Comments on: The relief of selling products instead of services

By: Xavius

Xavius — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 18:05:08 +0000

I know chapters-indigo (Canada’s big online book store) has a yearly membership fee if you want a small discount on everything.

By: bryan_spearman

bryan_spearman — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 14:27:12 +0000

The American giant, Walmart has done this in a brick and mortar fashion- “Sam’s Club” You pay an annual fee to come in a shop. The products are all in bulk and super cheap.

Is this being done online?

By: DavidJames

DavidJames — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 19:26:03 +0000

Agree and disagree…

In terms of physical services I’d have to agree, “countless meetings, 2 hour emails, reviews, revisions, and then finally the delayed payment.” is probably one of the best descriptions of life in a nutshell for consulting services I’ve read in a while.

Where I disagree is with digital services delivered entirely online; hosting, tracking, autoresponders, email management etc. have huge advantages over physical products and services. Digital products; software, ebooks etc. enjoy some of those advantages also, but unlike the services, they don’t get recurring billing.

If there’s anyway to incorporate a digital service in your model, I’d recommend it; sell once – get paid monthly is definately worth considering.

My 2 cents,
DJ

By: Ulchie

Ulchie — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 18:40:10 +0000

Selling services can be limiting. You only have so many hours in the day, unless you hire more GOOD designers, which can sometimes be hard. Selling products on the other hand, you can sell a million products or one product, but the upside potential is much higher. You just need regular joe’s to help you ship the items. A little easier to find help like that. :)

By: fuk

fuk — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 12:22:03 +0000

You don’t know how much I agree with you. When I try to make products for clients it end up somthing they hate so I find it easier to sell them pre made items. Nice said man!

By: Cutter

Cutter — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 19:22:30 +0000

So far, I’ve found selling services to bring me higher profits with far less work. But I know because of simple leverage products can bring in far more revenue when done right.

By: hookah

hookah — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 20:25:43 +0000

I couldn’t agree more! After 5+ years of barely surviving in the web design industry struggling for the next client, we eventually turned to ecommerce and have never looked back!

There has not been a single moment that I miss the countless meetings, 2 hour emails, reviews, revisions, and then finally the delayed payment. Clients (service) vs customers (retail products) is a no-brainer for us; customer’s win every time.

By: aneitlich

aneitlich — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 20:13:21 +0000

Xavius,

That’s up to the vendors you find. But on alibaba most have minimum order quantities and need you to take on inventory, at least in my experience.

I’ve negotiated these vendors down from min order quantity to as few as 100, without much increase in price. (But only with success sometimes).

Andrew

By: Xavius

Xavius — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 19:19:30 +0000

Do you have to buy directly from the sellers on alibaba.com, then sell the product. Or can you set up a web-site and have single orders sent directly to the maker?

By: Anonymously

Anonymously — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 17:14:37 +0000

Maybe that’s a subject of a next blog?

Yes that would be nice Andrew – I had been wondering about your approach… ;)

Thanks!