The article was co-written by Mayers
Well, the reason is simple, depending on the general situation in the economy, advertising costs have also become more expensive, the competition for consumers is constantly increasing and maintaining personnel has also become a more expensive business. In short, setting up and managing a store website that sells online is not necessarily profitable.
Despite these data, it is precisely at this time that the Mayers shoe site is launching a new activity on a store site that is not just another site, but a project designed to act for the benefit of marketers and shop owners, and also for the benefit of the consumer audience.
On the Mayers Shoes website, which has been around for 8 years, leading brands such as New Balance shoes, Nike, Adidas, Asics and more are offered. The site markets original brand shoes at affordable sale prices, and you will be sure that you will not find fake Mayers. The company has been working in cooperation with authorized suppliers of the leading sports brands in the world for years, and now also with the various shoe stores throughout the country.
At the Mayers company, they identified a problem with availability, inventory and supply capacity among store owners in the fashion and footwear industry in Israel. Most stores and importers stay with last stocks that are difficult to get rid of, and that's where the profit of the store owners lies.
At the Mayers company, they thought of a solution, to consolidate all the stocks of the stores in Israel and market these products at sale prices. The large and available inventory, which is all concentrated in one place, will increase the sales force of the stores and save them in operating and advertising expenses.
How do you do that? With an add-on that was specially developed for the Mayers website and allows magic to happen, we turned to Oded Agmon from the company to understand what is behind the idea and development, and how it can change the face of the field in Israel for the benefit of stores and customers alike.
There is an idea here, but why don't stores set up their own websites to solve the inventory problem?
"We have developed a special add-on on our website that knows how to interface with most known inventory management systems, and thus the website's inventory will be updated live, directly to the old and well-known Market Place website. Establishing a website without a deep understanding of the field and a large financial backing cannot be profitable, what's more, it requires an investment of employees, Logistics and advertising expenses.
We have the resources required for this, while many stores do not have this ability, and even if the ability is there, they cannot sustain it for a long time. We actually save the business owners fixed expenses that erode the marginal profit and this is very significant, the Mayers site takes care of maintaining the profitability of the shoe stores so that this collaboration really pays off for them, on the site we will expose their goods to a larger market segment and thus increase their monthly turnover without expenses or additional obligations on their part."
Does this mean that on the part of the store owners there is no involvement or commitment in terms of expenses?
"Exactly. The customer service, shipping and advertising are on us. We take all the headache of the operation, the sales process and the communication with the customer, including the delivery of the product, service and logistics management of shipping. All this without any commitment on the part of the store owner."
So why do you do it at all?
"Of course, it is economically worthwhile and right for our company as well. Our profit is sales commissions, but still without any commitment from the store owner. That is, the store owner can choose at any time whether to continue or leave, as long as it pays for him and hence he will continue for us too, the fact It is that we just launched the development not long ago and two of the largest footwear chains in Israel and about 25 private stores are already working with us and this is just the beginning."
So how is all this progress actually done on a technical level?
After interfacing with the store owner's inventory management system, we can start marketing and exposing the products to the traffic (surfer traffic) existing on the website in order to sell the products at the cheapest price that the store owner decided to sell the product.
We currently have about 400,000 visits to the site per month with a low abandonment rate, and in fact we have a loyal and wide audience that is growing all the time. This audience is the relevant target audience for all those shop owners and we make it accessible to them.
It works in such a way that when an order is entered, the store owner will receive an email update to pack the product in a bag within 24 hours and that's it, from there it goes to our care. A courier on our behalf will come to collect the product from the store and deliver directly to the customer within two business days.
The customer service including exchanges / returns will also be carried out by us. At the end of the month, the store owner will receive his money minus the commission by bank transfer, easy and simple."
What is the added value of this whole operation, why is it so worthwhile?
"The more we unite business owners under the website, the more power there will be in terms of cost erosion, less work and zero obligations. This is also intended to encourage the development and efficiency of the industry in the general economy in Israel.
The retail industry is not easy, many businesses close store sites or the business in general due to high expenses compared to insufficient flows and inability to keep up with the pace of adjustments in today's dynamic and very competitive trade market. We want to ultimately benefit the footwear and fashion industry."
What does the site offer in terms of prices? What is the benefit for consumers?
"After we managed to save on all operating costs, we can offer the best price to the end customer. So the consumer crowd also benefits here, the same products at more affordable prices."
How is the whole pie divided in a way that is profitable for all parties?
"At the end of the day, the commission taken by the Mayers website comes out lower on a financial level than the operating expenses of an individual website or store, it starts and ends there."
Who is it suitable for?
"For store owners who don't have websites and want to start marketing and selling online, and of course increase their sales and market segment. It is also very suitable for business owners who have websites but are not profitable enough and due to the operating costs that erode the profit."