Last month I attended the EmpoweredYXE fashion show hosted at the Twisted Tartan on 8th Street in Saskatoon. The fashion show highlighted the work of three talented local designers. It was a packed house, great atmosphere, and well-run event. Afterwards I learned that one of the three designers was currently selling some of her products at a storefront located in downtown Saskatoon. What I heard next blew my mind: the store charged a 40% consignment fee for every product of hers that was sold in that store. At first I couldn’t understand how a number like that could ever be negotiated, but after a bit more investigation it made more sense. After reading an article on CBC titled ‘2018 to mean more challenges for Canadian retailers’ I found that 2017 was a particularly hard year for a lot of brick-and-mortar retailers because of the growing shift to online consumerism that is only going to grow larger in 2018. Not just local retail shops either, but some of the big dogs like Sears Canada suffered major losses. The retail giant went into a liquidation process in 2017 that will eventually see the close of about 190 stores in total across Canada. Take that back to the local level looking at some of the small retail stores you can understand why those consignment fees are as high as they are.
It really boils down this: adapt or die.
It’s necessary to help prolong their survival. That being said, charging these outrageous fees that drastically cut the profit margins of budding entrepreneurs in the retail industry isn’t a long term solution for neither the retailer nor the entrepreneur. It really boils down to this: adapt or die.
Let’s say this particular designer decided tomorrow to remove all her products from this physical storefront and decided to sell exclusively out of her own ecommerce online store. Her per-product-costs upon selling would shift dramatically. Her consignment fee would go from 40% to 0% and the only per-product expense she would now be faced with is a payment processing fee charged by the payment gateways, namely Stripe (which accepts all major credit card payments) and PayPal. These payment processing fees are charged on every transaction done through the website. Stripe and PayPal both charge 2.9% + $0.30 of every transaction that is done through the website. This is only if the customer chooses to pay with a credit card or PayPal. Say for example they want to do a local pickup and pay with cash, then these fees are skipped altogether.
Now let’s look at it from the small local retailer store’s perspective. If the local retailer decided tomorrow to open their own online store there are a number of benefits that it would be able to take advantage of. First, the store is never really closed anymore. Since it’s on the Internet the products are now available to be purchased any time the customer goes on the website. Secondly, that retail store is no longer bound by the physical limitations of inventory storage space. Not everything being sold on the website necessarily has to be at that physical storefront anymore. Third, the retailer has the option of downsizing or completely removing their physical storefront, which would save money on rent, upkeep and utilities.
There are two more key benefits that apply to both the designer and the local retailer in this specific example. First, the reach to your potential customers no longer has any boundaries. Prior to creating an online store both the designer and the local retailer would be restricted to making sales to customers that came into the physical storefront downtown.
When you create an online store your reach is no longer restricted by physical boundaries, but instead is assessed on how well optimized your site is, and how aggressively you decide to pursue your marketing campaigns
When you create an online store your reach is no longer restricted by physical boundaries, but instead is assessed by how well optimized your site is, and how aggressively you decide to pursue your marketing campaigns. When setting up digital pay-per-click campaigns you can choose to geo-target potential customers in specific areas allowing you to market yourself on a local, provincial, national or even international level. We will get into various forms of digital marketing in another post. Finally, the analytic insights the designer and local retailer would be able to receive are amazing. When Magna Web Services puts a site together for our clients we attach it to our Google Analytics account, allowing our staff and site owners to be able to monitor a large array of statistical breakdowns that show how well the website is performing. These include geological breakdowns, per-session breakdowns, acquisition information and behavioral tendencies. By monitoring this information it is much easier to spot trends, both positive and negative, and adjust accordingly without derailing other aspects of the site that do not need to be changed. Say the local retailer recently got online and had a concept for a slick new modern look that involved a logo change, new color scheme, and different branding versus their current look which has served them well, but is slightly outdated. While they like the new look they are not sure if it’s going to be a hit or miss with their potential customers. Our staff would set up a split-test website. The site would show the traditional look when one customer visited it, and the newer look when the next customer visited the site. Once a large enough sample size of customers had visited the website we would look at the breakdown between the two different versions of the site and see how well each version was received. This in turn allows the local retailer to make an objective decision when it coms to deciding which version to continue forward with.
Making the transition to an ecommerce online store may seem like a large undertaking to some, but it’s really not, especially when you are working with the right people. Our team at Magna Web Services is here to offer the best advice and implement the best solutions for your business in your industry. With flexible service plans we offer everything from initial domain purchasing, to design, to photo and video footage for your business, to the creation of digital marketing campaigns, and everything in between. We are here to do as much or as little as you need. Call or email us for a free consultation today and let us help you make the digital leap. Remember that at Magna Web Services our success depends on furthering yours.
Please feel free to add any questions or comments below! We will get back to you ASAP!
Return to the home pagehere.
Check out our latest blog posts “Shopify vs. Magna: Why We’re Better” or Search Engine Optimization: The Fundamentals.
