ASET Technology Alberta Winter 2020 - 14

" If you're selling physical consumer goods, those kinds of
products, and right now you're only selling locally, e-commerce would be a great thing to introduce to your business
because now you can expand and market to people outside
of your current existing little backyard, " he says.
Marjanovic says that even with the advantage this commerce
channel provides, a surprising amount of his clients, particularly small to mid-sized operations, have eyed it skeptically.
" We manage about 600 different companies, on a daily basis
with the platform we use, and about 50 per cent of them are
e-commerce customers, " he says.
" What surprises me is the percent that haven't jumped into
the e-commerce boat. "
The reasons for this skepticism are the same ones that pop
up with many new technologies: implementation cost, confusion over complexity and logistics around training are all factors that can make businesses leery about diving in.
Marjanovic argues that despite all of these concerns, in the
long game the only way to stay afloat is to face them directly.
" Regardless of the complexity, regardless of the cost, regardless of the ramp-up, the wrong choice is not to move forward, "
he says, " because if you don't, your competitors are. Period. "
This resistance to e-commerce places companies at a serious disadvantage according to Marjanovic - but not one they
can't reverse by making up for lost time.

Cunningham emphasizes the need to for both strong customer acquisition and solid financing plans.

" Customer acquisition is always that built-in
required cost with e-commerce. You don't get
into it for a fad, you get into it understanding
that you need to finance this forever pipeline,
always bringing in new traffic, always bringing
in new customers, " he says.
Customer acquisition is an important element in successful
e-commerce, but in the grand scheme it's actually secondary to making sure the product will find a successful market
in which to settle.
" The first thing that you need to validate is product market fit.
We would never advise anybody to run ads or invest in customer acquisition until we validated that what you're selling
is something that people actually want, " Cunningham says.
Despite the potential pitfalls of expanding into online markets,
from the findings in Youssouf's report, Canadian companies
adapted remarkably well (and fast) to their new remote selling reality.
" Many retailers, including small businesses, were quick to innovate and open platforms, " he says, " and we've seen it in
the survey comments where respondents have told us the
pandemic has really caused them to focus and improve on
their online platforms. "

" It's an uphill battle for them. By no means is it a lost cause, "
Marjanovic says. " In fact, I think now's the time to double
down for companies that aren't into e-commerce that need
to get into e-commerce, but it's an uphill battle for sure. "

Youssouf sees this process as something that will continue
on after businesses can stay open without fear of the next
lockdown. " We've seen how the pandemic has really caused
retailers to start expanding their online platform, " he says.
" It'd be really surprising if in the future, we don't see them
end up continuing this trend. "

That being said, Cunningham cautions that those wanting
to enter the pool would do well to know the fundamentals of
swimming, lest they sink into obscurity - or financial troubles.

Cunningham agrees with this sentiment, noting that while online buying and selling " may level off a bit, it's not going to
plummet or come down. "

" The last thing you want to do is get into e-commerce because you're trying to jump on some kind of market trend, " he
says. " You don't want to just start it and be like, 'Hey, I'm going
to sell masks because of the pandemic and that's all I'm going to sell.' That is a fad. "

While more companies are embracing it, there are cases
where those who got their start in e-commerce are expanding in the exact opposite direction (while still retaining a robust e-commerce presence).

14 | WINTER 2020 | TECHNOLOGY ALBERTA

ASET Technology Alberta Winter 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASET Technology Alberta Winter 2020