In the retail supply chain you have manufacturers who make products, distributors/wholesalers who ship and distribute the products, and retailers who sell the products to end consumers.  At each level there is a mark-up that affects the overall retail price of the product starting with a known cost price.  The retailer, for example, will generally price their products about 40-60% above their cost.  Each link in the chain orders product from...

In a recent post titled “Travel Agents Finding Relevance Amidst Web 2.0” I mentioned a site called Zicasso.com.  In the post I misspelled the domain and within a day I received a message from the CEO Brian Tan informing me of the error.  I corrected the mistake and thanked him for his attention to detail. Zicasso has garnered some impressive media coverage over the last few months, so  I contacted Brian and asked him about Zicasso...

I read an article today on Boston.com which I found really interesting.  Firstly, it confirmed something that I have been arguing for a long time, that travel agents can find relevance in the new age of on-line travel and secondly, despite what critics say, travel agents are not going to go away.  The article titled “With help from the Web, travel agents regain relevance” points out that there are new web 2.0 sites that are being...

It’s not very often that small travel agencies have any kind of advantage over their much larger and better funded counterparts, but when it comes to Social Media they have a distinct advantage.  Small agencies whether they have one employee or many tend to be better prepared to handle personal requests and offer one on one service.  Large agencies, especially OTAs, are generally more focused on volume and, although many have excellent...

An interesting article was posted by Travelmole.com today that strongly support my view that travel agents need to differentiate themselves by focusing on a niche and providing value added services. The article titled “Travel agents seek supplier support” states that: “A staggering 94% of agents who were concerned with supplier relationships and 79% of travel agents concerned with profit margins said they already had or were...