When you plan to engage in "eCommerce", taking your business online. Therefore, you need to learn new business rules, a new way of doing things, because an online business is "different",
If you still have a product or service to sell. You still have a “window” store (your website) and you still need customers to visit your store, to buy why is that (simulated) your local store window can only be seen by a small group of people, and you're online at ever you sell.
The only major difference in business can be seen by the whole world. By joining eCommerce, you can take over your "global" business.
For many businesses, this is really profitable, which represents a great opportunity.
But that is not the case for everyone, especially for companies that sell tangible, tangible products. Therefore, when planning to go online, you should take the time to think about your product and who the market really is, as this will be an important factor in determining whether your business is successful or failing.
What do you plan to market on your eCommerce enabled website, and who will want to buy it? Some products, by their very nature, will not be completely suitable for the global market. Pork-based food products, for example, will not be popular in Islamic countries, and wine, whiskey or beer will not be popular. The sale of open-toed sandals may be disappointing in Iceland, Greenland and the North of the icy North.
Second, think carefully about how you will get your product to the customer. For example, if you were to make laser toner cartridges in Asia (as one of my client companies does) it makes no sense at all to try to sell one or two cartridges at a time to a USA customer, due to delivery costs.
If your product is large or heavy, selling outside your area may not work.
In addition, you need to consider that, while most countries use the same Standard International Trade Classification (S.I.T.C) codes to determine how much import duty should be levied on a particular product, the tax to vary, varies from country to country, and that variability can lead to (and) conflicts. Also, using my client as an example, they sold to a customer in Finland a box of toner boxes, which were kept at Customs for a few weeks upon arrival in Helsinki, due to a dispute over Revenue Services to be paid.
While this was not my client's or client's fault, however, the result was an unhappy customer, apparently not a regular customer.
Similarly, if you plan to sell the service online, can that service be provided "outside" of your area in such a way that you can still make money? Do you need one of your employees to actually work with the client (where, you need to stay in place), or can the work be easily done under a global contract? Would it be easy to find a local contractor who can offer you an advertised service in such a way that you and the customer are happy? How much will that small contractor cost?
You can finally find the right answers to all these questions, and then, again, it may cost you to keep your resources in place, rather than go overboard, to become a world player.
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