A Case Study on BioChannel Partner: How Can the Sales Turnover of BioChannel Partners’ Online Services Be Increased?

Purpose: BioChannel Partners Ltd. (BCP) is a premier supplier of company matchmaking services in the Life Science industry that assists laboratory product suppliers to increase their export sales by identifying the best possible distributors. The study focuses on increment of the sales turnover of BioChannel Partners’ on-line business. Design/methodology/approach: The research is conducted in two phases: primary research and secondary research. The objective of both phases is to identify the reasons for the low sales of BioChannel Partners’ online services. Secondary research represents the first part of the research phase and includes an internal and external analysis of the company. Primary research involves a thorough study of the feedback collected from the primary research to reveal problem areas. The other objective is analysing what should be done to increase the sales turnover of the on-line services of BCP. This involves making recommendations for improvement based on the suggestions gathered from the customers directly through in-depth telephone interviews and online surveys. Findings: The results of the research phase have identified four major problem areas. First, there are prevailing customer habits of selecting distributors on a personal level via references and networking. Second, BCP’s on-line service Silver does not attract customers due to less value for money. Third, BCP only makes use of few market research to adjust product and pricing to customer preferences. Fourth, the benefits of the on-line services are not clearly communicated, whereas the web design confuses the issue even more. Originality/value: This paper provides BCP with a guideline to address its problems and increase its sales turnover by attracting and retaining more customers. These recommendations are relevant for most companies in this industry and can be utilised to improve the functioning of the organization.