Every other software company I work with sells their software online. The ONLY software which I use that I MUST find a human to sell me the software is HCL (and IBM).
Studies have proven that in general, while exact numbers vary by product type and target audience, companies often see higher conversion rates when the purchasing process is simplified and streamlined, requiring minimal human interaction.
Imagine if someone could buy that one copy of designer to try it out. That is not practical today.
Before business partners balk at this, it doesn't translate into you losing anything. What it does do is open the door to small businesses who no one wants to sell licenses to anyway. There are many ways that the checkout process could, through up-selling, drive even more business to partners in the form of services, including allowing those license purchases to include an option for hosted software (Prominic). Consider that over 60% of the developed world population works for small businesses and in some countries that number is much higher (Canada: 88%, Japan: 70%). By ignoring the SME market and focusing sales on Enterprises, you're ignoring the majority of potential customers from the start. And getting in at the start of a new company is much easier than trying to migrate them as an enterprise later.
-dh
No one can deny that we lose much time (therefore some money) to renew the licenses for very small businesses (1-10 licenses). It is even worse now that we are to all move to CCB yearly renew.
The online selling should at least be available for small accounts of licenses.