When I launched my first eCommerce store in 1994, there weren’t too many web design shops you could ring up and have them build you a website. To my knowledge, there wasn’t any computer program you could load on your PC running Windows 3.1 that would built it for you either. Webmasters, like me, would sit in front of a single 15” monitor and code line after line of HTML and check our work in a web browser called Netscape.
Websites back then were nothing like they are today. They were mainly a bunch of text on a page, some animated GIFs and if you knew your stuff, you could program some JAVA apps or add some annoying MIDI music that would play in the background when the page loaded.
Selling product was even harder!
Digital cameras, like most emerging technology, were very expensive. If I wanted to take a picture of a product, I had to use a 35mm camera, have the film developed and then scan the printed photo. Manufacturers would often send product images as slides and I remember attaching some thing-a-ma-bob onto the scanner to capture the image from the slide.
Let’s not even talk about early shopping cart technology! My first store used a rudimentary fill-in-the-blanks form to place an order that was sent unsecured via email – credit card number and all. It took a couple of years for the credit card processing company to realize we were transacting over the Internet, and immediately cut us off because they weren’t ready to this “new” way of shopping. We “thanked” the woman who made the decision to take away our ability to accept credit cards with a nice bouquet of black balloons (or was it black roses) delivered to the bank.
As an eCommerce store in the 90’s there were plenty of things you were able to do, or not do, on your site that was perfectly acceptable. Customers knew this whole online shopping thing was a work in progress. Today, shoppers are less forgiving. They expect more from an eCommerce store – maybe even more than they expect from a traditional bricks-and-mortar retailer.
Here are some things I did back then and whether or not they would fly today:
- Photos: Like I said earlier, digital cameras were just coming out on the market and were very expensive. Taking product photos was a chore and often times if we were selling an item that was popular enough to be recognized by name only, we wouldn’t even put a picture of the item online. Today, shoppers not only expect a product photo, they expect to be able to enlarge it, zoom in on it and see front, side, top, bottom and 360-degree views of it.
- Customer Service: For years, my store’s customer service department consisted of a voice mail box that was checked after one of us got home from working a full-time job. If someone happened to have called, we returned the call usually after 7pm at night and if we didn’t get to talk to someone then, we would take the number to work the next day and try to call during a break. There is no way that type of service flies today. Customer’s expect to be able to pick up the phone and talk to a live person. Today, a voice mail box equals a lost sale and lost credibility.
- Print Catalogs: From the day we opened until the day we sold, we had a print catalog for TheFerretStore.com. When we added additional stores, some of them also had a print catalog. Every day, our post office box was filled with mail-in orders and our phones would ring with customers on the other end placing an order from the catalog. Most of the requests wanted a birth poster for twins. Printing a catalog was an expensive proposition, but it always paid for itself. Today, eCommerce store owners don’t even entertain the proposition of a print catalog – which I feel is a mistake. If you think print catalogs don’t have a place in today’s electronic market, check out this article and infographic to see how print catalogs influenced 2012 holiday shopping.
- Direct Mail: Just like the print catalog, direct mail played a major role from day one till the time we sold. Postcards introducing a new product with a high margin or offering a coupon were sent to customers at least once per month. Since our catalog was published quarterly, we supplemented that by mailing one page flyers focused on monthly specials. I’m a firm believer in direct mail for both online and bricks-and-mortar stores – if it’s done right. Just like email marketing, you need to attract the customer with something eye catching to get them to open or look at your piece then entice them with a deal they will want to take advantage of.
I could go on, but I know you hate it when I ramble. Plenty of my readers have had eCommerce stores for quite a while as well. Take a moment to share what you’ve done in the past that you have either stopped doing or continue to do and we’ll compare notes.