Direct Selling
Talking about direct selling is certainly an interesting subject and can it be the next driver for all startup commerce companies? Well, here we need to understand different aspects to get the answer. Direct selling has been re-invented these days and that has happened due to a number of reasons.
Talking about some of the reasons why direct selling has been re-invented, the first one is certainly the slow economy. When we are witnessing the slow economy, people are looking towards opportunities that may give them an alternative source of income to add to their financial status.
Ways of Direct Selling
Since the past few years, direct sales emerges as the most interesting and impressive way for people to earn extra income to improve their lifestyle and earnings. The emergence of social media really helped direct sales concept. Earlier direct sales were all about door to door sales. With social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest including email helps you build and maintain a strong network without meeting anyone in person.
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Use of Social Media
Yes, your friends on social media form the network for you and certainly, you have so many of them. Along with that, you can reach out to nearly 150,000 people through your relatives, friends, etc. When you start with Twitter/Facebook, you get to reach a wider network of people.
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Direct Selling via a personal network
Direct selling in India is nowadays about selling through the network of friends, family, colleagues, relatives etc. Of course, the social networks make the entire concept more transparent, visible as well as reachable than before.
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Use of Smart Devices
Another reason that has helped in re-inventing the concept of direct selling is the introduction of the internet and smartphones. The smart devices with the latest technology and software like CRM, SFA, SaaS ERP has accelerated the efficiency of direct sales reps.
Earlier, the direct selling for sales reps was a process wherein they used to call people, organize a party and then talk to each one of them. They show the product samples physically or show them product catalogs and request them to go through the same to have a look at what they have in stock for them.
Then they used to take the orders which they had to write on some forms. Everything was handwritten or in some cases, the requirements were sent through fax to their office. Now, if the sales rep wanted to make repeated sales then they had to visit the customers physically again to take the order.
Simplified Direct Selling Process
Today, the sales rep actually gets the details of the person he needs to call on his iPad. All customer activities can be easily managed through best practices. It becomes easy for the sales rep to keep a track of the new customer, old customers, shopping activities, new orders, repeated orders etc through a well-defined system.
When it comes to product catalogs they can be easily accessed through videos, images etc where the customer can view the products from all angles before they make a buying decision. They can watch videos to know about how each product functions. Once the customers like the product, they can immediately place an order, make payment via credit card without the need for the sales rep to visit them. This helps to increase the sales and making the process easier.
The new and improved ways of direct selling helped many huge e-commerce companies to create their identity in the market and generate high revenues. You can say direct selling has become powerful with the help of social platforms. It helps companies to sell products directly and changed the definition of direct selling. Big brands enjoy these platforms to speed up their sale and with a button press, it becomes easy to buy and sell.
Direct Selling- Serving Customers Better
The idea of serving customers better has been fulfilled through social media shopping. It becomes easy to promote and sell products through social media channels. The promotion costs are also quite low as compared to traditional advertising methods.
So, certainly re-invented direct selling method can be the next driver of different startup commerce firms.