How to explain e-commerce to e-ignorants?
March 1, 2005 6:13 PM Subscribe
I need to explain how e-commerce is different from plain old commerce to business people with no e-background. What are your favorite resources (online or offline) for e-commerce information? I'm thinking of things like business basics, basic e-commerce concepts, shipping, digital photography -- essentially anything related to e-commerce from the business user level point of view. The hidden gems or the quality perspectives. Tutorials, books, online demos, graphics, statistics, whitepapers, or any other information suitable for an introductory-level audience.
I don't want to stray too far from your topic, and you probably know what I'm about to say, but assume nothing.
True story. Back in the Good Old Days(tm), my company was going to deploy a free-for-subscribers shopping cart system to anyone who used our website builder software and subscribed to our phone service. (Like I said, this was a while ago.) My boss, a man of almost limitless buffoonery, called me into his office to explain all this to him.
I decided, reasonably I think, on a best-practices approach, dumbing down the details as much as humanly possible and appealing instead to his (hopefully) active sense of good business practices. "Here," I said, "is Amazon.com, a real leader in novel features in online shopping." I continued: "Here is landsend.com, which actually makes buying clothes on the Internet easy!" I went on like this for 15-20 minutes, showing off the 10 or so best shopping sites I could think of and describing in very simple terms each unique feature that made the shopping system something to be emulated.
I sat down, glowing inside with a feeling like hitting a home run in Yankee Stadium. The boss leaned back in his Aeron chair, clasped his hands in front of his ample gut, and thought for a few moments. He looked at me, pointed at the monitor, and asked me a question that will live with me forever and ever:
"You mean to tell me .... that they sell SHIRTS ... on the INTERNET?"
Then he took his pants off to see what size he wore so he could try out landsend.com.
Now, that's only tangentially related to your question, except as a cautionary tale, but I do so very much love telling that story.
posted by socratic at 7:15 PM on March 1, 2005
True story. Back in the Good Old Days(tm), my company was going to deploy a free-for-subscribers shopping cart system to anyone who used our website builder software and subscribed to our phone service. (Like I said, this was a while ago.) My boss, a man of almost limitless buffoonery, called me into his office to explain all this to him.
I decided, reasonably I think, on a best-practices approach, dumbing down the details as much as humanly possible and appealing instead to his (hopefully) active sense of good business practices. "Here," I said, "is Amazon.com, a real leader in novel features in online shopping." I continued: "Here is landsend.com, which actually makes buying clothes on the Internet easy!" I went on like this for 15-20 minutes, showing off the 10 or so best shopping sites I could think of and describing in very simple terms each unique feature that made the shopping system something to be emulated.
I sat down, glowing inside with a feeling like hitting a home run in Yankee Stadium. The boss leaned back in his Aeron chair, clasped his hands in front of his ample gut, and thought for a few moments. He looked at me, pointed at the monitor, and asked me a question that will live with me forever and ever:
"You mean to tell me .... that they sell SHIRTS ... on the INTERNET?"
Then he took his pants off to see what size he wore so he could try out landsend.com.
Now, that's only tangentially related to your question, except as a cautionary tale, but I do so very much love telling that story.
posted by socratic at 7:15 PM on March 1, 2005
You know how sometimes, you'll get a bundle of paper in the mail with pictures of things, and you can pick up the phone, talk to a human, give them a credit card number and your address, and they'll send you the thing you saw a picture of?
E-commerce is just like that, except there's no paper, mail, phone, or human.
posted by Caviar at 9:40 PM on March 1, 2005
E-commerce is just like that, except there's no paper, mail, phone, or human.
posted by Caviar at 9:40 PM on March 1, 2005
You might want to point your audience at the Wired article, The Long Tail, which discusses what happens when shelf space isn't an issue. Also the Long Tail blog takes the concepts discussed in the article and runs with them.
posted by udeups at 11:44 PM on March 1, 2005
posted by udeups at 11:44 PM on March 1, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
Introduction to e-Commerce, 2nd Edition (by Jeffrey Rayport and Bernie Jaworski).
Internet Marketing, 2nd Edition (by Jeffrey Rayport and Bernie Jaworski).
MarketspaceU
posted by ericb at 6:56 PM on March 1, 2005