These days, I have lots of discussions about e-commerce, trying to convince some people that the Inspirational Stores' model is rooted in a fundamental market need.
Well, let me share with you a deep conviction. To put it plain and simple, e-commerce is intrinsically much more complex than physical retail for 2 reasons :
- To conduct it right, the set of competencies involved are far broader.
- Reactivity needs to be at its extreme
Say you want to open a profitable store: find a good location (that's a one-off), have the right design and product display (also a one-off, every 3 to 4 years), manage a bunch a professional store people, here you go.
Now, go online, what do you need : design and IT people to build the webstore, bunch of online marketing people in all acquisition channels (SEO, SEM, affiliation, etc), webstore management people to animate, call center people, logistics people all the way from warehousing, order preparation and shipping. And as it's a very fast moving environment, you have to be flexible and act very quickly to fine tune your merchandising, your online marketing, etc.
As a consequence, I'm deeply convinced that most brands will be better off having their e-commerce channel managed by specialists with the right infrastructure and mindset. They may not understand it at this point, but they will, it's simply a matter of time.
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