Forum Archive Index - June 2000

["Wedde, John" <john.wedde@cit.ac.nz>]

Good points Phil.
I agree with what you say. E Commerce is here to stay, and Business to
Consumer stuff will happen more and more often and more and more
effectively.
Some things will always sell better over the net than others however.
Software that is downloaded electronically and requires no physical delivery
springs to mind as ideal. Dare I say it but music, as well, once we are rid
of all the copyright problems, and eventually we will be, will sell very
well over the Net. Don't write of EStar [now trading on the unlisted board
at 23 cents]
Also, let me add a few anecdotal words about  Amazon. They didn't come off
too well in the recent survey that has been referred to by various media and
discussed in Sharechat.   I have purchased books from them that are of quite
a specific nature [in fact about sailing] that would not have been
obtainable "over the counter" in NZ. I opted to have them delivered via sea
freight and this took some weeks. This was not a concern to me. The freight
component of the total price was miniscule and the total price, including
freight, for 3 books  was, I estimate,  well under 50% of what these books
would have cost here, should they have been available. In this case I am a
very satisfied customer and will no doubt  "return"  to Amazon.
Cheers,
John




                -----Original Message-----
                From:   Phil Eriksen [mailto:phil@acepay.co.nz]
                Sent:   Friday, 23 June 2000 13:06
                To:     sharechat@sharechat.co.nz
                Subject:        Re: [sharechat] Flying Piggy

                ril wrote:
                  
                > What the internet doesn't deliver is what makes us human.
Contact. Not
                > contact through a computer but face to face. When people
purchase face
                > to face there are also subtleties. The attention one
receives when
                > handing over ones money for example. The wrapping of the
good. The
                > people around. The sitting in a cafe afterwards flicking
through the
                > purchase.

                The internet cannot currently deliver face to face contact,
so if that
                is what you really want, the internet is not for you.
However, when I
                go to a retail store, the real point of the face to face
contact is
                simple - to gain the information I need about the product I
am
                purchasing, and to gain the confidence that i'm purchasing
the product
                from the right place.

                The internet can't exactly replicate the retail store
experience - and
                it shouldn't try to.  What it can do, however, is offer the
shopper
                substantially more information, and ensure that this
information is top
                notch.  Every tried to purchase computer equipment from
certain large
                retailers?  I have - and sure, i can get all the face to
face contact I
                want - can't get any answers tho. 

                An example from my own business.  The product we sell
(admittedly to
                business users not consumers, but I believe the rules don't
change much)
                is sold direct, and also by dealers.  The support for it (ie
the
                information) can be gotten from a helpdesk, or face to face,
or from a
                third party.  The advantage of the internet is that when we
add or
                change something now, the day it is changed, it is
documented in full. 
                The new information is indexed to other relevant
information.  Chances
                are that documentation has been written by one of the owners
of the
                business.  To look back at my computer equipment example,
the "shopper",
                instead of relying on face-to-face contact with a part time
worker who
                doesn't care, is able to get all the information they need,
written by
                those who know the answers.

                From a business point of view, its a terribly efficient way
to do
                things.  Instead of dispensing the information one-to-one
10,000 times,
                it is available to any takers, 24 hours a day.  Our
traditional sources
                of info (helpdesk, dealers etc) are still there and are
helped by having
                the information source - an effective training manual.  The
face to face
                contact hasn't been eliminated - but if you are just wanting
the
                information, and nothing else, you can get it faster,
cheaper, and from
                the right source.  CEO's of businesses always talk about
"understanding
                customers" and "getting onto the groundfloor" thinking that
20 minutes a
                week on the phone achieves this - with the internet, a CEO
can literally
                communicate with all of his customers - direct.

                I believe that currently, a comparison between traditional
retail and
                online retail is unfair, because online retail has failed
miserably to
                date.  "e-commerce" is what people are talking about
endlessly, but
                completing the transaction is the easy part.  At the above
mentioned
                computer retailer, there are numerous ways to pay for your
purchase -
                the point is you walk out before buying because the rep
isn't helpful. 
                On the net, everybody has put lists of products and
e-commerce
                facilities online - but very few have made all the
information one would
                need to make a purchase available.

                Quite a few years ago I recall the term "information
super-highway" was
                used often.  Between then and now, as net entrepreneurs
greed and
                investors idiocy ensured too much money flowed in to ensure
the job was
                done right (why worry about building a business and
controlling costs
                when your 25, just had an IPO and theres $50mil in the
bank?) people
                seem to have forgotten the keyword - information.  

                Face to face contact isn't overly useful, but it can provide
                information, and reassurance.  Once these two things are
better handled
                online (and the day will come) online retail will fare
better.  The
                internet companies have "caught up" with traditional retail
by allowing
                the purchase to be made (as much as this misses the point).
However, if
                they can next ensure that all information needed to make a
purchase is
                provided, and offer reassurance, traditional retail will
never catch up.

                Cheers,
                Phil

        
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                http://www.sharechat.co.nz/          New Zealand's home for
market investors
                To remove yourself from this list, please use the form at
                http://www.sharechat.co.nz/forum.shtml.
######################################################################
This e-mail message has been scanned and cleared by MailMarshal 

######################################################################

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sharechat.co.nz/          New Zealand's home for market investors
To remove yourself from this list, please use the form at
http://www.sharechat.co.nz/forum.shtml.