July 25, 2000

In 1996 the stumbling block for i-commerce was fear of entering credit card numbers on the Internet (see 1996 i-commerce politics). The issue was fanned by the media and grew to significant concern among the public. The issue proved to be a scarecrow and is no longer relevant to the majority of web users and in time will completely vanish. People today still list security or trust as an issue, but it is no longer about on-line credit card vulnerability. 

Maintaining control over personal information has become a popular concern (the codeword for this concern is the Privacy Issue). Though this may change, for now the Privacy Issue is not receiving the level of media focus that credit card security once received. Possibly as a result,  Privacy is not currently the same impediment to i-commerce that "credit card security concerns" were years ago. Like credit card security, the Privacy Issue is not new and has little to do with the Internet. It is however, another scarecrow (though a small one) that on-line businesses will have to address. Insurance companies, credit card companies, credit reporting agencies, and others have for decades been collecting and selling personal information on a massive scale. The information collected by on-line retailers is dwarfed in comparison to these industries, and in the majority of cases the information being collecting by on-line businesses is for the sole purpose of providing better and easier service.

Currently, the public's i-commerce concerns are mostly general in nature, and in many cases these same concerns can and do exist for brink & mortar businesses. As a result these concerns can be dealt with using conventional solutions. They are not like the credit card scarecrow which became an irrational fear that was impossible to address with logic.  Hopefully this calming trend will continue, but if history offers any lessons, the trend will not continue and new bigger scarecrows will emerge. The current issues that deter people from buying on-line can be found below listed in order of importance:

• Poorly organized or non-functional web sites.
• Trust in the ability of a business to delivery the product or service quickly & correctly.
• Basic abilities of a customer to use a computer.
• Ethical trust in a business to not resell or misuse personal information.

The bottom line that can be taken from this list is that to become a successful on-line business you must be a successful merchant... the on-line or off-line nature of your business is not relevant. Even if you only sell your products on-line, you must do all the same basic things that any brick & mortar business must do. You need business savvy. You need good products and good services. You need to attract customers and you need to take care of those customers once you win their business.

Out of all my clients, the vast majority which are successful on-line have one thing in common. They were all successful brick & mortar businesses before they began doing business on-line. The most important lesson of on-line success and failure is distilled by that one sentence. You cannot expect to just create a powerful web site then sit back and watch the money roll in. If you are just starting out, you must be prepared to be in business.... in the classical sense of the word. If you are not prepared to work long hours for low pay and invest every dine you have, you will most likely not succeed on-line in business.

Kevin Bohacz,
President of C:> Prompt