Retail group Wooltru revealed plans to adapt its business to take advantage of
electronic commerce opportunities.
Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting in Cape
Town, Wooltru Chief Executive Colin Hall noted how
the marketplace has seen a transition from traditional
models of profit, growth and return towards newer models
whereby the most valuable resource a company has at its
disposal is the number and quality of customer
relationships.
Hall commented that the Internet commerce revolution has
created this shift in focus and it would be foolhardy to
buck the trend and not adapt existing business solutions to
meet the internet challenge.
"The opportunities that exist in e-Commerce is what
Wooltru holds most dearly in the new millenium." he
said.
Hall cited the example of Amazon.com,
the second largest bookseller selling to a South African
audiences, and noted how Amazon have been able to take
advantage of good customer relationship base in order to
increase their worldwide sales revenue.
"Amazon.com have expanded tremendously," he said,
"but they don’t have the customer relationship base,
distribution skills and database that Woo