I had a very interesting conversation with Josh, a friend who owns a couple health food stores. Josh has decided to go online and found some friend to setup his web site. (Josh did not consider asking a consultant and was not aware of my involvement with the internet and web marketing). Similar to many business owners and executives Josh knows very little about business planning and even less about running an online business. They think all you need to do is put up a site, and customers will start buying. No thought is given to where the customers are coming from or the kind of products to sell online.

They understand having a store in a prime location in a busy mall will generate many potential customers who will pass by the shop window. Having an eye-catching window display will entice customers to enter the store and convert into paying customers. However, In the online world most customers will never know you exist and it is very unlikely the site will show in the top 2 pages of search results. Research shows must searchers only look at the first two pages of search results. As David Viney reports in his new book Get to the Top on Google

“84% of searchers never make it past the bottom of page two of search engine results”.

Getting to the top two pages requires a lot of time, patience and hard work. Josh has heard of Google, but has no understanding of search results, ranking, PPC(Pay Per Click) or SEO (search engine optimization). The whole process of site development, optimization and web marketing are completely unknown to him.

Josh’s approach is typical of many business owners and managers and is unlikely to lead to success. Most likely they will come running to consultants in 6-12 months when the site is not working out as “planned”.

Here are a few questions I asked him.

Shia: Does the “friend” who is setting up your site have experience? Have you seen sites he has created?

Josh: Yes, they are quite “good”.

Shia: How do know they are good? Have you seen sites they have created?

Josh: The sites looked nice!

Shia: Have you compared his prices and experience with other companies?

Josh: No

Shia: Has he setup similar sites with shopping carts and online payment gateways use PayPal?

Josh: No the sites shown were quite simple, just a catalog with no online purchasing.

Shia: Will the site have CMS – Content Management System?

Josh:???? (no idea what a CMS is)

Shia: A CMS – Content Management System is a database where you can add and update details about your products. Items like photos, information, prices. A CMS system allows you the site owner to update without the need of a programmer.

Josh: I will have to ask the guy who is setting up the site!

Shia: How many items are you planning to offer online?

Josh: 2-3000 to start, after which I will increase to 10,000 items.

Shia: Do you have backend setup, ordering, stock control, and shipping?

Josh: I have a few students to help.

Clearly, Josh has no idea about how to start an online business and has done little or no thinking about optimizing his new site or taken the time to investigate how the completion is playing the game. The story reminds me of Webvan an online grocery business that went bankrupt in 2001, read eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work. Webvan had a lot of financing with some highly rated consultants giving advice. However, they decided to expand too fast and offer a huge range of products. If they were a little more conservative and adopted a more modest plan they may have succeeded.

Josh runs a couple health stores, he has no idea how online customers will buy, and is not even aware of the cost of a conversion. (Conversion Rate). Josh should plan to start selling only a few items on line to test his system No more than 50 items to start. Sounds bad advice? Especially when he already has 2000 items in stock in his stores? Josh needs to understand buying online is not the same as selling to walk in customers. They will behave differently and their expectations are not the same as selling to customers in a store. Josh needed to consider whether he wants to sell to the local market, or aim for the national or even international market.

There are many online health stores, why should a customer buy from Josh? Josh should find reasons why customers will want to buy from his site. Here are a few possibilities:-

• Convenience
• Price
• Quality
• Fast Reliable Delivery
• Expert Knowledge about Health Food
• Recipes