Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KeepItSimple who wrote (41361)	2/20/1999 3:10:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

11 Internet investments and does not signal any change in relationship with YHOO. In fact, Softbank is also GeoCities largest shareholder, so once the acquisition is approved, Softbank will own even more of YHOO than it did prior to this week's sale Observations E-commerce Evolution Continues Apace Last week, we had the pleasure of attending the Women In New Media breakfast series, Felice Kincanon was the featured speaker. Felice has an extensive marketing background and was the driving force behind Omnicom's aggressive investment in firms like Agency.com and Razorfish. Recently, she has been consulting on e-commerce for a number of companies. Her thoughts, along with the recent AMZN controversy (see “Company Watch”) and LCOS/USAI/TMCS merger, led us to thinking about the dynamics behind e-commerce success. The breakthrough nature of Christmas 98 revealed that consumers en masse have begun to trust the web as a transactive medium. However, it would be a serious misstep by a would-be web retailer to assume they could simply slap up a site and ride on the medium's coattails; trust is hard to build and even harder to maintain in an anonymous medium like the Internet, which is why the number one gating factor to consumer e-commerce remains security concerns. A recent study from Cheskin Research and Studio Archetype/Sapient examined 94 e-commerce sites in an effort to understand how trust is created on the web. Their telescopic view revealed that the trick to converting new buyers on the web is to ease them from a state of chaos (Where do I go? How do I do this? What about hackers?) to one of trust. Listed below are the six primary components they found created trust. While some may seem obvious - we think the results lay out an important blueprint for e-commerce success: 1. Brand: Ultimately, brand represents the company's promise to deliver perceived attributes and its credibility, built either through reputation or first-hand experience. 2. Seals of approval (or security brands): While it may appear minor, these symbols (like VeriSign and Visa) give new users comfort and reassurance. 3. Navigation: Ease of use - an individual's ability to find what they are looking for. 4. Fulfillment: Clearly stated policies and information on how and where to address problems. 5. Presentation: Professional quality design. 6. Technology: State of the art equates to enabling and also shows consumers that a company is committed to the medium. It is interesting to note that while many off-line retailers may have a head start in terms of brand - their ineffectual execution on any of the other 5 points can severely handicap their success on the web. Of course, another huge off-line retailer mistake is the “If we build it, they will come” assumption that they can drive traffic to their site through off-line marketing alone. As more and more retailers are learning, the online aggregators (AOL, YHOO, AMZN) are essential partners to any off-line retailers online success. And off-line retailers are beginning to heed the message. Last week's acquisition of Fingerhut, (a direct marketer who has online expertise including handling fulfillment and distribution for the Kmart, Intuit and Quicken sites) by Federated, the largest operator of department stores in the U.S (Bloomingdale's, Macy's and Bon Marche), provided another data point in the evolution of e-commerce. While some questioned the economics of the deal ($1.5 billion, representing a 33% premium over