Every year my company (a multi-channel eCommerce co.) invites some of our customers to a tradeshow style event, which features mostly vendors showcasing new, upcoming products, giveaways, etc. At this event we have a “.com” booth where we teach customers about how to use the website, showcase new site features, etc.

Last year, a lot of the customers who attended were not that familiar with the site — either they didn’t use it or had only used it sparingly. We had a great time showing them how easy and great it was to use, and the response was overwhelmingly good. Most people walked away from our booth really excited about using the site in the future.

This year — same event, same concept, mostly different customers — there was a noticable difference with the people who came by our booth: almost every single person used the site regularly and was familiar with most of the features. It was very difficult to find someone who didn’t know all about the site and who was blown away by our great features (they certainly haven’t gotten any worse, but these people now use them every day).

Our customers tend to be a little less tech-savvy than your normal blog-reader, but it is amazing to me how in the past year their knowledge of our website had changed. Its almost as if last year the web, at least to many of our customers, was this new thing that was just starting to catch on, and this year it is something that is just part of everyday life.

For me, of course, the web has been part of every day life for almost 10 years, but I’ve struggled to see others accept it the way I have. The difference from last year to this year in our customers really drove home the point that it is finally being accepted by those people who might have taken a little longer to realize the power and importance of the internet.