Toss of the Coin

Heads or Tails? Ship or Head?People have been settling disputes via a coin toss for centuries, dating all the way back to Roman times, when Romans would say, “navia aut caput”, meaning “ship or head”, as the coins used in Roman times had a ship on one side and the head of the Emperor on the other.

Flash forward to today, the coin toss has played a vital tole in sports, as it provides even odds to determine a decision. In football, the coin toss occurs before the game to decide which team will kick off and who will receive, in soccer, the winner of the coin toss will chose which goal they want to shoot on and the loser gets to kick off to start the game.

The key point is, the coin toss is normally used to determine a decision, because it provides even odds.

Brian Grega, CEO, Infinite Buyer Inc.! October 31, 2016

Comedian Bill Cosby, not to overlook his personal transgressions, had a classic bit called “Toss of the Coin”, which went into how much the “win” of a coin toss could have determined who got the advantage during events in history, specifically the Revolutionary War. It went like this,

“General Cornwallis of the British, this is General Washington of the Continental Army.”

“General Washington of the Continental Army, this is General Cornwallis of the British.”

“If you would shake hands, gentlemen.”

“O.K. British called ‘heads’, .... it is ‘tails’.”

“General Washington, what are you going to do?”

“General Washington says his troops will dress however they wish, in any color, in buckskin and coon caps, and hide behind the rocks and trees and shoot at random.”


“British, you will all wear bright red, all shoot at the same time and march forward in a straight line.”

We know how that turned out.


Let’s shift sideways, not in time, but in venue. What if a “toss of the coin” had been used in commerce, more specifically in retail? Prior to the evolution of online commerce, I would postulate that the “toss of the coin” would have gone like this,

“Mr. Consumer, a Prospective Customer, this is Mr. Merchant, a Store Owner.”

“Mr. Merchant, a Store Owner, this is Mr. Consumer, a Prospective Customer.”


“OK. Mr. Consumer called ‘heads’, .... it is ‘tails’.”

“Mr. Merchant, what are you going to do?”

“Mr. Merchant says, he will only offer inventory that he chooses, he will only transact when his store is open and he will decide what the price is for any, and all transactions.”

“Mr. Consumer, you will only be able to choose from Mr. Merchant’s inventory, you will only be able to transact when Mr. Merchant’s store is open and you will only be able to transact at the price Mr. Merchant has published.”

Sound fair?

Obviously, this is a parody on how commerce worked for centuries, when the merchant essentially set the rules and the consumer had few, if any alternatives.

Flash forward to August 11, 1994, when the first item purchased via commercially available data encryption happened, this event triggered a new “toss of the coin” for commerce, that would change the rules, forever.

I would postulate that today’s “toss of the coin” would go like this,

“Mr. Merchant, an Online Store owner, meet Mr. Consumer, an Online Shopper.”

“Mr. Consumer, an Online Shopper, meet Mr. Merchant, an Online Store owner.”


“O.K. Mr. Merchant called ‘heads’, .... it is ‘tails’.”


“Mr. Consumer, what are you going to do?”

“Mr. Consumer says, he will shop at any time of the day and with any Online Store he chooses, he will transact when he wants and/or needs the item, and he will transact at a price he is willing to pay.”

“Mr. Merchant, you will have an item in inventory that Mr. Consumer wants, or needs, you will provide a simple means of transacting whenever he wants, or needs to transact and you will allow Mr. Consumer to ‘make a deal’, at a price he is willing to pay.”

There is one small caveat, the transaction price is mutually agreed upon, as obviously, a merchant has to not only cover their costs, but making a profit is a merchant’s objective.

The point being, in today’s e-commerce economy, the rules have been changed and the consumer has greater control over their buying journey than at any other time.

The consumer has choices, they can decide when to buy, what they need to buy, at a price they are willing to pay. The consumer can venture to a online seller’s site, find the item they are looking for and either “buy now” or search for a better price, which happens all to frequently.

Until merchants realize and accept that consumers have greater leverage over their buying journeys, and are using that leverage, we will continue to see low, single digit conversion rates and high shopping cart abandonment rates, which is a peril to online sellers.


Toss of the Coin

Retail

Transcript of Toss of the Coin