May 9, 2011
By Khalid
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Some Retailers Have It All Wrong
Like many aspiring entrepreneurs I rushed out to get my copy of this year’s Rich List, flicking through the pages scanning for any internet types to see if I knew anyone. After a while I diverted my attention to the actual newspaper, and after reading about how US Special Forces killed Bin Laden, my attention was turned to a small article about Thomas Cook. The company seems to be closing some retail outlets in favour of going online, which has both benefits and downfalls. The article pointed out that walk in customers generally buy their holiday and many extras in the shop at once, and by closing stores Thomas Cook risked losing that.
Having recently launched a UK airport transfers website I was only too keen to try to get in touch with someone at Thomas Cook to see if I could discuss a commercial partnership whereby they used my infrastructure and sold transport to their customers. Whilst the commission per transaction may be low, the sheer volume of customers who need transport to and from their home to the airport is huge, and Thomson has access to a large proportion of them.
However, like many websites, I failed to find the contact of someone who could point me the direction of the person I needed to speak too. And this led me to try other firms, all with the same result. Now I appreciate large firms don’t want to be pestered by all types wanting a piece of their cake, but what about people wanting to offer something valuable?
The Easy Group have the right idea, as does Go Compare to name a few, so why don’t others follow suit?
Let me know your thoughts,
Khalid.
