Virtual salesmen - Can a web front-end selling tool ever replace the physical relationship that a salesman offers?

In theory yes, the practicalities of online salesmen/facilities are far greater than shop floor. Online can serve thousands of customers a day where as a sales team of four may only reach a fraction of this.

TARGETING

A website can track the shoppers behaviour, if you have visited the site before it knows your preferences and shopping habits, where as a face to face salesman may not know what you bought before or your demographic characteristics.

Being able to track previous purchases, online sites can target customers more specifically with relevant promotions and product categories. For example if you have wear a particular size or style of clothing, or like a genre of music. Salesmen do not have this back catalogue of data.

KNOWLEDGE

Websites are so sophisticated they can provide more product knowledge than any salesman. Websites can include testimonials and product reviews to build consumer confidence and endorse products. Face to face sales teams may not be able to remember all this information, or be able to deliver it in believable or convincing way. In many cases, the scale of product feature and usage information on a website exceeds the level of knowledge possessed by a salesman.

HABITS

Website search facilities allow you to find the style, size and colour of a product in seconds. Shop floor assistants may take much longer and not even locate things as accurately.

HOWEVER

Humans have persuasive abilities - body language and face-to-face communication is the easiest way to build trust/confidence and turn this in to a purchase. Consumers like personality and character; it is more engaging than looking at copy or pictures on a website. Human interaction is a key factor, but online companies are responding with chat online facilities and dedicated customer service teams who you can talk to whilst online.

Statistics show that retail is moving towards the Internet. Shopping can be a time consuming and costly hassle, many people don’t even like being sold to.

In theory sales people can be replaced but this is not necessarily the end-game. Businesses have to understand how their consumers want to shop, some may research online and then go purchase in store, or vice versa. In an a increasingly multi-channel world, retailers need to provide a ‘shop to suit system’.