If your business is to remain relevant to your existing customers and attract new customers, you must be engaging your customers using the internet. You really don't have a choice. Today, 83% of people research products and services online before they make a purchase. So your web presence (website, search positioning, social media, internet posts, and more) needs to be easily accessible and contain the information your customers are looking for. If they do not find your information, they'll find your competitors and you just lost another opportunity for a sale.

Once customers find what they are looking for, they then want to buy it online! More than 80% of consumers in the U.S. buy online and that number continues to increase. Fuel marketers who provide the convenience, reliability and security of online buying are winning. Online fuel sales are better than doubling each year! It's a rapidly growing part of our industry because it meets the needs of how homeowners are making purchase today. Amazon and other leading e-commerce companies have set the bar for e-commerce standards, and that is what customers expect. Fortunately, adding e-commerce to your energy company does not have to be burdensome or expensive. There is a lot to like about selling fuel online ...it lowers your order fulfillment costs by about 20%, it increases your margins, it improves your fleet efficiency, it give you a competitive advantage, and most importantly, it adds new customers and new gallons to your business.

Like it or not, consumers are choosing alternatives to the traditional energy delivery model.   Home heating oil and propane dealers have often viewed a "will call" customer as the lowest tier of value.  With the advent of the internet and the "Amazon.com Affect" of consumerism, this long held notion has been turned on its head.  Many customers now look at their home energy purchase as an "on demand" process, one that they control and one that is required to be progressive and relevant.  Convenience is becoming more important thant loyalty.  The internet is the obvious medium of choice.

The internet provides a promising new arena to market and communicate with your customers.  In fact, it is fair to say that you will HAVE to become an internet marketer to grow.  But where do you start?  And what impacts will this strategy have on your core business?

Energy Edge Can:
--- Introduce you to what can be a called a "new" market segment of consumers
--- Analyze your market and quantify the demand you may be missing
--- Educate you about today's "on-demand" consumer.
--- Audit your current web based performance against industry metrics
--- Provide benchmarks for performance based on current case studies
--- Educate you on the impact of adding e-commerce to your business
--- Identify risks to your core business with the addition of e-commerce