|
A question I'm often asked is "what should I sell
on the web?" There is no doubt that this is the vaguest question one
can ever be asked. Everybody has a unique perspective on things and a
unique set of goals. If finding something to sell was as easy as the
question implies, then people could sell pretty much anything they
want. But the sense I'm getting from most of these queries is that
people are looking for winning products or businesses.
A great advantage to doing business on the web is certainly the number
of new opportunities it presents to entrepreneurs and business owners.
The Internet targets a global marketplace. It saves time and money. It
reduces paper-based information. And it significantly shortens cycle
times -- such as the time for the awareness of a product to reach a
larger audience than in the brick-and-mortar world. But another
advantage is flexibility.
New business models are appearing each day on the web -- most of which
were never thought offline. In fact, several dot-coms are completely
revolutionizing the way we do business. It's not surprising as life on
the web is five times faster -- creating, reinventing, tweaking,
testing and measuring results, all done quite rapidly, is probably
*the* advantage of the Internet.
This week in my ecommerce college class, my students learned about two
recent yet important phenomena occurring as a result of doing business
online. One of them is called "disintermediation." In essence, this is
the result of companies going online and dealing directly with the
ultimate consumer -- leapfrogging over intermediaries in the process
(e.g., wholesalers, distributors and retailers). Take Dell computers
at
http://www.dell.com, which boasts of direct-to-consumer
pricing as a competitive advantage.
But even giant Dell is not safe from this
phenomenon. Companies both large and small are contemplating the move
to the web. With the help of the Internet, smaller companies are, as a
result, gaining serious ground over their larger nemeses. Take the
case of Stealth Computer, a small but growing computer manufacturer at
http://www.stealthcomputer.com -- mover over, Michael Dell!
This goes to show that another benefit to online business and
marketing specifically is the fact that one can look, act and profit
as large as the big guns. But the challenge isn't over yet for larger
companies. Disintermediation has, of course, angered some companies
and several lawsuits have resulted -- such as distributors and
retailers crying foul over lost sales.
I believe this was the case with Levi Strauss. While not stated in
those exact terms (and one's guess is as good as any other), David
Gumpert, in a ClickZ article, wrote about Levi's recent decision to
become recalcitrant with direct online selling, as they are now
redirecting customers to partnering retailers like JCPenney (http://www.clickz.com/b2b_mkt/corp_surf/article.php/820481).
Disintermediation itself has open a Pandora's box, particularly for
the music industry (see
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-341047-0.html).
But the web is an incredibly fertile ground for new product and
business ideas. Companies have even used it to counter the challenges
of disintermediation -- take the case of Ethan Allen at
http://www.ethanallen.com for example, which has purportedly
developed an effective conflict management policy with its retailers
(called "designers") with the use of the web.
Nevertheless, the second phenomena we see occurring is one called
"re-intermediation." Unlike the reduction or complete elimination of
distribution channels, the Internet also helps businesses to create
new ones -- creating a new kind of intermediary in other words. After
all,
http://www.Amazon.com doesn't publish any books and
http://www.ebay.com
doesn't manufacture any goods (see
http://www.builder.com/Business/Ecommerce20/).
Today, ecommerce is as easy as 1-2-3 -- with
firms like online drop-shipping management company VStore at
http://www.VStore.com.
With their customizable storefront-in-a-box, virtually anyone can
become an ecommerce-enabled business in an instant. And that's not
all. VStore also acts as an intermediary (perhaps "agent" may be a
better word), enabling would-be suppliers to feed their established
network of online storefronts.
Nevertheless, virtually all products sold offline can be or is being
sold online. If the search for a unique kind of product to be sold on
the web is a concern for some, maybe a new business model or
distribution channel could be the answer. In short, one can simply
create a new breed of business -- many now exist in which some as
young as teenagers have made fortunes (see
http://www.cyberteks.net/nationalpostapril2000.htm).
The moral? When searching for what to sell online, don't stop at
products or services. Look at processes just as well. You never know
-- a new, profitable business model may be lurking.
|
