| | E-STORES RULE
There is nothing like internet e-stores. 24/7 you're getting paid. The more you work at it, the better you do. There's so many ways to crank in revenue if you have that important thing - traffic. Oh yeah and a good product.
 I remember the forecasts of when the dotcom boom came out, everyone was saying this was the end of the retail store. It wasn't immediately, which caused the bust - and it will never be the end of the retail store. Our retailers, such as B&H and Adorama are moving our products off their shelves at the stores and through their website.
I was so curious as to how B&H ordered so much stuff from us. Then I was buying a Canon 580ex flash on there, and when I did it shows "accessories" that go with your product, and there it was listed right below it, the "Gary Fong Lightsphere". Same thing with Adorama our or international partners. So freaking smart. It's like being at the grocery aisle and arranging things so you buy the impulse items.
One time I was sitting outside of the Louis Vuitton store in Milan, Italy chewing on a piece of cheese, sitting on a bench, and watching with amazement how Jamaican sidewalk vendors were selling imitation LV products, RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE STORE! And people just walked past them, into the store for the real thing. But still... for an hour in prime retail Saturday Afternoon, I didn't see one transaction being sold that whole hour, despite a lot of browsers. I sat and thought of all the employees sitting there, the cost of rent in that retail district, thought of the cost of the store, and then thought of my own e-store where average purchases of $72 sometimes happen multiple times in a SINGLE SECOND. And that's not counting sales made by my retail partners worldwide. And considering that I have just Keats, Paul and myself as full-time employees of the e-store, all of us working from our own homes from our laptop computers... three people pulling in revenue 1/3-1/4 of Pictage which runs on 240 employees.
No wonder they thought the internet was going to kill the retail store. Myoptically, if you look at my business model - it is the ultimate. Lowest of overheads. Stratoscopically high revenues worldwide. An assembly line somewhere in Irvine, CA where it all gets shipped out. Manufacturers ship directly to the warehouse. All these costs go on my Amex, which gives airline miles. Yes I would think, "how could the retail store compete" and the answer is - it wouldn't compete at all for being sold as a company. Not at all.
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| | Posted 2/21/2007 8:45 AM - 281 views - 7 comments
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