Choices, Low Prices
It's never been a happier time being a customer. When you think of buying groceries, retail or any product at all, firstly, there is plenty of choice, and then the easy accessibility. And then again, what about the low prices!
Looking to go to a restaurant, spa or the movies..? there are plenty of apps like NearBuy, Little, CouponDunia etc that offer such great discounts!
Almost any consumer product is apparently available at really low prices from Amazon, Flipkart etc.
So what is the problem here..? Ok, First, let's see who is bearing the cost of these discounts.
Group Buying Apps
In the case of the group buying apps, the small retailer is marking down drastically in return for more traffic from the users of the said app.
E-Commerce Sites
On e-commerce sites, it is generally believed to be the VC (in search of the ephemeral top slot in market share)! Typically though (aside markup/markdown allegations), it is again, the retailer in the marketplace, who is willing to forgo some margin for the marketing, seller visibility and ultimately, sales.
So hunky, dory, right? Clearly not.
What is the brand doing while the retailer is losing margin, and so are the wholesalers, while the online business is doing just great? Well, they are advertising on Google and Facebook, driving sales mostly back to the online giants.
Pricing power of brands, going, going...
The pricing power of brands have been transferred to the online players. The online players know their customers, are able to price products using their own algorithms, and are able to push the costs to the retailers.
Recovering the brand, customer relationship
The brand has to recover its own identity and customer identity from the databases of the online players. To do this, they have to rebuild relationships with their customers and their offline retailers. This will enable the brand to reach out to customers better and recover their pricing power, stopping this race to the bottom.
What's in it for me?
Right, what's in it for the customer? Just one thing, better customer experiences. It is only the brands that are interested in building new products, better customer experiences. That is never going to be a pure online phenomenon.
Massiv
Massiv is our Omnichannel engagement platform that drives online to offline commerce via a marketing cloud, and an audience marketplace, ensuring that all players in the game have a fair say.
We will be launching an ICO soon!