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The Future of E-CommerceSep 10 '00 Write an essay on this topic.These days it seems like everyone is building an online store. Can you blame them? With merchant companies (and those pesky resellers and wannabe's that keep spamming me on a daily basis) tossing around billion dollar figures, making claims of increasing your business by 300%, and saying that e-commerce is going to replace traditional stores within a matter of a few years, it's no wonder people are hyped about getting their business online. But do you really believe all of that? Let's get something straight. E-Commerce is *NOT* going to replace traditional stores any time soon. Large corporation stores like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, CompUSA, Toys-R-Us, etc. aren't going anywhere. But in my opinion they're definitely going about E-Commerce the wrong way. Why are companies that have a store in every zip code missing the boat on E-Commerce? Because they, like you, have been lead to believe that "all is fair" in an Internet market by self-proclaimed "experts" in the industry. So they did what everyone else did: Had a web site designed, put their products online, and started shipping them out. Some corporate retailers allow the customer to select their closest store and pick up the item from there, after they've bought it online. What's funny is that they word it in such a way that makes people say "Wow, I don't have to wait for shipping, I can just pick it up at my local store!". Now think about that for a minute - how much sense does that make? If I wanted to go to the store, I wouldn't have wasted my time going online and making the purchase knowing I had to go to the store anyway to pick it up. Here's what the retailers need to do: GET VANS! Put a delivery van at every 1 out of 3 stores to start. Add more vans as necessary. Then you hire a couple drivers for a full time position. I'm talking about having the delivery service run after store hours too - at least until midnight. This way when the consumer makes a purchase from the big chain store's web site instead of having to wait for their products to be shipped or having to pick them up, the products are delivered to their door within 24 hours. Furniture stores seem to have this concept down, yet why are they the only ones? How cool would that be? Let's pretend, for the sake of my example, that the retailers could actually coordinate this project well enough to pull it off. Let's say I wanted a new home entertainment center. I surf to the retailers web site, compare the products, select the one I want, and place my order. Within *10 minutes* I get a phone call asking when it would be a good time to deliver my order. If I placed my order early enough, they could possibly come out the same day. Not only would they come out to deliver my new entertainment center, but a couple of knowledgeable installers would accompany them and set everything up for me. Would I have to pay extra for this service? Probably - but I wouldn't mind a bit, because convenience is worth the extra price. What if I had done it myself, put everything in my own truck and gotten it home, hooked it all up, and for some reason the TV wasn't showing a clear picture. Broken. I'd have to unhook everything, put it back in the box, take it back, wait while they examine it to make sure I'm not keeping the remote control, then give me a new one and go home and start over. Had they delivered the product to me, that would be their problem - the only thing I would have to do is wait until they came back. Which, by the way, is another reason a lot of companies - not just large ones - are missing the boat on e-commerce. Having the lowest price doesn't necessarily mean you're going to make the sale. Let's say your web site sells computer parts, and let's say I'm in the market for a new hard drive. Now - my local computer store has this particular hard drive for $150. You sell it on your web site for $130. Am I going to buy it from you? Not a chance. It's more convenient to get it locally, I'll have it in my hands and can begin using it immediately, and if something goes wrong with it I can have it replaced within a matter of hours, not days. So what's the cut-off? There isn't one. There is no percentage or dollar figure that sets the limit on the kind of savings that justify an Internet purchase. It depends on the product, the price, the company selling it, the convenience, and the buyer's mood. Sure, there are plenty of people out there so insistent on saving a buck, that they'll order online and wait 6 weeks for shipping to save $3 vs. buying it locally. [What? It's $24.99 at my local store and here it's only $21.99! OH BOY!] Then they laugh to themselves about what a great deal they got. Hey man, whatever makes you happy. Anyway, the point is that in order to be successful in e-commerce you need to be CONVENIENT, not just have the best price. The big chain stores have that advantage, yet they're not exploiting it properly. Maybe one of them will read this and figure it out. If that happens, I'll gladly take any charitable donations for giving you such an obvious idea. E-Mail me for info... I accept cash, checks, and all major credit cards. Don't kid yourself about E-Commerce replacing traditional commerce. And remember, marketing is everything. You CAN compete with the big guys! Right now, they don't know what they're doing on the web. This is obvious. Put some of your money into marketing. You don't even have to spend a lot. You can have the best looking web site, the best prices, the most convenient RMA's, and the fastest delivery, but it's all worthless if nobody finds out about you. The Internet gives web site owners the ability to advertise to a specific demographic. 50 hits from TARGETED customers is better than 50,000 hits from people who aren't interested. It would be stupid for a used farm equipment dealer to advertise on the Mercedes-Benz web site, even though their site gets several thousand viewers today. Use common sense when you advertise: Figure out where your market is, and target those people accordingly. Don't assume that everyone is going to be interested in your product. Keep your web site simple, yet effective. Avoid pop-up advertisements and outrageous colors. Like I said .. common sense. Good Luck, *Ron  |
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by texas-swede
by dandj
by kairosdreaming
