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E-Marketplace Integration
Gone are the days when small and medium sized companies could do everything on their own. Ironically enough, large enterprises were the first one that took advantage of competitive labor and other business assets that vertically oriented corporations around the globe offered. With the advent of Internet business technologies this is no longer the privilege of the few but something even a one-person company can take advantage of. We are talking about outsourcing your product development and part or all of your services.
The process has become very simple with the emergence of web portals, e-marketplaces, where services can be offered as well as purchased. The buyer meets the seller and experiences are exchanged via reviews as well as recommendations. A somewhat more sophisticated concept is called crowed sourcing. The motivation is simple: software is not sophisticated enough to solve creative tasks so a large number of human CPUs are used to get the job done. That is, if you cannot solve the problem via computers, e.g. writing a small creative essay, crowed source it to 100 people around the globe for, say, $5.0 apiece.
A side benefit is that you get to see cultural diversity at work. The next important business tool to investigate is partnership building. Instead of doing all the work yourself, you may partner with a network of companies. The major benefits are that you get to focus on one product and do it well, yet you will be able to provide a variety of services not related to your expertise. A simple example is a clinic where you, as a physician, partner with an acupuncture doctor, a massage therapist and a beautician and offer a single wellness product under the same umbrella. The e-marketplace, to buy and sell products, receives a lot of Internet traffic, in fact, it is more sizeable than Google or Bing search. We are talking about banner ads as well as affiliate marketing. The process is simple: you offer your product for sale to affiliates for a certain commission. They then design a catchy banner and promote and sell your products through the army of e-marketing portals. The good news is that there is no cost involved at your end, i.e. the affiliates take care of the banner, the placement of the banners as well as the proper bidding for the various spots. The downside is that the commission they command may be much higher than in the brick and mortar business model. To test the market potential and to find your buyers, you may want to use adwords. We recommend this technique for research purposes not for selling your product, simply because, if not done well, your ad budget can quickly disappear without making a singe sale. Throwing, say, $500 into a pot and see where the clicks are coming from may save you a lot more money in future advertising campaigns.
To see how outsourcing can lift your business to a higher ground, please feel free to give us a ring.
Last updated: 7/22/2011
