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Oversaturated Web?

DefMallDefMall subscriber Posts: 2 Member
Here`s someting I was pondering, and maybe your insight will help me.My job is to get catalogs and websites to sell our products. In the last year, it`s almost been like shooting fish in a bucket, since it`s become easier and easier for Joe Anybody to build an e-commerce website.In fact, last year I build one myself, to see if I could do it.Building it wasn`t a problem...getting traffic was. But I digress...I often think about building a new e-commerce site with my wife, so she can work from home instead of going out to get a job. (It`s her desire to work from home if possible.)But my concern is this - now that it IS so easy to build a site...and everyone has one or has an eBay Store (or both)...is the market somewhat saturated?It used to be that you were instructed to add content like articles, blogs, polls and cross-links to keep the customers interested and coming back. But now, that`s the norm. Is it possible to offer a site, today, that is unique enough to `stand out`.All of Seth Godin`s books about being remarkable and standing out...have the principles become common, or do they still apply? Is it still possible to be different and exciting without inventing an altogether new product/service/technology?It`s very possible that I`ve just become a little jaded becasue I`ve seen so many `template` websites in the last 2 years. But if you have seen relatively new sites that are fresh...exciting..but still appear to be e-commerce driven (as opposed to content sites that have a few items on for sale since the audience is already captured)...I`d like to know about them. I`d like to know your feelings about the currrent/next generation of e-commerce sites in general, too.I`d like to stop babbling and let you talk now...

Comments

  • DefMallDefMall subscriber Posts: 2 Member
    Hi. Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate your time.
    Have you recently `seen` such sites you are talking about? I know the broad terms of what Seth is saying, as I`ve read most of his books and `understand` them well. What I am asking is what is your recent experience. What have you seen in way of e-commerce sites that is different, fresh and stands out from the norm?
  • DefMallDefMall subscriber Posts: 2 Member
    NOW you`re talkin`!
    GREAT stuff here! Thanks for sharing!
    This was EXACTLY the kind of inspiration I was looking for!
     
  • DefMallDefMall subscriber Posts: 2 Member
    Craig -
    That`s really good stuff you are sharing here, although I`m a little concerned about preaching to the choir so to speak.
    I`m already on board with the idea that there new ideas are what will make a site valuable and therefore successful. (I even spelled Godin right in my original post! LOL!) My goal for this thread is to find and discuss such ideas.
    In other words, rather than talk about the THEORY of what would stand out and what would not...I`d like to talk about what you have seen, specifcally, that works.  If there are 100 widget knock offs out there, have you found a  Woodgit?
    How about a Tegdiw? (a reverse widgit, naturally!)
    Nikole definately did nail it, and I couldn`t be more grateful. If anyone else can share that kind of specific example / experience, I`d like to know about it.
    (PS - Nikole, you did not waste her time! I e-mailed the people at MyOfficeWorks and hope to do something with them later in the year!)
     
     
  • DefMallDefMall subscriber Posts: 2 Member
    Technology, in and of itself, was not my exclusive line of thought, but nhgnikole`s ideas were certainly thought provoking.  9Name copy-and-pasted to avoid typos).
    I don`t care so much about the website `technology` per se as I am HOW it`s used to be new, fun and interesting. I understand that newer technology can do newer things...but I am also of the belief that someone can use a template storefront and HTML to create something that is still `frresh` looking...depending on their content and the way it`s presented.
    What I ultimately was/am hoping to find...and we seem to be on the right path...are a series of examples that prove the ability to create an e-commerce website has not become so "commoditized` that it`s now overkill and boring to the Average Joe.  Or Jane. Why discriminate?
  • DefMallDefMall subscriber Posts: 2 Member
    Hi, Craig -
    I`ve been offline afew days, so I didn`t want you to get the impression that I was ignoring you or your ideas.
    Your telephone analogy is a good one, but I was looking at the equation differently.
    As much as a phone is a neccessity, I think if you opened a store selling mobile phones there would be alot less `buzz` than if you opened such a store 10 years ago. Or 5.
    Unless, of course, the mobile phones you are selling look different. Or have different features than most. Or have a cool color/finish to them.
    My original thought about the web is that so many people throw up a store (you can take this a few different ways!) and sell `everything`. You know...office products, household products, toys, make up and cologne, DVD...whatever their vendors/wholesalers offer. You can find sites like this everywhere. (I know, because I sell to most of them!   )
    So, if Joe Anybody put up such a site tomorrow...who would care?
    Or more importantly, what would Joe have to do to make HIS store stand out from the how-ever-many-hundreds of OTHER such stores.
    Granted, the conversation is not limited only to `be all, sell all` websites. I used an earlier analogy of Widgets. We can stick with widgets.
    My question is not to dispute the importance of the web or debate how to use it...but rather try to dig up some fresh ideas as to how to make a website (regardless of what they are selling) noteworthy. 
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