Before we get started on this one, here's a fun fact for you: Last year is the first time in history that consumers spent more money online the weekend after Thanksgiving than they did in stores on "Black Friday." This was a big milestone for a lot of people, but I'm actually surprised that it took this long.
When online shopping first became available, I was very skeptical. Maybe it's the way I was raised, but the idea of sending my credit card information over the internet really creeped me out. It didn't help that my parents had a yo-yo like dial-up, either :-/.
Nowadays, it's a whole new ball game. With fraud protection and Verisign, I'm no longer terrified of losing my shirt, so the benefits outway the risks. I can get my Christmas shopping done without battling traffic or fighting for parking spaces. There is also a much greater selection when you have the whole online world to draw from instead of being limitted to local shops. Judging by the statistics, there are millions of people who feel the same way.
Okay, so how does all of this relate to Market America? Well, in addition to the proprietary product lines I wrote about earlier, we're also partnered up with 1000+ brand name stores. These include Ebay, Circuit City, Wal-mart, Disney... virtually anywhere you would want to shop. From a distributor web portal (mine is www.marketamerica.com/ams) you can buy what you want from all of these stores and check out a single time using the Universal Shopping Cart. As a distributor, I get credit for all purchases made thru my site (though I don't get to see what anyone bought, so no worries there). As a customer, I have another powerful tool that makes shopping that much easier.
This is the part that really sold me on Market America. I've seen plenty of marketing companies that have strong product lines, but they are each limited by what they can produce. By partnering with established companies instead of competing with them, we have created a one-stop shopping destination whose product offerings are limitless.
The biggest challenge I can see will be driving traffic thru my website. I've told my friends and family about it, and I use it myself, but I'm going to need more than that. I'm not exactly the sorority girl type with 100's of friends who love to shop. I've considered AdSense, but that would be money going out instead of coming in. I'll have to think about this one... Ideas?
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