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CUC TO CONSOLIDATE WEB EFFORTS
THROUGH AGGREGATE SITE
Source: Cowles/SIMBA Media Daily
Cowles/SIMBA Media Daily via Individual Inc. : (Electronic Advertising & Marketplace Report) CUC
International of Stamford, CT, plans to step up its efforts to be a dominant electronic commerce player
with the launch of a Web site in 1997 that will house all of the company's Web initiatives. The site will
combine CUC's established Traveler's Advantage and Shopper's Advantage services with newer entrants
such as Welcome Wagon, an information site for people who have just moved to a new community. CUC
has not decided if any tweaking will be done to the services that have stood on their own when they shift to
the new site, according to Ed Sanden, CUCVP of interactive media. Sanden added that a new brand name for
the servicesand the Web site is being considered. "Our long-term intention is to represent all aspects of
consumer buying." CUC currently has three primary services generating money on the Web: Shopper's
Advantage, an online directory of manufactured goods that often sells goods at up to a 50% discount, is
now being marketed under the brand name, Net Market; Traveler's Advantage, a Web-based travel booking
service; and AutoVantage, an online car-referral service.
Rather than charge flat fees or take sales commissions from participating mer chants, CUC makes its
money from subscription fees. A one-year membership to one of the company's three services is $49 and
includes the ability to accessthe service via the Web, proprietary online services such as America Online,
CompuServe and Prodigy, and through 800 numbers. The majority of CUC's inter active users are coming
through, Sanden said. Traveler's Advantage is CUC's most popular service, with four million members,
followed by AutoVantage with three million members and Net Market with two million members. While
Sanden wouldn't give specific figures, he said that the Web presently only accounts for a fraction of CUC's
business. "For the last 20 years, we've been on every online service you can think of. We built our direct
marketing business up in anticipation of the interactive marketplace developing. Now direct marketing is
the primary business," Sandensaid. CUC's interactive initiatives are growing. The number of CUC
members using the Web or online services doubled in 1996 to more than 200,000.
Despite traditional sales channels outperforming the Web and online services, CUC is seeing some good
indicators that it has a future with electronic com merce, Sanden noted. Web users are more likely to
purchase high-end goods than members who do business by telephone, and the Web also attracts a more
elite demographic, he added.
The most encouraging signs that electronic commerce will find mainstream acce ptance is the fact that
CUC members who purchase an item through the Web are 22% more likely to renew their membership
than members who do not purchase online, Sanden said.
[12-09-96 at 19:15 EST, Copyright 1996, SIMBA Information, Inc.] |
