Tuesday, July 31, 2012

It's a machine after all

I'm talking about software programs and platforms. Martjack and many such ready e-commerce platforms say, set up your shop in a few minutes. And after that what?

It's a widely prevalent notion that set up an e-commerce shop and it's all done. E-commerce in general is growing and so orders will flow in.

Platforms are nothing but engines or machines. They consume energy, effort and skills. And informational engines are more complex than any other type. There's a learning curve to using these platforms and becoming efficient.

After the deployment of such a machine, there's still the big question. Who's gonna buy from your shop? For though google's working, it's working for all others as well. And it's working big time for the leaders who have learned and have been running the engines ever more efficiently and effectively. There was a time when merely deploying the engine would ensure some good results. But that was when there was a scarcity of such engines in the first place. Now it's all common.

The challenge again is one of connection. How? With whom? When? If this is the real challenge, I suggest do not deploy any such engines. Don't waste your time on learning machines. Instead, use the simplest and most flexible tool available and showcase your stuff in as easy a manner as possible. And spend great effort and time in connecting.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Managing the 'e' in e-commerce

Even as I try to get missi.in going, I realize it's a very different ball game and it's a mammoth challenge.

The thing is all about that 'e'.

It means we need to have good photography skills for good visual merchandising on the web.

It means we need to be good at graphic design; that in turn means we need to be good at certain popular graphic design software.

It means we need to be in general very good at structuring information.

It means we need to be good at coding.

It means we need to be good at writing.

It means we need to be good at interacting.

It means we need to be extremely good and we need to be real fast along with being good.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Sometimes

My mind also runs dry
Words aplenty
Sentences just don't form

But I wrote these lines
In a poem, I write sentences
About the sentences that just don't form

Dead end.