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Let’s talk about the PGA Professional and e-commerce
The world is full of people with hammers selling you nails! They convince you that without ‘nails’ your business can’t exist. Of course to make any use of a ‘nail’ you need to buy the ‘hammer’. They have an agenda. Retail Tribe’s Ian James investigates
phone on the 14th with water down the right, seeking help to ‘hit it straight’ or ‘cure my slice’. How many people within 50km of your Golf Facility just rushed to their keyboard with that query? It’s the same with website developers and e-commerce. “You can’t exist
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without an online shop”. Of course they’ve got the technology; it comes without the product codes, product descriptions, images, and prices for all of your products. However, they’ve got the ‘platform’. And now you too can enter the world of 21st century retailing. Trouble is, the technology is not actually the hard part. The hard part is
developing and capturing all the product codes and content, managing inventory levels, tracking competitive pricing, and of course maintaining your prices. Oh yes- it’s even harder to make a profit. You may already have a website and be managing ecommerce.
Those of you without an ‘angle’ that differentiates your proposition from everyone else will know it’s tough, and getting tougher, to make a decent return.
o it is with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) people. They want to sell you SEO advice. So they first need you to want to get to number 1 in Google’s rankings, when someone uses their mobile
The experts predict that we are moving faster and faster towards a
world where your ability to supply a product at the cheapest price is all that you have. The consumer, they predict, will stand in your shop, check out your new Nike outfits, snap out their mobile phone, search the web, and order online from the cheapest supplier. Which, given the investigation we have done, is likely to be another PGA Professional! A new black Nike, extra-large, mock will arrive by drone on the 10th tee just in time for your golfer to look sharp for the back nine in clothing bought from someone else.
I’m not ridiculing some people’s vision for the future. Everything is
changing around us, but each new innovation has a habit of opening up avenues and opportunities we hadn’t thought of. As an example of what I mean, Amazon was supposed to take over the
book world. I’m not questioning the success that Amazon as the first- mover has had, but authors, especially those with an ‘angle’, are now selling physical books WITHOUT the need for Amazon. What do they have that Amazon doesn’t have? They have the ability to
engage directly with the reader and to extend the relationship beyond the reading. If someone authors a book on food eating disorders, then they can handle queries and follow up, provide additional explanation, and mobilise a community. If you haven’t gone online yet, then you ought to do so quickly. It’s how
They all look alike and they all offer exactly the same product, even to the Golf Professionals who go online. So what can be the only point of difference? Price! And that means shrinking margins for everyone.
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you go online that you should pause and think about. Because if all you’re going to do is replicate
www.anyoldgolfsite.com then you’re setting off down a path that offers a lot of work and cost, with a diminishing return in a very cut-throat landscape. We’ll continue this conversation next month.
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