E-commerce is the future of shopping – no matter what you are shopping for. People love the ability to browse and compare, and people expect to be able to get what they want with minimal work – simply clicking a few buttons and having it on the way to their door step.
This is largely, if not solely, credited to Amazon.
They have created the expectation of instant gratification to consumers.
All industries seem to be experiencing the “Amazon Effect,” and, let me tell you – the promotional product industry is no exception. Amazon set the expectation that a consumer can purchase anything and everything they want in a matter of just a few clicks, and in turn, have it on their doorstep in just a few days.
So if People Expect This in Their Personal Life, Why Not Emulate That Same Experience and Expectation in Their Work Life?
But the reality is we are give our best effort to keep up, but we aren’t Amazon. And we know that is okay. We may not have hundreds of feet pacing our warehouse space, or hundreds of hands picking our products. But we do a great job keeping up and properly staffing for the demand – working diligently to fulfill orders same day, anticipating when to reorder so that there are minimal backorders, and when backorders so come up, we prioritize those orders to fulfill ASAP. While we cannot win in every aspect of the e-commerce world against Amazon, we recognize they exist to challenge us in the very best way and it really doesn’t need to be a competition anyway. City Paper does offer a solution to one of the main challenges against e-commerce: the boutique experience.
The boutique experience is about having a team of people dedicated to your account, ready to help with order fulfillment, issues, or rushes. This team molds, bends, and flexes its way into the partner you need, but also staying true to our strengths.
A few criticisms against the e-commerce experience include the lack of interaction, education and conversation. But this is where City Paper’s stellar Account Executives come into play – they partner with the clients to provide the best product assortment for their employees or customers – carrying over best sellers, but also incorporating new product on to the sites. Our clients still get the boutique experience with the benefit
That’s the basis of our ideal e-Comm platform and we offer this solution to simplify the process for employees, allowing them to maximize their branding and ease their marketing efforts.
Our goal at CP is to be an extensive of our clients’ marketing team – but e-Commerce takes this one level further – with pre-approved items that support, promote and market the brand.