Lawrence, Yogi;
[new economy blather]
>New products, new markets, new growth.
Great. Just what I need. More kitsch.
A really smart and prescient dude has already predicted the reality of e-commerce...
Guys, I can't agree. We gotta get over this notion that e-commerce is just for bric-a-brac and books. Its value is in its efficiency.
From WSJ:
December 7, 1998
Click and Buy
Why -- and Where -- Internet Commerce Is Succeeding
By GEORGE ANDERS
There's nothing cute or sexy about Gordon Sinkez's Web site. You can't find sports scores or racy photos. You can't order best-selling books or download audio clips from your favorite band.
But don't be fooled: This is the future of electronic commerce.
Mr. Sinkez runs a two-year-old Web site for CSX Corp. (www.csx.com), Jacksonville, Fla., which operates one of the nation's largest freight railroads. About 400,000 times a month, customers click on one of its pages -- to book shipments, get price quotes or examine a map of CSX's 18,000-mile network, showing the exact location of their goods at that moment. The site lets CSX save money on clerical tasks, while customers get data so complete it's almost addictive. "We get people who sign on daily and keep refreshing their computer screens so they can see where each rail car is," Mr. Sinkez says.
Plenty of other people -- both in corporate settings and in everyday life as consumers -- are turning to the Internet and the Web when it's time to spend money. A few years ago, the Web had a reputation as a digital attic, crammed full of sites offering bad poetry, vacation photos and obscure product brochures. Now, though, it's coming into its own as a mainstream part of commerce. Web sites are selling everything from ginseng to jet-engine parts, and new customers keep streaming in.
In the U.S., Internet commerce this year will total anywhere from $31 billion to $51 billion, according to different research firms. Zona Research Inc., Redwood City, Calif., whose estimates are at the low end of the range, says more than three-quarters of the total will be business-to-business commerce. It pegs direct sales to consumers at $7.2 billion, or 23% of the total. |
