E-Commerce Commission Press Kit

ook according to topic. The topic can be as broadly defined as “history” or as narrowly definedas “Civil War.”At the same time they borrow from concepts familiar to traditional retail, Internet merchants donot think that merely duplicating what can be found offline is enough to convince customers toshop online. Early pioneers of Internet retail talk about attracting customers with additionalvalue, selection and entertainment.The Cendant Corporation, a $5.3 billion consumer goods and services company, sells over onemillion products and services on its Web site, from cars to electronics and cameras, books,appliances, luggage, perfume, flowers and gifts, computer hardware and software, video gamesand a variety of other goods and services. For an annual membership fee of $69, Cendant claimsthat its netMarket Web site satisfies 20 percent of the average family’s shopping needs. Becausethe company’s business model relies almost entirely on membership fees, Cendant reports that itsells products to retail customers at, or near, wholesale prices. In 1997, Cendant facilitated thesale of more than $1.2 billion worth of products and services over the Internet. Before the decadecomes to a close, the company plans to offer a product selection which will cover 95 percent ofthe products a typical household would buy.Internet Shopping Network’s First Auction site aims to attract Internet users looking foradventure, entertainment, and seeking a bargain. People from all over the country bid againsteach other in real-time to “win” products. First Auction starts many of its bids at $1.00, wellbelow a product’s cost. Bidders quickly bid up the price, competing with each other to takepossession of golf clubs, CD players, television sets, jewelry and a range of other items.Launched in July 1997, First Auction’s membership roster approached 100,000 people by the endof 1997, and 30,00 people visited the site each day.An Internet shopper need not go to a “store” in order to buy something. In fact, the concept ofretail is blurring. Some media sites, online service providers and search engines prominentlyfeature retailers and provide direct links to their sites. Some give customers the ability to buygoods directly from their own sites. Time Warner, the media and entertainment company, has amarketplace on its Web site featuring retailers selling books, music, travel, computers andelectronics, vitamins and more. Visitors using Yahoo!’s search engine can buy products from TheVisa Shopping Guide by Yahoo!. A shopper who wants to buy a pair of ladies’ shoes, but doesnot want to go from Web store to Web store to shop, can use the “one search” option and asoftware agent scans the offerings of participating retailers for selection and price information inone trip. An interested buyer can click on the “buy” button and be transported to the Web pagefeaturing a picture and a more detailed description of the shoes at the retailer’s site to finish thetransaction.Even buying a car, more of an investment than a typical retail purchase, is possible to do througha number of auto marketplaces, online classified sites, and manufacturers’ own sites. JD Power &Associates, a marketing information firm specializing in the automotive industry, estimates thatroughly 16 percent of all new car and truck buyers used the Internet as part of their shopping36