Wider promotion needed

Tuesday, 26 October, 1999 - 22:00
SUCCESSFUL electronic commerce sites rely on cross-media marketing, says NetPaver founder and business development consultant Brett Riddle.

Mr Riddle said most of the top sites on the Internet have used cross-marketing to become well known.

“You don’t have an e-commerce system simply because you have a web site – you need to promote it via other avenues such as print or television,” he said.

“Integrating an e-commerce system into an organisation requires fundamental changes to business processes and this is something many companies are not aware of when establishing a web presence.”

Mr Riddle said many suppliers were unsure as to how e-commerce fit with their business.

“There has to be an understanding of the strategic use of e-commerce in the context of broad business functions,” he said.

“Many suppliers lack understanding of e-commerce processes and terminology and this can be a sticking point.”

E-commerce can be seen as another market place for a company to explore.

He said persuading people to buy online was as difficult as getting people to sell online.

One of the major concerns for e-commerce customers is security and privacy.

This will be one of the major issues addressed at the World E-Com 1999 conference being held in Perth from 8 to 10 November.