Do you recall days when you purchased an actual paper gift certificate to pass on to others on a special occasion? Sometimes they even came in booklets where they were broken down into smaller denominations.
Today virtually all major businesses offer gift cards that can be used much the same way you would a credit card. You can use the card until all funds loaded onto its magnetic strip are used up.
The same is true for online business. Customers can pick up a cyber gift card and have it delivered by email. The trac
ing number can allow the recipient to access your online store using the gift code they received to apply to purchases.
These processes have helped automate sales by gift card much more quickly.
If you are involved in ecommerce you can use special discount codes to entice potential customers to sign up for site membership. They will exchange contact information for a discount in your online store. You might consider it the cost of doing business while they will view it as a thank you gift. In this case both of you are right.
There is a second lesson to be learned from the change from paper certificates to gift cards. The role of business is in a constant state of flux. There are new methods being developed almost daily for business tracking and point of sales guidance in helping customers see various add on merchandise that might enhance their purchase. This has been done in stores for a long time. On the Internet we often see this in the form of the words, "Customers who bought this item were also interested in..."
This is sort of like the online counterpart to the familiar, "Do you want fries with that?"
If you've been in online business for any length of time you already know that it is different than running an actual store in many ways. What you may not realize or at least haven't thought much about is that the Internet is in the midst of constant growth. There will be new marketing techniques, advances in Search Engine Optimization and ingenious ways to facilitate the direction of traffic to your site. Don't be afraid to alter your approach to adapt to these new techniques.
Every day new distribution techniques are being implemented. Music that was once delivered almost exclusively through radio is now being found online and through mp3 players. Visual programming is no longer exclusive to television. Full-length programs can be seen online and can be downloaded for viewing on an iPod. This was the stuff of fairy tales in 1995. Today it is reality - and it won't stop here.
Never assume things will always stay the same. They have not and they will not. As consumers demand more businesses will give more. This cycle will continue until change is absolutely essential.
Continual adaptation is necessary in all business, but perhaps even more so with ecommerce. Learn, keep learning and never stop your online education. It is a brave new world and the fittest are the ones inclined to learn and apply what they know to their ecommerce business.
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