| Understanding business and product sales can | | | | your competitors may be beating you to the punch. |
| sometimes put me in a whirlwind. My job tends to | | | | Why would I want this? Hmmm... |
| get me involved with loads of different opportunities | | | | Let's assume your business is predominantly in the |
| dealing with all sorts of product lines. It is not my job | | | | Central Valley and perhaps spreads a little throughout |
| to understand every single type of product, but it is | | | | California. You already ship product here and there. |
| my goal to assist my clientele with the broadening of | | | | Are you setup to handle some additional sales to the |
| their product market. | | | | Midwest or the East Coast? What about Europe? |
| The tidal wave of the E-Commerce platform is just | | | | The point is that the Internet has no boundary. If |
| starting to build up speed. The US Census Bureau | | | | you offer your products and services online, through |
| explains that E-Commerce sales are "sales of goods | | | | an E-Commerce system, it is like having a huge |
| and services where an order is placed by the buyer | | | | international storefront that welcomes the wondering |
| or price and terms of sale are negotiated over an | | | | visitor. The only thing left to do is a marketing |
| Internet, extranet, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) | | | | campaign, simple or robust. |
| network, electronic mail, or other online system." | | | | But don't be fooled. The marketing campaigns can |
| Although the overall percentage of E-Commerce | | | | really get you. Setting up the storefront is the easy |
| sales in comparison to total retail sales may seem | | | | part. Managing the storefront is also easy. Putting the |
| small, the acceleration rate is indeed enormous. | | | | sign out there to attract the customers may tend to |
| What does all this mean? | | | | be a grueling task, unless you plan ahead. |
| Take a look at a business associate of mine that sells | | | | What is the bottom line? |
| cleaning supplies. He has a small warehouse in Las | | | | Here's the deal. If you aren't in a hurry, but think you |
| Vegas that moves a little over 10 million dollars worth | | | | want to have an E-Commerce system in play in |
| of product a year. Without any Internet presence | | | | perhaps a year or so, it will be to your advantage to |
| whatsoever, 100% of his sales come from | | | | develop it now. Internet based marketing campaigns |
| conventional marketing near and around his local | | | | take 6 months to a year to mature. I don't care |
| market. He services the greater part of the West | | | | what anyone tells you, unless you want to fork over |
| Coast, but doesn't venture too much outside of that | | | | tons of cash on a regular basis, a solid Internet |
| boundary. | | | | marketing campaign takes time. |
| My preliminary research has shown that Based on the | | | | The Census shows that Internet based sales are |
| results from some of the major search engines | | | | increasing faster than conventional retail sales. The |
| including Yahoo and MSN, an estimated 2000 | | | | census shows that over sixty-nine billion dollars |
| searches a day are done for "Carpet Cleaning." Other | | | | ($69,000,000,000) were spent last year in |
| viable searches include: | | | | E-Commerce sales, up 23.5% from 2003. The census |
| | | | show that if you are not planning for the future, your |
| Carpet Cleaners - 1100 per day | | | | competition is. |
| Carpet Cleaning Supplies - 800 per day | | | | The Pickle |
| Cleaning Supplies - 900 per day | | | | You can get carried away with overhead if you are |
| Cleaning Products - 500 per day | | | | not careful. Internet based marketing can turn into |
| With those five search queries alone, a website could | | | | the ever hungry monster that you have to |
| potentially be seen by over five thousand (5000) | | | | constantly feed on a regular basis. The goal is to plan |
| visitors a day. That adds up to over one hundred and | | | | a year in advance and have a strategy that will |
| fifty thousand (150,000) search queries each month | | | | create a system that will offer your site search |
| with just a few select terms. | | | | engine presence and stability over time. But if you |
| In certain markets, there are very few companies | | | | want more, more is available. |
| lobbying for the top search engine positions, yet, | | | | A Rule for the Road: |
| some are saturated. If you have a product that is | | | | If you want to know who is good at Internet based |
| conducive towards Internet based marketing and | | | | marketing, just check online. Do a search for "Fresno |
| sales, but you have not tapped into the territory yet, | | | | Web Design" and see what you find. |