Opportunities Abound
I just got back from a weekend trip back to Oregon, where a friend of mine got married. Wonderful wedding, and the Oregon Coast is something else. Especially if you are into weird weather and bizarre fog. I am, and I love the Oregon Coast.
One thing that caught my attention while there was the number of tourist shops and specialty art galleries and such that were targeted towards tourists. I went to a couple of them, including some glass blowing galleries and an oriental furniture store. I also visited a smoked seafood salesman or two while there. On the plane back I couldn't help but wonder why a lot of them had not invested in an online sales channel yet. As a matter of fact, I was surprised that only one of the places that I visited even had a website.
I would have thought that as the tourists come through in the summer (the Oregon Coast is a little harsh in the winter), odds are that they would see something that they like but would not be in a position to pick it up at that moment. For example, it's hard to pick up some Asian furniture when your car is packed full of vacation gear, kids, and whatever else. It's probably not wise to ask the kids to hold on to that new glass sculpture that you bought on the car ride home. Needless to say, my thought is that people that are on vacation often do a lot of shopping, and would be happy to pick up a card or even a small printed brochure that leads people to the website. By my estimation, you have a very limited exposure to a customer when your only outlet is a store front, and your main clientelle are visiting tourists. Putting a website up that allows them to take your information home with them and then visit your website later would seem like an obvious choice. After all, I have returned from many a vacation and talked about that thing I saw at the one store, and if I had the chance to order it online I would probably take advantage.
I suppose that much of the problem is that e-commerce is relatively new (in the grand scheme of sales) and also a bit mystifying for some people. In fact, I would bet that there are a lot of developers in some areas (like the Oregon Coast, for example) that are still intimidated by e-commerce and not promoting it like they should. Whatever the reason, I just wanted to post about how I think that every business owner should weigh the option of having an e-commerce outlet, and those that decide to go for it need to really get behind it. It's not enough to simply put up an online store. Get out there and do some online marketing, form partnerships, come up with promotions, and do everything you can to let your current, past, and prospective customers know that such a sales channel is available to them.
