October 30, 2009

Tom M. Wilson, e-Tailer, TMW Commerce, made a call-in guest appearance on the John Rothmann Show, which runs from Monday – Friday, 10:00 PM – 1:00 AM.

The topic of the program compared the present recession to past recessions. Discussed were jobs, current unemployment situation, and declining sales in restaurants & and brick & mortar retail stores. Mentioned also was how www.tmwcommerce.com could benefit job seekers interested in the “hidden job market” and finding employment.

In summary, TMW suggested that the recession was being fueled by media hype, fear, and desperation. For example, Mr. Rothmann was astonished by an unemployment rate of 9%. TMW recounted yes but the flip side is 91% of Americans are working! The media should take their hats off to America and start giving people more hope and encouragement.

For example, the main reason that brick and mortar stores are experiencing declining sales is because they are competing now against e-commerce and the internet. People have more choices. People are going online to compare prices and finding ways to purchase products that require no sales tax, for instance. Everyone got freaked out when Mervyn’s and Circuit City closed their brick and mortar stores. Main reason: E-commerce. This fact can be researched on Google. For example, as a conclusion of this discussion, an excellent article appeared online, which follows:

http://www.oecd.org/ict/econsumerconference  A new OECD report finds that while the retail sector has been hit hard by the [economic] crisis, e-commerce has fared well and seen continuing growth in many countries. Part of the reason, according to ”Empowering consumers in e-commerce”, is that as consumers have become more cost-conscious, they are increasingly going online to compare products and save money.

In the United States, for example, while most sectors were experiencing a downturn in the first quarter of 2009, online retail sales for 80 retailers rose by an average of 11 percent.

The French electronic commerce and distance selling federation estimated that, for the first quarter of 2009, e-commerce sales grew by 26 percent and should increase throughout the year by 20 to 25 percent. The crisis is also driving more businesses online, attracted to the Internet as a means to increase visibility and markets at relatively low cost. And business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce makes up the lion’s share of online sales: in the US, B2B generated USD 3.1 trillion in sales in 2008 compared to USD 130 billion for sales to consumers.

Looking ahead, the report warns that although e-commerce will keep growing, business and governments will need to do more to strengthen people’s trust in buying online. ( Note: End of oecd.org report ).

But, what do people do when they lose their jobs to e-commerce. Simple. Go start your own business. Only 16% of Americans attempt to start a business. The field is wide open. If you could sell just 300 items a month anywhere in the world for $70.00, you would make $21,000.00 per month. Chop that in half. If you could sell only 150 items a month anywhere in the world for $35.00, you would make $5250.00 per month.

In short, the world is experiencing sever economic structural changes. Everything that is occurring today was written about 26 years ago in John Naisbitt’s No. 1 Best Seller, MegaTrends. Read it and adapt accordingly!

America will be fine people. We are by nature slow to change. But, the change will be for the better. Until you see Americans swimming to Cuba, jumping the fence from San Diego into Mexico, or popping out of storage containers by the hundreds in China, the best advice for us all is quit complaining, stop watching television, get off the sofa and come up with a good business idea / plan. Then, get to work.

Mr. Rothmann asked TMW for opinion concerning the upcoming Christmas season. TMW suggested that e-Tailers would do just fine.

John also invited TMW back to KGO shortly after the first of the year 2010 to compare notes concerning the above topic.