I too have reviewed the Venda offering now and notwithstanding the debate surrounding its launch by the Isle of Man DTI, I find that it offers a reasonable entry level method for placing products for sale on-line. Where it does currently fail is in its ability to integrate with existing systems – this is an area where we (and no doubt others) will be looking to add value.

With regard to Customer Service, Isle of Man retailers are paying some very high rents for their shop units. It maybe that there is a choice to be made between training staff or making any profit at all.

If moving on-line proves to be profitable for retailers, then they will need to re-consider their relative spend between their bricks and mortar shop and their on-line presence. A shop front needs to look good on the internet as well as the real world.

But by far the greatest challenge for retailers going on-line is to GET NOTICED. The sheer volume of indexed pages and noise within search results means that your products may never be seen by your potential customers. The answer lies in good marketing and professional advice.

General comments I hear when you mention shopping in Douglas relate to poor customer service, shabby shop fronts, and expensive goods, which are in some cases true, however, lets not lose sight of the simple fact that there are a lot of good businesses and many small business owners working excessively long hours, earning below minimum wage (when you divide pay by the number of hours worked) trying to remain independent. Price will always be a factor, even large multiples such as Dixons and Curry’s find it hard to compete with larger multiples such as Tesco etc., however, they find their niche and work hard at maintaining it.

People like to deal with people – well most of the time, and whilst technology is easy for some of us, there is a large proportion of the population who need assistance setting up their Freeview box, or connecting their PC to the internet, or choosing between Blu-ray or Betamax (Showing my age now). This IS a service people will pay extra for. Clothes look nice on-line, but the reason people shop in person is so they can try the clothes on before they purchase.

The real point here is WHY are local retailers having such a hard time, poor customer service – that can surely be fixed through a programme of customer services training, shabby shop fronts, could this not be addressed through a Government co-funded re-generation initiative, lack of choice – this requires vacant shops to be occupied providing more choice and variety of goods. None of this can be addressed through spending large sums of money – off island to establish an on-line facility.

The clever web companies over here should be milking this for all it’s worth by offering to configure and optimise Venda for retailers. It’s 100% what I’d be doing. Off the shelf it lacks in a number of very important departments but looks configurable for those in the know.

If the DTI’s primary goal with this is to increase business to the “average” local retailer then I’m afraid it’s doomed to fail, no amount of DTI money will compensate for extortinate pricing and some of the worst customer service in the UK IMO.

ps In your piece on IOM Today several of the links don’t work, you don’t want to lose those potential Twitter followers

The only trade that could be added would be specialist goods, which is already catered for on isleofman.com in the Manx souvenir section of their – already established – shop.

This is a misjudgement:

1/ They have completely missed the point about on-line shopping. Convenience, quality of service and range of goods are key reasons why people shop on-line. I have a monthly budget I spend at Amazon, for example. I don’t even think of going to Strand Street. Reasons being the range of products is [understandably] limited, my customer service experience with a lot of businesses on the island has been poor and product knowledge is poor.

2/ Having on-line shop fronts would only complicate things as now you’re asking people who have no idea how to sell people in front of them to fulfil orders over mail order. Complex postage rates and customer service obligations make this a recipe for failure. Manx companies already have this infrastructure in place, including mailing agreements, telesales and web-sites.

How about spending £300,000 to cover rent costs to boost businesses on the high street, product line development, marketing expertise, combined buying power?

From what I can gather from gossip, they reckon that on-island solutions wouldn’t be cheap enough. Maybe they need to look into why that may be. But it *has* to be less than £300,000. A full bespoke e-Commerce shop for a single shop would come in significantly lower than £300,000 (if you avoid all the management fees, etc.)

They could have set up a combined eBay shop for nothing more than paying someone to print orders out and post it through the relevant shop door.

On a serious note, I think the only way that this can become a win-win situation is if local retailers use this as an opportunity to increase their sales through online channels, and as a result lower their shop prices to make them more competitive. As a consumer, I would rather my TV cost me £600 than £800, and if this helps local retailers lower their prices to match prices I can get elsewhere, I’d happily buy it locally