Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi all,

My startup, Bravisa recently introduced a concept called Personal Online Retailing (POR). Our goal is bring the benefits and capabilities of online retailing, traditionally enjoyed by corporations to individual internet users.

Currently, online retailing, though lucrative (high profit margins, recurring revenue, etc.) is not a viable option for most individuals as it is expensive, burdensome, and complex. Bravisa aims to eliminate these barriers and provide free and unfettered access to online retailing for anyone looking to make money online.

We recently launched our beta site. It would be great to get your thoughts/advice on this.

Thanks!
-Balaji.
www.bravisa.com

How Bravisa works:

People can visit Bravisa.com to set up their free personal online store. In 3 clicks store owners can add products from Bravisa’s catalog, set their own price markups, and get tools/widgets to attract buyers. Stores can be customized for content, products, and prices. When customers buy products from a store, Bravisa takes care of fulfillment and pays the store owner 100% of their price markup. Since purchases take place in their store, the store owners have complete visibility to all sales. Store owners make recurring retailer-size (20-40%) as opposed to affiliate size (2-8%) earnings. Bravisa is a free service and there is no limit on the number of stores or products.

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Bravisa: Personal Online Retailing for all
http://www.bravisa.com

How do you figure that online retailing isn`t currently a viable option for most individuals? Current statistics on e-commerce, startups, entrepreneurial Web sites, and so forth would seem to contradict your basic premise.

I guess I have 2 thoughts about this set up.

1. Lets say that Bob and I both create an account. We open and stock our stores. Possibly we stock them with many of the same items. Now lets say that a web searcher finds both of our sites, looking to buy a product. What is available to make one store more appealing to make a purchase from, i.e., what can I do with this store to make the visitor say "I`d rather buy a product here than from Bob"? If you end up with thousands of stores, many selling the same products for possibly the same price, how does anyone create a uniqueness? Do the stores all end up with a cookie-cutter, Ebay store type of look? In other words, how does someone get an "edge" to create a sale?

2. Your manufacturers. OK, who are they? I would prefer to know who`s products I would be selling before actually trying to sell them. You state they are reputable and so forth, but that doesn`t tell me anything about who they are. Are they long standing businesses? What about returns, recalls, warranties, etc? I would prefer to know this beforehand for my own peace of mind, just to be able to prepare for possibilities down the road.


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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Hi Craig,

It’s true that anyone can get into online retailing. However, the available solutions for sourcing and merchandising products require the individual retailer to make substantial compromises. They can spend money and effort to get complete control over their products and profits OR they can get free online shops but lose out on profits, flexibility, and control.

From our experience, most internet users do want the benefits (high profits, recurring revenue, etc.) of a true retailing solution but are unwilling to invest any money in this.

Thanks!
-Balaji.

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Bravisa: Personal Online Retailing for all
http://www.bravisa.com

Okay... well, hopefully your idea and model will work. Keep us posted. :-)

Hi Webline,

Thanks for your thoughts. These are 2 important issues.

Store Differentiation: Even if you have similar products, your store and Bob’s store could be as different as, say Amazon.com and Buy.com.  You can achieve this differentiation in a number of ways:

• Set  different selling prices
• Change product description and presentation. Use different keywords
• Upload your own content- some products can be personalized with your images
•  Customize your store with a different layout and theme
• Enable or disable different store features
• Bundle with your other stores  or applications outside Bravisa (mashable stores)

Bravisa’s goal is to give the store owner complete control over the stores and products. We aren’t there yet but plan to get there in the near future.

Bravisa Manufacturers:

• Manufacturer/brand names are clearly visible to the store owners
• Some manufacturers on Bravisa today supply products to companies such as Target, Amazon, Toys”R”Us, and Buy.com
• Some manufacturers are local artisans with established credentials within their communities
• Manufacturers are qualified based on a number of criteria such as price, quality, delivery, and service. The performance ratings can be customized to the store owner’s preferences (TBA)
• Bravisa takes responsibility for fulfillment, customer service, and warranty.
  

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Bravisa: Personal Online Retailing for all
http://www.bravisa.com