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To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (23958)	10/30/1998 6:56:00 PM
From: Tom D	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 164684

Glenn, please! Please refrain from posting recommendations that are less than strong buys. You are undermining the conspiracy theorists who complain that keiretsu samurai are behind a multibrokerage conspiracy to have ALL recommendations be strong buys or at least buys. How can there be stock manipulation if Merrill Lynch is not playing along? Tom

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (23958)	11/1/1998 12:48:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

CAN I TRY (CLICK) THAT BLOUSE (DRAG) IN BLUE? Those Star Trek replicators that dispense food and clothing on command aren't here yet. But retailers are getting closer. This week, Eddie Bauer Inc., the 78-year-old Seattle-based casual-apparel maker, is testing an online service that lets customers mix and match styles on the computer screen. It's the latest attempt to build the Bauer brand over the Internet. Visitors to EddieBauer.com will find the same khaki, denim, and knit basics found in the retailer's catalogs and mall stores. But the site is more than just an electronic sales flyer. Want to see how that holiday sweater will look with the khakis? Or maybe try the sports jacket with those plaid pants? Just click and drag in Eddie Bauer's virtual dressing room. ''It's fun,'' says 28-year-old Cally Raduenzel, who tried the service recently at Screenz, a Chicago cybercafe. ''I like being able to put the boots and shoes and stuff up there and change the colors.'' Since half the consumers who visit the Web site have never before shopped at Eddie Bauer, their experience online is an important first contact with the brand. The company won't release profit and revenue figures for the site, casting it as a marketing tool to lure new customers and keep current shoppers interested. Like other online marketers, Bauer is betting that a potpourri of services will keep those new online customers coming back. ''We knew from the beginning that they didn't want to see a poster,'' says Judy Neuman, who created Eddie Bauer's Internet site. ''They want to be able to do something.'' Besides the virtual dressing room, Bauer offers online customers a reminder service that alerts them by E-mail to upcoming birth dates, anniversaries, and holidays. It lets them create electronic wish lists of products they want friends or relatives to buy for them. And it sends them targeted E-mail messages offering special sale prices on items, based on their past buying patterns. All offer the online shopper something other catalog giants can't match, says Lauren Freedman, president of e-tailing Group, a Chicago-based consulting group. ''They have leveraged technology to do something that can't be done in a traditional retail environment or within a catalog.'' These are just the latest refinements. A year ago the retailer offered free software that allowed shoppers to plug in the floor plans for their homes and see how Eddie Bauer furniture looked in the living room or bedroom. This year's Java-driven dressing room is faster and easier, with no software to download. In both instances, the idea is to give online customers more ''hands-on'' ways to try out its stuff. Perhaps most important, Eddie Bauer has worked to integrate its Web site, catalog, and stores so that all three supplement one another and boost the overall brand. The Eddie Bauer catalog promotes the online service. The online service lets visitors know they can take products they're unhappy with back to bricks-and-mortar stores. Store cash registers sport the Web address. NO BANNERS. But even the coolest Web site isn't worth much if no one knows about it. Besides pitching its online service in its catalogs and stores, Bauer advertises on the Internet--but not with traditional banner ads. It gave banner ads a test run in the fourth quarter of 1997 and again this spring but didn't get much joy. Says Neuman: ''They're expensive, and conversion [to sales] is low.'' Instead, the retailer is using its Internet advertising to seek customers who are outside its traditional customer base of casual baby boomers. It boosted its back-to-school push this year by promoting campus gear on popular teen sites such as student.com and dogpile.com. Normally, Bauer doesn't squander ad money on prospects outside its core boomer group. ''But this was easy to do, and inexpensive,'' says Neuman. The real payoff for Eddie Bauer will come if it builds a base of customers used to shopping at Eddie Bauer online and offline, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As round-the-clock shopping catches on, Bauer wants to make sure its brand name is leading the way.