Ecommerce (which means, if you’re in any doubt, buying and selling things through a web site or catalogue) can be a solution to the commonest of all problems – how do I get more sales? On the other hand, it can also be a part of the issue that you were trying to solve in the first place – that of the downward sales curve.
How can it be both?
It can be a solution only if you promote your new capability.
We’ve dealt with companies who sit back and wait when their new, ecommerce-enabled, site goes live. Google, they tell us, will do everything. Pretty soon, they’re back. How can I get my site up the ratings? And we have to tell them the basics of web wisdom – that a web site is (or should be) more like a magazine than a annual brochure; that a web site needs to be promoted if you are going to get traffic; that quality of service, quality of product, quality of communications are essential parts of the marketing mix.
If they listen (and invest too, as though this was a new branch of their operation), then ecommerce starts to become the solution they were looking for. They worry about it every morning. They check the statistics every day. If trends go the wrong way, then they do something about that.
If they don’t. it’s just a waste of money, time and effort, and in the end, that waste will drag a company down.
There are so many things that companies can do with and through the web these days. Don’t miss that opportunity.
