Delivering the goods

If we were to believe the adverts we are already at the stage where we can atrophy into amorphous blobs, subsisting solely on what the Internet can offer us.

But should we believe the hype?

Last Christmas, cutting through all the glib PR pap about the ease of buying on-line, was the hard and fast knowledge that letsbuyit.com was forced to refund all of its £7 Christmas tress when a large number of the trees failed to arrive for the festive period.

Whether or not this was due to the delivery company, with whom they had a contract to deliver goods within two days of the order, is of little consequence to the consumer, who is only concerned about receiving a quality service.

Indeed, such is the state of the e-commerce market that analysts are predicting a 95 per cent failure rate for dotcom businesses during the next two years. The word being bandied about at the moment in a frenetic attempt to combat this pessimistic outlook is 'fulfilment'.

Fulfilment as in, the customer places the order, the customer recieves the goods. No problem.

You would think this sounds straightforward. But, as any of the recipients of the estimated 28 per cent of failed on-line purchases will attest, it is far from it.

The dotcom explosion has brought a lot of entrepreneurs and ideas men who have pumped money into a flash front-end (web site) and a even flashier ad cam-paign, to the detriment of what is arguably the most important facet of business, the logistics of delivery.

Surprisingly, those e-commerce businesses that seem to be delivering as promised are the rapid delivery sites - one-or-two-hour turnaround periods. One such example of this is In60.com that delivers rental videos, sweets and the like around Glasgow within an hour. They claim a 96 per cent success rate.

The other issue that seems to define success rate is the companies that dotcoms use to deliver their product. Many analysts believe that Mail Order companies - currently less than eager to jump on the e-commerce band-wagon - will dominate the market when they decide to make the move because of their recognisable and trusted brand name (evading dotcoms at the moment) and, moreover, their obvious experience in actually delivering the goods.

The communication flow between dotcom business and their delivery services is often where the process falls down, and knowing this doesn't help the consumer much. But it does mean that dotcoms are piling on the pressure to receive a proper service. Next Christmas cannot be another fiasco, or the bottom will completely fall out of e-tailing.

One local company that learnt from other's mistkaes is expatshopping.com, a website that provides products only available in England to ex-patriates living abroad.

Expatshopping.com was founded by Simon Aldrich and Richard Finch, two ex-soldiers who spotted a hole in the market. What they also did was ensure that their international delivery network was robust, and that they warehouse was fully automated and fully stocked before embarking on the e-commerce venture.

Indeed, if the consumer has anything to learn from this situation is that he or she should shop around. Not all e-commerces are duds, and as the net-savvy age continues only those companies that can provide the fulfilment that customers require should be allowed to prosper.

The whole point of the Internet, as the PR men keep reminding us, is that it puts us in control.

ThisisYork provides its very own e-commerce solution for local shops entitled Shoppers World. Click the link from our homepage, www.thisisyork.co.uk.

My personal favoured e-tailer is Intersaver, which provides cheap electrical goods. It delivers as promised and provides an exceptional after-sales service, something lacking with many dotcoms.

Other sites available include:

www.expatshopping.com

www.in60.com

www.letsbuyit.com

www.amazon.co.uk