When the franchise model was drawn up and first implemented, the Internet did not exist yet. In that light, some good and fascinating questions to ask include how the Web can and will change franchise businesses, and, what new models will evolve in the online/offline scenario. Some may believe that online commerce and innovative new tools such as PayPal can only expand business practices and options - and yet obviously traditionalists who privilege brick-and-mortar operations indeed may feel threatened by new media.
In many respects the logic of franchising per se is highly compatible with emerging online marketing practices.
Familiar Products in a New Setting
What we're seeing today is a massive transition as conventional products and services migrate onto the Web, and their business practices adapt. This case would provide the least trouble for traditional business owners who hop onto the Internet bandwagon. For example, they may take an approach as simple as offering products and services through a Web site and giving customers at least one extra payment gateway like PayPal.
Other businesses (including ones that are franchised and licensed) that venture onto the Web may require more extensive translation and conversion of products and services as well as additional financial transaction tools. To use an example that has seen explosive growth over the past decade worldwide: land-based casinos have updated their offerings so that they are accessible online. This obviously meant that table games and slots needed to be adapted to the Web medium. Banking for players (while satisfying all the necessary legalities) were of special concern. Everything has become so streamlined that nowadays, for example, slots sites that accept paypal are abundant worldwide. The software systems for casino gaming can be licensed in a white label format for each new casino brand, which represents an innovative franchise-like opportunity that both large companies and mom-and-pop startups have been using to great commercial advantage.
Discovering Online Products & Services
The online marketplace is like a vast, unlimited business frontier. The constant march of invention and innovation continues; and yet of course it is being energized particularly by online culture. Particularly, the Web fosters the creation of unusual and unfamiliar service models and sales pipes for products, taking advantage of the contemporary reality in which customers can be counted upon to have mobile devices with Web access, which aid them in their consumer actions.
Something like paypal slots enables people who do not live near land-based casinos to play the games nonetheless. On the other hand, obviously a large number of casinos' members have discovered this form of entertainment as a Web-based service and they may never have the opportunity to patronize a brick-and-mortar casino at all. The industry is so robust at this point that all manner of slots guides exist that usher players toward their best options and deals. This is only one example among countless other forms of new business opportunities getting unlocked by the Internet, and under the circumstances franchises especially stand to expand significantly.
