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What’s the background?
All around the world the shift towards virtual retailing is a major trend. Many traditional bricks and mortar retailers are struggling to stay in business as increasing numbers of smart online retail businesses offer customers a better deal and give them a ‘gift of time’ - i.e. remove the hassles of traveling to a physical retail shop, trying to find parking and then finding what you want is not in stock and may require a wait of some weeks until new stocks come in. Professional built-for-purpose online retailers operate using totally different business models to ‘high street’ retailers - and that is proving to be a big advantage in many market segments.
How did this story start?
It started when a young Trini studying for an MBA, Mazuree Colin Ali, became enthused with the idea of setting up a built-for-purpose online retailing portal based in T&T in 2008. At that time he was working full-time as well as studying for his MBA. That required a major time commitment. As his MBA studies progressed the e-retailing idea grew in his head and began to become an all-consuming passion. Halfway through his studies he had to make a tough decision - to continue pursuing his MBA or to invest all his spare time and energy into realizing his e-retailing vision. He chose the latter.
What happened next?
Turning the vision into a commercial business gave rise to a number of challenges. He needed to continue in his employment role as he pulled all the pieces together. This meant that he had to meet people and potential service providers at lunch time and after normal working hours. He also had to spend a great deal of his spare time in the weekends and evenings developing the e-retail concept and focuses. One of his first challenges was the lack of e-commerce transaction processing services to support online businesses in T&T in 2008. The local banks had little interest in offering such a service. He also had many challenges with local web-designers who had little idea about how to set up a multi-functional online portal. Eventually he overcame both issues and found one local website design firm who he could work with and, between them, finalise the design, structure, and functionality of the portal. He gave himself one year to get the venture up and running.
When was the launch?
The business, TriniTrolley, went online in August 2009 and has now been operating for 2.5 years. Initially the offer to customers was a range of products that were carried in stock and which could be delivered quickly to customers who shopped online. This made the offer different to what Mazuree describes as ‘sky box’ companies which take orders from customers but then import products from the USA. In other words they are not true T&T based e-retailers.
Where is TriniTrolley at today?
It expanded its offer to include an order/import service for those customers who wish to use such a service. It has also added a ‘seller’s account’ option where businesses can open up their own online stores and sell using the TriniTrolley e-retailing infrastructure. Some 500 businesses are now selling through the site as it means they can sell to customers right throughout the country, not just those who come to ‘bricks and mortar’ retail sites that service a small local area. TriniTrolley handles the logistics and delivery on a commission basis - which means customer service is assured and consistent. They also offer a ‘best price guarantee’ and promise to beat any local online competitor’s offer. The portal now offers over 6,000 items online, 80% of which are owned by TriniTrolley and held in stock in T&T so that customers can be guaranteed prompt delivery.
Why is this a success story?
- Because it is a built-for-purpose T&T-based e-retailing business model that has been built from square one to deliver the best possible customer choice and service delivery options.
- Because it is built 100% on delivering to a customer promise.
- Because site traffic has been increasing in recent months - to the point where additional server capacity needed to be put in place in late 2011 to handle the high daily volumes of site visits.
- Because the business is in a state of continuous evolution and adds new and innovative dimensions that extend the customer offer.
- Because the business is moving into regional and international markets - starting this February.
What does this mean for T&T?
The future of T&T depends upon moving away from older traditional ‘dying’ business models to ones which are ‘future fit’. TriniTrolley is a wonderful example of a business that is doing just that. And what is most important is that it is totally based upon being excellent at delivering to or exceeding customer expectations - something that is rare in T&T. It also has considerable potential to go global niche and that’s where the future for business in T&T lies - offshore. That’s where TriniTrolley is heading!
Useful link:TriniTrolley
Key question: How can we accelerate the shift to future fit business models in T&T?
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