Trend #1 – Advertising is shifting from Contextual Relevance to Temporal Relevance

I recently was chatting with a friend of mine who works with a large social networking company about online advertising and how we are going through a shift. For as long as web advertising has been around it has been about contextual relevance. What is written on the page drives the ad copy to increase the click through potential. This is how Google Adwords works and almost every web advertising system out there.

What is emerging is what he calls “temporal relevance” which is driven by advertising in a time sensitive manner. While this could be a spammers delight (see hashtag spamming on Twitter) it could be great to increase click throughs when the maximum amount of people are looking for something in a particular topic.

Trend #2: Google Wave is the New Era of Real Time Collaboration

I have been using Google Wave and the amazing real time collaboration available with this platform blows my mind. The potential for this tool is staggering. I always explain Google Wave is like Twitter, IM and email had a baby. Mashable talks about this topic as well:

“Real-time will play a major role in the future of online collaboration. We’ve seen all the hype around the new Google Wave platform, as well as the growth of Twitter and Twitter-like communications (such as Facebook status). On the business side, SAP’s Gravity, a prototype of real-time collaborative business process modeling within Google Wave, is a good example. But I see this as the tip of the iceberg.”

Trend #3: E-Commerce will transform to a shared and social experience

Similar to the trend of social commerce, imaging a shared shopping experience but take it a step further. What if you have prices change in real-time based on demand. This has been happening for years to a certain degree with the travel industry and its revenue management systems. But still, that was based on historical data and human modification of current trends. It is not truly real time. With real time data and real time e-commerce, Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving in the United States where everyone shops for Christmas) would never look the same. What about products that rely on a certain freshness or “cinderella packaging”. Mashable talk about it with this great example:

“For consumer facing applications, real-time pricing can be a competitive advantage for perishable goods. For example, the grocer with fresher fruit can theoretically charge or sell more by providing real-time freshness data. With the growth of smart energy grids, real-time pricing of solar energy and electric power provides tremendous cost-savings for consumers. Generally within e-commerce, real-time inventory information that is accessible through the web is valuable for both the consumer and company. What are the other areas of high impact? Travel? Off-season luxury goods? Event tickets? Let us know in the comments below.”

What else? Analytics? Job Contracting?

What else do you think will be impacted by this shift to the real time web? Leave us a comment and tell us your thoughts.

I was able to spend some time with her recently and here is a transcript of our interview:

Steve: How did you get the idea for 17th and Riggs?
Rebecca: I’ve spent countless hours searching for furniture for our condo in DC as well as looking for items while at Lori Graham Design. It would often take a significant amount of time to find design and furniture pieces that fit my criteria – beautiful, well-made, and within my budget. I thought it would be fantastic if I could pull together items that I love (and that I think others will love too) into one convenient place online. I really think there is a need for a centralized place for shopping for stylish decorating and furniture pieces online.

Steve: For the uninitiated, could you explain your vision for the business?
Rebecca: To be a customer-focused source of beautiful high-quality, affordable furniture and décor. I want to have a website that can become a destination for online shoppers who know they can come to 17thandRiggs.com and rely on it to have a large selection of stylish and affordable design and furniture pieces for their home, condo or apartment.

Steve: You have recently opened 17th and Riggs. What was your motivation to do this online only?
Rebecca: I decided to open an online store because that is how I primarily shop. Living in DC, we do have access to great stores but I like having a broader view of what is available and the ability to see if I’m paying a good price for the piece I would like to buy. I knew that I could price my items lower by avoiding a lot of the overhead that a traditional store would have.

Steve: You are currently a Network Solutions customer. What services do you utilize and why did you choose Network Solutions?
Rebecca: I currently have my domain name, web hosting and ecommerce package with Network Solutions. Their customer service is very good and as a beginner, I can say that the ecommerce platform is easy to set up and use. Also, it is compatible with QuickBooks merchant services so it made it fairly easy to get the website, payment processing, and accounting integrated.

Steve: As a new entrepreneur, what do you find are your greatest lessons learned from starting your business?
Rebecca: The fact that the result is completely dependant on your efforts is driven home quickly. Working independently you can really only hold yourself accountable, even if, say, a vendor doesn’t deliver an expected result on a product. So it has been interesting looking at, for example, how my instructions had an effect on a particular outcome. The lesson I’ve learned is to keep improving and learning and moving forward, despite minor hiccups.

Steve: What is your philosophy on being an entrepreneur?
Rebecca: To me it is an opportunity to develop something that you have envisioned and hopefully that you enjoy doing. It is also so fulfilling to work for yourself and have yourself be accountable for the success and (hopefully not as many) failures that occur in being a small business.

Steve: What would you like to see happen over the next 18 months for 17th and Riggs?
Rebecca: I’m constantly researching and looking forward to adding lines and items and broadening our product offerings while maintaining the focus on style, quality and price. I’m also excited about making continued improvements to the site to make it more customer friendly. One of the many improvements I’m excited about is integrating a mechanism for obtaining feedback from customers, to help us keep in touch with what they want and to respond accordingly.

Steve: Sometimes I like to close an interview with a “Do This List”. So for you, what are the top five things you have learned getting this online store ready that all businesses considering a B2C store should do?
Rebecca: If you are like me and new to the selling side of internet retail and ecommerce, be prepared for a steep learning curve. Luckily, there are tons of resources out there and lots of wonderful people willing to share their expertise. Take advantage of free online resources including the great webinars and forums that Network Solutions hosts. The webinars give you an overview of the basics of various subjects, such as Search Engine Optimization. Be prepared to do some legwork to find great products. And, of course, pick a reputable company to host your site and provide the ecommerce capabilities. I know my husband works for Network Solutions, but the benefit and comfort of live help by phone 24/7 is huge when you are building a website and managing an online business. Lastly, be persistent and do not take “no” for an answer. No one will take your business as seriously as you will so you have to keep pushing all the way to success. Its not an easy journey, but it is fun especially when you are doing it for yourself and your business!

