SHOPPING
ONLINE
Everyone's doing it these days - just think 30 years ago it was the corner
shop , then came the supermarket , and now the internet - the poor small
retailer is battling on 2 fronts now (and many are seeing the advantages
of going online).
For Consumers
Having the internet can be very good - it means you can search for anything
you need and finding the best price fast - you can search hundreds of
shops for the best deal - and the online retailers know you will probably
buy at the cheapest price - so they are battling to keep prices very competitive.
The internet does not replace the high street (atleast yet) as there
are many occasions where you need to physically inspect your goods - say
you are trying on a new dress , a fitting room is helpful , but as technology
progresses the virtual shoping world is becoming more and more sophisticated
, and of course we are all protected by the distance selling act (you
have the right to return goods in the UK within 7 days when you buy online).
Safety in buying online is much less an issue these days , the credit
card companies are falling over themselves to provide credit for online
purchases , and many even guarantee against fraud.
The second hand market has opened up too , especially amongst private
sellers - chances are you have a friend selling on Ebay , and quite a
few private individuals start off selling their own stuff and are now
progressing to open their own stores (the advantage of the web is there
is no direct face to face selling required so all kinds of people are
opening up ecommerce websites). The line between consumer and retailer
is growing fainter ...
For Retailers
Incase you haven't noticed - all the large chains are online with websites
branded to their bricks and mortar stores . All offering fast searching
, home delivery and secure payments . The internet battle for supremacy
has never been greater ... the wise retailers have large teams of internet
professionals constantly updating their websites , and have their stock
db reconciled to their online store. Many smaller retailers are seeing
the benefits of going online , it only takes a few thousand pounds to
have a top of the range ecommerce website and traffic can be free (from
existing customers and organic traffic from the search engines) . Making
a profit from paid online advertising campaigns though often requires
specialist skills - but any retailer can have a go , adwords for instance
allows retailers to attract customers instantly from 1p per click through
(though unless you are selling a highly niche products it is more likely
to cost 20p or more to get any decent traffic), they also provide metrics
for ascertaining the conversions from clickthroughs to sales. It can take
months of work to choose the right keywords and tweak your campaigns to
get the best out of adwords , can beware it can be addictive! If you are
a new retailer we suggest you also look at affiliate networks such as
Tradedouble and Affiliate window there are a handful of these , they have
a large pool of publishers who will place your adverts on their sites
in return for a share of the profit - the beauty of having affiliates
is they are ready made sites providing traffic - and get this - you only
pay when a sale is made , you will however have to keep your affiliates
happy to be successful - so you will probably require high profit margins
to make this work.
Resources
Our favourite shopping site is Greasy Palm , used by thousands of internet
shoppers . You can shop at your usual stores and get cashback into your
shopping account . Like barcalycard rewards , and retail points - you've
probably seen it offered at even the high street stores , the difference
is this shopping site arranges the cashback in advance at 100s of stores
, all you have to do is log on and shop at these stores , and payment
is by personal cheque , anyone intending buying anything on the internet
should be joining this cashback site . They have been in operation for
about 5 years .
(you can click the little man logo to open your account and start accruing
substantial cashback)
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