At Project Grit we combined several commerce platforms unified into one platform with the goal helping retails simplify Multi Channel interactions to Omni to them drive more consumers to find, and purchase their goods that they are seeking, but not getting due to all noise.
Understanding the significance of Project Grit and its vision for Retail Commerce only becomes complex because of the vast terminology used to explain, and articulate the different types of commerce outlets.
However, when articulated properly, our team found that prospective parties seamlessly understand the technological pre reqs and processes even if they are not a technological or process oriented person.
For the purpose of explaining the history, I’ve organized this recap of Project Grit into three parent sections, and believe this covers the entire retail commerce sector regardless if it’s online, and offline.
These sections are:
- Marketplace Commerce
- Social Commerce
- Meta Commerce
Before explaining the ways which Project Grit expanded its operations, it is helpful to understand the definitions of each parent commerce category. Each of the following explanations are true regardless if operating online through digital networks or offline through physical networks.
MARKETPLACE COMMERCE
A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. Wherever you login or visit a direct location to purchase more than one item, that place is considered a marketplace.
To optimally drive sales through marketplace commerce requires a comprehensive list of analytics. To acquire these analytics, a product or service generally needs to reach certain milestones, which overtime becomes its benchmark required in order to maintain sales.
The most common benchmark for marketplace commerce typically starts with the total number of visitors, which is why it is common to hear places like Target, Walmart, Amazon and other centralized marketplace bolster their total number of visitors.
SOCIAL COMMERCE
The support of social interaction, and user contributions to assist buying and selling of products and services. More sounding, social commerce is the use of social networks, personal groups, clubs, ambassadors, and more to inform, educate and influence the sale of products and services.
To generate sales through social commerce requires a comprehensive user promotions process. Generally speaking, it is done through peer interaction such as ambassadors, leaders, influencers and or anyone with direct connection to social groups.
The most common form of social commerce is influencer marketing performed through social networking sites. However, influencer marketing can be performed in many different ways such as spotify podcasts, door knocking and can be as simple as a person standing on a corner talking to people.
META COMMERCE
The process of collecting information from various sources with the goal of matching the information to groups of people whose behavior and habits are relatable. In this way, the product or services spreads awareness by displaying, connecting, and informing people who may relate to a certain product and services.
Indirectly answering questions or showing a product or service to a group or crowd during a break can be referred to as meta commerce. When it’s happening, you might not realize it, because the goal is to be very meta, which means subtle.
The most common form of meta commerce can be found throughout the branding sector through the use of video, managizes, celebrities, athletes and artists of all kinds. For example, let’s say that you are tailor, and you want to sell capes on top of your tailor service. I might suggest you display your capes to Harry Potter enthusiasts because everyone in Harry Potter wears tailored capes.
About Project Grit
Project Grit combined several systems, workflows, equipment, commerce platforms, and more into one ecosystem aimed around niche goods.
These are simple yet niche important goods such as a nebulizer machine for people who have asthma, a habit tracker for people who have unbearable habits they wish to diminish or even as simple as an eye massager for people longing to relieve pain, but naturally.
The problem Grit solved for its Client was that there is a lot of unneeded complexity in transferring best practices from traditional retail commerce to tech-driven cloud-based systems. Solving this complexity would require extensive resources and a lot of capital that are not reasonable for a general compact good product owner. To byway this problem, clients would come Grit.
Where did the complexity come from? It originated from clutter. So much clutter to the point retail commerce has become a world of countless languages that few new and existing retailers understand.
Reasons like this are why I have organized Project Grit into three parent sections, and I believe it covers the entire retail commerce sector regardless if the network is online or offline.
- Marketplace Commerce
- Social Commerce
- Meta Commerce
So what happens if a retailer continued without a system like Grit?
Generally speaking, retailers are overspending on advertising, management, and even procurement with the hope of having an easier time selling. Unfortunately, this is very linear thinking because the cause and effect observed from this require a higher minimum selling price.
Guess who pays for this? we, you, and I, the consumers. On the consumer side, they’re the ones paying the price by purchasing overly priced items due to these unsolved complexity arriving from the commerce side. Reason like this is why you see a brand selling a simple blanket for $100.00. They are attempting to account for all the unsolved complexity by driving the price up to gain a sale.
Even more so, the consumer rarely is able to purchase what they desire or need because items that might be of interest cannot afford to enter the market due to its average selling price being lower than the markets top dollar prices that are required due to the unsolved complexity.
How did grit solve the problem?
Grit centralized Retail Commerce into one platform that operates off decentralized tactics. Co-operating the platform on behalf of compact retailers lowers the overhead fees, optimizes the supply chain process, provides distribution channels more offerings, and delights the consumer.
Combining all of this into one formal way of operating enable a sound infrastructure cable of offering economy prices for goods while remaining profitable.
For the company, it opens a wide range of income streams.
In 2022, I left Grit to launch ByWay, an Alternative commerce ecosystem as a platform that is 100% transparent. ByWay is a commerce tech marketpalce that provides commerce solutions as back office platforms for anyone, and a marketplace connects everyone.
