ASSIGNMENT 3 By Charissa Hitchcock

MY BUSINESS IS A DROP IN CHILDCARE CENTER

• The three retail channels that can benefit my business are….

• Store

• Internet

• Direct Sales

STORE

• Store will be my biggest channel.

• This channel will show it all. People

who enter the center will be making

first impression on the appearance

and smell of the center.

• They will be browsing around to see

if the staff is interacting with the

children.

• People are able to pay in cash when

dealing with face-to-face contact. We

are able to offer other options to

make payments, but in store is the

only way to accept cash as a

payment.

Pros Cons

• If you are only using a store

location you are missing out on

potential customers who first

research online before going to the

store.

• Children can be naughty and that

would not be the fault of the

facility but it would be an eye sore

for those who came to look around

and get a feel for the place.

• Having only one location is a con.

Not everyone is willing to travel X

amount of miles for childcare.

INTERNET

• Internet is beneficial to the business

because it puts our name in the

selection. When people search any of

the keywords on my website my store

will pop up in their search along with

other daycare.

• Internet allows me to offer as much or

as little information on my business as

I would like.

• Internet allows me to personalize my

business with the customers search.

• Internet is also the fastest growing

channels, so if you are not on it then

you are not growing.

Pros • Risk of the product not being what the

customer thought it would be.

• Having to always update the website

with the changing of the store

• Available on line may be different from

day to day activity in the store.

Cons

DIRECT SALES

• Direct sales are time

consuming.

• You have to pay someone to go

out and explain your product or

service.

• The states are not the best on

direct sales. You may get 2

customers out of 100 attempts.

Pros Cons

• Direct sales will be beneficial to

my business because I will be

able to interact with the

consumer face-to-face.

• Direct sales allows me to

customize who I market my

business to.

THREE CHANNELS THAT WOULD NOT HELP

• Catalog

• TV home shopping

• Automatic

WHY THOSE CHANNELS WOULD NOT WORK…

• I am selling a service and my service

would not be something that could be

ordered out of a catalog, sold on TV, or

put in a vending machine.

• My service would only work face-to-face

or over the phone to answer simple

questions.

PRICING AND MERCHANDISE ASSORTMENT

• Pricing is a big part of my business.

• I have to be competitive with other

childcare facilities.

• I also have to cover all costs,

• I have to figure out how to charge the

customer less but pay the employee

more to get better care for the children.

• Merchandise assortment does not pay a

part in my business.

• Customers pay for a service and the

service is childcare.

• You can only hope that the best

childcare is the only childcare.

CENTRALIZED OR DECENTRALIZED

• Centralized

• My businesses main focus is the store

location.

• Decentralized

• My business will also be available to

search on the internet.

• My business will also use direct sales to

further the customer basis.

I would say that my business is decentralized because it uses more than one channel.