Look beyond the hype
There is more to the Web than e-commerce
By Sara Procknow -- Industrial Distribution, 10/1/1999
So your company's Web site is not e-commerce enabled? So what? Beyond the glitz of e-commerce and filtering through all the hype hitting this industry about the billion-dollar potential of online transactions, it seems like we've forgotten what the business of distribution is all about: Helping customers buy the right product for the job at the right price.Today, as many of you have told me, most MRO procurement doesn't take place online. However, online purchasing will likely occur with some of your larger customers over the course of the next year. My prediction is that e-commerce will become a business need in the year 2000. While technology budgets at most companies went to solving the Y2K issue in 1999, come 2000, many companies will begin investing, and therefore learning about, e-commerce. I suggest you devote some portion of your technology dollars to e-commerce in 2000 and beyond.
But what about the hundreds of other customers who aren't close to being ready to order online? And the hundreds of distributors who aren't even ready to handle online orders?
While e-commerce is the talk of the industry, there is still much more you can do online than sell. For starters, you can help customers solve technical problems. For example, I visited a Web site the other day with an online calculator to automatically calculate how much paint I needed. Still another Web site helped me convert Fahrenheit to Celsius. Did I buy anything? No, the second site wasn't even selling anything -- yet. However, I bookmarked both sites, so I will be back, possibly to buy, soon.
It is probably sacrilegious for a web editor to say this, but it is okay to have a Web site that doesn't yet have e-commerce. Let me clarify that point before I get some Internet guru sending me hate mail. E-commerce is not the cure-all, end-all, be-all perfect answer to distribution and this channel. It may not even be what the industry needs or your customers want. Besides, there's more to a good Web site than just an online order form -- that's only one page of information on a site.
It seems every dot com under the sun is hyping e-commerce. Everyone, from customers to distributors to consumers are all going online to buy, buy, buy. It's hard to not get caught up in the frenzy to launch some sort of e-commerce initiative. But try to look beyond the buzz. Companies, and I believe distributors in particular, still need to have a Web site, still need to make an online splash, and still can use the Internet to help with marketing plans.
Do distributors need e-commerce? Not necessarily. Do they need a plan, a strategy for their Web site and beyond to accommodate customers wanting to buy online? Definitely.
Then, move forward with your Web strategy aggressively. Enable your customers to visit your company online and give them some useful information. Make them want to bookmark your site as one of their favorite places. And, yes, talk to your customers and work together on a long-term strategy for conducting e-commerce.
For now, content is key and information is king. E-commerce will come later. Remember your job is to help customers; therefore, your Web site should help them do their jobs. Build an interesting, interactive Web site for them, and I'll bet when these customers are filled up on content they'll be back -- hungry for commerce.
Send your comments to Sara Procknow at sprocknow@cahners.com or call (617) 558-4289.
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