Back in 2000, the dot com market in India was booming. Every company who wanted to have it’s presence online was scrambling to find domain names, hosting, email solutions, etc. Companies such as Net4India sprung up and came up with offerings with ridiculous prices (some of these offerings still exist to date!). Executives bought these websites thinking that somehow building a website would translate into revenues. In fact even today, the average “Indian IT company” continues to dole out development costs of websites propelled by content management systems (CMS) to be around 5-6 lakhs. If you are lucky, then that figure can go as high as 14-15 lakhs :-) !!
What was the mistake then?
The single minded assumption that building a website will translate into revenues.
I still see folks who nurture this piece of ticking bomb waiting to explode and set their businesses to ruins. As a result, all derived-demand business also went bustville. It took a fair amount of years to clear the damage, and come back on track.
So why bring this up Now?
These days, whomsoever that I am talking (and you can include me in this list as well!!), is thinking about having an online enterprise. A sweet setup, where the person can run a business irrespective of where this aforesaid individual is. There are more than a fair share of success stories around, and these people have become heralded role models.
Yes, the online dream can become true. Yes.
Feels good to hear these words, don’t they? These days I am seeing a lot more structured approach, newsletters, opt-in forms, CRM systems, mass emailing systems, affiliate management systems, advertising networks, etc … the systems are all there. People just need to start using them and start churning the proverbial money mill.
But …
Back then it was IT firms, now I am seeing a large growth of Digital Marketing firms. It’s the same plot, just the players are different now. Organizations are again back to setting up websites, now with complex marketing and sales systems. But how are you doing in terms of sales? Is the juice worth the squeeze?
If you do own a website, could you share with me what are the plans that you are thinking of to generate sales? Are you creating value to generate those sales?
Are you talking about companies with a brick and mortar presence trying to add online as one more channel to sell or are you talking about e-commerce cos.?
i did not understand the last line.
Arjun, I am talking about the former. Although I have seen e-commerce cos. doing this mistake as well.
Many start-ups think that setting up a website powered by a payment gateway and a CRM system will start revenue generation for them. Without putting any particular efforts in online sales, this will only result in a badly executed idea. This I find similar to the website fad in 2000’s (hence the subject!). The last line was to understand how firms who do have a website and plan to generate online sales are going about it.
I agree.and you are right when you say that many new e-commerce cos. are doing the same mistake.
with cos. who are pre-dominantly offline, the problem is that the web presence only remains an idea (coz it is a fad) with money going down the drain. the effort, thought process and especially the relevant skilled manpower required are completely absent.
Moreover, the agencies are not equipped to understand the problem and provide a relevant solution.
these are my thoughts gained through personal experience….i could be wrong:-)
Personal experiences are never wrong :-), even this post is a result of my personal experiences :-D
CRM is the new Social media in connecting to many types of people in various channels, The new way of knowing the pulse of the people around each and every niche, The new system of exploring and knowing a customers buying signals, The new platform where every subscribers are hooked and is urged to stay for more value added service and it is the new word for easy and convenient shopping whatever you like at your convenient time and place. Thus is creates value that generates sales day in and day out.
Robert from Easy crm