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On Wed, 19 Apr 1995, TOM VASSOS (M.B.A., B.E.S.) wrote:

> Report #8 from Tom Vassos and Jacqueline Fortin

> Sorry we're a little late with our last couple of reports.  We
> finally got around to transcribing some of the handwritten notes
> that were taken during the week.  (and hey, we had to take a break
> to see a little of San Francisco while we were here.)

> Jacqueline notes:
> Stream:  "Buying and Selling on the Web"
> Speaker:  Lisa Thorell, Vice President, Marketing, Spry Inc.
> (lisa@spry.com)
> Topic title:  "Electronic Commerce"

> Electronic commerce realities are that the majority of the
> customers are not on the Web yet and that we really are in
> the early stages of making money.

>  Here are some interesting stats...

> 6.7 million Web users today
That's growing fast.  Wasn't only about 3.5 million last month?
How many Internet users again (60 million?)
How many E-Mail users? (100 million)

How many Web users have used freely copied versions of Netscape from 
behind TIA accounts? What is the potential growth here?

> 66 million Windows PC users
How many users/PC?  Some people use 2 (home/work) some share with 30 
others (Classrooms). 
> 120 million installed PC'S.
What do the other 54 Million PC's run?
How many Suns? Macs? HPs?, RS-6000s,... (those are INTERESTING numbers!)

(Stock Brokers, Banks, and Insurance Companies use UNIX to track the 
multiple streams that come in via the TCP/IP link over T1.  They spend 
about $35 Million/minute.  Equity and Bond trading is to volitile to wait 
for  or "please stand by while Word takes over your 
screen and paints buttons on the screen for 90 seconds)".  THAT'S
online consumption.

> Only 4% online teleconsumers shop
(WHAT?  do you mean they don't buy?
What percentage purchase goods ordered by computer? (Franchise retailers,
brokers, K-Mart).

How many use computer based transactions?

How many order from catalogues? (Comparable market)
How many buy via mail-order/phone-order.

> (5 billion people on earth)
Look at the growth potential!  India and China are going into their
computer booms as you read!  Microsoft better come up with sanscrit
and Mandarin Character sets Soon! (X11 has had it since 1990).

> Another area lacking in cyberspace is compelling merchandising
> in online stores.  Home pages should reflect practical yet attractive
> store fronts.

Up until about 3 months ago, Ciberspace Shoppers cood "look" via the 
internet and "order" via the telephone, but only fools gave out their 
credit card numbers over the internet.  Today, more sophisticated order 
authentication and confirmation schemes exist.

If you wanted to "Shop and Buy" online, you had prodigy.  NAPLAPs was 
tolerable in 1985, it is offensive in 1995.  My dad was thrilled to be 
able to Cybershop in 1985.  Today's "Better than television" pictures in 
16million color JPEG format can be displayed on inferior monitors, or 
shine on top grade displays.  The resolution is comparable to that of 
glossy magazines.  The quality of a web page exceeds that possible with a 
copier, fax, or most printers.

> With the amount of money you may end up spending to
> put your business on the Internet, it's important to remember
> who your target market is.  Your Web site must reflect this fact.
It's important to find out what your market is.  I have been suprised at 
who our WEB customers have been.  The best part of the web is that you 
can quickly and easily gather demographic and survey information.  The 
web is a (relatively) secured two way media.

> You also want to make sure that you make it as easy as possible
> for the consumer to engage your sites once they find them.
> Navigation and transactions should be easy and intuitive.
At minimum, you want to get them into the web pages.


From rballard@cnj.digex.net Tue May  2 18:04:44 1995