Direct wheeling and dealing

Mar 19, 2010 Friday, 02:45 PM

Chris Lim likes the direct appreciation from customers in B-to-C transactions.

ABOUT six months into the sports lifestyle retail and distribution business and things are slowly picking up.

We are beginning to see more sales through our retailers and we are also beginning to see more sales from going direct. There are still underlying issues with managing the processes and working out the cheapest way to make deliveries, as well as make online sales a profitable venture to invest more time into.

One of my partners is also currently in Taipei for the Bike Show and hopefully we can source a few nice brands to bring into Singapore.

What are we beginning to see as well is a more defined position in the marketplace and we're starting to understand a little about our consumers and what they want. In a market that is saturated with brands, we need to stand out, compete and make ourselves relevant. This would be hard without the Internet - especially when we are new to the market and competing with the big boys.

Technology has allowed us to be global. When we launch our website store, we will be targeting the region with products that come from the US and UK. All this is possible only through the Internet. Sourcing for brands has become so simple. A quick search and within five minutes I can decide if this brand is worth speaking to and drop them an email to show our interest.

I'm also enjoying the interactions I have with my customers. In my previous entry, I mentioned how customer service is vital but it also helps if you genuinely enjoy interacting with your customers and getting to know them. In my previous jobs we dealt mostly with businesses and, to be honest, I didn't get as much satisfaction with a customer who truly appreciates your service or products.

The difference is a customer is spending money with you and thus you receive their appreciation directly. Whereas in B2B, the money is transacted as an entity. There is no warmness and less sincerity. Everyone is just out doing their jobs. Thus I'm still grateful to people who fork out their cash to buy things from me and I will always respect their transactions.

Finally for now, we have an event coming up in April. This will be our first event where we join forces with another retailer to come up with our first GetSet T-Shirt! I'm truly excited about it and the best part is that the event is just going to be a party. No huge marketing campaign, no hired MCs, no big sponsors and no overblown hype.

We want to keep this event simple and fun for everyone. If this goes well and our t-shirts are well received we hope to continue with this project and come up with other ideas to execute which alone are quite exciting.

Will keep you guys posted! Tweet me at GetSetChris if you want to know more.