Internet Branding: The Corporate Image Challenge of 2006

[mandy]

Following are the top two reasons for most e-commerce failures, according to the study.

Lack of a Selling Proposition

There are millions of e-commerce sites selling millions of basic products and services. So what? Commoditization will certainly kill the business, as some sales are made only by sheer accident.

It's one thing to compete selling screwdrivers, but to offer advanced assembly ideas, with a screwdriver provided as one of the essential tools, is a better selling proposition.

"Cheap" is losing its power as now "free" is in. Global competition is so fierce and the labor-cost disparity is so wide that most bargain pricing is no longer effective, as there is always some other supplier to offer a product for far less -- or even for free...

Total Oblivion

Any Web site or portal -- or any e-commerce strategy -- is simply doomed from the start without a Five Star Standard of Naming.

Ninety-nine percent of e-commerce sites are unsearchable. This means that unless a potential customer remembers all the twisted spellings and all the added differentiators of a URL ... access is close to impossible.

When a site is lost in oblivion, it's doomed, and the e-commerce game is over. Period

full article: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/ORye...2006.xhtml