If you are a retailer and have not started preparing for the Christmas sales of 2001, maybe you think you have plenty of time - after all it is more than a year-and-a-half away. But by then you will be selling in euros and things could be very complicated.
That is one simple message from Mr Andrew Pearce, deputy head of the Commerce and Distribution Unit of the DG Enterprise in the European Commission.
And where electrical commerce is concerned, did you know that European retailers have fallen behind their American counterparts in the percentage of business they conduct electronically? Another gem of wisdom from the 62-year old Eurocrat and former MEP, who is spearheading the EU Commerce Information Campaign for retailers and who brought the campaign to Dublin recently.
"We have important messages for retailers. If they are going to survive and prosper, they need to change and work together in groups to buy, groups to use electrical commerce, in group marketing campaigns. And they are going to have to train staff."
This training costs, he says, but may be assisted by European Structural Funds and through funding from the Government.
"It's not all top level training, it's middle level training and middle level people and courses will be suited to that. There are plenty of courses in public and private centre organisations," he says.
"They must prepare themselves for the euro and, more difficult, for the electronic era into which we are going.
"Retailers have to train staff, modify their cash machines and they are going to have to think about their price points . . . like `£7.99'. In Grafton Street there are not many euro prices being shown yet. British stores seemed to be showing more euro prices than Irish stores. The euro amounts are not just nice round amounts. And the Government wouldn't like retailers to jack the price up to the nearest round figure.
"If they don't start in the next month or two, they will find it all crowding in on them and they will get off to a very messy start," he warns.
Business to business electronic commerce, where one business is selling to another, is imminent and all traders and retailers will have to adapt, he says. "Instead of going to the local wholesalers, they will be able to purchase from anywhere in Europe or the States. Wholesalers are going to find life hard, with a new level of competition they never faced before. Books, holidays, music are under great pressure in retailing."
At the recent seminar in Dublin, one of the speakers asked the audience of retailers how many had bought something on the Internet in the previous year and many hands went up, Mr Pearce says. "When asked how many had bought from Ireland on the Internet, not many hands went up. There's a sort of warning signal there."
While Europe has more mobile phone users than the US, it lags behind in electronic commerce. "But by 2003, 5 to 10 per cent of all trade in the OECD countries will be conducted electronically. Some people will buy over the Internet and some will not. If you take away 5 to 10 per cent of the customers of a shop, you can take away all the profit."
He warns that this is a time of biggest change for the distribution sector. "There is a need for training in electronic commerce and in the euro. The point being made is that when a retailer wants something, he may be used to getting it tomorrow down the road. But if he gets it from France, even two to three days later, he can plan that way if the price is reduced by half."
The EU commerce information campaign, which in effect is a series of seminars around 33 major European cities, is designed to bring small retailers up to speed on the euro and electronic commerce. However, the first Irish seminar did not attract as many of the retailers that the Commission is trying to target, said Mr Pearce.
"What we had was high quality, but numbers could have been better," he said. "It proves yet again how hard it is to communicate with small businesses. We don't need to give our message to the big chain stores. We need to stimulate small businesses to get involved.
