M Reynolds and F Sinclair
Despite the dramatic failure of a number of online retailers and dot.coms, Ernst & Young's new Global Online Retailing Survey shows that online shopping has a future:
UK online consumers had, on average:
The most common ways shoppers accessed sites were:
Some of the implications that Ernst & Young draws for retailers are:
Altogether they surveyed 4,000 online shoppers and conducted telephone interviews with executives from 74 companies in 12 countries.
Ernst & Young also commissioned an e-commerce survey, believeing e-commerce to be not a phenomenon but a supply chain opportunity that can revitalise the sector and take it into the new economy. The research indicated that European "B2B" e-commerce will grow from £33 billion in 1999 to over £1.3 trillion in 2004. (Business-to-consumer e-commerce is predicted to grow from £3 billion to £232 billion in the same period). They conclude that British industry may be missing an opportunity to exploit the full power of e-commerce because it is too focused on web sites and wrongly focused on the vicissitudes of business-to-consumer activity amongst the dot coms.
Stephen Finn (Ernst & Young) says "the store is arguably nothing more than a manufacturer's distribution arm" but seems to feel that the Internet brings the perfectly competitive market closer to reality: "the Internet brings consumers the power of information immediacy" - and here is a demonstration of that immediacy
Ryan Matthews (interviewed by E&Y), who is clearly not suffering from Toffler's "futureshock", enthuses that the Internet is "where people who aren't equal can become equal", with which the Big Issue seller in Lancaster might argue, although she might agree (if she had the chance) with his more depressing assertion that "increasingly the experience of the real world will pale [in significance] with the experience of the Internet world". Eagerly exposing his definition of bliss, Ryan describes buying his shoes as "an extended shopping experience where I'm intrigued in the physical world and fulfilled in the virtual world".
Will virtual shopping put the last nail in the coffin of local specialities, local employment, traditional methods of production and thriving town centres?
Or will it reduce fossil fuel consumption and open up the market for local and traditional produce and, consequently, local employment?
Despite
This juggernaut of a marketing vehicle, however, brings its own particular risks. Customers will be far less forgiving of faults and irritations on the Internet than they would be of a visible human error in a store - especially when the competition is only a click away rather than a ten minute drive.
The Example of Tesco | Electronic Points of Sale | Conclusion |
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It's also interesting to compare these three sites for visual appeal and user friendliness:
Tesco | Sainsbury's | Asda |
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F Sinclair. 6 March 2001