Retail is Gone, keep moving forward PM

[Naepalm]

Public service announcement...LOL 🙂 

I think a really wise move for Public Mobile would be to completely end retail, open a few self serve kiosks in a few metro hot spots. Where you can buy a SIM card and it gives you instructions on how to get to their website. 

Brick and mortar are dead, to be honest. If Public invested the money that they spent at their retail locations into their existing customer base. Having more promotional periods. Higher data plans etc. Profit would increase, customer satisfaction would increase and operational cost would decrease. Some of the most successful businesses run a majority of their business online. Look at the financial sector where EQBANK is only Online and can offer 2.45% interest for a savings account. This flies in the face of the big banks that can offer0.02% Why because they have no brick and mortar. Publick is 90% there. I know that is a bank example but still. And now in this Corona Virus time, the online locations are doing fine while brick and mortar have to pay rent to a store that has no customers coming to it. 

You can tell by even the amount of posts in this Retail forum that its not relevant.

My two cents, thoughts?

[darlicious]

@Naepalm 

I am a shining example of the need for retail locations for a large segment of the population that would never consider public mobile as their mobile provider. I stumbled across public mobile one day and i had...had it with expensive phone bills. It was the bf's bill with fido that put me over the edge. Being functionally computer illiterate if there hadnt been the easily accessible activations at london drugs i would have never switched. But once I did...well actually with two weeks of camping in between....i set up my self serve account and joined the community. I dove in head first and well the rest is history.....

[totalUser]

@Naepalm 

I think we should play it now when we wait for mod response:)

[Naepalm]

@Luddite wow you are an OG! 

Amazing ! Im originally from Sudbury, cool to hear northern city names. 

[Naepalm]

@totalUser wow that music is amazing! 

[Luddite]

@totalUser Awe the old days. I waited until spring 2015 for a Telus iPhone plan to finish then moved over. By then I was required to formally agree to getting tech support only online and go on a 3 month waiting list for a SIM!!!! 🤓

Fall 2014 I convinced a friend in North Bay to transfer using a store near me - it was quite the adventure trying to port his BELL number that only ended when a PM tech remember those old Bell accounts would only recognize addresses entered as all caps! That store rep was incredibly patient.

[totalUser]

@Luddite 

Long time ago pm had stores with frequently long lines of people paying with cash - the phones and plans were affordable enough for people who couldn't get credit cards. They even used to offer credit, when you called 611 you would press 1 for credit and 2 for mobile, there was a very pleasant tune with acoustic guitar in background. When I came back I went straight for public mobile but I was surprised how much it changed. I liked it then and I like it now. 

https://youtu.be/sI2X-4UOzek 

[Naepalm]

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@BenjaminQC wrote:

"Retail is dead" is a strong statement, as e-commerce accounts for less than 10% of retail sales in Canada (https://www.invespcro.com/blog/global-online-retail-spending-statistics-and-trends/). The trend points towards death of retail, but we aren't there yet I think. Plus, before joining, I knew nobody who was with Public Mobile, so I was hesitant to switch, but having a retail location that can set it up for you is a plus. As other people said, it is also a big plus for less tech savvy people who want to join! And let's not forget that the lowest price tier plans are especially attracting for less tech savvy people who don't use a ton of data. IMHO

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I totally understand what you are saying. My comment on retail being dead would speak more to my dramatic nature of bringing a point across. LOL I get the hesitancy as well I just switched this week but I looked into Public asked around for a week or so. Even in my search, no one had heard of it, which was a bit concerning to me. The linchpin was that my sister had been on Public for a year and she vouched for it. A good old fashion way of marketing, word of mouth.

Thanks for the reply @BenjaminQC 

[Naepalm]

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@will13am wrote:

@Naepalm , where were you 3 years ago when Public Mobile was still 100% online?  From a marketing perspective, I believe the online model ran its course.  After working with retail partners, sales have gone up a lot.  As expensive and inefficient as retail may be, it is hard to knock success.  I do agree with your comment that the current social distancing and shutting down of retail will present all carrier brands a chance to reflect on the strengths of the online model.  Over time, people do learn to be more savvy with phone hardware and the need for full service will wane.  Think self serve gas stations.  Crucially, carrier brand phones are no longer the only game in town.  

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@will13am  To answer your question about where was I, I first want to explain my thoughts on the retail subject a bit, so bear with me...ha-ha

We need to note that the landscape of the internet has changed drastically since 2015 right. From how they push adds, even if you look at Facebook now. In 2015 you would never have seen ads targeting you for what you look at. I had never heard of Public. After I bought a SIM card all of a sudden I am getting inundated with ad's about Public... not really all that strange today, but in 2015 that would not have happened. 

Further to your question about where was I, I didn't even know about Public Mobile. I am active online and have been since the early 2000s, so my best deduction of that would be their marketing budget was low and advertising for Public Mobile was nowhere to be found. I can say that weekly if not daily I am inundated with advertisements from the likes of other companies. Koodo, Fido, Rogers, Bell, Telus, Freedom. Yet I had never heard of Public. And I am not the only one, any of my friends right now I tell about Public respond, "Who is Public, are they new?" 

But yes you are right it seems to me that even without this advertising they have been successful. My surprise is they are not more successful. Now that I am on Public all I want to do is get all my friends on it because of the great savings that they can have and because of this great community. 

Thanks for the response truly love the discussion boards here! 

