David Bowen commentaries

In his regular columns for the Financial Times and ft.com, senior consultant David Bowen has pursued themes ranged from customer relationship management and career marketing to ‘ethical’ retailing and royal family sites. His collected Financial Times and ft.com columns from January 2001 onward are indexed by theme and available for viewing on this site.

You can access articles directly by selecting a link below.

  • Why Ikea should go with its 'gut' feeling The way that Ikea, the Sweden-based home furnishings and fittings seller, lays out its physical stores could be a template for an e-commerce website. But the online environment throws up some tricky extra dimensions.
  • How travel is broadening the minds of internet users Companies in the travel and holiday industries are using the web's unique strengths in information aggregation and display to provide services that would have previously been unthinkable. The result is more than just a deeper reference source: it is foste
  • Adapting business models to online expectations With its aura of 'free and available' the internet is threatening the business models of successful subscription publishers – producers of specialist publications that get their revenue primarily from subscriptions rather than advertising. Most are usin
  • An articulate language policy can speak volumes Business users are three times as likely to buy when addressed in their own language, according to the authors of a study* of the use of foreign-language content on top UK company websites. Whether even this justifies the cost of a multi-lingual site is a
  • Commercial best practice in bloom With hardier business models now in place, the garden sites that have survived the freeze in online investment are becoming nurseries of commercial best practice.
  • The importance of journey planning Organisations that find themselves targeted by protest groups can learn a lot about how to use their web sites to fight back by studying how their opponents present their case online.
  • How to let users finish what they’ve started Getting through an online application process without a hitch is an all too rare experience. Which presents a competitive opportunity for those who can smooth the process.
  • Detail is the key to putting users at ease In trying to guide potential customers through an unfamiliar process, an e-commerce site must avoid anything that might confuse them. Nowhere is this better illustrated – or more business critical – than for companies with a new or unusual online prop
  • Where government gives a lead Singapore and Hong Kong offer rich lessons in how to deliver public services more dynamically and cost-efficiently online. And they also can show the private sector a thing or two about stimulating e-commerce.
  • The common sense challenge Most department stores are using the internet to expand their operations beyond their physical shops. But only a few are tackling the concept of integrating their commercial channels.

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