When you read the heading, you are thinking about the world’s shoppers and potentially that is a large market, but reality is you will not likely sell to most of them. In pitches to potential investors there is generally a wow factor, how the market is x amount and if the product or service captures just 1% or more even a little more, the revenues and profits will just flow in. You do not have to look very hard to find numerous pitches that sound like the above, what you need to hear are about real numbers and why the product or service is going to capture those sales?

In a book called Six Billion Shoppers by Porter Erisman published by St. Martin’s Press, NY, 2017 the issue is how will shoppers be captured by internet shopping. During the pandemic, the number of online shoppers climbed dramatically, and some companies benefited, and some companies were left by the wayside. The book was written before the pandemic but does help explain under what conditions online shopping will tend to grow.

In North America and parts of Europe, the mall and the acceptance of the mall and supermarkets normal retail business. In the book, the author describes different countries and regions and how they shop. For them to become online, how does it happen?

In most countries around the world, the shopping experience is dominated by thousands of small independent stores who over the years have determined how to stay in business. In most countries around the world, the infrastructure – the roads, the highways, the distribution channels, and the phone system are not as good as the US. For that reason, there was limited choice for shoppers. With the invention and continuing lowering of prices of the cellphone, choices open up. Due to the cellphone, millions of people that were unbanked are banked and they have access to a phone. If your choice was to deal with a moneylender and now there is the ability to use the phone to pay bills, what would you choose? That was the choice in many countries and with cellphones monthly rates declining many other services come forth. There is opportunity, but according to the author shopping has to be catered to the fashion which people traditionally shop. In India, it tends to somewhat chaotic, or at least from the outside. When a mall was opened up, it was too quiet and people needed to hear more chaos for the mall to have customers. The owners lost money then realized he needed to hire more workers to make the mall seemingly a little chaotic and achieved success.

In a previous post, there was a post about a book called Bank 4.0.(you should see the You Tube media talks), the change of the bank leads to change in shopping online. If a company is going to sell online, it has to determine how customers will shop and how to ensure the distribution works in the company. In many countries, the infrastructure in the US of the Postal Service, FedEx, UPS and the rest of the suppliers do not exist, but other channels could work.

The author Mr. Erisman provides a wealth of detail of the trends and what can work in different countries and many are different. If you see a company doing a one size fits all, watch it lose money, just try to ensure it is not your money it is wasting.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, you invest in these types of companies because they are successful and can generate profits. It is harder than you think, but fortunately for you the companies report quarterly, and you can measure how they are doing. If you believe they are following the correct strategies, then it helps to be a passive investor. If you are suspect, find alternatives. Reading a book such as 6 Billion Shoppers can help you formulate questions.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.