[thelist] e-commerce

[martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com]

Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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Agreed Dan.

Good online stores tend to have the following characteristics:
1a) Consumer packaged goods where you *know* what you're going to get
or
1b) Combinations of well known goods preassembled/configured
and
1c) Products which don't need much advice - products are simple or
   target consumers are well educated in the products.
2) Relatively light so shipping is a small %age of value (Computers are OK
    cos they're *expensive* and heavy)
3) A large number of SKUs which it would be impractical to sell in an
offline
    environment on the highstreet
4) Fragmented industry supply which makes it difficult for consumers to
   buy a complete solution (hard to find stuff/specialist is particularly
good)
5) Fragmented retail competition
6) A continuous need for consumers to buy and therefore potential for an
   ongoing relationship
7) Strong alignment with high internet penetration demographics
8) Strong potential for gifting

This is why consumer electronics, books, pharmaceuticals, flowers,
wine & toys have done so well. And of course, it describes pr0n
down to a T.

Bike parts might be OK. Assembled expensive bikes would be OK.
Clothes are tricky. Cars are tricky. Both will tend to have offline sales
supported by online activities rather than pure online retail.

Cheers
Martin




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Subject:  RE: [thelist] e-commerce


Some products are just NOT MEANT to be sold online.  That may sound weird,
but I used to think about opening my own shop, and having a virtual
storefront...but the more I worked in the biz, the more I realized some
things just don't make the conversion from meatspace...



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