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Opinion:
No Longer A Question!It is no longer a question of why, it is now a question of if! For that matter it is no longer a question of if, it is now a question of when! Although online businesses are now drawing parallels to the "Brick-N-Mortar" community we are used to conducting business in, there is a new reality dawning. The new reality is virtual reality and it has a different set of rules than brick-n-mortar reality. The Internet isn't about posting information anymore, it's about where you do business. The impact of digital marketing will grow substantially within the next year according to a survey conduced by Arthur Anderson Company. The survey revealed that 35 percent of executives see digital marketplaces as critical to their eBusiness strategy while another 45 percent acknowlege that digital marketplaces are important adjuncts to their offline buisness.
Excerpt from ZDNet:
Berst Alert The Big Ecommerce Bang
Jesse Berst, Editorial Director It would be easy to think that ecommerce means books, CDs and movies. It would be wrong. Companies such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble grab all the headlines. But consumer buying habits are rapidly changing. These changes will forever alter not only ecommerce, but the entire way we consume goods and services. You say you want a revolution? You're in the middle of one. The ecommerce evolution is accelerating online shopping life-spans into mere months, producing a constant state of change. Online shopping obliterates barriers that have long propped up traditional retailing:
Geographic barriers:
Time barriers:
Information barriers:
Switching barriers: As these barriers crumbled, consumers tested the ecommerce waters with small-ticket items. Books. CDs. But they have quickly moved on. The Internet is rapidly becoming a favored way to buy big-ticket items. Or at least to research them. Trends already point in this direction in three major areas. Automobiles. 18.2 million people already shop for cars and car parts online (but don't necessarily buy). This number far out distances the 12.6 million people shopping for books.(Source:Nielsen/CommerceNet) And an estimated 65% of new vehicle shoppers will use the Internet to help them shop for a car by the end of 2000.(Source: J.D. Power and Associates) The advantage: people can replace high-pressure sales talk with facts and figures from reliable sources. Online Lending. Forrester Research reports 10% of all mortgages will be done online by 2003. Further, one in six credit cards will be issued online within the next five years, with Net-sourced credit card lines approaching $22 billion. The advantage: multi vendor marketplaces aggregate rates from numerous credit providers, making it easier for consumers to compare quotes.
Travel. Online travel purchases are expected to
reach $20 billion by 2001, marking a 700% increase
over 1998's $2.5 billion. (Source: PhoCus Wright) In 1999, 31% of consumers who went to an airline's The ideas presented above are only the tip of the iceberg. What does this mean to a company like ours? For one thing it means marketing new websites is getting more difficult all of the time. For another it means we are getting more call from exisitng websites looking for answers to the question, "how do we get listed in search engines? it appears as thought the automated systems aren't working anymore!
Call us for our answer: John R. Bryan If you want more answers before calling then click back and scroll to the bottom of the index page. We have close to fifty pages of information posted for you. Don't forget to make some notes... Click your back button.
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