Ecommerce and Retail

Prediction: Your Business Will Be an E-commerce Business

Have you seen our newly launched site? It’s quite incredible. We worked on the designs and development of our publication for over six months, and I can’t tell you how much time we spent. The issue was simply that we couldn’t develop fast enough or finish quickly enough. In my opinion, anyone building a theme from scratch today is doing a disservice to the business they’re working with.

I was able to go out and spend $59 on a digital magazine theme, built a custom theme for our custom integrations, re-skinned the branding of the theme, and I was up and running within the week. We’ll still roll out some additional integrations, like our Podcast and a White Paper library, but you’d be amazed at what came with the theme.

One aspect that was a must was that it came with WooCommerce fully integrated. Woo, along with its themes and commerce engine, was recently purchased by Automattic – the company that owns WordPress. In my humble opinion, I believe it’s a brilliant decision. Why? Because I predict that every single company – either B2B to B2C – will have some aspect of self-service ordering through the web.

Retailers and e-commerce companies are already onto it. One resounding drumbeat at IRCE in Chicago was that it wasn’t about selling on your store on your site. It was about selling through everyone else’s store on every other site. Small retailers have logistical, content, and fulfillment systems that allow them to sell across dozens of online stores besides their own.

The fact is that consumers (and businesses) come to trust the site they purchase from. If you’re buying on Amazon frequently, you won’t buy aftermarket floor mats from some guy on the Internet. But if that guy on the Internet is also selling his floor mats on Amazon, you’ll buy them.

You’re already losing sales online

Before heading up to Chicago, I got an email from Nationwide Insurance that I needed to pay my car bill. I logged into my account and couldn’t find a way to pay the bill. I returned to work and figured I’d call my agent later. A couple of days later, I received another notice that my insurance would lapse unless I paid my bill. I logged on and tried again to no avail – I couldn’t even find a pay my bill button on their new clean interface. I set a reminder to call my agent.

The next day, I went to work, got busy, and never called my agent. When I got home, there was an email that my insurance would expire that night at midnight because I hadn’t paid my bill. Not good… I was driving to Chicago the next day and wouldn’t be uninsured.

So, I flipped my browser over to Geico. After a few minutes, I received a real-time quote and a nice fat button to buy the policy. I clicked the button, and it stated that they’d be sending me some paperwork via mail, and once I filled it in, my policy would be live. You have to be kidding me.

Next up – Progressive. I entered my information, and they pre-populated my automobile information for my daughter and me. A few clicks later, I had a new policy and insurance card to put in my car. It took about 10 minutes… and I did save money. This surprised me since I’d been with Nationwide for over 20 years.

Did Nationwide lose me because of its insurance? No, I didn’t mind their insurance and liked my agent. They lost me simply because I couldn’t serve myself online.

Your business and my business are no different. Our new site is fully commerce-capable, and we will begin selling products and services directly to our readers. I do not doubt that this will be a growing revenue stream for us moving forward and that the hands-on agency service we provide so many clients will slowly subside.

I don’t care if you’re mowing lawns or doing divorces – just as people predicted that every company would be a publisher, my prediction is that every company will have an e-commerce site sooner rather than later!

Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is CMO of OpenINSIGHTS and the founder of the Martech Zone. Douglas has helped dozens of successful MarTech startups, has assisted in the due diligence of over $5 bil in Martech acquisitions and investments, and continues to assist companies in implementing and automating their sales and marketing strategies. Douglas is an internationally recognized digital transformation and MarTech expert and speaker. Douglas is also a published author of a Dummie's guide and a business leadership book.

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