EDITOR’S FORUM
The 3-Step Plan to Internet Domination
Solomon Daniels Editor-in-Chief
Nah, not really. But here’s a great example of how not to battle Internet shoppers, and 3 steps to make sure you’re ready to handle them.
You think we’ve got it rough with Internet competition? NPR reported recently about the same issue in the clothing industry. Seems people are going into high-end clothing stores, trying on clothes to get their right sizes, then going home and buying them online. With
Amazon.com,
Zappos.com and other online giants entering the “household word” realm, this is an increasingly popular occurrence. However, one store in Australia is fighting back. The store is now charging a “fitting fee” of up to $50 to try on clothes. This is, of course, fully refundable if the purchase is made in the store. And while it might get an initial “rah-rah” reaction for other storeowners, just a quick peek behind the curtain will show us that it’s a short-term solution at best. First, the rule alone could get complicated. What if a person takes three shirts into a dressing room — two costing $195 each and one costing $19.95 — tries them all on and purchases the the $19.95 shirt, only to go home and buy the other two online? Should the storeowner amend the rule to say that the purchase price must be equal to or greater than the sitting fee, or a prorated amount will be charged? Try doing the math on that one. Worse, try explaining it to a customer. Second, it sends a negative message. Just like advertising values repeated impressions to create the image of a product or service, repeated exposure to negative signage by legiti- mate, well-meaning customers creates a negative image of your business. Finally, there are potential legal issues. Let’s say that a store decides that it will not charge its regular customers the refundable sitting fee in order to avoid inconveniencing them. The storeowner tells these customers that it’s intended to stop all of the people who take ad- vantage of the store’s time and service while using it as a virtual dressing room for online shopping. All it would take is for one non-regular customer to hear this conversation, and then be charged the requisite sitting fee. Bring out the lawyers. If being in business for yourself were easy, everybody would be doing it. There’s no rule
that says you have the right to be protected from other businesses or entities that will try to take your customers. That’s the price of potential financial success. But we can’t respond by instituting rules that chase customers away, like charging customers to try on clothes, or in our case, not installing items that were purchased online. On the flip side, there isn’t a single solution, either. But there is a single idea that should be at the core of every business. I’ve broken it down into three steps: 1. Know your specialty. Any brick-and-mortar store must have something that online stores don’t, whether it’s the personal service surrounding a “touch and feel” experience or the expertise surrounding professional installation. These are service advantages that cannot be given away, discounted or (as in the above example) tinged with negativity. Being a specialist is not your tagline; it’s your business policy. 2. Deliver a single message many times over. Once established, it’s then a measure of promoting your business around this policy. The goal is to intertwine your products, service, knowledge and advantages over Internet resellers into such a closely knitted presentation that customers don’t take the initiative to pick one element apart. In essence, you become a solutions provider as opposed to a parts or service retailer. 3. Follow through regardless of circumstance. If a customer’s solution is to have an
Internet-purchased piece of equipment installed, you provide that solution while marketing a larger picture of your capabilities. Like advertising, you create such a strong impression with continual interaction in your store, and additional interaction through follow-up Email. Will you still get those who utilize your expertise and purchase elsewhere? Of course you will. But if you treat these customers as kings, even as they are walking out, you’re continu- ing to create the impression with other customers that you are a solutions provider, and that does as much to boost sales as negative policies and signage do to hurt it. ■
12 Mobile Electronics April | May 2011
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