by Oluwafemi Oyefeso

Online e-commerce giants have come to dominate the retail space in different countries all over the world, with one key value proposition –Convenience. Yahoo, had this to say about Amazon, the online behemoth in America “Amazon has a current market cap of $390 billion making it worth more than the top eight traditional brick-and-mortar retailers combined”. Forbes had this to say about Ali Baba in China “A record $463 billion of business transactions were conducted on Alibaba’s retail platforms in the fiscal year through March 2016”. Nigeria is not left out, the Guardian Newspaper had this to say “Online businesses are estimated to be worth $10 billion (about N3.06 trillion) in the country”.

The figures quoted above look quite daunting and intimidating for smaller businesses trying to compete in the same pool for customers. However all hope is not lost and competition can still get a piece of the pie.

How can an emerging business or a brick and mortar shop wade off the onslaught by these large octopuses?

It is difficult but not insurmountable and it comes with opportunities to spring surprises.

The book “David and Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell gives some incredible insight and a way out, with this statement “The first is that much of what we consider valuable in our world arises out of these kinds of lopsided conflicts, because the act of facing overwhelming odds produces greatness and beauty. And second, that we consistently get these kinds of conflicts wrong. We misread them. We misinterpret them. Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness. And the fact of being an underdog can change people in ways that we often fail to appreciate: it can open doors and create opportunities and educate and enlighten and make possible what might otherwise have seemed unthinkable.”

The summary of the book is that it is dangerous to compete on Goliaths terms, which was why David declined to use Saul’s armory to fight Goliath, hand to hand combat would have proved fatal and the book actually makes us realize that David had the upper edge, he struck him from afar with a stone. Goliath was a target too big to miss, once he was able to get perspective and use one of his 5 smooth stones to hit the head of Goliath.

The perspective that needs to be gotten in this instance is that all businesses are first into customer experience and the product or service they sell secondary. Customers first buy into you before the product or service you sell. Competing on price is a race to the bottom especially when a smaller competitor does not have the power to take the impact like the bigger players.
The battle will be hard, however it is doable and must be done consistently. I present to you the 5 stones.

PERSONAL TOUCH
Mention one personal or human connection you have with an e-commerce personnel apart from your device, bank account and internet connection (aside from the 3rd party logistics delivery). Connecting with customers on a personal note, can however be the distinguishing factor. As human beings we are social creatures and we long for personal connections, which is why most people join different associations whether for religious or social purposes or alumni’s.

People crave the personal touch, the chit chat, the personalization. Serious businesses who want to compete and win their customers over have to do away with transactional nature of relating with their customers and be more personable and engaging their customers more to ward off threats from e-commerce giants.

You cannot adopt a “transactional” way of doing business like the e-commerce players and still expect a piece of the action.

CHANCE TO FEEL AND TOUCH
The nature of e-commerce is comparable to that of a marketplace, so it is almost impossible to fully guarantee 100 percent quality of what is showcased, in short what you see is not always what you get with online purchases. Looking through customer reviews of their purchases a lot of complaints come up like late deliveries, inferior products, misleading descriptions and the like.

Online e-commerce can only leverage on a maximum of two senses i.e see ( see the items) and hear( hear about the offers through radio, devices, tv or billboards), however the offline retail shop can leverage on the customer coming to their space and appeal to the customer using the 5 senses i.e the customer hears about the offer, sees the goods, has the opportunity to feel and touch, even smell and taste if the need be, depending on what is on offer. What the customer experiences with their five senses greatly impacts what they feel about the brand, this is one of the Achille’s heel of the online companies that can easily be leveraged on.

Online giants have the financial muscle and power to go into exclusive partnerships with major organizations i.e footwear and apparels giving leverage to the producer on a larger market share, however the smaller retailer can also produce their own high quality items branded by them and exclusively sold in their stores.

EMBRACE THE POWER OF SOCIAL
Pull marketing is the way to go where the organization embraces the power of social media to educate and enlighten the customer, relying on customer reviews which help drive word of mouth sales. Social media should also be used as a means of engagement helping with interactions with customers and getting feedback making customers feel more welcome and cultivate the relationship further.

ENGAGED STAFF
Staff with deep product knowledge and helpful are essential, not zombie like in nature. Staff who can act like personal shoppers to the customer and answer queries, just as it is done in a car or an electronic shop. The in store experience is also very important, in terms of the ambience of the store and the general shopping experience

INVEST IN DATA AND ANALYTICS
A small organization that has a 360 degree view of a customer is not doing itself a favor, this information will help in getting a better view of the customer and proffer the right solutions. It is not just about getting data alone but converting it to actionable intelligence.

Never should an “underdog” battle a giant on their terms as it will be thoroughly spanked and outspent, it is impossible to compete on an online giants inventory, spending power, logistics, funding, media power, however leveraging on the customer experience will help the organization hold its own and create blue ocean markets and thrive.

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

The author tweets @oluwafemioyefes