Catalog evolving from print to Web, May 5,
2006, 9C.
When
Sears, Roebuck, & Company began using its catalog to sell
products in the late 1800s, a new way of doing business
sprang to life. Selling products through catalogs to
customers dispersed across the country allows companies
freedom from some limitations of traditional business.
The
traditional way of selling products required businesses to
have physical stores that customers would visit and carry
away their purchases. Stores had to be located near their
customers. For customers, the only products available for
purchase were those offered in nearby stores. Market reach
and product selection were limited when sales and exchanges
required direct interaction between stores and customers.
The
developments in transportation that arose from the
industrial revolution and the succeeding ability to quickly
distribute mail and parcels to people across the country
allowed businesses to greatly expand their potential markets
and gave customers access to products that were not locally
available. To become a catalog business, companies had to
design, print, and distribute their catalogs to people
through the mail and they had to ship products to customers.
The
Internet revolution of the late 1900s further enhanced the
abilities of companies to do business with customers in
distant locations. Unlike printed catalogs, web-based
catalogs can present real-time prices and product offerings
and they require no additional costs from companies for more
people to view them (e.g., the costs for 100 and 100,000
customers to view a web-based catalog and shop through a
website are essentially identical). In addition, e-commerce
eliminates the printing and postage expenses of catalog
production and distribution and the time spent waiting for
order payments to be received and accepted has become
negligible. Web technologies also allow businesses to sell
products 24 hours a day and accept on-line payments without
additional sales staff.
E-commerce sites can be designed and managed internally or
contracted out to companies that specialize in designing and
maintaining business websites. Such solutions can produce
websites that are capable of on-line payments, inventory
management, and integrated customer service.
For
those who might want to gradually move onto the web or do so
with a minimal investment, there are a variety of third
party companies that offer e-commerce packages for nominal
fees. Some e-commerce packages require little more than
entering product descriptions, pictures, and prices into
templates (e.g., Yahoo! Merchant Solutions) while others
require a company to have an existing website (e.g., Paypal
Merchant Tools).
As
discovered more than a century ago, offering products to
customers beyond the local market creates new sales and
growth opportunities. Web technologies have made it even
easier and cost effective for businesses to sell products to
customers outside local markets. As more people begin to
use the Internet, companies should explore ways to offer
their products to the world through the web.
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