If you want to find some great furniture online, check out 17thAndRiggs.com online and say hello and that you heard about her on the Solutions are Power blog.

I was able to spend some time with him recently and here is a transcript of our interview:

Steve: How did you get the idea for PlazaRugs.com?
Andy: Actually this wasn’t my idea at all.  I had a friend (now business partner) approach me about starting a business with him selling rugs.  At first I didn’t really think there was a large enough market for it, but after doing some research, I realized this was a good opportunity.

Steve: For the uninitiated, could you explain your vision for the business?
Andy: Sure. The vision of the business is to be a value leader for home furnishings products online.  It started with rugs, and now we are moving into other home furnishings like lighting.  Each niche has it’s own site catering to people looking for that specific product.  Our goal is to be a top 5 player in each niche of home furnishings that we pursue.  We focus on service and value… we don’t offer the cheapest product, rather we want to offer high quality at a good price, and to offer service that’s second to none.

Steve: You started this business as a side venture while you were still at Network Solutions, how long did it take you to go full time and what was the moment that you decided to make this your full-time job?
Andy: It took about 18 months before I was finally able to go full time with the business.  From the start we used the Network Solutions Ecommerce platform because we knew it well; it was the product I was in charge of when I was on the NetSol sales and support teams.  Over the course of the first year we grew rapidly.  Both Mike’s, my business partner, wife and mine jumped on board to help with the business.  Without their continued effort and support, we wouldn’t be where we are today.  We had a strong holiday season and were quite satisfied with our first full year in business.  At first Mike and I thought sales were strong because of the holiday.  But then we realized as we continued to grow in 2008, it really was due to the natural growth of the business.  By spring of 2008 I was pretty much working nonstop between Network Solutions and our business, and I just knew that we wouldn’t be able to keep moving forward until I made the leap of faith and started working on the business full time.

Steve: You are still a Network Solutions customer. What services do you currently utilize and why did you choose to stay with Network Solutions?
Andy: We currently use the Network Solutions ecommerce software platform.  It’s really a great tool for the money.  It offers us the flexibility we need to make our site unique and appealing to our visitors, and also gives us a lot of great merchandising tools to help customers find the product they need quickly.  I’d say a lot of our success has been that the tool has made are site look like we’ve been in business in years.  It’s a lot more professional looking than many of our competitors.

Steve: As a long-time entrepreneur, what do you find are your greatest lessons learned from starting your business?
Andy: I think one of my biggest lessons is that even though you’re an entrepreneur working for yourself, you are still working for someone, your customer.  Sales and customers are the lifeblood of any business, and if you don’t treat them like a million bucks they’re going to go somewhere else.  Another important point is that you need to work on the business as opposed to in the business, as much as you can.  When you start out of course you are everything; sales, webmaster, marketing, accounting, etc.  But once you can afford it, it’s so important to get people working in the business doing those day to day things so you can focus on the bigger picture items, growth, and planning.  I can’t say we are there yet, but Mike and I both try to stay out of the day to day as much as possible so we can focus on growing our company.

Steve: What is your philosophy on being an entrepreneur?
Andy: I think our philosophy is a bit different in that we are committed to growing organically, on the profit of the existing business.  With doing business on the web, we don’t have many large, up front expenses, so we’ve focused on making sure we don’t get too big for our britches.  At times that means growing slower than we could if we took out a large loan or looked for capital in some other ways, but in the end it means we’re in full control and we’re not working to pay the bank, we’re working to pay ourselves.

Steve: What would you like to see happen over the next 18 months for Plazarugs.com?
Andy: I want to see Plaza Rugs become a top 5 player in area rugs online.  Right now I’d say we are top 10, but there is definitely a lot of room to grow.  Also I’d like to launch 5 more properties selling other home goods.  LightingPerfection.com is our newest, which technically is live, but not accepting orders yet.  I’d like to see us branch off into 4 more niches over the next 18 months, but I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag yet as to what’s coming after lighting.

Steve: Sometimes I like to close an interview with a “Do This List”. So for you, what are the top five things you have learned building an online store and relying on it as your primary business channel?
Andy: If you’re launching an online store, the top 5 things I suggest to be successful are:

1. Plan. I think the saying goes “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”.  As an entrepreneur you move at the speed of light, but if you don’t step back and plan the direction of your business, you will most likely fail.  Planning is a lot of work and not usually the most fun part of being an entrepreneur, but the better the plan, the more chance you have to do well.
2. Work hard. Selling products online is no get rich quick scheme.  You will need to put in a lot of effort and probably make some sacrifices to truly make it successful.  This is not a 9-5 job, but the rewards are definitely worth it.
3. Be accessible. Make sure your customers can reach you easily.  Human interaction is something that can set you apart from your competitors online.
4. Don’t wait for perfection. I’ve fallen into this trap before a lot of times because I’m a bit obsessive compulsive… but if you wait to push something live for it to be absolutely perfect, you’ll never get it done on time.
5. Test. You don’t want to find out that after you’ve spent a ton of money advertising something that your checkout or product search doesn’t work.  Be sure to test many scenarios, and ask others to test as well.  Find the least computer literate person you know to test ordering and navigating the site.  If they can’t figure out how to order or find products, you probably have a problem.

To find out more about Andy’s growing business, check out PlazaRugs.com