It is nice to be an online shop

This means, it is nice, at least when you have customers. According to a new study, "more than 627 million people have shopped online, including over 325 million within the last month. Over 212 million online shoppers mention books as among the last 3 items they purchased online.

In addition:

- over 135 million people have purchased DVDs and/or video games;
- close to 135 million made plane reservations;
- over 128 million purchased articles of clothing/accessories/shoes;
- over 112 million paid for music downloads and/or CDs;
- over 106 million purchased electronic devices (including cameras, etc);
- close to 98 million bought computer hardware; and
- over 86 million consumers made hotel and/or tour bookings."

While the leading retailers have not been mentioned in the article, it is not difficult to guess that a large share of those shops that profit from the online growth goes to Amazon.com, eBay, and search engines like Yahoo. The big question for the smaller retailers is how to become relevant to the consumer, how to compete in the online world against the big boys and how to raise awareness of their existence.

If this cannot be managed - and this goes for the real as well as the online world - well, forget about launching a shop. But then, it is actually easy - create something that is catering to the customer, co-created with consumers and meeting their needs. Nothing really new, is it?

(By Asia Business Consulting)