line selling proves extremely effective, we may also consider closing some of our storefront locations,” Numo added. “Imagine how much we could reduce fixed monthly expenditures if we didn’t have to pay rent and utilities on our various FEI Fire Huts!”

“We’re assuming there are no additional costs associated with selling O-line,” Marka pointed out. “This isn’t the case. A high-end O-site that displays all of our products and offers customers an easy, efficient ordering process can be a substantial investment. An SEO plan that will help our O-site land on the front page of O-Google—where many O-line shoppers begin their search—can cost a pretty Drachma too. So will be training and employing a fleet of tech support people.”