lenn - do you really believe there is much room for establishing a competitive advantage in the area of customer service
in doing retail on the web? Since the layout and navigation of a web site can be easily copied, the only places where I can
see customer service coming into play are in (1) timely shipping of products and (2) timely response to customer
inquiries and (3) keeping your web site up and running. I believe all of these can be easily accomplished (although Ebay
has had difficulty with the third) - provided you have good servers, good distribution infrastructure and good
management. I'm not saying there is no possibility of establishing competitive advantage in the area of customer service
- I just believe the advantage to be gained is small compared to the advantage one might gain in this area in the bricks
& mortar world.
I was under the impression that Skeeter was referring to retailers in general. However, ecommerce too has a difference and it is not the web site. It is the instock, shipping speed (fulfillment), pictures on the web site, database of information, etc. Customer support on technical products also.
Of course, you could argue that the advantage that Amazon might have in touting good customer service is purely a
marketing advantage - that the perceived advantage is much greater than the real advantage.
You could make this argument but you would be incorrect.
On a separate, but related topic - if I were Bezos, I would be very concerned about new companies that are rumored to
be working on "global shopping cart" services. A "global shopping cart" site would allow a customer to not only search
for the lowest price of an item on the web, but would also allow the customer to actually purchase the item through the
"global shopping cart" site (without having to go to the e-tailing site). Imagine if you will, going to a global shopping cart
site and entering in the names of the three books you wish to buy along with your credit card number, and being able to
get the absolute best price and make the purchase at the site, without having to visit barnesandnoble.com or
amazon.com? If such technology does become available and if it proves to work (from not only a technical but legal
perspective as well), it will introduce even greater price pressure (and lower margins) on e-tailers.
I doubt this will be an issue. We are back to customer service. Customer service is all the retailer provides. Those that do it best, will be the most succesful.
Glenn |
