E-Commerce
This updates my article at:

E-Commerce for Not Yet Techies

In the past 3-4 years since I wrote the original article there
has not been any particular change that easy to pinpoint and
describe.

There has been a huge change in the amount of e-commerce. Any
major business has a website that is e-commerce enabled.
So do many small businesses. Even many local businesses such
as restaurants and plumbers. Heck, I found my current
dentist because I liked his website.

The degree of sophistication and the number of software
available has greatly increased. So have the options for
small businesses on a budget, at least based on the
radio ads I keep hearing, although I'm puzzled at the
idea that there's any small business operating in the U.S.
today that doesn't know they can register a domain name,
get web hosting cheaply and put up at least a basic web
site for minimal cost. Heck, small businesses in The
Philippines can do that.

Big business is a lot smarter -- though still too
careless -- about spending their money. They don't
throw huge amounts of money at Super Bowl ads or
untargetted banner campaigns.

They do employ a lot more tracking to determine where
their traffic and their customers come from.

The software for shopping carts, databases full of
product information, affiliate tracking etc. is lot
more plentiful and cheaper.

Between eBay stores, Yahoo Stores, Site Build-It,
Register.com and other pre-fab web site programs,
there's no reason for anybody who wants to run a
business online not to do so.
- posted by RickStooker @ 8:28 AM (0) comments