Why so few ‘real’ e-commerce sites in Trinidad & Tobago?

What do I mean by ‘real’? By real I mean bona fide e-commerce websites, you know, like Amazon and the thousands of other sites that if you were living ‘away’ you’d be shopping till you drop just like the Americans. I can write this article authoritatively because having lived ‘away’ (sorry to be using so many quotes), for 10 years (in New York if you’ve read my About page) where online shopping was such a natural thing that hardly a second thought went into it.

Back to the question of what’s real and what’s not. What’s not are the semi- e-commerce sites that look and feel like e-commerce but lack the defining feature that’s actually the ‘e’- the online payment ability. Many stop short by only enabling offline payments like bank deposits which kinda defeats the purpose. Wasn’t online shopping invented to avoid having to leave one’s house?

Let’s compare apples to apples though. It’s my firm belief that Trins want EXACTLY the same type of websites like the Americans have, except that they’re based here. Okay, so let’s see first if that’s possible using the following handy checklist:

See now why it can’t work? See all the differences? Wait a minute— there are no differences! Then, pray tell, where are these Trini e-commerce websites? Well truth be told there are a few popular ones (who shall remain nameless) and who will never get a dollar from me, despite the colorful billboards they advertise on along the highway or their fancy Facebook ads that pop up on my FB page.  I don’t shop from them for I have NO CONFIDENCE in them. Maybe my fears are un-founded but to me they just don’t have ‘IT’.

There are a number of factors that need to be added to the above feature checklist that would provide the synergy necessary to have what it takes for your site to really stand out and draw traffic and repeat business. If you’ve read my analysis on the size of the T&T online market you’ll realize that market size is not a limiting factor- you CAN make money.

So to answer the original question of why so few real e-commerce sites in T&T, the answer is that nobody knows how to do it right. The good news is— I DO.  In addition to the technical requirements common in all e-commerce websites, I have identified five (5) other things you need to operate a successful online business in T&T. The good news is that most of the technical requirements can be satisfied in one fell swoop with a shopping cart solution from Big Commerce who I recommend. The rest are my insights.

Why am I not applying my own insights and doing it myself?

I enjoy ‘websiting’ so I don’t really have a job and such a venture requires time, attention and long hours to get off the ground and that would be work to me. But hey, hire me and I’ll tell you EVERYTHING!