In our post “Amazon vacuuming the cash out of retail” we introduced the concept of aliens; Category killers who come from a completely different marketplace. They are businesses that leverage advantages to come in and suck the profit out of a category. Here we talk about “Tiny” aliens. Tiny Aliens are small vendors that break common assumptions about manufacturing and sales that can come in and undercut their competition while maintaining good margins.
These Tiny Aliens capture profit and market share because they do less.
Aliens/Category Killers have – Money, Tech, and Know-how (or the ability to buy one of those three). Tiny Aliens also have money and know-how so they can look to leverage existing tech. Instead of following “common wisdom” Tiny Aliens make different choices. Here are a few must haves that Tiny Aliens might forgo:
Small companies must have an eCommerce website – Tiny Aliens look for ways to simply sell through Amazon (or marketplaces) to eliminate the cost of fulfillment warehouses.
Small companies must have a unique product – In the world of Amazon – a better price and fulfillment by Amazon means that there is little or no difference between you and your competitors. Lower costs let you price things lower with customer service provided by Amazon.
Small companies must have a full-service fulfillment warehouse – Letting another partner handle fulfillment and customer service lowers costs considerably.
If you’re under threat from either Aliens or Tiny Aliens we’ve got a few ideas that might help. Or if you’d like to launch an Alien attack on an adjacent market talk to us.
Read this and other posts at www.ekalore.com/ars - Contact us at sales@ekalore.com
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