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With so many brick-and-mortar companies migrating to online withestablished brands-and with 67 percent of online sales beingdominated by the 50 largest online retailers-how can you ensureyour pure-play or multichannel e-tail site will be successful?
Elaine Rubin, president of the Woodbury, New York, e-commerceconsulting firm ekrubin Inc., and chairperson of Shop.org, a SilverSpring, Maryland, trade association that focuses on electronicdirect-to-consumer marketing technologies and trends and Internetretailing offers this advice: "Any company that's creatingan online strategy and business needs to first understand theiraudience, who they are trying to reach online and what they can dofor their customer online that could not be done offline. Internetretailers have the ability to offer unique products and servicesthat can and do make a difference in customers' lives. The keyfor retailers is to focus on delivering a compelling experience forthe online customer."
So if you want to understand your customers better, check outthese eight lessons for online retailing, based on findings fromThe State of Online Retailing 2.0, a joint study conductedby Shop.org and The Boston Consulting Group:
