He says that getting it right is down to how well the e-tail operation is integrated into the rest of the business, which in turn depends on the business model.Rather than the website being a separate, self-contained part of the business, e-tail needs to be fully integrated into the support systems and infrastructure that drive every other part of the business, such as stock control, storage, delivery, customer returns and order picking.If it can’t be fitted into the existing framework, then the framework needs to change to fit the website. The back-end systems, taking the order, taking payment, processing the order, despatching it – they have to be geared up to make the online purchasing process as smooth as possible.”Take stock availability,” says Oliver Spark, managing director of The White Company. “A few years ago people were more accepting if you had an item on the website that turned out not to be in stock They are not anymore They shop online because it is quick and convenient. But online, they have to have enough confidence in the e-tailer to pay for the product without being able to touch it or see it first hand, and they are totally reliant on the e-tailer to deliver that purchase to them. Customer confidence is king.”You have to manage expectations from the very beginning. The issues that are decisive in whether an online sales operation is a success – and which can create that vital competitive advantage – are around good old-fashioned customer service and order fulfilment.An online operation that amounts to printing of the e-mail orders at the end of the day, manually checking they are in stock and popping them in the post box, probably costs more in time and effort than it earns and is unlikely to meet customer expectations in terms of accurate information on stock availability and delivery times.On the high street, customers can see the items on the shelves and leave with their purchase in a bag when the transaction is complete.

It takes more than a flashy website to convince them to part with their cash. An up-to-date and user-friendly website is taken as standard. The Web is fiercely competitive and customers have access to unprecedented amounts of information. Clearly, e-tailing does have enormous potential to reach customers in a way that a shop or mail-order businesses could never hope to achieve. But if it is done wrong, the flipside of that potential for success is the potential to cause huge damage to the existing business.”It only takes one mistake, one oversight online, to not only lose huge volumes of sales, but cause serious damage to your brand and reputation You are exposed to so many more customers.

Information – and reputation – spreads around the Web so quickly, but it doesn’t stay on the Web, it affects the whole business,” says Bathgate.Research shows that e-tail customers are more demanding, less forgiving and more fickle. In the six weeks leading up to Christmas, over £3.5bn was spent online – almost 7 per cent of the total retail spend during the same period.
It is not just online retailers such as Amazon or eBay that have built successful businesses in cyberspace. A huge number of retailers have some kind of presence on the internet. For the many visiting fishermen to Esthwaite (renowned as one of the best pike fisheries in the country), there is loch-style boat and bank fishing, plus tackle sales/hire and tuition.This year Woodhouse plans a marketing campaign to expand the leisure side, for which he has acquired a grant through the North West Farm Tourist Initiative. “I’m still seeing growth and enjoying using my creativity to boost the leisure side,” he says.