Cash registers: February 15, 1999 issue of New Thinking

February 15, 1999 New Thinking:
Cash registers

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February 15, 1999

Cash registers

By Gerry McGovern

Cash registers are great. You get a cash register and you’re in business. Cash registers are magic. They are a license for printing money.

Few question that the Internet has suffered from its fair share of hype. The magical word that has been setting the fires burning over the last year or so is “ecommerce.” For some, ecommerce has taken on almost religious connotations. Every time the word is mentioned, people stand back in awe.

Much of the surrounding language to ecommerce is very mechanical and functional. You get the impression that all you have to do is implement your database, your payment system and your customer tracking software, and you will have got your license to print money.

It’s not like that, I’m afraid. In a traditional commerce setting you take for granted the cash register. If you go to a supermarket and the cash register isn’t working, you’ll become very frustrated. If you go again the next week and you find the same problem, then it is unlikely that you will return again.

Generally, however, choosing the supermarket or store you shop in is not down to what type of cash register they have. It’s down to product range, customer service, value for money, etc.

Too much ecommerce and too many ecommerce vendors are focused on selling the benefits of the hardware and software. It’s not about that. It’s about marketing, sales, customer service. It’s about offering the product the customer wants in the way they want it.

The Internet is still a romantic, gambler’s paradise, full of impossible promise. I remember last year when record company, K-Tel announced that it was launching an ecommerce website, its stock, which had been at death’s door, went through the proverbial roof.

Now, K-Tel made its name by assembling some down-market compilations. Just because it announced that it would launch an ecommerce website shouldn’t really have changed anything.

The proposed Lycos deal, where they are to be acquired by USA Networks, has showcased an interesting case of grand delusion by the Lycos shareholders. The new entity would be worth something like USD20 billion. It would bring to Lycos genuine commerce success stories such as Ticketmaster and the Home Shopping Network.

But no, Lycos shareholders wanted the moon and the stars thrown in as well. In a show of pique that could only happen on the Internet, they lopped off USD2 billion off the share value of Lycos in the last week.

The Internet is still a strange world. There are many who have turned it into a world of fantasy, where the first sign of reality is either jumped on or sends them running scared. ‘Ecommerce, ecommerce,’ is being sung like some mantra, the belief being that all you have to do is say the word enough and bucketfuls of money will flow.

It’s not like that. I would bet that there are many ecommerce websites out there that are hurting in their attempt to deliver on the impossible promise. That’s not to say that there isn’t a business to be made on the Internet. But it won’t be made from cash registers and ‘ecommerce.’ It will be made just like it has always been made – from serving the customer.

Gerry McGovern

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‘Ecommerce, ecommerce,’ is being sung like some mantra, the belief being that all you have to do is say the word enough and bucketfuls of money will flow.