Resolve to use more of the Web
Understanding the Internet will help you uncover tremendous new business opportunities
By Sara Procknow -- Industrial Distribution, 1/1/1999
My New Year's resolution, too, was to learn more about the Web, for my job as Industrial Distribution's Web Editor, and my personal affinity for this marvelous technology. I ventured and was "wowed" by new sites, promising the best of the Internet and e-commerce, such as Wal-Mart's (www.wal-mart.com) and Marshall Industries' (www.marshall.com). I also re-visited such stand-by sites as www.amazon.com and www.ftd.com, and was similarly impressed with their recent updates.Have you shopped online yet? Books, airline tickets, a CD, perhaps? If not, promise yourself you will this year, just to give e-commerce a try. It's not as scary as you think, or as dangerous as giving your credit card information over a cordless or cellular phone. All I recommend is using secure transactions to avoid any possible worries.
And, how is your company's Web site surviving in cyberspace? While the ID Web site improves with its redesign (new this month), have you thought about updating your site for 1999? Maybe adding an online ordering function to complement your Web-based product catalog?
If you are still not convinced of the business opportunities available on the Web, consider this: Forrester Research predicts that by 2002, most businesses will be conducting transactions online. And Internet business-to-business trade will grow to $327 billion by 2002 and online retail sales will hit $17 billion by 2001. How would you like a piece of that billion-dollar pie? Online distribution is the wave of the future: the waiting game and your company's grace period has passed.
Customers are using the Internet and e-mail. At the ASMMA/I.D.A. convention in November, a distributor told me that he gets better response from his engineer customers using e-mail messages than waiting for a call back. The first thing these engineers do when they get to their office early in the morning is check their e-mail. They can reply via e-mail and place an order or modify a shipment right then and there. Do you have customers' e-mail addresses entered into your company's database? When was the last time you e-mailed a customer? Maybe it's time you should.
I've always said it's all about knowing how to communicate with your customers online. But it's more than that. It's communicating to your branches and outside sales force as well. It's using the Internet to forge online partnerships; manufacturers, buying groups and other distributors could accomplish a lot by working together, at least in cyberspace.
Think about it. Rather than having multiple, separate distributor Web sites, you could piggy-back on your vendors or marketing partners' sites. It would save on cost, reduce redundancies and it would offer a one-stop Web experience. Industrial tools from one company, electrical tools by linking to another company, paper products from a wholesale paper distributor also linked online.
The potential of the Web is staggering. The best advice I can offer is to take baby steps when it comes to navigating the Internet. But start crawling now. And learning by trial and error applies here too.
All the best to you and your Web site in 1999.
Send your comments to Sara Procknow at sprocknow@cahners.com or call (617) 558-4289.
Talkback
Related Content
Related Content
Sponsored Links
View All Blogs
