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To: Victor Lazlo who wrote (113030)	12/19/2000 8:35:20 PM
From: 10K a day	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Geeze...It's not even the companys. NOTHING wrong with Online business. NOT EVEN the companies. Look at Dell. geeze. When is the last time you bought a OC-Gazillion (whatever) Router over the internet.... Nothing wrong with Online business...We will look back at this and laugh some day....

To: Victor Lazlo who wrote (113030)	12/19/2000 11:55:15 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

I will make a prediction- we will see a few pure plays try the "membership" thing- buy a 30 dollar membership for a yr and shop all you want, lowest prices gauranteed, yada, yada. But it will be far too little too late. Victor, I agree. We will see this type of promoting. ps, on a practical level, I hate to see all the dotcoms go. it sure is convenient. I sure hope the combo click and mortars stay around There is no doubt they will stay around and improve as the technology improves. I believe after this year being both brick and click I can speak with a decent amount of understanding. Those that do not have both click and brick will have difficulty competing. The click division is a customer service that many people will want to use for convenience. It is here and if a retailer does not offer it, the customer will go elsewhere. I prefer the convenience as do you. I shop on-line for those products that are not readily available with a lot of selection in local stores and are a form of commodities. An example is DVDs. There is not a store around here with thousands of DVDs to choose from. I suppose that will go for books and music and other categories along that line. The product I sell is not really a good candidate for on-line selling. However, my on-line efforts have put a real dent in my competitors that do not offer this which is most. My web site receives a lot of local traffic from people in my local market. Most people do not buy on-line but they do get ideas of what they want to buy and how much it will cost. They then come in and ask to see it. My product is a see and touch product. The on-line site is also very popular for men. They want to buy their wife jewelry but are not sure what to get. They buy a gift certificate on-line and then give that. The wife comes in and chooses what she wants. I use the term wife because those getting engaged, have girlfriends, etc. do not want to send the girl in. The "emotion" is left out in a new relationship of that type. This is cost effective as long as one sells on-line products that are sold in the brick store too. No duplication of inventory needs and the staff becomes more efficient. The staff can fulfill an on-line order when there is not a customer in the store that needs cared for. Finally and I believe most importantly, the internet is the best communication device around. Customers looking for a product can email asking if we carry that item or if we will carry that item. This gives me as the retailer far better feedback so I may react to my customer's desires better. I am not guessing as much. The other is occasionally a customer is not happy about something they bought, some form of service, etc. No matter how hard we try there is an occasional problem. The customer seems to feel more free to express their unhappiness and the reason for it through email. Also, they can do this at a time that is convenient for them and know it will get to top management. I can look at the problem and research it prior to responding. I can find out where we fell down on the job so to speak and not let my emotions on the issue affect my response. It is totally irrelevant who is really "right" or not about the issue but it is relevant to solve the problem. The business dies without the customer. Finally, the internet is a great marketing tool if the retailer gives the potential customer or an existing customer a reason to sign up to receive emails about sales and promotions. We have now a little more than three thousand active customers on our email list. Our incentive was initially a free gift. Then a $10 gift certificate for referring a friend to sign up. There were people that "abused" this by taking the free gift and then unsubscribing but the percentage was small. The on-line site is now an inexpensive color catalogue. A way to advertise cost effectively and a way to solve problems to keep customers happy. I can't imagine any good retailer abandoning a good on-line site they have created. I do admit it takes a lot of work and it must be marketed.