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Convenience Drives Web Site Sales

© Bert Markgraf

It used to be part of the e-commerce bible that it was cheaper to run a retail operation from a web site than from a brick and mortar storefront. While this may still be true for certain businesses, it has not proven out generally. It is actually quite expensive to run a good retail web site and, when you add in the cost of delivering the product to your customers, the total cost to your customers is often higher than it would be if they purchased from a local store. What we have found instead is that, in many cases, it is much more convenient to buy from a web site and customers are actually often willing to pay more for that convenience.

This is important for small businesses which are considering offering some of their products or services via the Internet. It is usually not good strategy for small businesses to compete on price - they don't have the volume that large corporations can leverage to obtain lower costs from suppliers and which they can use to save money on standardization. Instead, small businesses can successfully compete on customer service, convenience and quality. If Internet retail businesses were highly cost sensitive, then small businesses would have difficulty competing there. If instead Internet sales are driven, at least partially, by convenience, then they represent a good opportunity for small businesses.

Anything that can be sent as an electronic file scores high on the convenience scale. Not only can it be delivered immediately, as soon as the customer has paid; it also has no delivery costs attached to it. Small businesses which offer information, pictures, graphics, software or music should do well with web sites making it easy to purchase the items as electronic files.

A second product category which sells well on the Internet is that of higher-priced brand name products. Often such products are only available from stores in major centres so that customers outside such metropolitan areas would have to make a special trip - for them purchasing on the Internet is much more convenient.

Other products which rank high on the convenience scale are unusual, rare or one-of-a-kind items. Small businesses offering something which customers could not easily find elsewhere or which offer collectibles for sale will do well. The customer will usually be able to find the site through search engines because it will have key words reflecting the unusual or rare product. That's certainly more convenient than searching by driving around.

The copyright of the article Convenience Drives Web Site Sales in Small Business is owned by Bert Markgraf. Permission to republish Convenience Drives Web Site Sales in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.