Web Business
In the first year or so of web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market. More recently, as the Web proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy and sell products and services with one another. Such business-to-business sales make 1 because business people typically know what product they"re looking for.
Nonetheless, many 2 still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its 3 . "Businesses need to feel they can trust the pathway between them and the 4 ," says senior analyst Blaine Erwin of Forrester Research. Some companies are 5 the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business 6 who are given access to the company"s private internet.
Another major shift in the model for 7 commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet 8 activities have focused on strategies to "pull" customers into 9 . In the past year, however, software companies have developed tools 10 allow companies to "push" information directly out to consumers, 11 marketing messages directly to targeted customers. Most 12 , the PointCast Network uses a screen saver to deliver a continually 13 stream of news and advertisements to subscribers" computer 14 . Subscribers can customize the information they want to 15 and proceed directly to a company"s Web site. Companies 16 as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technology to push 17 to customers about special sales, product offerings, or other 18 . But push technology has earned the contempt of many 19 users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information 20 onto the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and the television 21 . That"s a prospect that horrifies Net purists.
But it is hardly 22 that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to 23 money. The examples of Virtual Vineyards, Amazon. com, and other 24 show that a Web site selling the right kind of products with the right mix of 25 , hospitality, and security will attract online customers. And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop in silicon. People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge.