Medical Practices and Spa Owners Utilize E-Commerce for Better, Faster and More Informed Product Purchases
Today, many medical professionals and spa owners purchase supplies from sales representatives who visit a medical office or spa on a frequent basis. A typical salesperson represents tens of thousands of hair, nail and skin care supply products. Due to the extremely large number of items within the supplier’s inventory, in many cases the salespeople often cannot provide detailed information concerning specific product to the medical professional. As a result, the burden of knowing the cost of items and product differentiations is often the doctor or spa owner’s responsibility. In an effort to stay abreast of current trends and product innovations, medical professionals invest additional time and effort by attending continuing education classes, tradeshows, or by reading monthly trade journals. Unfortunately, when medical professionals and spa owners utilize such limited resources, it is difficult to easily obtain the information necessary for making informed skin, hair and nail care product purchasing decisions.
As the majority of medical professionals and spa owners use a computer, fax machine and a wireless phone to manage their practices, many have become adept when utilizing the Internet to obtain fast, accurate and helpful information concerning skin, hair and nail care products or medical instruments. The use of e-commerce has changed the relationship between practicing medical professionals and how they work with supply manufacturers/distributors, in profound ways. Instead of spending an inordinate amount of time attending classes, tradeshows, or relying solely on relationships with traditional dermatology supply distributors for useful product innovations and information, medical professionals and spa owners are now successfully utilizing e-commerce websites to help make enlightened purchasing decisions.
E-commerce websites have a substantial amount of free, easily obtained information that make the skin, hair and nail care products manufacturer’s costs more transparent to buyers. By using the Internet to locate e-commerce websites which reveal the true manufacturing costs of skin, hair and nail care supplies, medical professionals and spa owners utilize this technology to their advantage. E-commerce medical and spa product supply websites help these professionals easily assess whether or not the costs of items are consistent with the prices ultimately being charged.
Medical device and spa supply companies selling directly to consumers via the Internet provide doctors and spa owners with an efficient means for keeping their costs to a minimum. Not only does this purchasing option benefit the consumer, the supplier utilizes the efficiencies of Internet to shorten selling cycles, reduce transaction costs, and establish better communications with customers. As a result, client satisfaction improves; sales increase and profits are generated. Further, manufacturers selling medical instruments or skin, hair and nail care supplies through distributors use e-commerce to reduce their own purchasing costs. Communications with distributors improve and more direct communications with end users is established. Through the use of e-commerce technology, medical instruments manufacturers and distributors are expanding their existing capabilities and achieving high visibility within the global Internet marketplace.
