Deathtrap Presumptions and Small Is Good World eCommerce
December 1st, 2005
We will respond to the interesting points raised in intervening posts, but first we wanted to get part two of our comments out in response to the flurry of posts about bricks and mortar and the challenges of doing on-line retailing.
Do not presume that the myriad of well-funded, well-meaning but failed social purpose business models on the Internet mean that there is not an opportunity for breakthrough innovation on the order of a ‘next eBay‘. It has long been our contention that social purpose eCommerce strategies to date have been woefully uninspired and built on two Deathtrap Presumptions:
- Deathtrap Presumption 1: Wrapping a product purchase with a benevolent, feel-good social purpose story will tap some latent, socially responsible drive/need in consumers that will create brand preference and loyalty.
- Deathtrap Presumption 2: Alternative marketplaces can be built using conventional eCommerce ’shopping cart’ software.
The failed on-line social purpose businesses mentioned in prior posts believed too strongly in the myth of the first Deathtrap Presumption. This led them to fall prey to the second Deathtrap Presumption as they expected that they could deliver an engaging on-line shopping experience using existing eCommerce software platforms.
Innovative alternative markets will not just happen. They will be the result of an aggressive, strategic, applied research and development initiative to create a software platform that delivers a compelling, interactive, fun, and need-fulfilling consumer experience.
These breakthrough innovations in market definition and consumer purchase decision dynamics will make NED products purchased necessary, but paradoxically marginalized, within the shopping experience as poker chips are necessary, but not central, to poker.
–Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn–
Entry Filed under: Entrepreneurial Community Ecosystems, NED - Philanthropic Franchise
Deathtrap Presumptions and Small Is Good World eCommerce
December 1st, 2005
We will respond to the interesting points raised in intervening posts, but first we wanted to get part two of our comments out in response to the flurry of posts about bricks and mortar and the challenges of doing on-line retailing.
Do not presume that the myriad of well-funded, well-meaning but failed social purpose business models on the Internet mean that there is not an opportunity for breakthrough innovation on the order of a ‘next eBay‘. It has long been our contention that social purpose eCommerce strategies to date have been woefully uninspired and built on two Deathtrap Presumptions:
- Deathtrap Presumption 1: Wrapping a product purchase with a benevolent, feel-good social purpose story will tap some latent, socially responsible drive/need in consumers that will create brand preference and loyalty.
- Deathtrap Presumption 2: Alternative marketplaces can be built using conventional eCommerce ’shopping cart’ software.
The failed on-line social purpose businesses mentioned in prior posts believed too strongly in the myth of the first Deathtrap Presumption. This led them to fall prey to the second Deathtrap Presumption as they expected that they could deliver an engaging on-line shopping experience using existing eCommerce software platforms.
Innovative alternative markets will not just happen. They will be the result of an aggressive, strategic, applied research and development initiative to create a software platform that delivers a compelling, interactive, fun, and need-fulfilling consumer experience.
These breakthrough innovations in market definition and consumer purchase decision dynamics will make NED products purchased necessary, but paradoxically marginalized, within the shopping experience as poker chips are necessary, but not central, to poker.
–Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn–
Entry Filed under: Entrepreneurial Community Ecosystems, NED - Philanthropic Franchise
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