By Paul Pannone
What started as a story about bypassing retailers and online sales turned into an impromptu campaign for supporting small business. For years the battle between small, independent store owners and big box operators has raged on. But now small businesses are losing the battle against the onslaught of competition and price-cutting from all sides, including online sales.
So-far 60% of an eWedNewz poll says big box operators can be beat if small (minded) business owners can start thinking like real business people.
According to dress retailer, Jacqui Wadsworth;
“The plight of the small business is really more complex than fighting against big box stores. Small businesses are fighting on an 8-fold problem. They must compete with big box stores, internet sales sites with legitimate products similar to their own, knock-off sites with products appearing to be similar to their own, and sites with used products with better
name brands from gowns to decorations, compete with their own industry’s manufacturers who are getting online, they must do the best job they can in economic downturn times with less staff, which leaves less time for learning better business practices, and for having an online presence in a social networking world, and they have less cash reserves with which to do all of the above. Small businesses who find their “niche” will do well and those who continue on with old business paradigms will be gone. The amazing fact is that so many people are continuing to jump into the bridal and wedding services industry thinking it’s a cash cow industry.”
Wadsworth is a member of the Wedding Water Cooler discussion group and agrees with other members that competition will continue to grow, despite the shrinking wedding market. In addition, Wadsworth WWC members lash out at so-called “experts” saying:
“Wedding experts with “twenty” plus years experience now giving seminars on how to double your existing business. I think all those people are people who couldn’t make a go of it in their field, and now just want a payday for poor information based on the mistakes they made that put them out of business. The sad news; desperate people will fall for that crap because they love the business. The even more pitiful fact is whatever put the so-called experts out of business is probably all old news because our industry is changing so quickly. That’s a lose/lose proposition.”
In the poll 25% of respondents so-far say there is no way small businesses are going to win against big box retailers. Discussions with those who feel that way are insiders with access to major suppliers with insight to the plan of simply doing it better, faster and more conveniently than smaller competition. According to eWedNewz sources pricing will not necessarily be cheaper but will give consumers greater value and reasons to shop with them.
Like the Little Engine That Could, small businesses today face increasingly difficult odds against the growing strength of big box operators.
What do you say?
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