We have to change, as the year draws to a close and the New 2022 starts, it’s time for a total reevaluation of how business is conducted online. We need more ways to sell online.
I’ve just spent 3 months in the Caribbean where I didn’t meet a single ‘local’ that needed a website. Where the Passenger Locator Form was a single page, where our data wasn’t being abused but used. This article, therefore, is all about the Metaverse.
What is the MetaVerse
To you and I, it is this fearful thing that Mark Zuckerberg has created with a few of his friends to dominate the next generation of Internet users. Full of Cryptocurrencies and boom and bust crank ideas to make yourself rich if you should be the lucky one. But look a bit closer. You have to look closer.
It is simply not like that – instead, it’s how real people are using the Internet. 10 Years ago – we promoted Videos and getting our clients to make Videos to show off their products, we had a lukewarm response, it was too complicated, too expensive and not worth it. but look at YouTube and every other Video sharing website out there.
5 Years ago we wanted all our clients to embrace Mobile, that was a huge effort on our part, we have effectively always created two websites for the price of one. When you get us to make a website we always make sure it works on Mobile automatically. The data is staggering, from less than 10% using mobile to well into the 80% bracket for some of our clients. I do not think we have a single client with less than 50% of their traffic on Mobile.
Let’s not make the same mistake yet again. Embrace the MetaVerse
So – what is the MetaVerse
This is the beauty of the beast at the moment, it can be whatever you want it to be. But the key to it all is that you reach more of your customers online and therefore you sell more online.
They talk about the Metaverse being this new immersive world that is pure digital, some sort of Minecraft world gone mad where you can buy a fake digital café and sell coffees and cakes in a virtual world, all the while building on your investment as you sell advertising space on your Virtual world.
Wrong – this is not it. The MetaVerse is a new name for the way you can reach new users. Through their phone, Apps, car, house, reading habits. Reach more people in more ways and you have more chances to sell your services and products.
We’ve campaigned for this for years. It’s all very well having an all singing all dancing widgets fueled website, but that only works if your customer is online and there. What about the 25% of UK citizens that don’t go online? Be they too old or too young or just unable.
Think Bigger – Reach New Audiences
We’ve made a mistake, we’ve always assumed that if we advertise online in the UK then that will work for every country across the globe, Not True at all. Every country is completely different. More than half the countries in the world don’t have a postal system for example. So nothing can be delivered in the way it is here.
In every vertical marketplace, we see a difference in the way people do business. In many countries you need protocols, many cultures require a more personal touch, contacts matter, people matter. You can’t just subscribe to some Software and think it will work in Australia or Argentina.
The MetaVerse simply aims to fix this problem. It aims to make everything more personal and more flexible.
Selling in the UK
So, let’s take an example, selling online in the UK, eCommerce – we all know how it works… you can browse products on a website, search or filter for what you want, colour, size and so on. Add to Cart, Checkout and receive an email order confirmation.
What if you don’t have an email address… in today’s world of mobile you can sign up for anything you like with your Mobile number… email itself has had a good run for its money, it’s incredibly dated and the young barely use it.
What if you don’t have an address… even here in the UK addresses are by no means a given thing. We move around, kids have no fixed abode, home office, how many in our society don’t really have an address. And that is before you consider yourself ‘out’ at work. The last thing you want is a piece of paper saying they tried to deliver, but you were out.
Now spare a thought for other countries and cultures, and an address could be, third flat above the hairdresser opposite the bakery. Literally, two down from the corner of 8th and 26th street. Not to mention the security of many countries. Something else is required.
Here in the UK, we’re seeing this in the electric car market – we know electric cars are coming and that they are broadly a good thing, but it’s OK if you have a driveway, but what do you do if you live on the 9th floor in a flat. It’s a show stopper.
So, you don’t really have an address or an email… what next? Unless websites in the UK completely change their approach they will decline and drop out of circulation.
A Solution to Sell Online
Embrace the MetaVerse. Change your website from a ‘Browse, Pay, Deliver’ model to a ‘Deliver, Browse and Pay’ model.
What’s the difference, in the ‘Browse, Pay, Deliver’ – your customers are browsing things they cannot see properly or touch or smell. You are making them pay in advance for something they may return, (40% of clothing brought online is returned). Finally, you rely on a 3rd party delivery company to represent you on your customers’ doorstep.
I do wonder how we ever got to be in the situation.
A much better system would be to introduce your services and products on your website, arrange a meeting time, allow the customer to properly look through your range before deciding what they want and then ask them to pay. In this way, small or large, it is your brand that is in constant contact with the customer.
The crux of this change in attitude is the final step. You maximise your audience, anyone can be a customer, the neighbour of your customer can be your customer. You can suddenly take orders on any platform, anywhere, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, your website – all these new revenue streams become open and available.
Keep the old eCommerce system, that works for long distant and out of reach customers. But add the new ‘Deliver Browse, Pay’ approach.
My final word is that it would be more environmental as well, ideally, your customer should be within reach, whether servicing them, repeat orders or for many other reasons a local business is considered far more environmentally friendly.
Ultimately, we are often asked how we can sell more online. Opening up products and services to new audiences and capturing people that don’t have a fixed abode is the obvious solution. The MetaVerse allows for that. It’s time to take stock of this.
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