One Good Reason To Dump E-Commerce!
January 27, 2009
Let's say you manufacture a product that is in demand by over 80 million households. It's light weight, so shipping isn't an issue. And, because it's only five years old you have just 600 or "stores" that sell it.
Would you sell it using the Internet?
I would.
But, the folks I spoke with last week will not. Even though we believe they could boost their bottom line by thousands of dollars they are declining the opportunity to sell this product on-line. The reason:
"Who would we get to box it up and ship it? Employees would say it was not their job."
(I know, right now you are going back and re-reading that sentence. We'll wait....until your head stops spinning.)
Meanwhile, understand this company KNOWS it would be successful, they understand the low upfront costs and they admit it would be good for them. It's just that they can't take the chance of upsetting somebody in shipping.
Fast forward to another family owned business here in Des Moines. They have a brick and mortar store where they sell outer-ware. You know, gloves, jackets, boots the sort of things you can buy at just about any box store in any city. Five years ago they sold nothing on-line. Today their on-line sales have added 12% to their bottom line. And what they are selling isn't even private label stuff.
Nah, let's not use the power of e-commerece to boost sales. Besides, this "Internet Thingy" will never take off...
Michael Libbie - Insight Advertising, Marketing and Communications