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Ecommerce FAQ: continue to next page

A crash Course in E-Commerce by Eamonn Sullivan, E-Business November 28, 2000

The main difference between traditional commerce and the e-variety is that the customer is not present when you make the sale or conduct the transaction. That's obvious, but too often businesses forget that aspect in the rush to post a snazzy Web site quickly, or fail to consider it when translating existing sales systems to the Internet. You can attribute several high-profile Internet business failures, such as Boo.com, at least partly on a failure to understand the difference between selling to a customer who is physically in the shop and selling to one who is at the other end of an often slow connection and unable to touch the merchandise or ask questions of the sales staff. The problem is not just the technology -- although that's an important part -- it's the business plan. How can your business, whatever it may be, provide enough value for people to get them to fork over money online?

The Booming Net Population Associated Press 2/18/01

"...Pew found that 52 percent had bought something online, a jump of 6 percentage points. That translates to 14 million more online shoppers in the last six months of 2000. ``This was all taking place in a season where the major story was the (financial) troubles in the dot-com world,'' Rainie noted. "

Let's try a little free-association.

I'll say a word, and you note which company comes to mind first:

Jeans. (Company:______________)

Overnight. (Company:______________)

Clothes. (Company:______________)

Software. (Company:______________)

Your answers reveal how well-branded a consumer you are. I bet your list looks something like this:

Levi's

FedEx

The Gap

Microsoft

In traditional marketing, "branding" campaigns are designed to embed a company or product name in your consumer psyche. Firms often use a combination of persuasive, emotional advertising campaigns and public relations to encourage a link between a positive "feeling" and a product. If it works, it can make you want to spend your hard earned money as fast as possible.