Looking at the general e-comm scene around the world, I strongly feel that e-commerce on the net can only be of services and not products.
An e-comm entity run from China can be accessed and used by a guy in USA – geographical boundaries removed. However, when the product has to be delivered, the geography comes back into play.
It doesn’t make great sense to order a product from a remote location and pay big shipping charges to receive it – unless of course, the product is very essential and difficult to get. Compare this with companies in the Brick and Mortar who can ship the product in bulk to different destinations in the world and allow it in the hands of the distributors to showcase, warehouse and sell it.
This is the very reason many many e-tailers make a loss. They would most likely make a profit if they restrict their supplies only within a location, but then the volumes will not be very big.
I consider that any the successful ventures will be those that deliver services over the web rather than products. If you deliver services, you immediately remove the logistic nightmare and the business is conducted at the speed of web.
What do you think?
Regards
Sathya
CEO
http://www.tamil.com
Networking Tamil Minds since 1995 in Halls without Walls
Anyone wanting to invest in www.tamil.com pls contact me @ sathya@tamil.com