Learning from the Dot-Bombs

Remember 20th century e-commerce? Perhaps you’d rather forget. The days when people threw money at any e-business idea that sounded vaguely plausible are long gone, but they shouldn’t be forgotten. Some of those famously ill-fated ideas had merit, but the execution let them down.

What would have happened to America’s dot-bombs if their websites hadn’t been so bloated and cost so much? Would certain sites still be flying if they hadn’t handicapped themselves with six-figure software licensing costs each month? What if they had known that “open source”based e-commerce solutions offered comparable or better functionality, sans the price?

Many of the dot-bomb sites were so painfully because they averaged a weighty 120KB. In this market, who has the time or patience to sit for 20 seconds a page while content loads?

Similar questions could be asked of a multitude of companies.  Perhaps the dot-bombs flamed out because their business model was flawed, or maybe the technology, fulfillment and customer service details got them in the end.  What we do know now is there are a number of successful online businesses making impressive profits. They’ve learned a lot about online fulfillment from the failures of their dot-bomb cousins. Take heed:

Sound design: Sites should have intuitive navigation and usable site architecture, as well as an appealing look and feel. An experienced web design company is more likely to have the skills necessary to deliver on this promise.

Lightweight pages: Optimize images for small file size and fast download, strip out extraneous HTML and remove unnecessary graphics.

Server support: You need 24-hour server support to effectively manage traffic surges.

Software costs: Don’t waste budget on unnecessarily expensive software licenses when an open-source solution exists. Open source offers a highly customizable, stable and low- or no-cost alternative to proprietary software.

Research: Study how your customers use your website and learn what frustrates them. Analyze your visitor’s traffic patterns, invite customers to complete a survey after they purchase and have informal brainstorming sessions with your most valuable customers.

Service: Service your customers like your survival depends on it, because it probably does. One thing that sets the survivors of the tech downturn apart is customer service, as in good e-businesses replies to email within hours.

Deliver: Keep your commitments to your customers. Remember the old adage: “under-promise and over-deliver”? Make it your mantra. If your site promises delivery in three days, that doesn’t mean five or 10. The more you fail to deliver the goods on time, the less people order from you, as many of the dot-bombs discovered.