First post: laying out hopes, dreams, and goals…
My hope is that by writing this blog, I can teach, entertain, learn and explore the world of selling. I will look into selling of all kinds, products, and channels. However, a lot of articles and discussions will be about the retail channel in North America.
By reading this blog, I hope that you can learn a bit more about how products get to the shiny shelves in your favorite (and not so favorite) store. I hope you will not just read the info, but that you will join in on the conversation and make comments, ask questions, learn, and share your knowledge. No one has all the answers, but together we can get a lot closer!
Retail Channel…
Here, I define the retail channel pretty loosely – I throw retail, etail, and distribution all together.
Retail stores are anything from Wal-Mart and Target (Mass Merchant Channel) to Best Buy (Consumer Electronics Channel) all the way to the corner Independent Apple reseller.
Etail is the channel of online web stores, from Amazon.com to some web site you’ve never heard of. Amazon.com of course is the largest and almost everyone has shopped there. Contrast that with some of the other online guys that are one man shows and don’t actually own anything other than a web site and never see or touch the actual products they are selling.
Distribution is the collection of companies that buy, hold, and supply multiple manufacturers products and sell them to every class of business out there. They specialize in having the right product at the right time.
So that’s what I’m aiming at as we start this. Hang on to your hat’s and let’s enjoy the ride!
Matt
Matt Gorski 