Re: Making money on the internet and still keeping your AS/400--(Was RE: AS/6000)

I have to concur with the following.  There are companies on the Internet 
that I've purchased from that I've never used their catalogs, stores or 
ordering centers.  Some, I don't even believe have any of the three.  Yes, 
the Internet is real.  Yes, people actually do business on it.





JFritz@sharperimage.com on 01/26/2000 01:31:09 PM
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Subject:        Making money on the internet and still keeping your 
AS/400--(Was RE: AS/6000)

Yes, we have.  While it's true that it's just another way of taking orders,
there apparently is something about ordering on line that's more attractive
to some people than ordering by mail or over the phone.  Strangely enough
<g>, we've done a lot of analysis for the marketing people on this subject,
and many of the people who've ordered on line haven't ordered from the
catalog or bought at the stores previously. This year we saw an increase in
volume in stores, catalog, and on line sales.  For the past four years our
on line sales have grown at a spectacular rate.  You can read our press
releases (if you can stomach the prose) from any stock quote site.  

The marketing buzz word is "synergy." (I think they learned it from the
"GEM" cartoon show of the 80's. <g>)  I don't think taking orders on line
offers anything new to the consumer, but it seems to have done us some good.
One thing about taking orders on line is the reduced overhead.  It takes
less human labor to process an on line order.  Just get the files from the
web site and put the data into the existing order entry system.  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Colin Williams [mailto:Williamsc@technocrats.co.uk]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2000 1:04 AM
> To: 'MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com'
> Subject: RE: AS/6000
> 
> 
> Are you saying that your company has made more money because of an
> ecommmerce web site than they would have made anyway.
> To me ecommerce/internet only offers one new thing to mail order
> companies, that the catalogue/brochure is online. Apart from that, and
> the collection of customer information, does it really offer anything
> new over  telephone ordering/mail order?
> 

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