Retail on the internet

Now that retail on the internet is becoming commonplace with millions of pounds worth of goods being sold via secure e-com sites people are now becoming more and more assured and used to this type of retail, brands now seem to be looking at themselves and seeing if they can in anyway have a public facing through this inexpensive way of creating a retail space, if we look at companies such as the Guardian newspaper who have obviously had a public face through their newspaper sales however their new venture 'ecostore', they have set up this ecom site for eco goods,which seems to do two things for the company, firstly revenue from sales, it also comments on the guardian newspaper and gives the customer a window into their companies ethos and beliefs.

This is interesting as it is different to the approach taken recently by innocent, they have always had a big emphasis on ethical and health and in the same vein no added colours or preservatives, recently they launched their 'this water' range which was a range of drinks that were effectively flavoured waters. now this was initially launched in conjunction within the 'innocent' brand, although it seems that the ethos of 'nothing added' was a very strong issue for it's customers and as such there was a backlash on their new venture, this lead 'innocent' to move their 'this water' brand away from 'innocent' and setup a different website and take nearly every reference to 'innocent' away on 'this water' packaging. With the ease of the internet and setting up websites ecom seems to be something that may indeed grow and grow, you only have to look at how ebay has altered the second hand market, companies seem to be making the step but slowly.