Cheers

[BenjaminQC]

"Retail is dead" is a strong statement, as e-commerce accounts for less than 10% of retail sales in Canada (https://www.invespcro.com/blog/global-online-retail-spending-statistics-and-trends/). The trend points towards death of retail, but we aren't there yet I think. Plus, before joining, I knew nobody who was with Public Mobile, so I was hesitant to switch, but having a retail location that can set it up for you is a plus. As other people said, it is also a big plus for less tech savvy people who want to join! And let's not forget that the lowest price tier plans are especially attracting for less tech savvy people who don't use a ton of data. IMHO

[will13am]

@Naepalm , where were you 3 years ago when Public Mobile was still 100% online?  From a marketing perspective, I believe the online model ran its course.  After working with retail partners, sales have gone up a lot.  As expensive and inefficient as retail may be, it is hard to knock success.  I do agree with your comment that the current social distancing and shutting down of retail will present all carrier brands a chance to reflect on the strengths of the online model.  Over time, people do learn to be more savvy with phone hardware and the need for full service will wane.  Think self serve gas stations.  Crucially, carrier brand phones are no longer the only game in town.  

[hairbag1]

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@Naepalm wrote:

Always thinking forward, yeah I totally understand don't try to fix something that isn't broken.

But, I came from a business perspective that was always trying to stay one step ahead. Not that my suggestion is earth-shattering and maybe like @Luddite suggested it was already done, and they are not going back. It's just interesting because you can hear of so much retail going under because of the cost of rent and operational cost to have a building. Toy's R Us, Blockbuster, Sears I'm sure we could name so many more. 

Just throwing out a suggestion. I guess for the foreseeable future they will be all online now anyway because of COVID-19

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Keep coming up with great ideas, @Naepalm ...you may just come up with the next big thing. The world of commerce is moving at such a fast pace...who'da thunk we'd see the end of Sears Canada or the other long time establishments that we took for granted in our youth. It's business visionary's like you who stand to bring the future ideas into focus.

[Naepalm]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@Naepalm wrote:

Always thinking forward, yeah I totally understand don't try to fix something that isn't broken.

But, I came from a business perspective that was always trying to stay one step ahead. Not that my suggestion is earth-shattering and maybe like @Luddite suggested it was already done, and they are not going back. It's just interesting because you can hear of so much retail going under because of the cost of rent and operational cost to have a building. Toy's R Us, Blockbuster, Sears I'm sure we could name so many more. 

Just throwing out a suggestion. I guess for the foreseeable future they will be all online now anyway because of COVID-19

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@Naepalm now time for me to play devils, advocate.  In your other thread, you are asking if PM considered selling phones with sim cards in them because of the people who are not technologically "gifted" yet this thread will go the other way and suggest taking away any retail support that is out there for these people?  Besides a few retail Kiosks, the others are all third party providers and no additional cost to PM so no need to close those.  I guess the kiosks now are 2 years old?  I can't remember exactly when they started opening again.

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That is interesting about the no additional cost, "Besides a few retail Kiosks, the others are all third party providers and no additional cost to PM so no need to close those."

I think you are bang on though in seeing my two posts. They play off each other really. If there are phones available for those that are not comfortable then there wouldn't need to be kiosks. But, if there are no kiosks and no phones then this presents a second problem LOL. It would be interesting to see the demographic that uses Public Mobile? Is it the 20 - 40-year-olds, young teens? 

Please don't take any of the suggestions I made in a way that sounds like I'm saying PM isn't doing things right. I was just throwing ideas out. 😉 

Thanks for the interaction with it though. 

[ShawnC13]

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@Naepalm wrote:

Always thinking forward, yeah I totally understand don't try to fix something that isn't broken.

But, I came from a business perspective that was always trying to stay one step ahead. Not that my suggestion is earth-shattering and maybe like @Luddite suggested it was already done, and they are not going back. It's just interesting because you can hear of so much retail going under because of the cost of rent and operational cost to have a building. Toy's R Us, Blockbuster, Sears I'm sure we could name so many more. 

Just throwing out a suggestion. I guess for the foreseeable future they will be all online now anyway because of COVID-19

---

@Naepalm now time for me to play devils, advocate.  In your other thread, you are asking if PM considered selling phones with sim cards in them because of the people who are not technologically "gifted" yet this thread will go the other way and suggest taking away any retail support that is out there for these people?  Besides a few retail Kiosks, the others are all third party providers and no additional cost to PM so no need to close those.  I guess the kiosks now are 2 years old?  I can't remember exactly when they started opening again.

[Naepalm]

Always thinking forward, yeah I totally understand don't try to fix something that isn't broken.

But, I came from a business perspective that was always trying to stay one step ahead. Not that my suggestion is earth-shattering and maybe like @Luddite suggested it was already done, and they are not going back. It's just interesting because you can hear of so much retail going under because of the cost of rent and operational cost to have a building. Toy's R Us, Blockbuster, Sears I'm sure we could name so many more. 

Just throwing out a suggestion. I guess for the foreseeable future they will be all online now anyway because of COVID-19

[Luddite · Accepted solution]

PM was initially online only and elected to use retail. This horse has left the barn, and the door has been closed. 😢

[mpcdesign]

@Naepalm, they already are doing this. They have small kiosks (literally on wheels) hence, the name Public Mobile. They play on the name and I thought Marketing did an awesome concept in bringing the kiosks on mobile. 

I think Public Mobile is doing just fine, in my opinion. Why break something that is working just fine?