eRetail Association Newsletter - October
October 11th 2000
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Welcome to the October e-newsletter from the International eRetail Association & eRetailNews.In this month's newsletter, we look at some of the factors driving consolidation in the eRetail industry, and provide some recommendations for eRetailers to implement over this holiday season and in 2001. We also talk with Todd Simon, Vice President of Omaha Steaks, about the company's dotcom strategy. We will finish up with a summary of some of the changes happening at eRetailNews. As always, I hope you find the contents both stimulating and enjoyable reading. ERETAILNEWS 2000-9 REPORTThe 2000-9 industry report looks at how data warehousing technology is being used by eRetailers to improve their competitive edge. 2000-9 Data Warehousing in eRetail:
MARKET FORCES CONTINUE TO SHAPE THE ERETAILING INDUSTRYWalMart quietly closes its doors on its online site while it remodels, Priceline's founder admits defeat in the grocery and gasoline markets, Toys"R"Us abandons its website to ally itself with Amazon, and Nasdaq investors appear very cautious around once hot Internet stocks. What does it all add up to? Background Analysis 1999 saw huge investments in many Internet startups trying to tap into the 'potential' represented by the Internet consumer. The same year also saw the awakening of traditional retailers to the threat of these new startups as potential competitors. The number of net consumers in the total retail market did not really change with the advent of the Internet. The Internet added another channel through which to reach the consumer. The result is consumers have more choices than ever about where and when to shop. With more retailers (offline and online) chasing the same customers (and remember, in the late nineties, retailing had been going through an era of consolidation due to poor performance), the market became oversupplied. Not every company can be a market leader on the Internet. Successful companies have been carving out their niche. Many of the most successful eRetailers have previous experience in the direct-to-consumer channel. With the pool of investment money drying up for online retailers, many companies are having to focus on how to achieve profitability before their lack of cash flow forces the company out of business. Unfortunately, many fresh dotcoms have built out their operational overheads, using venture money, to the point where they are unsustainable based on current sales volumes. An early myth of the eRetailer was that they would achieve economies of scale, and avoid the overheads associated with carrying inventories, by having products shipped direct from vendors to the consumer. Several disastrous holiday seasons have convinced most eRetailers that they must be in control of their own inventories if they are to satisfy their customer's expectations. Read the rest of this report online to discover: Why companies struggle online 2000 Situation Assessment Recommendations for holiday 2000 Recommendations for 2001. Click here. SITE PROFILE: OMAHA STEAKSOmaha Steaks first began selling over the Internet in the early CompuServe days back in 1990. The company's first website was launched in 1995 and the company is now well established as an online brand, including a dedicated AOL site with AOL keyword "steaks'. The company's marketing strategy for its online business remains consistent, building upon its offline brand recognition through a series of direct mail campaigns, offline advertising and targeted TV spots. This year Omaha Steaks has complimented its AOL deal with a similar deal on Yahoo! Read more about Omaha Steak's online strategy: click here. ERETAILNEWS CHANGESYou may have noticed a few changes on the eRetailNews website in the past month. These changes reflect a need to constantly ensure we provide you with distinctive benefits from using eRetailNews as an online resource. One change, replacing daily news snippets with more in-depth market analysis, is still in progress. Given the ability of so many of our members to receive online news headlines daily from other sources, it seems likely we can provide a better service for you by focusing on original content. Another change being considered relates to the monthly reports we produce; to-date these reports have focused on a variety of industry topics, from marketing to technology. In the future, we are considering focusing increasingly on eRetail technology research, providing analysis of competing technology solutions for different aspects of eRetailing and e-commerce. I would welcome your opinion; please let me know if you feel this would enhance the value of eRetailNews reports: nigel@eretailnews.com We have also changed our website hosting service this month, so I would like to hear from you if you find any performance issues with the site. NEW ONLINE ORDERING We have recently implemented a very simple shopping cart process for online ordering of new membership subscriptions as well as the ability to order back copies of eRetailNews reports. CONFERENCE DISCOUNTSCheck out the latest conferences with discounts for eRetail Association members: http://www.eretailassociation.org/conference THE WOW FACTOR!Very few companies are offering service above and beyond customer expectations these days. Highlight your experience or your company's efforts by emailing your WOW Factor! example: wowfactor@eretailnews.com FORWARD THIS NEWSLETTERAlthough this is a copyright publication, I'd like you to send it on to your friends and colleagues. If you do, please make sure you send the full newsletter in its entirety, including the copyright statement at the end. (If you received this from a friend, you may request your own free copies at any time simply by filling out the form at the eRetailNews website or use this email link. Stay Happy, :)
Nigel Fenwick ------------------------COPYRIGHT NOTICE----------------------Copyright: 2000 eRetailNews, Inc. This newsletter may not be reproduced completely or in part without permission from eRetailNews. The entire unedited newsletter may be forwarded via email to personal contacts only; NOTE use of this newsletter as part of a broadcast mail service or SPAM is expressly forbidden. To publish excerpts on a website, please use this HTML version and include a link back to the full text at http://www.eretailnews.com/newsletters/001011newsletter.htm. "The WOW Factor!", "eRetail Association", "eRetailNews", and "International eRetail Association" are servicemarks or trademarks of eRetailNews, Inc or BizBrick Corporation.--------------------------- TO REMOVE ------------------------ To remove your name from the recipient list for this newsletter use this link.
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