SMEs save with Group Purchasing- Why pay more when you can pay less!

“United we stand, divided we fall”

This may be the inspiration behind group purchasing which gives small businesses the collective buying power to compete against their larger counterparts as they can take advantage of the economies of scale which they can so readily exploit. Keeping costs low is essential for small businesses, so any strategy that reduces operations costs should be explored and group purchasing is one such option.

Small businesses use a wide variety of products and services in the course of their operations, everything from office supplies and equipment to information technology, payroll processing, and employee benefits administration. Unfortunately small firms often pay more for such goods and services than large companies because of a lack of volume or scale. But there is a way small business owners can enjoy the same kinds of cost savings their big brethren do on essential goods and services: by participating in group purchasing.

Group purchasing is the collective participation of many different individuals or small businesses in the purchase of products or services, thus enabling participants to benefit from discounted or group rates. While it isn’t new, group purchasing has generally been under utilised by small businesses in the United States.

This may be starting to change, however, with the emergence of a number of different online consumer-group buying services, such as GroupOn and LivingSocial. These services primarily offer localised deals and discounts on items such as restaurant meals, retail store purchases, and event tickets.

If you don’t want to commit to group purchasing co-ops or membership-based associations, you can still apply the principles of collective buying by bartering with other businesses. Through a bartering agreement, your business can offer its products and services at a discount, or in exchange for, the goods or services offered by another local business.

There are many group purchasing groups within the UK developed to meet the needs of particular industries including Spiral, Beacon, Aliaxis and PPG Premier Purchasing Group.

70% of all UK SMEs not investing in SEO for their websites

A new study has found that 70% of all UK SMEs have little or no Search Engine Optimisation on their websites. This means that for those businesses they are not taking advantage of the unique opportunity which the internet provides to improve your corporate image and brand visibility.

The research was carried out by ThomsonLocal.com and an online analytics provider Analytics SEO. They analysed 1000 websites of companies with 50 or fewer employees.
SEO is one of the most effective ways to promote a website and shouldn’t be disregarded. If the right terms are used targeted traffic can be generated for your website.

82% don’t have a HTML Sitemap, 75% don’t even have an XML version. Meta isn’t great either, with 56% failing to write unique page descriptions and 35% missing page titles; the list is endless!

Though this may not be currently detrimental to business as the vast majority of competitors are evidently not taking advantage to any great extent either, they are still missing out on vital opportunities to potentially compete with their larger counterparts, aggregating new clients and customers.

Only 3% of sites were found to have ‘advanced levels of SEO’.

Laurence O’Toole, Managing Director of Analytics SEO added “We are used to seeing poor websites, as it is our business to identify and fix poorly optimised websites, but we were really surprised at how many SMEs still have not invested in SEO. Companies need to adopt a new approach to their online presence. They have to ensure that their sites are built according to well established industry guidelines and fully optimised for search engines. Even if a company does not have a transactional website, the adverse effect on sales of a poor website could be substantial.”

The Low Down on E-Commerce

There is an increased impetus for companies to establish an online presence with recognition that absence can hinder growth and erode competitiveness.

The simplicity of it all may be taken for granted as it involves and demands far more than the setting up of a website and merely selling your products and services. Many of the same challenges faced on the high street are similar particularly in terms of attracting visitors to your site.

As with traditional retailing you are still looking for and should be measuring footfall, conversion rates and average transaction values.
One of the most significant and difficult challenges is how to market your website as opposed to traditional retailing where the human element can influence the marketing and sale of products to a great extent. Email marketing, affiliate schemes, search engine ‘pay per clicks’ and online PR all require different skill sets to traditional retailing.

Businesses are likely to be more geared up traditionally for replenishing stores and now also need to introduce processes that require them to fulfill individual orders. As the processes and systems requirements are actually very different many retailers end up outsourcing this aspect to specialist providers.

The design of the site is of enormous importance. With traditional retailing you are likely to spend a significant amount of time and money on planning the shop fit and layout and the same care and attention should be paid to the design of the website.

Websites which are easy to navigate are more likely to be returned too; online retailing is meant to support the customer in making the purchasing process hassle free and the website design should reflect this.

A website may not need a full-time sales manager, but it will need someone to take charge of it and make sure it’s working, updated frequently and remains relevant – fundamental issues that a surprising amount of people overlook.

E-Commerce Check List
1.Ensure your website is visually appealing, simple and easy to navigate
2.Plan the marketing of the site and seek outside advice and expertise where necessary
3.Consistently update and refresh content for SEO
4.Ensure that your online presence is given as much care and attention if not more than your high street presence

E-Commerce should be given priority over high street presence as it is the tool which allows you direct 24 hour access to your customers where they can browse and shop at their leisure from the comfort of their own homes. Making a good impression is vital if they are to return to your website and is likely to influence their perception of your organisation as whole.

Open Your Eyes to the Solutions – Involve Your People

Just a thought for the day for those businesses which are struggling or are perhaps have resigned themselves to merely survive and weather the storm. Every day presents new opportunities, creativity can flourish and ideas can be created. Trying something new should always be the prerequisite, if you don’t someone else will.

"You are surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically increase your income, power, influence and success. The problem is, you just don't see them."

Jay Abraham

The business world is constantly in flux, new challenges are emerging daily, new competitors surfacing and new standards being set. With the degree of change therein lies the temptation to throw in the towel and give up when it all just gets too much. We can become blind to the solutions, support and knowledge which permeates the world of business and in itself can seem a tad complex.

A business manager has a complex role to play, the tasks and responsibilities diverse however large or small the business. The functions within your organisation shouldn’t be underestimated and you should always look to the future… Whatever your size today, surely you aspire to achieve growth?

Teamwork and employee involvement is what I believe to be the key to opening up our minds to the solutions which may otherwise dismiss or fail to notice.
With innovation now being a key success driver, how can one person or even a small percentage of people within an organisation be expected to take on the mammoth responsibility to be consistently creative? Every member or your workforce will bring something to the table; they just need the opportunity to do so!

“Innovation today isn’t a sudden break with the past, a brilliant insight that one lone outsider pushes through to save the company. Just the opposite: innovation today is a continuous process of small and constant change, and it’s built into the culture of successful companies.”

Janet Rae-Dupree

“…the group effort allows us to move much more quickly and become successful much faster.”

Chris MacCarthy – Director of the Innovation and Learning Network