We've come a long way
Fears of the Internet have subsided, but there are still miles to go
By Sara Procknow -- Industrial Distribution, 7/1/1998
An interesting event took place a few weeks ago for Industrial Distribution Online. We invited several people familiar with ID's Online Web site to discuss how they use the Internet. The event was interesting because although this users' group shared an interest in the Web and ID's Web site, none of the users had taken the next step and delved deeper into the Web, ID's Web site included.What amazed me was that the group as a whole wasn't afraid of the Internet. Most importantly, they said they didn't believe manufacturers will use the Web to sell directly to customers. In other words, distributors have come a long way. It was only a few years ago during the Industry.Net hype at the ASMMA/I.D.A. convention that distributors were all up in arms about the Web and didn't believe all it could do.
Today, that seems to be a different story. More distributors have Web sites and many tell me they are receiving all kinds of orders via the Web. In fact, according to ID's 52nd Annual Survey of Distributor Operations, 49 percent of distributors now have a Web site.
If you think of the Internet in terms of a long, hilly ride on the Information Superhighway, we've just made it up and over the first big hill. It was a struggle that required lots of educating and some breaking of paradigms, but we've made it. Still, there are many more miles to go.
Perhaps you were one of the early scoffers of the use of the Internet by distributors. Today, you may have a Web site and perhaps even parts of your catalog online. What's the next step? Where do you go from here? Well, aside from enhancing your site with color product photos and easy-to-download graphics, how about investing in some sort of e-commerce or online ordering capability?
Again, my shtick has always been to provide customers with a Web site they want to visit. In other words, your site should be more than a site full of nice-to-haves. Give them a restricted password-protected area of the site to go to for checking orders or placing orders. And then, here's the kicker -- train your customers on how to use it.
If anything came out of ID's users group meeting in a loud and clear way, it was the idea of education. If you don't educate customers on the benefits of your site, they probably are only scratching the surface. Take your product line for example. Customers probably buy the same group of things over and over, until you tell them about the breadth and depth of your other lines. A Web site works the same way. Customers may visit your site (by the way, they're probably visiting your competitors' sites too), but if they don't know its depth and breadth, they are going to click through to some other site that has caught their interest.
I struggle with the same problem of education relating to the ID Web site. Most of you have been to our site -- you see that you could print past articles off the site. Maybe you read one of the headlines or clicked on a new product. But, did you know that we have a discussion area where you can post obsolete inventory for sale? What about the Y2K area? Did you know we have an entire area of the site devoted to the Year 2000 issue, including an Ask the Expert page? Did you know we update the ID Online site every business day, bringing you the latest in mergers and acquisitions and other industry news? If you don't know about these benefits, it's probably because no one told you. Or, we told you at a time when you weren't ready to hear.
This is the same argument as to why you need to educate your customers about all the great opportunities that exist on your Web site. And, if your site is only at the so-so stage, ask your customers for insight. Bring your laptop in and offer to educate them on the Web and see how they want to do business with you via the Web.
There are still miles to go on this hilly Information Superhighway. Education is the best way to make the journey a successful trip.
Send your comments to Sara Procknow at sprocknow@cahners.com, or call 617-558-4289.
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