Why The Web Is Better Than Retail, A Logo Design Software Story

Ever since I can remember, I’ve had this ‘entrepreneurial’ attitude. When I was 9 years old, I would visit my local pottery shop and purchase a dozen un-baked coffee cups. I would then draw cartoons on them and would then bring them back to the pottery shop to have them baked.

I then took them to the local fire department and my school and tried to sell them. I did sell a few of them … but I never made enough to compensate for the cost of the cups, kilning and paints! This is the SAME problem I have with the retail world when trying to sell my logo design software. I’ve been selling The Logo Creator, in large retail stores like CompUSA, Fry’s Electronics and Office Max since 2004.

Each box will cost (roughly) $3.00 (USDollars) to design. This includes the actual box, the CD inside, the sleeve the CD is put into, burning the CD and putting in the cardboard to make the box thicker.

You can hire a local designer, or find one on the net from companies likes elance.com or moonlighters.com. A designer may charge upwards of $2,000 to $7,000 to design the box! (I’m lucky enough to be able to design my own boxes). A good rule of thumb is that you’ll most likely spend $3,000 for 1000 boxes.

The least amount that the printshops will let you print is about 1,000 units. It may sound small, but the cost can really add up when a chain like OfficeMax has 1200 stores with each store ordering a minimum of 5 boxes. That’s 6,000 boxes! It adds up quick.

Once the boxes are manufactured, you have what they call “Shelf Space” to deal with.

Not all fo them, but most retail chains like you to buy this shelf space.

Often times, this shelf space gets as high as $4,000 for just one product! You really need to sell an armload of your software in order to make up this $5000. Oh, and then, the retail chain may take a 10% cut of your sales …It can all get crazy.

The Internet vs. Retail

This is why the web is just plain awesome. There’s NO overhead (other than your time of course). You can even use an external eCommerce company to handle your shopping cart system. They’ll also take a 10 to 20% cut of your sales, ..but it’s WELL worth it (for the fraud control alone!)

This is the beauty of downloadable software – or anything you can create once and have others purchase multiple times. An eBook for example. Retail used to be king, but I’ll put my money into Net any time.

It’s harder to market yourself on the net beign that there’s so much competition. However, that’s where your Search Engine Marketing comes in. But that’s a topic for a another article.

Marc Sylvester – CEO of Laughingbird Software. Home to the Logo Creator, logo design software for Mac and Windows. Visit http://www.thelogocreator.com for more details!

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