Mainline Shoppers Shun Move To Online
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday October 28, 2000
Force of habit is still driving people to slog around the supermarket, reports David Higgins.
Way back in the 1980s I owned a not-very-funny book of cartoons that lampooned the computer age. I misplaced it years ago, but recently and abruptly I was reminded of its final cartoon.
A small boy and his father sit next to each other on floating chairs. It is ``the future" and relentless technological advancement has altered the evolution of humans. The boy, who has a concave head and a fat stomach, asks his father something like: ``Dad, why do I have a concave head?" The father, who also has a concave head and a fat stomach, replies with words to the effect: ``Well son, with all the computer power nowadays, we no longer need much room for our brains."
I was reminded of the concave head last week when I couldn't remember my parents' new phone number. I realised, with some horror, that I had not committed any phone numbers to my brain's long-term memory in ages. Instead, I had punched them all into my mobile phone's artificial memory. I ran my fingers through my hair. There was no discernible indentation in my skull, but the experience left a permanent impression on my mind.
Can technology change people? Unquestionably, ``yes". But under what conditions and, for the purposes of this part of the newspaper, how do you build new online products and services that can effect human change? If the tech bust has proven anything, it is that a mere improvement in the satisfaction of needs/wants/desires is not enough to change consumer behaviour.
There is another factor at work called ``habit" an expression often referred to but rarely expanded beyond phrases such as ``psychological barrier" or ``resistance to change".
It is difficult to quantify consumers' resistance to change, but consider its power to cause wars within corporations. Rick Maurer, US business consultant and author of Building Capacity for Change Sourcebook, says almost two-thirds of major changes in organisations fail. In particular, 80 per cent of the chief information officers surveyed by Deloitte Consulting blame the ``soft touchy-feely human reaction of resistance" as the reason technology projects fail, he says.
Back in the consumer realm, how many failed e-commerce entrepreneurs and burnt dot com investors have thrown up their hands at human habit?
I'm a case in point. I have covered the Internet almost since its inception, yet I still trudge around the local Coles. Last week I sat down at my computer determined to become an online grocery shopper. I was cognisant of the advantages of online shopping, such as saving time, protecting my back and avoiding contact with other grumpy human beings. Yet I gave up after an hour at Greengrocer.com.au and Shopfast.com.au. I found myself reading through long lists of products, having to making a buying decision on every item and often having to download a picture of unfamiliar items.
The next day I was back at the local Coles grabbing the items I needed from the places I knew they would be. Browsing the shelves, checking out the new products. Later I wondered why I couldn't change my shopping habits. I had, after all, adopted online banking, to the point where I get angry when a biller doesn't have a BPAY number.
I realised two differences. The change from Coles to Greengrocer.com.au was dramatic and sudden, whereas I adopted online banking over some years, going from counter to ATM to phone to Web browser. Secondly, that change took place within the familiar confines of my existing bank which knew my habits. Perhaps if Coles Online was available in my area (it's not), then it would more easily convert me to online shopping, because it already knows my buying habits.
These are obviously major reasons why established old economy companies were never in any danger of losing great slabs of business to Internet start-ups.
But inducing behavioural change is even more difficult than this, says Edgar Schein, a professor of management at MIT.
Schein says change starts with ``some form of dissatisfaction or frustration" that dashes our expectations or hopes.
If this is true, it is a vital lesson for all new businesses but in particular for dot coms.
To invoke change, dissatisfaction must arouse a ``feeling that if we do not change we will fail to meet our needs".
According to the theory, I was happy enough driving to the supermarket, but unhappy waiting in line at the bank. Given the dissatisfaction with banks, it shouldn't be surprising online banking has been such a success. On the other hand, people often say they enjoy shopping.
If Schein is right, it would seem the success of an e-commerce business is in direct proportion to how angry its potential off-line customers are.
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald
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