Last month I attended the EmpoweredYXE fashion show hosted at the Twisted Tartan on 8th Street in Saskatoon. The fashion show highlighted the work of three talented local designers. It was a packed house, great atmosphere, and well-run event. Afterwards I learned that one of the three designers was currently selling some of her products at a storefront located in downtown Saskatoon. What I heard next blew my mind: the store charged a 40% consignment fee for every product of hers that was sold in that store. At first I couldn’t understand how a number like that could ever be negotiated, but after a bit more investigation it made more sense. After reading an article on CBC titled ‘2018 to mean more challenges for Canadian retailers’ I found that 2017 was a particularly hard year for a lot of brick-and-mortar retailers because of the growing shift to online consumerism that is only going to grow larger in 2018. Not just local retail shops either, but some of the big dogs like Sears Canada suffered major losses. The retail giant went into a liquidation process in 2017 that will eventually see the close of about 190 stores in total across Canada. Take that back to the local level looking at some of the small retail stores you can understand why those consignment fees are as high as they are.
It really boils down this: adapt or die.
It’s necessary to help prolong their survival. That being said, charging these outrageous fees that drastically cut the profit margins of budding entrepreneurs in the retail industry isn’t a long term solution for neither the retailer nor the entrepreneur. It really boils down to this: adapt or die.
Let’s say this particular designer decided tomorrow to remove all her products from this physical storefront and decided to sell exclusively out of her own ecommerce online store. Her per-product-costs upon selling would shift dramatically. Her consignment fee would go from 40% to 0% and the only per-product expense she would now be faced with is a payment processing fee charged by the payment gateways, namely Stripe (which accepts all major credit card payments) and PayPal. These payment processing fees are charged on every transaction done through the website. Stripe and PayPal both charge 2.9% + $0.30 of every transaction that is done through the website. This is only if the customer chooses to pay with a credit card or PayPal. Say for example they want to do a local pickup and pay with cash, then these fees are skipped altogether.
Now let’s look at it from the small local retailer store’s perspective. If the local retailer decided tomorrow to open their own online store there are a number of benefits that it would be able to take advantage of. First, the store is never really closed anymore. Since it’s on the Internet the products are now available to be purchased any time the customer goes on the website. Secondly, that retail store is no longer bound by the physical limitations of inventory storage space. Not everything being sold on the website necessarily has to be at that physical storefront anymore. Third, the retailer has the option of downsizing or completely removing their physical storefront, which would save money on rent, upkeep and utilities.
There are two more key benefits that apply to both the designer and the local retailer in this specific example. First, the reach to your potential customers no longer has any boundaries. Prior to creating an online store both the designer and the local retailer would be restricted to making sales to customers that came into the physical storefront downtown.
When you create an online store your reach is no longer restricted by physical boundaries, but instead is assessed on how well optimized your site is, and how aggressively you decide to pursue your marketing campaigns
When you create an online store your reach is no longer restricted by physical boundaries, but instead is assessed by how well optimized your site is, and how aggressively you decide to pursue your marketing campaigns. When setting up digital pay-per-click campaigns you can choose to geo-target potential customers in specific areas allowing you to market yourself on a local, provincial, national or even international level. We will get into various forms of digital marketing in another post. Finally, the analytic insights the designer and local retailer would be able to receive are amazing. When Magna Web Services puts a site together for our clients we attach it to our Google Analytics account, allowing our staff and site owners to be able to monitor a large array of statistical breakdowns that show how well the website is performing. These include geological breakdowns, per-session breakdowns, acquisition information and behavioral tendencies. By monitoring this information it is much easier to spot trends, both positive and negative, and adjust accordingly without derailing other aspects of the site that do not need to be changed. Say the local retailer recently got online and had a concept for a slick new modern look that involved a logo change, new color scheme, and different branding versus their current look which has served them well, but is slightly outdated. While they like the new look they are not sure if it’s going to be a hit or miss with their potential customers. Our staff would set up a split-test website. The site would show the traditional look when one customer visited it, and the newer look when the next customer visited the site. Once a large enough sample size of customers had visited the website we would look at the breakdown between the two different versions of the site and see how well each version was received. This in turn allows the local retailer to make an objective decision when it comes to deciding which version to continue forward with.
Making the transition to an ecommerce online store may seem like a large undertaking to some, but it’s really not, especially when you are working with the right people. Our team at Magna Web Services is here to offer the best advice and implement the best solutions for your business in your industry. With flexible service plans we offer everything from initial domain purchasing, to design, to photo and video footage for your business, to the creation of digital marketing campaigns, and everything in between. We are here to do as much or as little as you need. Call or email us for a free consultation today and let us help you make the digital leap. Remember that at Magna Web Services our success depends on furthering yours.
Please feel free to add any questions or comments below! We will get back to you ASAP!
Return to the home page here.
Check out our latest blog post “Shopify vs. Magna: Why We’re Better” or Search Engine Optimization: The Fundamentals.
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