Pettah region is one of the most vibrant,
competitive and crowded market place which spread out among the streets such as
1st Cross Street, 2nd Cross Street, 3rd Cross Street, 4th Cross Street & 5th
Cross Street, Keyzer Street, Prince Street, Maliban Street etc. Even though it
was prohibited to doing business as street sellers, still there are number of
sellers who sell colourful textiles , batteries, electrical goods, footwear,
various gadgets, machines and equipments,
foods and other necessities of everyday life.
According
to the observations most of those sellers are ready to replace or move their
business activities from place to place and some are not willing to do so since
they have selected ideal places to conduct their businesses without
interrupting the street walkers and vehicles. The sellers who are moving their
business from place to place are very quick and highly responsive to wind up their
businesses when policemen are walking towards them. They know that conducting
such business is prohibited; therefore they have limited their business
platform to 30cm × 40cm (Maximum) space which has build upon a cardboard box or
carpet.
Most of the street sellers are charge very low
price for the products and frequently those are less in quality. Those sellers
are using high aggressive personal selling approach without thinking the
customer’s social status, gender, age etc. According to the observations if one
particular customer just waits to observe or touch a product definitely sellers
force to buy it. From their personal experience they were able to identify
whether the customer is new to this market or not. Some of the customers reject
to buy due to price mismatch and sellers do not reluctant to reduce 35 or 40
percent of product price as their ultimate effort to sell the product.
These sellers are
shouting about their product prices, quality as well as highly emphasize that
their products were imported from foreign to increase sales. Some of sellers
have used to use tape recorders to do their marketing activities without
shouting all over the day. Some of the sellers suggest to returning their
products back if those are not working well and this will capture the minds of
customers who were at 1st time in there. But most of the time those
are become broken promises since they were do not hesitate to blame or reject
such customers who were coming back. Some sellers used personally paid people
as their real customers to mislead actual customers to show their products are cheap
and better to purchase. Real customers are motivated through this strategy and
be hurry to purchase without thinking twice.
These street sellers are
not stagnant in to selling one type of product. Simply most of them move from
selling one product to another product according to the market needs and their
supplier’s requirements which comes from Colombo harbor. Sellers are working
collaboratively with their neighbor sellers and they transfer the authority of
handling own business to others when they required to engage their other
personal activities other than doing business. Fixed Shop owners are also supporting
to conduct their business in front of the shops as well as work as piggy backing
(Provide space and support) too.
This article is based on
personal research findings which were concluded by using personal observations in
Pettah region (Outer fort or Sinhalese called Pitta-Kottuwa). It
addressed to provide an explanation on various marketing efforts and business
practices of street sellers.
