How a brand can stand out in a competitive marketplace

Sam Whittaker, marketing manager of World Options, explains how its franchise department works hard to remain competitive and position itself as a leading name for franchise opportunities

With so many different franchise models available today, it can be difficult to make your brand stand out amongst competitors – especially when there are global companies such as Amazon. In order to stand out, you need to ensure your franchise model and overall offering is unique and adapted to meet the needs of prospective franchisees. 

As the pandemic has caused a shift in working attitudes and people’s demands, it’s become more crucial than ever to feed into this. Flexibility and a career that complements people’s lives, rather than takes over it, is at the top of many people’s list of priorities. Therefore, working this into your franchise model can be a great way to make your brand stand out and appeal to those wanting to start their own business. 

Sam Whittaker, marketing manager of World Options, explains how its franchise department works hard to remain competitive and position itself as a leading name for franchise opportunities. 

How can you remain competitive in an ever-changing market?

Any franchise model that involves e-commerce is a highly competitive industry, making it crucial that you continue to innovate your services and make the benefits of joining your franchise clear. I suggest doing this by: 

Shouting about success
One of the main things any company offering a franchise model can do to stand out is shout about its successes. This immediately shows the growth opportunities your brand has available. We ensure that we clearly show the value and benefits of joining World Options as a franchise owner by sharing stories of our successful franchisees, offering great development opportunities and constant support for growth. We also appeal to a large audience by showcasing how diverse our franchisees are. 

Building strong relationships
We believe in building strong relationships with your franchise owners and feel it’s key they do the same in order to succeed – larger companies such as Amazon don’t always have the time to put that same level of commitment into this. Our approach is very human-led and built on connection. We are invested in providing world-class support to the people behind the brand, and we make this very clear from the beginning. 

Providing valuable marketing materials
Ensuring your franchisees have all the tools required to succeed is essential. Think about how you can aid their success and help them have an advantage over competitors by having strong marketing training and tools available so they are able to easily promote their own business and understand how to drive it forward. 

What makes the World Options franchise model attractive?

We have assisted thousands of clients by providing world-class shipping solutions and exclusive shipping rates from a number of leading couriers. Our approach has helped us gain and maintain a strong client base who trust us and believe in what we do. 

No hidden costs
World Options offers a transparent price structure which means there are no hidden costs for people wanting to become a franchisee. Once you invest in your World Options franchise, you will be ready to get started with nothing more than a laptop and phone. 

Flexibility and non-exclusive franchises
Many other franchise opportunities require you to work in a certain location which can be restrictive when it comes to expanding your business. World Options makes it as easy as possible to expand your customer base and grow your business as a franchise owner by offering franchise owners a non-exclusive franchise. This means there are no geographical restrictions on where your customers can be based allowing our franchise owners to work flexibly and create a wide, diverse customer base. 

Unrivalled support for growth
World Options offers all franchise owners unrivalled assistance and development opportunities. We provide all our franchisees with extensive in-person sales and business training to help ensure you have the tools necessary to be successful, as many franchisees may not have run their own business before. 

In your initial 12 months of starting your franchise business, you will receive access to a sales and development mentor who will be able to help guide you through the process of setting up your first successful franchise.

We understand that everyone’s needs are different, and that is why all our franchise owners have access to ongoing carrier and product training to ensure they have the tools required to best help their customers.

Innovative technology
One great way to keep your franchise model current and streamline your inner ways of working is to enhance your technology. Outdated programmes and software can slow down your business and waste valuable time, putting you behind larger companies. 

Investing in technology that enhances your franchise offering will not only benefit franchisees by improving their way of working but will also put your brand ahead of the competition. Our cutting edge shipping integration software has been a favourable solution for many small and large businesses with e-commerce platforms. 

We pride ourselves on producing technology that is simple to use, yet effective and efficient in getting the job done. With a streamlined process and management system, you can truly focus on what’s important – growing your business to be the best it can be. 

Simplicity at its finest
World Options provides a non-asset-based franchise, meaning that all you need to form a World Options franchise and make the most of what we offer is a computer and a phone, as our portal is all done online. This makes us an affordable and accessible solution to many e-commerce traders at all different levels of success. 

For example, if you were to use Amazon to sell your products, you would need assets such as offices, vans, and scanners. We save our clients time and money by allowing them to continue as normal whilst simply improving their shipping solutions and processes.

Our franchise in detail
We are a non-geographical business, meaning that not only can we target those looking to set up businesses in the UK, but franchisees themselves can target small- to medium-sized enterprises anywhere in the world.

We’re very clear and transparent in how our franchise model operates and this is confirmed through our full bfa membership. We show prospect franchisees the full business model and outline the ongoing support and resources that they can access around the clock. 

This differs from other franchise models, as they would often be left to start up the businesses themselves with little support or mentoring if any. Taking on franchisees is something we consider very seriously, so we provide as much support and information about the process as possible so that we can invest in those who are serious about success.

What’s more important than the customers we have gained is the customers we retain. This is due to the unrivalled help and support features that we have in place. Things like real-time tracking or reporting set us apart from the likes of other courier franchises. Franchisees have access to in-house help to assist them in providing the best services possible.

The author

Sam Whittaker is the marketing manager of World Options.