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We humans are:

• Lazy
• Creatures of habit and
• Respond well to ultimatums

…at least as far as ecommerce usage goes. With the formerly glamorous, suddenly useless, and now back in vogue shopping cart or online catalog, we behave exactly in this manner when faced with purchase decisions on the web.

I am so accustomed to buying things online that I assume EVERYONE prefers to avoid the crowded malls and traffic jams by shopping online. Not so.

The Department of Commerce shows steady annual Ecommerce growth with purchases at an all time high… and yet still less than 2% of total retail sales in the US are online (Q4: $17 billion online vs. $918 billion in stores).

Let’s look at a website that supports my previous rants:

Seeley’s Inc. is a manufacturer of hobby ceramic and porcelain supplies and has been promoting a 1500 item ecommerce catalog since Jan 2002. Their customer base consumes clay and paints, thus their buyer will come back for more purchases down the road to keep the hobby going.

Seeley’s used to print an 88 page full color catalog which was out of date immediately after printing (since new products are added constantly) and also very expensive to produce.

Today, the company maintains its online catalog (updating all of the items themselves) and prints a smaller (and much cheaper) black and white brochure that encourages customers to visit the online catalog.

The company has been collecting email addresses for the last few years and has created a mailing list in excess of 6000 subscribers. Its primary method of customer contact has shifted from direct mail (paper) to its current quiver of e-newsletters. New product information and sales are delivered to this list regularly with direct links to the online catalog.

Website sales have been steadily growing and each month produces new buyers that have registered themselves in the shopping cart system.< Recently Seeley’s promoted its 1st ever “online only” catalog promotion. The sale in January 2004 produced 138 orders (versus 76 in Dec 2003 and 62 in Nov 2003)

They also ran a sale in February 2004, and the number of orders were also up at 128.

Seeley’s gained 121 new “internet” customers in Jan 2004, which they thought was excellent. Many customers had not ordered via the internet before and had problems understanding how to buy online, but Seeley’s helped each of them work through the issues… a learning curve for some of the customers.

This information leads to some interesting conclusions:

1. The growth of their online sales seem in synch with the growth of their email mailing list.
2. Buying something online creates a small but immediate barrier by requiring visitors to create accounts online to finish purchases.
3. These sales barriers can be overcome by bribing customers with a discount.
4. Once buyers have established their accounts, they come back month after month to buy more.
5. Don’t expect explosive growth after installing a shopping cart… but expect a steady increase in sales.
6. The majority of the market still prefers to purchase items in brick and mortar stores, but that group is shrinking.

The upside for future online sales is good. Please feel free to contact us to discuss whether you should enter the ecommerce world.

See Seeley’s Online Catalog