Dear Lizabelle:
Sorry for the wait in answering your inquiry.
The internet offers tremendous benefits as well as a some disadvatages in the marketing and distribution of Outdoor Edge products. I see the internet as the most effiecient and economic tool available for the immediate exchange of product information, photo images and communication between consumers and dealers of Outdoor Edge products.
The immediate worldwide access to Outdoor Edge product information by viewing our website is one of the greatest benefits the internet offers us. Through our website you can review product information, photos, and specifications on every product we produce. When a consumer writes us for a catalog we incurr the cost of the catalog, envelope, postage, label and labor to review the inquiry, type the label then stuff and mail the catalog. As a result each catalog inquiry costs us about $2.00-2.50 to process. If you take into account delivery times it may take from 6-8 weeks from when a customer in Germany writes us and receives the catalog. With the internet you type our address and the information is there.
The use of e-mail to exchange messages and photo images is also a great tool for communicating to our dealers/distrubutors and manufacturers overseas. A couple years ago fax machines were the most popular however e-mail is more efficient and economic since it saves the cost of international calls and time to print letters and operate the fax machine. Also through the use of digital cameras, if our manufacturer finishes a new prototype or we find a viual defect in one of our knives we can exchange images of these details immediately.
The one aspect of the internet that concerns me the most is e-commerce. I myself have bought several items on the net and I see e-commerce as a tremendous benefit and convenience to consumers.
The biggest problem I see with the interent sales is the heavy discounting of product which over the long term change the way business is done and how products are distributed.
Knives generally fall into the category of "Sporting Goods". Traditionally knives/sporting goods are sold by Mom & Pop stores, chain stores, full-line cutlery/gift stores, mail order catalogs, and hardware stores. Each of these operations have considerable overhead just to keep the lights on while a internet dealer simply pays to design a web site and have it maintained and hosted. Due to this low overhead the internet dealer can work on very low margins and still make a profit. A storefront can not compete with the prices advertised on the internet. Over the long term as more people purchase on the internet I believe you will see more and more individual brick and mortar dealers go out of business.
I hope this information is helpful and wish you the best on your report. Get an "A"!
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Sincerely,
Outdoor Edge Cutlery Corp.
David Bloch
See our Online Catalog at:
http://www.outdooredge.com
I'm doing a research paper for my internal business class on "how the internet has affected the knife business." Please tell me what you can about how the internet has changed the way you do business. Details would be great!
