Does E-commerce Need to Compliment the High Street?
4 Jan 2007 by Mother Superior
Music Zone announced its file for administration this week and it’s very telling that it never sold online to compliment a burgeoning high street presence? As a relatively new retailer in the entertainments sector it’s hard to understand why e-commerce was never part of the strategy.
Music Zone was unlikely to sustain competition on a large scale in the mainstream with HMV, Virgin and of course Amazon, but would it have done better by moving in a niche direction?
MZ Direct was the seed that could have given them a USP. The idea that they could find for a customer obscure DVD’s, CD’s, even band merchandise. However, this would only have worked had they created a user friendly online interface that allowed the customer to feel as though they were processing and discovering their desired item. Using the internet they could have made the product tangible and accessible.
It’s astonishing that such a young company within that sector did not anticipate the direction the market is going in. In 2007, I wonder how many more high street companies will finally activate e-commerce solutions.
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I think this is a very sad and telling story. I would go so far as to say that with today’s consumer preferences and habits almost ever business needs a online prescence. It is an essential part of the marketing mix and it’s not simply about building a site and providing a ‘online brochure’ as it was in the past, it’s about building an interactive and sticky site that fulfils the needs of the visitor and at the same time provides ROI for your business. And as the slump in the diy market shows, to make sure you get it right and don’t waste resources and money it’s always better to get the professionals in to do it.