By Keith Regan E-Commerce Times
01/16/02 5:54 PM PT
The buying process is just that, a process. It doesn't begin or end with money changing
hands.
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Recently someone asked what seemed a pretty straightforward question. He had a Web site
that advertised that he breeds and sells show dogs. Through that site, he has made
initial contact with several people who, after meeting him offline, have bought dogs from
him. In other words, they became customers.
His question: Was that e-commerce? I felt then, and still do, that it is. Does it meet
the traditional pure-play e-tail definition, where the dogs are bought sight-unseen and
shipped via UPS to distant customers?
Of course not. But it is time that e-commerce got over that definition and started to
be all that it can be.
Credit Where Due
That question actually came up during a radio interview I did about e-commerce on a
show called "The Digital Hour," which is broadcast out of Detroit, Michigan. The
co-hosts of the program, as I recall, weren't as convinced as I was that the above scenario
fit into the e-commerce cubbyhole.
But that cubbyhole, over time, has become much larger and much less easy to
define. When all e-commerce consisted of pure-play Web companies, it was easy to spot
e-commerce. It was a purchase made via the Web, a transaction between two parties
who never spoke by phone or met in person.
Fast-forward, though, to the end of 2001, and the picture is a lot less clear. Consider
the Amazon/Circuit City partnership. If I buy a product online and pick it up at the
store, is that e-commerce?
Confusion.com
OK, maybe that's an easy one. The transaction took place online, after all. So is that
the test? If virtual money travels over the Internet, then e-commerce has been
conducted; that seems clear. But let's muddy the waters a bit more.
What if shopper X spends two hours -- and by most accounts, this would probably happen
while shopper X was at work -- researching which DVD player to buy. After whittling
down the choice of models he focuses on which retailer to buy it from. He likes
Circuit City's offerings and decides to buy from them.
He has to go to the store to pick the thing up anyway, so why not just pay for it
there? Is that e-commerce? I say it is. The buying process is just that, a process. It
doesn't begin or end with money changing hands.
Long Process
It starts way back where the consumer decides he or she wants or needs something and
commits to searching it out, and it ends long after the sale is closed, when he or she
tells two friends about the shopping experience they just had.
If the Web plays a role in any of that, be it decision-making, content help, customer
service or anything in between, e-commerce should get credit.
Now, doing that accounting is not an easy thing. We all like to have hard numbers, but
the actual dollar amounts now being bandied about regarding the fourth quarter,
and 2001 as a whole, are a drop in the real bucket -- a fraction of the contribution that
e-commerce actually makes to the overall economy.
Chances are that what the powers-that-be call e-commerce will come in at or above 1
percent of total consumer spending for 2001, when the U.S. government reports its own
figures.
But e-commerce shouldn't just take comfort in knowing it had a role in a big chunk of
the rest. It should stand up and start taking credit as well.
What do you think? Let's talk about it.
Note: The opinions expressed by our
columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the E-Commerce Times or its management.
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