The future is now
Detail:
When I was a young girl, one of my favourite TV programmes was Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. For those of you unfamiliar with this sci-fi series, it revolved around NASA pilot Captain William Anthony ‘Buck’ Rogers, who, due to a life support malfunction, was accidentally frozen onboard a space shuttle for 504 years before being discovered in 2491 and revived. Needless to say, he then becomes the hero of a future earth, not least because of his ability to adapt to the new technology and way of life.
I was cast back into this bit of nostalgia as a result of spending a large part of this morning looking through lists of pet retailers – yes, I do some strange things sometimes.
However, the one thing that struck me is the large number who do not have a web presence. Nothing. Not a pip. Zilch. Yet that is not to say that the Internet is an alien beast to them, because many do list an e-mail address at least – many, but not all.
And this is where my Buck Rogers’ thinking comes in… yes, I do sometimes have very strange trains of thought.
Buck Rogers was forcibly pulled 500 years into the future. Yet despite being faced with an enormous amount of new technology, like all true heroes, he jumped in, got on with it, and ended up saving the day over and over again.
With the pet industry, the future is now, and pet retailers are facing a similar sort of situation to what Buck Rogers faced. In that there is a huge amount of technology that many are not embracing for one reason or another. And this could be detrimental to their businesses, if not now, certainly in the next few years.
Let me explain. In talking to successful pet retailers, the majority have a web presence, and not necessarily for sales. Indeed, some absolutely refuse to go down the road of on-line sales. Instead, their website becomes a shrewd marketing tool.
One retailer I was speaking to said his website was crucial to driving walk-in customers from further afield than his local vicinity. His website was so successful and delivered such a powerful message about his shop’s attitudes towards animals, the services they provide and stock they hold that people come from 20 to 30 miles away.
In the aquatics sector, I know of shops that attract customers from 150 miles away. Though with aquatics, this is slightly different in that people will travel the length and breadth of the country in search of an elusive species.
Can you afford not to have a web presence in today’s Internet-driven society? The fax machine and Yellow Pages are rapidly being consigned to the history books, and it really is imperative to move with the times and embrace new technologies.
Part of this success is getting your name out there. I remember walking into a local bath store recently and being asked how I found them, and I replied via the Internet. When asked, the sales manager said 90 per cent of their new walk-in customers were a result of an Internet search.
And that merits thought.
Enjoy your weekend.
I was cast back into this bit of nostalgia as a result of spending a large part of this morning looking through lists of pet retailers – yes, I do some strange things sometimes.
However, the one thing that struck me is the large number who do not have a web presence. Nothing. Not a pip. Zilch. Yet that is not to say that the Internet is an alien beast to them, because many do list an e-mail address at least – many, but not all.
And this is where my Buck Rogers’ thinking comes in… yes, I do sometimes have very strange trains of thought.
Buck Rogers was forcibly pulled 500 years into the future. Yet despite being faced with an enormous amount of new technology, like all true heroes, he jumped in, got on with it, and ended up saving the day over and over again.
With the pet industry, the future is now, and pet retailers are facing a similar sort of situation to what Buck Rogers faced. In that there is a huge amount of technology that many are not embracing for one reason or another. And this could be detrimental to their businesses, if not now, certainly in the next few years.
Let me explain. In talking to successful pet retailers, the majority have a web presence, and not necessarily for sales. Indeed, some absolutely refuse to go down the road of on-line sales. Instead, their website becomes a shrewd marketing tool.
One retailer I was speaking to said his website was crucial to driving walk-in customers from further afield than his local vicinity. His website was so successful and delivered such a powerful message about his shop’s attitudes towards animals, the services they provide and stock they hold that people come from 20 to 30 miles away.
In the aquatics sector, I know of shops that attract customers from 150 miles away. Though with aquatics, this is slightly different in that people will travel the length and breadth of the country in search of an elusive species.
Can you afford not to have a web presence in today’s Internet-driven society? The fax machine and Yellow Pages are rapidly being consigned to the history books, and it really is imperative to move with the times and embrace new technologies.
Part of this success is getting your name out there. I remember walking into a local bath store recently and being asked how I found them, and I replied via the Internet. When asked, the sales manager said 90 per cent of their new walk-in customers were a result of an Internet search.
And that merits thought.
Enjoy your weekend.
By:
Sandra
Date/time :
10/04/2010
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