"The Internet may be a different medium, but the rules of business are the same"

There have indeed been many different stages. At first, people only posted texts and photos on their websites. Then came interactivity, understood as a form of communication entailing customer participation. The next step was the introduction of e-business. However, it would be mistaken to assume that today everyone has already made it to this last stage, because they have not. Many people just getting started in online sales start from the beginning. Of course, that does not mean that there are not also leaders who continue to drive the world of e-commerce forward, causing it to evolve. In the United Kingdom, leaders in the retail sector showed great interest in everything related to the Internet from the start, even though they were slow to pick it up. Today, however, British retailers have made incredible strides with online marketing, to the extent that, according to the statistics, the UK is home to more online shopping than any other country in the world. We have a true passion for it. That's a good question. Part of it is how retailers established themselves, positioning themselves in the market with a product that customers valued. When they were first positioning themselves online, progress was slow, because they were unable to provide the value that they were committed to. Now, however, they have done just that and have created a style of online retailing that people trust. A good example is the clothing company Asos. People thought that clothing sales wouldn't work online, but this company's catalogue showcases its products using a series of very high-quality images. Asos had to wait a long time before modern technology finally allowed it to convey the quality and beauty of its products on the Web. On the contrary, many companies needed a full decade to learn how to use technology in a way that would allow them to benefit from establishing themselves in the online market. It is also worth remembering how some suppliers failed years ago, when they proved unable to adapt their logistics to the needs of the online marketplace. Customers did not want to wait, they could not supply the goods fast enough, and, as a result, their businesses did not work. As a certain expert once said, the Internet may be a different medium, but the rules of business are the same. There are two major differences. First, as a result of online shopping, today's customers have considerably higher expectations. This is no longer only true of the Internet either; it also applies to traditional shopping. Customers want their products immediately; they are no longer willing to wait a week for them to arrive. Second, customers' online searches prior to purchasing are now being used to determine what they like. Proof of this can be seen in the fact that the vast majority of British retailers are present on the Internet, but not all of them actually sell their goods online. On the contrary, only 40-50% of them offer online sales; in contrast, all of them use their online presence for other purposes, such as to enhance their relationship and interact more with customers. One last major change can be found in the demographic of online shoppers. The earliest literature published on the matter talks about men, aged 30 to 50, with more education and higher incomes than the average shopper, etc. That was the standard Internet user in the 1990s. Today, however, many elderly Britons who live far away from cities regularly shop online because it makes their lives easier. Thus, many people shop online today who did not used to have access. We're witnessing a shift towards a more traditional profile, with more women than men. When most online shoppers were men, they tended to buy more technological gadgets, etc., whereas today people buy a much wider range of products. Brands are very important online, because they build trust and foster customer loyalty. Another thing that helps customers build trust is knowing that, if they have a bad experience online, they can always go to a physical place to complain. Currently, major brands also have another big advantage over retailers, namely, the massive resources they can marshal to develop their websites at the strategic level. Just the other day, a British entrepreneur currently in the process of putting together a multi-channel strategy defined websites as 'windows onto the world'. Exactly, but that is a relatively new way of thinking. A website provides 'a window onto the world', which the seller can then use to pursue a multi-channel strategy and offer his or her customers a variety of ways to shop. The major brands are investing heavily to develop all the necessary infrastructure and logistics to this end. This does not mean that a small brand or an entrepreneur with a good idea cannot triumph. One good example of that is Jamie Wells, a university student who did not understand why he had to pay 200 pounds for new glasses when that was not what they cost to make. After looking into the matter, he realised that, in the UK, opticians gave customers an eye test and then sold them the glasses. Wells discovered that, by law, people could have the test done at the optician's but then use the prescription to buy the glasses online at a much more affordable price. Thus, in 2004, he founded Glasses Direct on the Internet and began to completely dismantle the opticians' business model. Initially, Wells ran the business out of his home, but in just six years he has become a multimillionaire. That is a very interesting question. One study conducted in the United States warned that compulsive online shopping could become a major problem in future because physical shopping requires time and energy, whereas with online shopping you can spend much more money without even leaving your home. I have researched independent retailers and their websites in several countries, and I found considerable misgivings in Spain with regard to online sales. It is probably on a par with what you would have found in the UK a decade ago. At the same time, in Spain, as in France, commercial districts are home to a much larger variety of retailers than in the UK, where every city tends to have the same businesses and things are thus much more homogeneous. The larger number of Spanish retailers makes it harder to establish the necessary trust; if there were fewer companies, it would be easier to supply the product. They are changing the way we communicate. One of the first predictions regarding how the Internet might be used in the world of marketing was the idea of one-to-one marketing. Today, thanks to modern technology, this prediction is much more likely to come true. For instance, the supermarket chain Tesco knows how often I log in to shop online. If I regularly do it every other week and then, suddenly, stop for two or three months, it will automatically generate an e-mail to send me with special offers designed to draw me back to the shop. Exactly, each and every one of us. It's like a small business, where the shopkeeper knows what his or her regular customers like. Major brands, which had previously been unable to benefit from this kind of direct contact with customers, now have the capacity to do so online. Some companies are even working on new technologies, such as tiny webcams that study the profile of the people standing in front of them at any given time. At four in the afternoon, for example, the streets are full of students; depending on the audience, they change the advertised offer. It's scary! The camera can see people's reaction to the advertisement being offered and tailor it accordingly. This technology makes it possible to discover information about the person standing in front of the camera, the demographic group to which he or she belongs, etc. Social networks are facilitating one of the main changes we are currently witnessing: the shift of power towards consumers. Previously, it lay with manufacturers and, after that, with sellers. Today it is held by end customers, by the people. Ultimately, though, it will all depend on how individuals use this power. It will be interesting to see whether people manage to seize this opportunity, because if they do not, suppliers and sellers will gain ground, wrest away the control and be able to manipulate them. One need only look at what is happening with certain politicians, such as Obama, who are using social networks to their own benefit. The people do not have the power, but rather politicians are using social networks to spread their messages. I suspect that there is a limit. The vast majority of plane tickets purchased from EasyJet are purchased online, but that is not the case in all sectors. The average share of online sales is closer to 30-40%, whether because users are tired of shopping online, due to security issues or simply because people like to go shopping. The other day, I was walking down the Ramblas. I stopped at different shops, talked to people, soaked up the atmosphere, etc. Altogether it was quite a thrill! In the medium term, I think we can expect to see many more retailers developing multi-channel strategies that will allow them to sell in different ways. At the same time, privacy issues will continue to be a problem, whilst communication will be more flexible and interactive and will come at us from different directions. Also, retailers will become more globalised thanks to the Internet. In that sense, Europe may be well-positioned due to its lack of trade barriers and the logistics systems it already has in place. Of course, the European market is quite small compared to the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), above all China, which will have millions of new shoppers thanks to the liberalisation of their markets. Asia is an enormous market! In China, there are many cities the size of London, whose names we do not even know, that are full of people with purchasing power thanks to their growing economies. The Internet allows all of these people to shop. Of course, the underlying tenets of any business are as applicable as ever: you still have to know your customers. In other words, when you enter a global market, you still need local knowledge. You have to understand the culture of the market you are serving. So the basic principles of marketing remain unchanged. In that regard, there has not been any change at all.