Opinion – If You Can’t Compete Online, you Can’t Compete.

I’ve seen a few threads on LinkedIn recently that suggest that one reason for not selling online is that it’s too competitive. Ecommerce is disruptive. If your business model or value proposition makes you uncompetitive in a more transparent market, then you may not have a viable business to start with.

The Only Constant is Change.

The business rules are being re-written as a result of COVID-19. The supply chain is being tested, physical retail is being forced to close and social norms are being changed as the entire workforce become digital hermits.

Companies that have been procrastinating about Digital Transformation have been given a push, but there are still objections, often generational resistance to technology.

Ecommerce is too Competitive!

If people really believed this, then Amazon would not have a business. The most successful ecommerce companies on the planet are marketplaces – by definition, they use the concept of competition to determine which products are sold at what price.

What this objection really means is – I can’t compete online.

If your value proposition in an offline world is propped up by market imperfections, then you may struggle to compete in a global, transparent market where consumers have almost perfect information.

That means that if your business can charge higher prices because you are the only supplier due to an exclusive license or geographic circumstance, then those advantages will be harder to maintain in an online world.

The assumptions that sit under micro-economic theory – those of perfect information are being enabled with the internet. A customer doesn’t have to drive to the next town to see what a competitor is charging for a product. They can go to Google or Amazon and search. Not only that. Modern day consumers are savvy or sophisticated enough to be able to do foreign exchange calculations and factor in shipping.

Don’t assume that competitiveness is a factor of size.

Small companies may think that they can’t compete with massive global brands. That’s not necessarily true.

Large companies that are set up to take advantage of economies of scale and to appeal to a concept of a mass-market worry about an inability to compete with smaller, more niche, more agile players.

Disruption is Here to Stay. Deal with it.

How? Well you could sign up for one of the Aquitude Training Courses on the subject. Or your could go back to basics.

Admit that you have competition. You are not just competing for customer spend, you are competing for attention, you are competing for people’s time.

Revisit your Value Proposition – what makes you special? What is it that you have that separates you from your competition.

Think about your customers – the ones who you have now, the ones you might lose going online, the ones you might gain by having an ecommerce offer.

Pivot. Look at how you deliver your value proposition in a new, transparent, global, perosnalised market.