•Adventures in Internet Retailing
Adventures in Internet Retailing by Rob SpiegelThe first big surge in the ecommerce explosion came from business-to-consumer (B2C) or retail sales. Companies such as America Online, Amazon.com, eBay and Priceline.com became the first household names in ecommerce. Their leaders became the names that replaced the old economy names during 1998 and 1999. We ended the last century with Amazon.com's leader Jeff Bezos as Time magazine's Person of the Year. In the first couple of weeks of the new...
•Amazon Breaks Through
Amazon Breaks Through by Rob SpiegelSurprise, surprise. Amazon did it. They made a profit. In late 2000, CEO Jeff Bezos promised he would deliver earnings by the fourth quarter of 2001. Well, the reporting is in and he delivered, against all street predictions. Amazon reported net profit of $5 million with an operating profit of $59 million. That's real money. Overall sales hit $1.1 billion, giving the company its first billion-dollar quarter. Amazon still carries $2.2 billion in debt, but...
•B2B? Watch your Mouth!
B2B? Watch your Mouth! by Rob Spiegel There was a precious time then business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce was the sweet darling of Internet-based business. Sure, Amazon.com has a great brand name, but B2B was going to change the very nature of how business would be conducted in the future. Proponents scoffed at consumer e-tailers while pointing to the auto-exchange, Covisint, which is projected to handle some $750 billion in goods annually at some not-to-distant point in the future. And if...
•Dot Com Crash: Whose Fault Is it Anyway?
Dot Com Crash: Whose Fault Is it Anyway? by Rob Spiegel The statistics coming off the crash in dot com stocks are adding up to a bleak picture. This week I read an editorial in Electronic News by managing editor Peter Brown that presented some disturbing numbers. According to Reuters Media, a total of 100,000 jobs have vanished from the Internet economy since December , 1999. A full 50,000 of those jobs have disappeared since February. In three bloody months, the dot com damage has doubled....
•Ecommerce: A New Artform
Ecommerce: A New Artform by Rob Spiegel What creative project do you have in the back of your mind? Writing that novel? Putting together a bluegrass band? Painting the sunsets over the Rio Grande? How about starting a business?When you think of the term creative endeavor, does launching or running a business come to mind? To most creative people, business is the antithesis of creativity. Yet slowly, ever so slowly, the nature of business is changing. The need for innovation in business is...
•Heavy Online Usage During Crisis
Heavy Online Usage During Crisis by Rob SpiegelThe Internet played a considerable role in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on New York City and Washington, DC. The best and the worst of online usage emerged as email and instant messaging became prime sources of communication. News-based Web sites bogged down from high traffic. Many popular news sites froze from the spike in traffic. Here are a few of the more striking uses of the Web during the early hours and days of the...
•Net Retailers Face 45 Percent Growth in Market
Net Retailers Face 45 Percent Growth in Market by Rob SpiegelOn the day I write this column, Spaceworks, another promising Internet company has closed its doors. The fever that once encouraged business writers to claim dot coms would quickly overcome and obliterate traditional businesses, is now burning against Net companies. Now it's fashionable for journalists to scoff at Internet enterprises, ridiculing excesses such as the goofy 2000 Super Bowl ads.Ok, we've all had fun with the media...
•Product Sales Beat Ads Sales for Web Revenues
Product Sales Beat Ads Sales for Web Revenues by Rob SpiegelMost entrepreneurs who launch a Web site are seeking product sales revenue or advertising revenue. Even corporate brochure sites frequently sell advertising. As you click through sites while you're online, the proliferation of advertising gives the impression that Web ad sales could be a logical (and potentially profitable) way to offset the expenses of building, maintaining and promoting your site.But before you make the call to...
•Research Roundup Time
Research Roundup Time by Rob Spiegel So what's up with the Internet? Is it a fad that is slowly diminishing? Or is it still a stunning revolution that will change human history entirely? The dot com crash certainly put some tarnish on the ole boy. But it seems the smudges are only on the perception of the Internet. It seem that online consumer and business growth continues unabated, even in the midst of a treacherous high-tech meltdown.My new favorite analogy comes from the auto industry. At...
•The Dream Still Lingers
The Dream Still Lingers by Rob SpiegelRemember how the world was going to change? Smart sensors in your refrigerator would notice that your milk freshness date had expired and it would add a half gallon to your electronic shopping list. As items gathered, you would click the list over to WebVan, which would bring groceries to your door. WebVan, of course, is gone, and my refrigerator certainly doesn't have any sensors.The WebVan demise produces two responses. The I-told-you-so group gets one...
•The Industry Standard Is Gone
The Industry Standard Is Gone by Rob SpiegelAmid the flood of information on how Internet companies performed and contributed in the aftermath of the attack on September 11, was a small item about Standard Media closing the Industry Standard Website, once the epicenter of the Internet economy. Certainly it was no surprise after the company ceased publishing its weekly print magazine last summer. The Website had been run by a skeletal staff while Standard Media, in bankruptcy, sold the last...
•The New Frontier of Profits
The New Frontier of Profits by Rob SpiegelI recently participated as a judge for Inc. magazine's Web site competition. I expected the experience to demonstrate just how sophisticated Web sites have become among the small businesses that make up Inc.'s readership. I didn't see the level of quality I expected, but I was even more encouraged by what I actually found, a wide-ranging display of sites that were selling everything from exotic soaps to electronic parts. And they were doing it...
•The Rumors of Ecommerce Death
The Rumors of Ecommerce Death by Rob SpiegelAs Nasdaq sputters along in dot com shame, a few million few dogged Internet consumers have ignored the crash. They continue to happily buy away. The good-news story is not popular with business writers, but Web retailing continues to grow seemingly unaware that the online mall is crashing down around them as they choose garden tools, sell sports cards and order vacation packages. Things aren't perfect. There has been somewhat of a dip since...
•The Silver Twinkle in Holiday 2001
The Silver Twinkle in Holiday 2001 by Rob SpiegelAfter a devastating year for dot coms, some good news has finally emerged. A year of downbeat new releases has concluded with a very promising up note, brining cheer to Net retailers. Call it whatever cliché you like, the silver lining around the black cloud, or the twinkle in Santa's eye, but online retail sites have much to celebrate from 2001 holiday sales season.As noted in an early eBiz column, the season started with a promising lift...
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