An Introduction to our InfographicThis is the first part in a nine part series positioning Basketsgalore within the ultra competitive online market for gift baskets and hampers when looking at the industry from an online domestic British perspective.We know that many of our customers run small businesses or want to support them.  We think it might be of interest in critically assessing competitive environments.  If you want us to look at your business in a similar fashion then let us know and we’ll do it honestly and objectively with links out to you only. If you’re looking for a Christmas Hamper this year, use this infographic to take a look at our competition and compare them to us.  If you don’t think we’re better than them, then hopefully the infographic and our series of newsletters will have led you to a product worth buying.The following infographic is our current take on the industry we operate within.In any retail market there will usually be one to three Generalists with a forth sometimes possible in extremely competitive industries.  After this there are the product specialists, ie bakers, fruiters, butchers.  Then there are Market Specialists wholly dedicated to creating the perfect experience for the product you seek and understanding that the experience is more than just the product itself.The general idea behind retail is that if you are not one of the generalists, then it is acceptable to be smaller and specialise in a certain market or product, so long as you have a significantly large market segment.This is a key element in helping to understand how Department stores grew and evolved in popularity and it still governs their strategy.  However, it is in the area of fulfilment where the real growth is occuring and is of particular interest to our society as big businesses get bigger.Over the next 8 weeks, we will be looking at how the competitive environment shapes our product offering in comparison to our rivals.We’re going to look at how we compete with companies in our industry in the following order:Basketsgalore (BG) v AdvertisersBG v GeneralistsBG v FulfillmentBG v AmazonBG v Department StoresBG v Market SpecialistsBG v Product SpecialistsFinal Summary ConclusionsSo what type of a business are we? How do we perceive ourselves?  Well we started off being pure product specialists, evolved into being market specialists and for a short period of time were probably perceived as a generalist.  However that’s looking at things scientifically - what we really are is simply a small family business, which started from our Mother’s garage and are determined to deliver the greatest and most imaginative gift baskets and hampers in the world to your friends and family.We love competition, it’s what makes us strive to be better and understanding our position helps us to define our products better for our customers.  We hope you enjoy this series and find it interesting.  Please let us know your thoughts.