Let Dot Com not become Dot-Bom

With the Internet in Vietnam flourishing over the years and becoming familiar with everyone's life, now is the ideal time to start or promote the creation of your e-commerce facility. .

However, there is a fact that many online business companies have not achieved the desired results in the past few years, making many businesses think: How does dot-com not become a dot- bomb?

You all want to know what the dot-com and dot-bomb are different. This is an interesting question. Did you know from 1999 to 2004, online shopping worldwide increased to 1,200%? That is the truth .

Now think about this issue: Online customers can't help but care about the dot-coms coming out of the market, but more and more people are shopping online and the number of goods they buy every five days. an increase. According to Forrester Research, new online shoppers in the United States make nine purchases a year and those with more experience on this (over five years) make 20 purchases a year.

As such, online purchases are increasing at an amazing rate. E-commerce becomes a habit in consumers' lives. However, what we mentioned now is the dot-com failure.

Companies such as Furniture.com, Pets.com, MotherNature.com, Toysmart.com, Living.com, Mortgage.com, Garden.com . have to close down, respectively. The stories of promise of wealth easily and successfully after a night now became the dot-com obituary.

That is why the above statistics are important. If online shopping has increased to 1,200% in the past three years, and if online shopping becomes popular in consumer life . then all these money must be filled with someone's pocket. But who is that? Consider the failures of dot-coms - those are 'dot-bombs', you can draw many lessons by analyzing common mistakes.

Common mistakes

The first mistake: Want to cover everything.

Take Pets.com's case as an example. The market is aimed at pet owners too big. That is the obstacle to overcome to be profitable. 'Pets' (pet) is a generic market. There are owners of dogs and cats, with owners of breeding mice, birds, fish . And each of these groups has different needs when buying food, utensils and toys for their pets.

Marketing and meeting the needs of these different groups, with different products and services, are not easy to implement. Saying that doesn't mean it can't be done, but it takes a lot of money.
This makes us make the next mistake .

Second mistake: Investment is not reasonable.

Throwing a lot of money into a business plan that has not been tested requires much effort to achieve profitability. Creating a widely recognized product requires a lot of money and patience . and that means you need strong financial investors.

When the market weakened last year, many investors became discouraged, even panicked, as the dot-coms continued to consume a lot of investment money without any sign of profit. Can these companies succeed if they continue to invest? For many companies, this is possible. But when investors withdraw their capital, they never get a chance again.

The third mistake: Investing a lot of money in advertising is not profitable.

The simple fact is, large banner ads abroad are no longer as effective as before. The ads that previously attracted 5-10% of attention are now lucky to be only 0.6-0.8%. Unfortunately, during this change, many dot-coms still blindly threw a lot of money into unsolicited, useless advertising.

Lesson for long-term success

Rule 1: Focus on the niche market has been clearly defined.

Narrow your focus to an appropriate, targeted market such as pet parrot owners or those who prefer to maintain and maintain motorcycles rather than try to dominate a large, popular market like pet owners or car owners.

The truth is that running two or three websites that each website targets a specific market is the easiest way to make money on the Internet. Everyone wants to earn a lot of money but often overlooks markets that match their capabilities.

From there, we can summarize the complete process to continue for another market segment: Finding the right market. Understanding the customer 's wishes Developing products d Providing products e Business automation joint.

Rule 2: Deploy special sales.

If there are many competitors in your business, you need to implement a special sales plan. It is important to emphasize what will help you stand out from your competitors. Explain exactly to your customers how and why they benefit from your purchase. For example :

1. Your product or service is cheaper than elsewhere.
2. Your product or service is of higher quality and you can charge a more affordable price.
3. You provide better warranty service than elsewhere.
4. You can target a specific age group, industrial establishment, or type of person.
5. You advise or tell customers what other people don't say.
6. You encourage customers while others do not.
7. Your way of serving customers is better than your competitors.

The important thing when promoting your product or service is to emphasize the points that make you unique and unique. Find a spot on the market and fill it! Adjust your company or product to meet a specific need and then turn it into your specialty.

Rule 3: Reasonable and effective advertising.

Once you have identified the market and launched special sales, consider the audience you will advertise and where to place your ads so that your business will become more convenient. This means that you should place ads in a strategic position to attract more customers.

Rule 4: Learn the success of others.

There are many steps to building a profitable e-commerce facility. You need to design a strategic website, need a good product or service, write sales information and have a complete sales process. In addition, you need to have a sharp marketing campaign to beat the competition.

That's why you have to do better than other competitors if you take the time to train yourself and learn. It is not necessary to re-run a test that has been publicized while you can learn it from someone who has done it, has spent money, researched the technology and made mistakes for you.

Rule 5: Have a good business plan.

When planning a business, you must clearly define how to make a profit. It is not good that too many people plunge into a plan without spending time researching, experimenting and planning exactly how to make money.

An 'idea' is not a business plan. The idea only becomes a plan when you study it, determine your market, figure out how to enter the market and plan a profit for a certain period of time.

The Internet economy in the world is self-correcting after massive, uncontrolled growth. This is a good opportunity for you to learn from others' mistakes and develop your business plan. Take advantage of every advantage and opportunity, increase market share by finding suitable markets and planning special sales. Be sharp in advertising, train yourself and imitate other people's successes, plan for profit.

When you dominate a niche market with this strategy, you can begin to expand the scope of your investment or follow a completely different plan. No matter what you decide, as long as you pursue and test a feasible plan, this is a great opportunity to make a profit as consumers increasingly accept e-commerce.

Bich Nga