Saturday, February 12, 2011

Make an existing product more convenient

We are all more and more time poor. Between work, kids, pets, hobbies, work round the house, going to the shops, socialising, etc. it’s a surprise that we have time to buy anything.
So a big part of businesses of the future is to take businesses of the past and put them online.
If you  pre-date the web then you may remember book of the month clubs or mail order book catalogues. You got a good price, and you could order from a range of books which would be delivered to you at home, or at school. Amazon.com simply bought up a number of these services and put them online. They made it simple, they made it cheaper than their rivals through economies of scale, then they grew the business into other products.
How many other businesses out there are really an old business sold through a new channel?
Look at the things you do or would like to do and then imaging how it could be improved or made more convenient.
E.g. print based services like phone directories are now online and updated daily. Office supplies online, Ikea online, groceries online - you name it, it's there.
Focus on making the everyday more convenient and then you can improve it and reimagine it from there.

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