Home >  Business >  Interact

Thursday, July 12, 2001

One of the fundamental ideas of marketing is to produce a product or service that solves a problem or somehow benefits the recipient. Traditionally, the software industry has worked this way. Before a product sees the light of day, it is tested to make sure purchasers and users see the benefits.

In fact, before a software company starts a development project, it will find out whether the market wants to buy such a product. Only then will it pour money into development. And when it does, it puts its efforts into solving the user's problem and making sure that the solution is at least as good as (if not light years better than) the current method being used by the market.

The Internet has changed that. Companies launching Web-based services seem to think having a good solution is no longer required. All they need is a solution, even if it's a solution with no apparent benefit -- even if it's a solution worse than the current way that people undertake the task addressed by the Internet solution. That's one of the main reasons people won't pay money for services offered on the Internet; and one of the causes of the massive failures of dot.com companies.

But those lame solutions are still being offered -- mainly by companies that are still searching for better ways to link their products to the Net.

		Ask Your Questions Have a question for David Radin? Contact him at his Web site

Recently, I decided to shop for groceries via the Net. With my fast broadband connection, I thought it would be simple. All I needed to do was go to the Web to order my groceries. Alas, with no companies offering local grocery delivery from Web orders, I went to my local supermarket, Giant Eagle. Giant Eagle allows you to create a grocery list that you can take to the supermarket. You pick the items that you want; then print a list that categorizes the items so you can easily find them at the market. If you normally use the company's "Advantage Card" frequent shopper program when you shop, you can look up items that you've purchased in the past to include on your shopping list.

On the surface, the Web-enabled shopping list sounds like a great idea. In practice, it is one of those solutions in search of a problem. It takes much longer to create your shopping list using the Web than it does to jot down the items with a ballpoint pen. So any savings in time at the store have been soaked up before you ever leave your house. How tough is it to ask a clerk where the oatmeal is?

Even worse, anybody who shops frequently (which presumably includes those Advantage Card holders) already knows where to find each item. With the exception of the specials on the end-caps, it doesn't change from trip to trip. And those specials are not specified on the Web site. So you have to look for those items when you get to the store anyway.

As I mentioned, I used a fast broadband connection to create my shopping list. Most users would be using slower dial-up connections, which would make Web shopping even slower.

Giant Eagle is not the only company to create such lame services via the Web. But with its talented marketing team, it's a company that should have been able to recognize that it still has to offer a better way, not just a different way.

Got to go. My wife just asked me to do the family shopping. Guess I'll pull the shopping list from the kitchen bulletin board and run down to the store.

David Radin is host of the nationally syndicated radio show "Internet Insider." You can comment or ask him a computer or Internet question by following the instructions at www.post-gazette.com/interact, where you also can find an archive of his previous Q&A columns.