What Motivates Established Companies
to Get into E-Commerce?

This article contains older information. Go here for newer information on ecommerce and selling online.

Money! You shout. Money, of course. That's surely true of small entrepreneurs. They see dollar signs in their eyes and rush to the Web expecting millions of people to buy at their store. Some of the great Web businesses were early adopters and established a significant market share early.

But most medium to larger businesses are much more cautious. Their reasons for entering e-commerce are more realistic and pragmatic. We developers tend to be impatient. What are they waiting for? Why don't they jump in with both feet?

Don't get left behind. A lot of companies have a very good business already, thank you. They don't expect to make a lot on the Web right away. Compared to sales in via traditional media, the Web is less than 1% in many industries. But they realize that the market is gradually moving to the Web. Companies want to get their toe in the water now so they aren't left behind in the future.

Learn the ropes. They realize that e-commerce is a new phenomenon and a brand new market channel. They understand it will take a while to understand how to use it well. So companies get into e-commerce to learn how to do it.

Testing. Related to learning is testing. Larger companies need an arena to try various approaches before they make a large dollar commitment to the Web. Pilot projects are the watchword.

So, when you're marketing e-commerce products and development services to these established companies, speak to these motivations rather than just making money, and you'll likely find a greater interest.