| Quote of the Month |
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"If you must persuade, you must appeal to their interest rather than their intellect."
~Benjamin Franklin
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| Afghans for Afghans |
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Afghans for Afghans is a project that sends hand-knit and crocheted blankets and sweaters, vests, hats, mittens, and socks to the beleaguered people of Afghanistan.
Learn More!
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eR News
Musings from eRichards
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November 2006
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Greetings!
It's hard to believe fall is already underway. This
month our feature article written by our CEO, Mark
Richards, looks at e-commerce from a strategic point
of view. In other news, eRichards is proud to have
taken part in last month's 13th annual Westport
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. What a
success! Also, be sure to take a look at "A Glass of
Water." I think you'll enjoy it!
Best wishes to you and yours for Thanksgiving,
Doreen Gebbia
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E-Commerce
The Current State of E-Commerce and Building an E-Commerce Strategy
From 1995 when Amazon.com started selling books
on the web to current day where they offer a
potpourri of items to the consumer, they have
established themselves as one of the premier e-
commerce sites on the internet, selling over 108
million items in 2005 alone. However, Amazon did
not make a profit for the first 4-5 years but
reinvested their capital into the company so that it
may
continue to grow. Like most of the other dot coms,
they were hit with the dot com implosion that forced
them to alter their business plan in order to survive.
After that adjustment, they flourished. This is a
typical pattern of events that happens to many
companies:
- Initial strategy implemented
- Strategy falters or business revenues dip
- Strategy is either corrected or company retreats
from original version
- Business is realigned and the strategy is verified
or changed.
An e-commerce strategy needs to be flexible and
agile to ensure that it can be adjusted when such
events
occur. In addition, the e-commerce plan must
incorporate branding, marketing, sales and other main
growth drivers of the company. All of these areas
are interdependent and must support each other thus
providing a consistent look and feel. Each strategy
needs to provide full functionality and scalabilty
as the online business continues to grow in visitors
and revenue. eRichards has helped companies realize
these principles and execute effectively upon them.
Visit our site to learn about one of our
favorite clients' success (a major NYC Art Museum)
as we enhanced their capacity, helping them double
their revenues and realize their first million
dollar month. eRichards.com
However, one of the biggest mistakes a company can
make is to isolate their e-commerce strategy and
not integrate it with all of their growth drivers.
eRichards has successfully worked
with our clients to assess their growth drivers and
build strategic roadmaps ensuring the value and
profits of their online businesses.
E-Commerce has reached such a tipping point
that even companies selling residential heating oil to
their customers are now allowing them to pay on-
line. It has become a necessary
convenience item that consumers expect of the
companies they do business with. Much of e-
commerce
today is dictated by convenience and cost savings.
As Americans continue to rush about, they will buy
clothes, books, flowers, etc. on-line to save time.
This brings us to a trend of large corporations to
put most or all service issues on the
web to take pressure off of their call centers.
Navigating these sites is often times difficult and
not as user friendly as the consumer would like
resulting in frustrated end users. The concept behind
them is sound, but the execution to date sometimes
fall short of our ever growing expectations for
seamless and painless transactions. These sites are
fine for downloading software but offer a poor
substitution
for a knowledgeable person.
E-Commerce has to be linked and built around
community. Amazon built the first world community
totally on-line. With community, you have a friendly
audience that you can communicate, sell and market
to more easily then a neutral audience. When
companies succeed in establishing community first,
selling products to that community is much easier,
as they have already created brand loyalty. A
company’s effort is maximized by communicating
creatively and effectively with their community.
When companies create a strategy for their web
channel, they must integrate: Global Branding,
Marketing, Customer
Service and Sales into that strategy. Each of
these areas must support the other to fully engage
the customers resulting in added value and increased
revenue.
A truly flexible e-Commerce strategy is
always evolving because the company’s community is
always
changing and growing.
eRichards and a major NYC Art Museum
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Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
A few weeks ago, eRichards participated in the 13th
annual Westport Making Strides Against Breast
Cancer walk. The eRichards team contributed nearly
$1,000 to the total $502,000 raised to help fund
research, education, advocacy efforts, and support
services for breast cancer patients and their
families. Breast cancer is the second leading cause
of cancer deaths in women today, and the American
Cancer Society estimates that another 213,000
women
in the US will be diagnosed this year. We at
eRichards believe that with increased awareness we
can help shift the focus from illness to increased
health and well being for women and their families.
Making Strides
is a great way to start.
Learn more about Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
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A Glass of Water
A lecturer, explaining stress management to an
audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How
heavy is this glass of water?" Answers called out
ranging from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, "The
absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends how long
you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute,
that's not
a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an
ache in
my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to
call
an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight,
but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."
He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress
management. If we carry our burdens all the time,
sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly
heavy, we won't be able to carry on. As with the
glass of water, you have to put it down for a while
and rest before holding it again. When we're
refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. So,
before you return home tonight, put the burden of
work down. Don't carry it home -- you can pick it up
tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let
them down for a moment if you can."
"So, my friends, why not take a while to just simply
relax. Put down anything that may be a
burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until
after you've rested a while. Life is short. Enjoy it!"
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