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From Screenwerk: Clarinova, The Rebirth of StepUp?

April 12, 2010 | No Comments »

Screenwerk, a blog by analyst Greg Sterling, is one of our daily reads. Greg covers precisely our corner of the market, concerning how people use the Internet to research their offline purchases. So, we were thrilled to have him write about us.

The post really captures both what Clarinova is about, and what the opportunities are. We learned about StepUp commerce, the company Greg compares us to, about 2 years ago and have been using it to explain the market potential, so we were pleased to see he made the same connection. Our business has a different angle than StepUp — we focus more on soft-goods at independent retailers rather than appliances at major retailers — but the core idea is the same.

If you are interested in the Intersection between e-commerce and physical businesses and get a chance to read Screenwerk, definitely work your way through the archives. There are a lot of gems in there, and a lot of important ideas that no one else is talking about.

Online E-Commerce a Minor Threat

April 8, 2010 | No Comments »

For many retailers, particularly those with a long history of retailing in the physical world, the Internet is an ominous dark cloud, and even thinking about websites brings a sense of dread. Are e-commerce websites going to steal your business? Will your customers desert you for Swell.com?

Not likely. Internet sales are still a small part of total US sales: E-commerce is less than 4% of US retail sales. Some market segments have much smaller percentages: 1% in Apparel, and 2% in sporting goods. E-commerce is important, but, despite years of hype, online purchasing is not how people buy products. As analyst Greg Sterling says,

The dominant paradigm has emerged: online “shopping,” offline buying.

Nearly all consumers use the Internet for research, and then nearly all of them buy in physical, real-world, brick-and-mortar stores. Yahoo calls it ROBO: Research Online, Buy Offline.

So, don’t be worried about other e-commerce retailers. Don’t worry about not having an e-commerce website. But, you should be concerned if you don’t have any web presence. Retailers don’t need to maintain their own websites, but they do need to make it easy for consumers to find and connect with them. Fortunately, this is getting easier every day, particularly with directories like Yahoo Local, Google Local Business or CitySearch and business-capable social networks like Facebook Fan Pages.