ShipCrunch

Thou shalt be judged. Harshly. By us. Soon.

Online marketplaces are not anonymous. You will be judged on your performance.

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Remember how the Internet was going to introduce a whole new level of competition and accountability to business transactions? Suddenly, anyone could do business with anyone.

Did it happen? Sort of. Like Knock Nevis, purchasing organizations don't turn on a dime. Even if they could theoretically find ten suppliers in every port, they weren't quite sure what to do with these suppliers.

A survey I completed together with ShipServ and their CMO John Watton last year identified trust as one of the biggest sticking points for shipping e-commerce. Who is this supplier? Is it reliable? Will it deliver? Can it work with my ERP? Serious questions.

Is shipping ready to trust crowds? Start-up Profile of OceanusLIVE

Real-time data on piracy off the Horn of Africa crowdsourced by the industry: Can it work?

By Ryan Skinner (email)

The very idea of crowdsourcing makes many people's eyelids flutter. "Oh, please, once you turn something over to the crowds, the result is a mess," many would say. Attitudes towards inviting strangers to do constructive work are still unstable.

So why would the shipping industry entrust the process of managing information about a critical topic, such as piracy, to crowdsourcing? Maybe it's the only way, and the best way, to get the job done.

The Future of Internet Use in the Shipping Business (FoIS): Part 10 of 10

Internet tools are steaming into business practices in shipping, as confidence and understanding grow

By Ryan Skinner (email)

This is the tenth part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The survey was created by this blog, together with ShipServ for its Connect10 conference earlier this year.

For those interested in receiving the full responses in a .pdf report after the full series has been published, send me an email requesting it.

Here are the conclusions drawn from the entirety of the survey's questions and responses:

The shipping industry is steaming into Internet-driven business processes, slowed only by the demands of gaining familiarity and knowledge of the platforms during a hectic workday. For those who like to expound upon the slow and conservative nature of shipping business, this survey would seem to be a rebuke.

With that said, there remains a significant amount of ground (or sea) to cover before users and the market in general feel fully comfortable completing transactions over the Internet. A large minority of people even feel like they are getting nowhere in this respect. Even if this is a response of frustration, there is the sense that adoption of e-business is a major competitive advantage, and not something any shipping business can neglect.

Shipping professionals bring the same mechanisms for judging suppliers and offers on the Internet, as they use in offline business. In other words, your good reputation is a precondition, and successful deliveries for other companies a necessity.

Shipping companies will continue to increase the amount of tasks that they complete online, which will have untold effects on their business. Further, how will increased use of online business channels impact suppliers, third-party service providers and charterers? These are questions for further research.

The Future of Internet Use in the Shipping Business (FoIS): Part 9 of 10

Today, roughly one in three shipping professionals see social media as a valuable new tool.

By Ryan Skinner (email)

This is the ninth part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The survey was created by this blog, together with ShipServ for its Connect10 conference earlier this year.

For those interested in receiving the full responses in a .pdf report after the full series has been published, send me an email requesting it.

The eighth and final question of the survey was:

What's your view of social media and its role in the shipping business?

The Future of Internet Use in the Shipping Business (FoIS): Part 8 of 10

Most shipping companies feel like they're on their way to e-business; some further than others.

By Ryan Skinner (email)

This is the eighth part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The survey was created by this blog, together with ShipServ for its Connect10 conference earlier this year.

For those interested in receiving the full responses in a .pdf report after the full series has been published, send me an email requesting it.

The seventh question of the survey was:

If you were to compare adoption of Internet-based tools in your business as a voyage from Shanghai to Rotterdam, where would your company be right now?

The Future of Internet Use in the Shipping Business (FoIS): Part 7 of 10

Offline experiences influence online behavior when shipping companies choose suppliers

By Ryan Skinner (email)

This is the seventh part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The survey was created by this blog, together with ShipServ for its Connect10 conference earlier this year.

For those interested in receiving the full responses in a .pdf report after the full series has been published, send me an email requesting it.

The sixth question of the survey was:

What do you look for when making a business decision based on information found on a website?

The Future of Internet Use in the Shipping Business (FoIS): Part 6 of 10

Doing business over the Internet seems driven primarily by speed and reduced administrative burden

By Ryan Skinner (email)

This is the sixth part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The survey was created by this blog, together with ShipServ for its Connect10 conference earlier this year.

For those interested in receiving the full responses in a .pdf report after the full series has been published, send me an email requesting it.

The fifth question of the survey was:

What do you see as the greatest value of doing business over the Internet?

The Future of Internet Use in the Shipping Business (FoIS): Part 5 of 10

 Shipping businesses shy away from greater e-business due to lack of understanding and trust

By Ryan Skinner (email)

This is the fifth part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The survey was created by this blog, together with ShipServ for its Connect10 conference earlier this year.

For those interested in receiving the full responses in a .pdf report after the full series has been published, send me an email requesting it.

The fourth question of the survey was:

What's slowing the shipping industry from doing more business over the Internet?

The Future of Internet Use in the Shipping Business (FoIS): Part 4 of 10

Though many begin buys on the Internet, it is still relatively few who complete their transactions there

By Ryan Skinner (email)

This is the fourth part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The survey was created by this blog, together with ShipServ for its Connect10 conference earlier this year.

For those interested in receiving the full responses in a .pdf report after the full series has been published, send me an email requesting it.

The third question of the survey was:

How many of your business purchases are completed over the Internet?

The Future of Internet Use in the Shipping Business (FoIS): Part 3 of 10

 

Half of shipping's purchasers start most of their buying processes on the Internet

By Ryan Skinner (email)

This is the third part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced yesterday, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The survey was created by this blog, together with ShipServ for its Connect10 conference earlier this year.

For those interested in receiving the full responses in a .pdf report after the full series has been published, send me an email requesting it.

The second question of the survey was:

How many of your business purchases today start with the Internet?

The responses:

Analysis:

The buying process in B2B transactions generally begins by determining the need, creating a specification, identifying potential suppliers and comparing their offerings. Google has quite simply become one of the most common ways to identify suppliers of given products, as people's use of the Internet at home has impacted how they use the Internet at work.

A 2007 survey from Enquiro found online influencers such as vendor web-sites and search engines outperformed offline influencers like trade shows and paid consultants. Another study found the overwhelming majority of technical buyers begin a research process with a broad Internet search by product category.

On the opposite end of the purchaser is the supplier. Because so many purchases start with Internet research, Forrester, among others, has found that findability (the ability for buyers to find sellers' sites and the product and information they seek within that site) can be a question of millions of dollars in lost profit for businesses.

Key points

• Roughly 50 per cent of shipping purchasers begin the majority of their buying processes on the Inernet
• One in seven shipping buyers begin more or less every purchase online.

Do you have comments to the question, the results or the analysis? Share them below in the comments field!

Tomorrow what I call FoIS (the Future of the Internet in Shipping) continues with part four, in which we see how respondents answered the question: "What percentage of your business purchases today are completed over the Internet?"