Why I don’t often buy from small businesses.
There I said it!
I don’t often buy from small businesses.
It’s not that I don’t support small businesses or like what they have to sell. It’s just that it’s so bloody confusing!
In this article I am going to talk about why we often favour the bigger retailers over the smaller brands and businesses, and what we as small business owners can do to compete with the big boys (and girls).
One of our all-time favourite online shopping experiences is Amazon. Why? You can search for what you are looking for, go straight to the product and purchase and it will arrive within a few days. Simple.
If there are any issues with said product, we know there will be a relatively simple returns policy and we will get our money back. Perfect.
Is Amazon the cheapest? Not always.
Have I built up a relationship with Jeff Bezos? No. I know nothing about him, I even just had to Google his name!
Photo by Ivan Samkov from Pexels
Is the service always perfect? No! But we trust that if the seller runs off with our money or sells us something that is not fit for purpose the problem will be resolved quickly.
‘So what about my small business?’ I hear you ask. ‘How can we ever compete with the likes of Amazon?’
Make your customer journey easier!!!
If I go to your Facebook page/group, I don’t want to have to scroll through a load of random posts to finally come across an item I saw you advertise in another group.
I want to be able to see the price!
I want to know how I can purchase from you and if there’s a delivery charge.
I want to know how long my item will take to arrive! I don’t care if it’s 3 weeks as long as I am aware! I don’t want to be sat here worrying ‘has it got lost in the post?’ or ‘have you run off with my money?’
Invest in a website, an Etsy account, or something similar. Check out the tools on Facebook and Instagram for shops. Just make the whole process easier!
And finally, if things don’t go to plan, the order is running late, you can no longer supply the product or service you promised then be honest.
Your customer will value that.
If your customer is not happy with what they have purchased, then try to resolve the problem and speak to them as you would expect to be spoken to.
Remember issues do arise but if we deal with them in the right way then we can still keep those customers.
In this article I have listed some of the simple mistakes business owners make. However, they can easily be resolved and corrected to make the whole buying process easier and more enjoyable for their customers.
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