As the year comes to a close, the time for holiday shopping is finally upon us. With days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday falling in that period, some say it’s the busiest time for anyone in the retail industry. While shoppers look for good deals on their favourite products, retailers scramble to meet the consist demand. For shoppers, they look for the shops that will provide them what them the quality products they want without needing to break the bank.
Does this sound familiar? It’s because from the outset, there a few parallels between working with an offshore team and getting your holiday shopping done. If you’ve been thinking about how you can benefit from offshoring, you can look at it from a different perspective as you do your yearly holiday shopping.
Holiday Shopping Savings
When you think about holiday shopping, it often relates to all sorts of bargains and sales. It’s not uncommon to see merchants touting upcoming sales for shoppers with very enticing deals. Products you could normally buy in the year have now just become easier to get while still retaining their quality.
Think about how that relates to what makes offshoring an attractive business model for many. Successful companies that have offshored say the cost savings they incur is pivotal. By working closely with an offshore team, they see the quality of work does not diminish despite costing less than it would to hire locally.
The Name of the Game is Deals
You see those comfortable socks? How about that brand new laptop? Or even that shiny set of cooking knives? The deals and sales during holiday shopping season are plentiful and diverse. We often think that typically expensive items – like electronics and major appliances – are what companies put on sale. However, if you know where to look, you can find just about anything that’s on sale for reasonable, lower price. Even things you wouldn’t expect will be on sale during the holiday season!
Shoppers can buy just about anything on sale during the holidays.
Just like these sales, the roles and functions that companies can offshore are also plentiful and diverse. Though once limited to voice and support roles, current technologies have allowed for more flexibility with offshored roles. We’re seeing more companies today explore the different functions they can send to an offshore team. Graphic artists, accountants, even full marketing teams are just some of these roles that companies have sent offshore.
The Online Advantage
Holiday shopping is often associated with being a tumultuous, often chaotic time. In movies, television or newspaper photos, we often see shoppers waiting to bust down doors, ready to run towards their favourite stores. They run past other shoppers so they can buy what they’re after at a lowered price before they run out of stock. While still a common occurrence during this season, it’s much less prevalent now thanks to online shopping. The convenience and ease that online shopping brings not only shows a shift in preference among consumers but allows for more companies to also participate in sales.
More shoppers are embracing the convenience of online shopping.
Indeed, companies are finding a much larger audience when they take their business online. Not just listed companies, but even mid-sized businesses are finding success. They’re able to do this through leveraging an offshore team that helps alleviate some low or mid-level functions they may have. This, in turn, allows them to put more emphasis on local efforts that bring about growth and more opportunities.
Taking Advantage of the Season
With all that people hear about holiday shopping, there are those that choose to sit it out. The reason being that the effort to shop is often not worth the lines or disappointment. For those that engage in it, however, notice their fellow shoppers taking advantage of deals that will ease their holiday shopping. It often feels like if they’re not taking advantage of these deals, then it’s likely someone else will.
Choosing to adopt an offshoring is just like that. It’s understandable that people feel hesitant and unsure about it, which prevents them from strongly considering it. Those that are on the fence about it however often need to be encouraged how it can benefit them. After all, if they haven’t adapted or even considered offshoring, there’s a chance their competitors already have.
‘Tis The Season
At their cores, both offshoring and holiday shopping are about savings without reducing the quality of the product. Their biggest difference however is, while the holiday shopping season happens towards the end of the year, the window to start offshoring is much bigger.
As an approach that helps shapes business trends, saying that companies can (and should) offshore “now” might be an understatement. Companies that want to start their offshoring journey today need not look any further than HGS. We remained committed to hiring the best and brightest for your offshoring team, while not needing to spend as much as you would locally. If you’re ready to do a little holiday shopping yourself to prepare for the New Year, reach out to us today to get started.
