As a shopper, you are probably not thinking about the amount of money the brand will make, once you make a purchase. That’s because shoppers aren’t privy to the “profit” brands make depending on which retailer a shopper buys from. This profit, also known as a retail margin, is the difference between what the brand makes the product for vs. what they sell the product for - either directly to the shopper or in a round-about way but selling first to a retailer, ie. Amazon, Target, Sephora, etc.
Let’s walk through a scenario. Say you’re at Target, and you decide to try a new product from The Honeypot Company – a black-owned, woman-owned feminine care product company that donates 2% of their profits to organizations that support women. You purchase the item for $20, and before you know it, it has become your favorite product. Eventually, you run out of the product and head back to Target to restock. You hand the money to the cashier, go home, and enjoy your product. And that’s that.
But do you ever wonder how much of that money actually goes back to The Honeypot Company? Shockingly, brands lose roughly 50% of their margin when they’re sold in brick and mortar stores – meaning almost half of the money you spend on those products doesn’t even end up in the hands of the brands you love. This is because Target buys this product from The Honeypot Co. at $10 and sells it back to you at $20. Now, the reason that Target can do this is because they promise The Honeypot Co. that they will reach more customers on behalf of their brand, and they buy in large quantities so that The Honeypot Co. can keep making more products.
The fact of the matter is that businesses make more money when retailers aren’t involved. When a brand is forced to give a chunk of their profit to the stores that carry their products, they’re losing a much higher percentage of profit off the top than if they were to sell the product online – directly from their own storefront to consumers. And it’s not a small difference, either. Brands make 95% of the sale when you buy directly from them online. They make 75-80% through Amazon, and only 50-60% when you buy in a retail store.
So, what’s the problem? Online shopping is the new frontier, and since the COVID-19 pandemic, you’ve probably noticed that mCommerce, commerce built for native mobile devices, is becoming more and more commonplace. The biggest issue with online shopping, though, is that customers, like you, have a hard time following through. Shipping costs, lengthy checkout processes, and distracting websites stand in between you and your wishlist, leading to frustration for you and fewer sales for the brands you love.
The good news? A group of savvy thought leaders, formerly from Snap, have put their heads together to create brand new universal cart technology to make it easier than ever to shop online and support the brands you can’t live without.
Read on to find out how Whym is revolutionizing the shopping experience, and increasing profit margins for the shops you love.
There are a lot of conveniences associated with online shopping – but there are also some setbacks that shoppers have a hard time getting past.
If you spend any time online, you encounter countless ads every day. Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook bombard their users with ads for products their data suggests they might be interested in – and a lot of the time, it works. However, while 96% of Americans shop online, people are very rarely interested in buying the first time they see a product. In fact, it takes roughly 56 impressions to make a sale. If you see a product you’re interested in, you might swipe up, take a screenshot of the item, or even put the item in a cart for later – but you are probably not immediately purchasing the item. This is the case for most shoppers, and almost 80% of the time, those “liked” items are forgotten, never to be purchased at all.
But think about this: you see a product online, you like it, you forget about it. But then, unexpectedly, you come across it in the store – you’re already there, the item is right in front of you, there are no hidden fees, you don’t have to enter your information or pay for shipping – so you go ahead and buy it. Easy peasy.
But what you’re missing is this: when you purchase that same item directly from the brand online, they are only losing 5-6% of their retail gross margin. But since you bought the item in the store, the brand loses 40%, if not more. If it were as painless to buy a product online, or find a simple way to remember the item for when you were ready to buy online, you would not only save time and energy, but you would be putting more money back into the brand you’re supporting.
Whym makes it a cinch to support the brands you love
Whym powers modern shoppers, and makes it seamless to buy from new brands – along with the brands you know and trust.
There is so much that goes into buying something new online. If you’re interacting with a brand that you’ve never shopped with before, you have to ask yourself, “Do I really want to make an account with this brand? Do I want to give them my email address, my phone number? Do I want to dig through my wallet and find my credit card to enter my information? Do I want to, inevitably, receive weekly emails from them? Is this item worth all of that?” And oftentimes, it isn’t. This can lead to you settling for a brand you find in stores, even if it’s not the brand you love, and because the retail profit margin is higher, the brand itself makes less money. Sounds like a lose/lose to me.
Whym eliminates all of that and makes it seamless to purchase your favorite brands while making those brands more money. With Whym’s universal cart technology, you set up your account once – and that’s it. Your phone number is your unique user ID, and your verification code is your password. You won’t have to create, remember or update your login credentials (ever) and your cart stays the same across all brands that use Whym. You can buy from multiple sellers with one click – it’s the convenience of your Amazon cart, but without the 25-30% profit margin that the brand will lose when you shop on Amazon. With Whym, the brand makes approximately the amount of money (95%) that they would if you buy directly on their site.
Whym also knows that you might not be ready to buy right away, and that’s okay. Whym powers your purchases with their “Text Me This Item” button that you can find on the pages of any product that sells with them. Whym will send you a link to the item and follow up with you on a 1:1 basis, reminding you of the product and encouraging you to buy when you’re ready – so you can say goodbye to the graveyard of screenshots of forgotten items and hello to new, amazing products. That’s a win/win for the shop and the shopper.
Whym has created the most personalized, seamless shopping experience. Shoppers are already having conversations about the brands they love, and those same brands are already texting them. Whym has just taken it one (essential) step further — turning those messages into one-click purchases
Gone are the days of lengthy checkout processes, high shipping costs, and lost passwords. With Whym, you can buy from your favorite brands in one tap – or be reminded of your favorite items when it’s time to buy. This means more profit for your favorite brands, and fewer confusing steps for you.
If you’re ready to learn more about how Whym is changing the way we shop, or explore shops that are already selling with Whym, sign up for our newsletter. We’re here to pave the way for easier shopping while helping you support the brands you love.
ABOUT WHYM
Whym is an intent to buy platform transforming the way we shop and sell online. Brands trust Whym’s tools to capture more first-party data and shopper intent across their selling channels. For shoppers, Whym’s wishlist provides an organized and personalized shopping experience—helping browsers collect, save and rediscover their favorite products anywhere online. No matter how your shoppers find you, Whym makes sure they don’t forget you.
