Should Countrywide Be Offering an Online Alternative to their High St Operation? (3min video)

Should High St Agents Offer an Online Package as well?

It’s kind of appealing to diversify your estate agency offering, particularly when it comes to battling the online/hybrid threat.

Beat the Purp’s and Yop’s at their own game

Another alternative, another way of dong estate agency.

Something for everyone.

High Street and Online – how awesome is that?

The Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s of this world tried it with their Savers and Value ranges a few years ago to counteract Lidl and Aldi

But even after mega advertising of these Savers/Value ranges - they still today only account for 2% of their turnover.

And if you read the press – most the big supermarkets are reported to be cutting back on those ranges throughout 2015 and 2016

Why?

Could it be because it cheapened the brand?

Yes, that is a valid point.

But I think its deeper than that

Let me ask you a question …

You have a choice …

1. Do your big shop shopping at Aldi and Lidl every week
2. Do your shopping at Tescos/Sainsburys and fill your basket with only Value Products every week

My intuition tells me, whilst the prices will be similar (Value range vs Aldi/Lidl) .. the majority would plump for the first option (Aldi/Lidl).

Go on .. admit it to me .. but in your heart of hearts .. who reading this has made a derogatory thought to themselves, when they pass in the aisles a fellow shopper with their Sainsbury shopping trolley full of those Orange and White Savers labels items or the White, Blue and Red Value labelled items from Tesco’s?

As opposed to the Aldi and Lidls, where its everyone together, two fingers up at the big over priced establishment supermarkets.

And that us my fear of High Street operations offering an online package – using their own High Street brand

I honestly believe the majority of big bosses of the Corporates are running around like headless chickens – panicking about Purplebricks and Yopa.

For Pete’s sake. talk in the industry is they only have 4% to 5% of the market… and that has hardly changed for the last 12 months.

If you allow yourselves to be dragged down by likes of PB and Yopa into the dark pit of £800 selling fees… by offering a similar online cheap as chips package … (and here is the important bit) that runs side by side your High Street offering – instead of protecting your High St operation - you might just be creating the very thing that will kill your High Street operation