Though we’ve been silent for a few months, we’ve been busy building the mohchi platform. Many of you, however, probably don’t know what mohchi is and what we’re in the process of creating. We hope this post will shed some light on what we’ve been doing how we’re trying to change the world of local commerce to help small businesses, consumers and our communities alike.
Despite existing technologies and services, one of the most problematic issues from a consumer e-commerce perspective is the simple fact that it is exceedingly difficult or nearly impossible to search online for and purchase products from your own neighborhood businesses (much less discover which businesses carry which products).
How often have you, as a shopper, wanted or needed to search for and buy something locally, but have been frustrated in your efforts to do so? If you’re like most shoppers, it happens more often than not. In most cities, virtually all consumer goods are available from your own neighborhood retailers; the problem is that this information is opaque and not readily transparent without significant consumer legwork (e.g. researching and compiling a list of potential merchants; calling each business to check whether they carry the product(s) sought; trusting that the employee handling your call is aware of the scope of business inventory and availability; then picking-up and paying for the product).
As a small, neighborhood retailer, how many of your sales have been hijacked by online competitors? Are your year-over-year revenues/profits decreasing as a result? Do you have a commerce-enabled website? Do you have your products uploaded and readily available for search and purchase by potential customers? Is your site SEO-ready and readily findable by consumers on major search engines? Most businesses we’ve spoken to respond in the negative.
Partnering with small businesses, mohchi provides the searchable online marketplace, technical/business know-how and requisite business tools (e.g. inventory management, promotions, multiple fulfillment options, etc.) to make it easy for merchants to create effective online storefronts without any economic risk or mandatory monthly fees. This enables local businesses to expand their customer reach, reward & retain their best customers and grow awareness and reconnect with their neighborhood customers.
On the other hand, mohchi provides consumers unprecedented ability to search for and fulfill products sold by their neighborhood businesses without the need to purchase online, pay for shipping or wait for delivery.
mohchi does not provide gimmicky or value-destructive services to our merchants or their customers. Our services are intended specifically to augment and extend existing business capabilities and to help them effectively leverage the internet to better compete with online competitors.
mohchi bridges the online and offline worlds in order to provide consumers a seamless and consistent online commercial experience by providing transparency on the products sold by their own local, brick-and-mortar merchants. For businesses, mohchi provides a common marketplace where consumers can discover businesses and their distinctive products from a centralized online destination without enduring the pain of manual research. All while providing the convenience of local, immediate fulfillment.
Please visit us again soon for more updates and feel free to contact us to find out more.
First there was the Australian store owner who began charging customers a $5 fee for “just looking” (aka “showrooming”) in store by posting the sign (to the right of this post) on the store’s front door. The New York Times just today posted a discussion to write an effective script for retailers to confront such offending customers in their aisles.
