A few days ago I had the opportunity t oread the following article by Hiroko Tabuchi:
As Profit Slows, Ikea Notes Need to Move Online
The article caught my attention, because I always thought that Ikea did not push online sales, but rather promoted sales in their stores. In most cases, their high shipping costs were higher than the product itself.
As consumers, we have 2 options. The first one is to go the store, if there is an Ikea near where we live. The second option is to continue looking for our item in another store near us o with more reasonable shipping costs. I considered this the wrong strategy. When a store has a potential buyer, they should try to keep them on their website instead of sending them to competitors website to compare prices of products or services.
In my opinion, this is what Ikea has been doing, and we don’t know how long they will be able to continue doing it.
The article was interesting, as I believe that when a business decides to have a website to offer its products or services, they have to keep an open mind in relation to the use and objective of their website.
Refine the online marketing strategy
Quite a while ago, I remember having a conversation with a doctor in his office about the purpose of his future website. He was convinced this website would only include his address, office hours and some other information about his services. The last thing this doctor imagined was that this website was going to attract patients from other cities that he was going to be invited to give presentations in different conferences, etc. In this case, even though the doctor did not have any expectations for his website, he had an open mind and understood the need to adapt and use new technologies.
Taking into consideration consumer behavior in online marketing strategies
The other side of the coin is when stores have informative websites of their products and services but don’t have online ecommerce. In these cases, it this important for the business owners to understand the consumer expectations, to better match the vision and objectives of the store. I will explain through an anecdote. A store cannot ignore the everyday internet changes and the way these affect consumer behavior.
How can I help you?
If you don’t know where to start, I can help you analyze the real objectives of your only marketing strategy in the short, medium and long term and guide you in deciding what steps to take next to refine your only marketing.
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