Summerside Chamber official says business needs to embrace online BY MIKE CARSON Transcontinental Media
SUMMERSIDE — If you can’t beat ’em join ’em.
That may be the new mission statement for local business if they want to compete successfully in the marketplace.
The advent of online shopping has taken its toll of local business sales and rather than try to fight the trend retailers are being advised to join in. Rudy Smith, president of the Greater Summerside Chamber of Commerce, said the way the world does business is always changing and the business community needs to change with it.
“Two sensitive issues right now are the buying online ... and buying south of the border,” Smith said. “Today’s technology — with that and people having busier schedules it’s a reality that the general population is buying online.”
The key Smith said is creativity.
“What we’ve got to do is be a little more creative ourselves and do the reverse,” the chamber president said. “Sell our stuff online if possible and look for different markets that way. Its reality and it’s not going to go away.”
Young people and young adults are among the major consumers in the retail market and they see shopping in a different light than their parents and grandparents. While many of the older generations are distrustful of putting personal and financial information on the internet, young consumers are not.
“Our younger generation they are going to do things differently,” Smith said. “People are putting their personal lives on facebook. The fear is not there. That’s a reality that the business community is going to have to try to find a way to be innovative and take advantage of it. You just can’t have you retail storefront anymore. There’s got to be web sites and there’s got to be IT technology to go worldwide.
The onus is on the individual business person to determine if establishing a web site and going global is good for them and help is there to do but it comes with a cost.
The Guardian is committed to encouraging intelligent discourse among our readers and to creating a forum where diverse views and opinions on a wide range of topics can be aired. The forum you are in now is a result of our continuing efforts to facilitate a dynamic online conversation among our readers.
This is a moderated conversation. Once a reader follows the steps to register and submit his or her comment it goes to a moderator for the website. Once it has been approved, your comment will be displayed on the website. A comment may be edited or deleted for reasons of content or language.
All readers wishing to join a conversation must first sign in and agree to the Terms of Usage, which explain the rules of acceptable content.
Exactly from PEI writes: It's no surprise that people are buying online, especially buying from U.S. sites. Even with the shipping fees, the costs are still lower. The prices are far too high here so we're buying online.
I agree that PEI needs to build a better presence. Those businesses that continue to resist will simply be swallowed up. That can be said of all of PEI.
Please let us know if this reader's comment breaks the rules explained in the Terms of Usage and is obscene, abusive, threatening, unlawful, harassing, defamatory, profane or racially offensive by selecting the appropriate option to describe the problem.
Do not use this to complain about comments that don't break the rules, for example those comments that you disagree with or contain spelling errors or multiple postings.
Don't think so from pe writes: Islanders won't change. Until it's forced on them. they'll whine until it is such an overpoweringly obvious move that people ridicule them for not being smart enough to realize it.
And IT Professionals are leaving in droves because of wages. Read the ITSC IT salary survey.
As for Facebook... they aren't scared yet. And making a nice Facebook page doesn't make you an IT Professional.
Please let us know if this reader's comment breaks the rules explained in the Terms of Usage and is obscene, abusive, threatening, unlawful, harassing, defamatory, profane or racially offensive by selecting the appropriate option to describe the problem.
Do not use this to complain about comments that don't break the rules, for example those comments that you disagree with or contain spelling errors or multiple postings.
Reality check from PEI writes: Disrupt (yourself) or get disrupted!
Islanders are buying everywhere and anyone who thinks loyalty to the local retailers is going to keep them from doing this, is mistaken. But the good news is..... locals in other locales are buying everywhere too! So market your product or service to the masses. If you cant compete, you will find out very quickly. Else, you will be see opportunities you never knew existed.
Please let us know if this reader's comment breaks the rules explained in the Terms of Usage and is obscene, abusive, threatening, unlawful, harassing, defamatory, profane or racially offensive by selecting the appropriate option to describe the problem.
Do not use this to complain about comments that don't break the rules, for example those comments that you disagree with or contain spelling errors or multiple postings.
Jamie from PE writes: I think that even if local businesses just began to invest more into a quality website and online presence /marketing, so that when a local customer does a search, we can find that there are local businesses out there that offer the products and services that local people are looking for online.
A lot of local companies (not just in Summerside) are hard to even find online when you know about them, but to find just their contact information - like a phone number - online can be a challenge. Many don’t have a website, or an email address, some don’t even pay for voicemail in the evenings or during busy times. How do you expect customers to find and contact you? The Yellowpages (the book)?
Please let us know if this reader's comment breaks the rules explained in the Terms of Usage and is obscene, abusive, threatening, unlawful, harassing, defamatory, profane or racially offensive by selecting the appropriate option to describe the problem.
Do not use this to complain about comments that don't break the rules, for example those comments that you disagree with or contain spelling errors or multiple postings.
NOTE
The management of this site emphasizes that it is in no way liable for persons, physical or legal, who are hosted here. Moreover, the managers of this site may not be held liable for errors and omissions that may slip into the information displayed in these reader comments. Everyone who submits a comment should read, understand and agree to the Terms of Usage for this section.
