By: Ron Zwetsloot10 september 2010At the moment, consumers who are browsing the Internet for products to purchase online usually have to visit a large number of websites before they find what they are looking for. With today's technological possibilities, we could easily turn things around and make this process much more efficient. How? By enabling manufacturers to actively approach consumers that express an interest in buying the type of products they sell. In many cases, consumers already know exactly which features they are looking for in the item they wish to buy. They are basically waiting for an offer that is good to pass up!I would like to suggest a new, customer-centric approach. The basic idea is simple. Consumers post the details of products they are interested in buying on their personal homepage. Manufacturers and retailers then have to do three things: 1) Link their companies' search profiles up with the product keys consumers are entering; 2) Locate the personal websites of prospective customers and 3) Make them an offer that is too good to pass up! If we want to make this approach to product marketing a reality, we will have to deal with the following challenges:Retailers have to design a system that allows them to match product details with customers' product requirements;Retailers have to adjust their search techniques accordingly;Adjustments will also have to be made to personal websites, especially with regard to the use of universal lists and syntax.This article will show you what can be achieved with the help of technology that is already available.Tags:consumers, retailers, customer contacts, customer satisfaction, manufacturers, internet purchases, e-business, internet usage, purchasing, personal homepage.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Internet offers unprecedented opportunities and unsurprisingly, the number of creative and user-friendly applications continues to grow. The Internet has also had a large impact on social interaction, even though it is still to reach its full potential in this respect. At present, approximately one quarter of the world population has access to the Internet. Worldwide, that amounts to 1.7 billion people . Expectations are that the coming decade will not only see an exponential increase inthe number of internet users, but also in the extent of internet usage.Retailers and suppliers: one-way trafficAbout twenty years ago, the Internet was primarily a one-way system. Companies and organisations put up websites to which end-users would hopefully find their way. Around the year 2000, e-business and e-government came into widespread use. Interactive websites brought new business models. Many conventional stores and offices closed their doors or had to change their business operations. The Internet is beginning to replace conventional methods of conducting business and the entire process of browsing', purchasing and paying for goods now often takes place online.Consumer: two-way trafficWhen social networks (Web 2.0) emerged in the early noughties, the end-user started to become a key factor. What percentage of today's end-users are actually using social networks as preferred application is unknown, but we estimate the number is over 50%. In any case, many consumers are beginning to abandon their relatively passive attitude and are rapidly evolving into so-called prosumers. This means manufacturers have to redesign their business models: the money is where the customers are.Changing relationship between manufacturers and consumers (CtB)It is an undisputed fact that consumer power is becoming a more important factor in commerce. Consumers have their individual tastes and preferences, and thanks to the Internet they are better-informed than ever. More and more, companies are beginning to listen to what consumers want and in some cases, they are even involving consumers in product development (e.g. Nike, Philips). Many manufacturers will agree that the Internet has acted as a catalyst for increasing consumer involvement in theproduction of mass-produced goods.The question is how we can harness the technology currently available to improve consumer/retailer interaction. Most households buy things every week. They may be primary needs such as food items or non-food items such as electrical appliances. This article focuses on non-food items, particularly durable goods such as televisions and computers.People regularly buy (electrical) appliances and they often use the Internet to find out which products have the best price to quality ratio. When they find something to their liking, they purchase it online or visit a store that has it in stock. This process of browsing, finding and purchasing goods is highly consumer-driven:I am looking for a product and in order to obtain it I will have to log onto the Internet and perform certain actions.In view of the Internet's potential for customised marketing, consumers' attitude towards retailers and manufacturers may change in the coming years. Why should they have to approach retailers if they can indicate on their personal homepages what products they are interested in buying and which requirements these products have to meet? This would change the process of browsing, finding and purchasing goods radically: I am posting a wish list on my personal website for retailers to locate, so they can contact me and make me an offer that is too good to turn down.Consumers would be able to skip the time-consuming process of searching the Web, making online product comparisons and finding the right product at the right price if they could simply indicate on their webpage what products they are looking for. With the help of technology currently available, such as internet bots, search engines and algorithms like those used by Amazon and Bol.com, it should be no problem for retailers to match up their products with consumer wish lists.How does it work?Each individual consumer has their own webpage, with a url that preferably ends with a new top-level domain (TLD), for instance .name'. To make sure that search engines are able to link consumer web pages to a geographical location, the TLD should (if technically applicable) be preceded by a country code. This code prevents potential customers from receiving offers that are not available in the area where they live.Example: www.ronzwetsloot.nl.nameThe main structure of the personal website contains a menu with a colour coded indicator:Red: I am not interested in purchasing products at this time;Orange: I am currently deciding what to buy;Green: I am ready to buy a specific product.As an additional option, consumers should be able to indicate if they are interested in second-hand items as well. Adding a postal code or P.O. Box can help simplify the search process for the retailer. The next step in the process is simple: the retailer posts his offer on the consumer's website or sends them a message with the details.The question is whether we or rather retailers and manufacturers are prepared to invest in methods that take this proposed consumer-centric approach to product marketing. The technology is already there, we only need to use it.Ron ZwetslootFollow me on twitter: ronzwetslootEmail: ron_zwetsloot@yahoo.com The next step in customer centricityBy: Ron Zwetsloot
