Is the window to the future really a mirror?

By Mitch MacDonald, Group Director/Editorial, Content Development -- Logistics Management, 2/1/2001

The holiday season, the presidential election drama, and the "real" start of the new millennium are now two months in the past. Scattered returns - not from Florida, but rather from the online world of commerce - show that the practice of buying goods online continues to pick up steam.

As consumers become more familiar, and comfortable, with issues of home delivery, product selection, price advantage, and credit card security, many of the barriers that stood before online retailers just a couple of years ago are either gone or considerably diminished. The dot-com crashes of the past year notwithstanding, it seems clear that the Internet will, indeed, continue to gain a larger share of the consumer's dollar.

That is not to say, however, that the rules of the market are now established. Clearly, much of the online universe remains uncharted. The opportunities for success continue to present themselves for those companies that are willing to innovate, improve, and continue to set the standards for customer service at increasingly higher levels.

One of the more successful online retail innovations of the past few months, for instance, is the practice of buying online, with the option of returning goods to the store. Consumers are sure to view this new customer-service twist, introduced by a host of brick and mortar based retailers, as a big service upgrade. It eliminates the potential for return shipping hassles, yet it preserves the option to enjoy all the benefits inherent in online shopping.

More notable, perhaps, is that this policy establishes a clear and substantial customer-service differentiator between the brick and mortars and the Internet pureplay retailers. And it's likely to be just the first of several such differentiators that bring the virtual world into a realm that more closely resembles the real world.

Just as customer-service innovations are drawing the virtual and real worlds closer together, so too are broader market forces. Investors, in particular, continue to drive the dot-com sector toward more traditional measures of success (like revenue, profitability, and other such matters that seemed unimportant to them just a few months ago).

As this dynamic plays out, the predictions of many consultants and analysts are becoming reality. Particularly notable is the realization that it's not about the Web, it's about what you do with it.

This undoubtedly comes as an unpleasant surprise to many dot-comers, but it shouldn't. Unless your business is the making and selling of hardware and software, technology remains just another tool in your business arsenal. The Web is no different. It exists as a technological platform that has immense capabilities. Nothing more. Nothing less.

All this seems to support the notion that in the years ahead, the winners in the online world will be not those pureplays that made the technology their focus, but rather traditional brick and mortar companies. As these real-world companies look to the technology of the Internet and seize the capabilities it affords, they stand to enjoy substantial success extending their business proposition from the real world to the virtual world.

Envisioning the online retail landscape of the future may now be a bit easier than it was a few years ago. As it turns out, all you need to do is look around you. The virtual world will, ultimately, mirror the real world.

Before taking over his current position in Cahners Business Information's Supply Chain Group, Mitch MacDonald served as both publisher and chief editor of Logistics' predecessor, Logistics Management magazine.