SOLUTION: establish pricing for all three markets – wholesalers, distributors and direct customers.

Having three different price points allowed us to manage the marketplace easier without stepping on the toes of our various customers. Quantifying the price gap between each customer was the first step. To do so we analyzed how each customer went to market and who their customers are. Wholesalers often sell to distributors. In this instance those distributors were vacuum stores that focused on carpet shampoo and spot removers. Distributors that purchased direct from us did not have a better price than what they could purchase from wholesalers but their quantity was also not as high as the minimum purchases involved with buying through a wholesaler. Lastly direct customers were often consumers or professional carpet cleaners that wanted the smallest quantity available. These consumers often purchased at the highest price point but this leveled the playing field and allowed wholesalers and distributors alike to still be competitive.

SOLUTION: Create a better online presence through e-commerce, social media and advertisements.

When I started at Scot Laboratories, their website looked like something I viewed in the 90’s. To them, they were online and that was all that mattered but after explaining and quantifying how much commerce is done on the internet, they quickly agreed that an e-commerce site would help propel them into the next phase of business growth. Thinking of the future, I wanted to create a e-commerce site that anyone could use with very little web development knowledge. Using a WordPress powered website allowed anyone with little computer knowledge and minimum training navigate the world of online sales with ease. Click here for more information on the development of this website.

Before the website went live I made sure Scot Laboratories had a solid social media presence. That required me to sign them up on Facebook, Google+, and Linkedin. Mixing posts on the various social media outlets along with blog posts on their e-commerce site boosted their search engine optimization drastically! At the end of the first year, the e-commerce site had accounted for an additional $65,000 in revenue. Not only was this a market they were never in, selling direct had the highest margins of any current customer!