Re: UKNM: CommerceNet?

[Clay Shirky]

>  >> Anybody know anything about this "scheme"? Or CommerceNet? And is this

>  >> as much of a bald-faced grab to badger merchants into paying in for a

>  >> worthless kite mark as it seems?

> 

> If you had bothered to look into this, you would have seen that the 

> Internet Marketing Project has little to do with developing kite marks.


If I had *bothered*? What do you think I'm doing posting to UKNM? The

original mail asked me to sign an NDA even to begin a discussion about

it - hardly an invite to open participation.


> ComerceNet Members are looking to formulate viable "processes" for 

> ecommerce development. The only logical way to do this is to talk to the 

> companies using these processes and have the industry agree the minimum 

> quality levels it is prepared to endorse.


There is another logical way - capitalism. Businesses that serve their

customers will do well. Businesses that don't will tank.


Power has moved into the hands of the consumer, and businesses are

frantic to convince themselves that this doesn't mean what they think

it means, namely price transparency in increasingly commodified

markets, with subsequent downward pressure on margins. Your program is

like digital valium, designed remove this anxiety without affecting

the root cause.


Businesses don't know shit about 'minimum quality levels' - that

decision is in the hands of their customers. I guarantee you that a

day of walking corporate execs down to easyEverything at Victoria and

letting them watch real people use the net will outperform a month of

"formulating viable processes" as a way of imparting real information

about ecommerce.


> > The barrier to ecommerce is *starting* the consumer

> > relationship. Once someone has had a good experience - Amazon,

> > Travelocity, anywhere - they no longer need to be sold on the idea

> > of ecommerce generally

> 

> That is total rubbish. Because a consumer has a good experience with 

> Amazon, doesn't mean they are an ecommerce devotee for life. A consumer's 

> impression of shopping online is only as good as their "last" transaction.


I would like to see any figures supporting this claim. I am sure that

this is what you would like to believe, but our experience in the

States suggests that you are wrong - once a person has crossed the

rubicon of buying online, further discrimination comes between

offerings, so that a bad experience with one merchant causes them to

switch merchants, but not to abandon online shopping.


-clay 

********************

UKNM is sponsored by Excite UK, visit us at http://www.excite.co.uk.

Email Khalil Ibrahimi

khalilexcitecorp [dot] com (mailto:khalilexcitecorp [dot] com)

 to advertise on Excite.

********************

Change your UKNM subscription use http://www.chinwag.com/uknm.html