Recently, I’ve been doing couple research on commerce retailers. The reason why is that I’ve been thinking of being a purchasing agents. I believe it will be a good practise and an excellent opportunity of gaining experience for my future business career. Most reports or news online only talks about the fun part of this job or the upside of doing this, but I want to know both the pros and cons.
While I was doing the research, a blog written by OrenLevy caught my eyes, because it talks about the downside or the risk of doing this business. In this modern society, the powerful internet gives people the ability to shop at wherever they want and whatever they like. My business plan is to build a cross-border retail that provides variety of goods at a lower price than what they offer in store, and I’m aiming for the Mainland Chinese customers. But, what Levy has written in his blog reminds me of the risk of providing such service. His findings show that most people is not comfortable with buying things from another country, because of the unfamiliar payment methods and unclear on questions of duties, taxes, customs, shipping, and other hidden costs. After reading his research I realize that if I want to success in what I’m planning to do, I must address people’s concerns first. As long as people understand how the process runs and how they are getting charged, then they would shop at my store with no concerns. Now, it’s obvious that there would be numerous “small” bumps on the path to cross-border retail, but Levy’s blog tells me what I should look out for as I start this business.
