February 17, 2010
Op Ed Guest Post By Steve Koss, Local-Marketplace.com
Shop local, market local, buy local, sell local, sell global.
Local, local, local, local is the buzz in the marketplace. What is missing is the Leonardo Da Vinci systematic thinking to connect all the dots. Many small business merchants and the big players walk potential customers up to the virtual doors of their web sites, only to not make a sale. The electronic yellow pages are leaving customers and merchants roaring, “show me the money” and “why do I need a web site?!”
There was a prolific article by Paul Paulgillin titled “Welcome to the Site-less Web” that nailed, with a sledge hammer, why merchants do not need a web site. The article points to how Honda is using Facebook as their landing (home) page versus a traditional home page.
The arrival of e-Marketplaces, for merchants and industries with their various value propositions, is a trend that validates the need for businesses to ask what strategic purpose a web site accomplishes. Have we transferred traditional yellow page advertising into a fancy electronic version with a higher spend?
Companies like Reach Local, Merchant Circle, Yelp, and CitySearch are wonderful for promoting businesses, but in the end they are essentially walking potential customers right up to the *virtual* front doors…then they walk away! Why don’t they complete the sale? All miss connecting the ecommerce Holy Grail dot. Moreover, all are an electronic version of the yellow pages mentality of fishing.
Marketplaces that have caught the wave of thinking products and services first, removing the need of a web site, and providing small business merchants the great equalizer of ecommerce in the site-less web include Addoway and Auburn-Marketplace an early adopter of the local and site-less web thinking…a city transactional e-marketplace.
To fish in the site-less web pond requires a change in the type of fishing. Change the trolling rod of electronic yellow pages to a fly-fishing rod to catch sales and new revenues in the ecommerce and e-marketplace ponds.
Ask yourself this heretical question: How can I get into the ecommerce pond without a web site, technology staff, and the high costs spend?
Blog: http://local-marketplace.com/online-local-city-marketplaces/blog/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/stevekoss
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