FRESNO -- Electronic commerce
attitude and usage are radically reshaping the San Joaquin Valley economy in many
ways. The historic arts and entertainment Tower District of Fresno, Calif., is
generating a fundamental shift in the way consumers find out about products and
services, whether they buy them online or not. It is dramatically changing the
purchasing process for certain categories from books to cars to window coverings.
It is changing the relationship between buyers and
sellers in areas like on-line beer sales, where a consumer can order and pay for
a case of micro-brew and have it delivered to his home or office that day. Any
company that sells consumer goods and services needs to understand where electronic
commerce is going, which categories are next, and which consumers are next.
People shop on the Internet for three reasons: price,
access to product information and convenience. Shopping at a one-stop-shop is
ideal online. Your costs - shipping and filling out credit card and registration
information - are minimized when you shop at one place.
Offline, one-stop shops are not always ideal because
of such things as inventory size, expertise of sales staff or lack of intimacy
in a shop. Tower2000.com's strategy of horizontal integration is sound. They offer
a winning Web experience that can be replicated for any type of purchase.
Of course, what's not sound about Tower2000.com,'s
strategy is their policy of not making a profit, as WebPortal Inc.'s nonprofit
corporation has been trying to leverage the Internet to fulfill their charity
missions.
As Dr. Howard Hobbs of the WebPortal
Inc. Legal Division at the Palo Alto Corporate Office points out, "Most nonprofits
have yet to advance beyond static, brochure-style content -- they struggle with
limited resources to build and maintain even the simplest of sites. Yet the model
highlighted in the Tower2000.com charity portal in Fresno includes costly $35,000
corporate in-house software that was programmed specifically to introduce the
unincorporated Tower District Merchant's Association to the digital divide of
the new millennium."
In reality, the impact of being listed in major
search engines around the world as a top Web site is something TDMC members have
not yet been able to fully grasp even as the three year span of the Tower2000.com
Web site's fame has been widening and its life-span as a charity site is winding
down and out this month. Having a WebPortal Inc. world rated Web site only happened
because WebPortal Inc. CEO, Tom Hobbs, M.S., from Fresno, wanted to design a cutting-edge
virtual reality space for the Tower neighborhood of Fresno in which his family
played a key role in the late 1940's and early 1950's.
As Hobbs began to program the unconventional charity
Web site, it began to take shape as a demonstration of what an online storefront
could bring to the traditional Tower District brick and mortar stores.
It would be an experience to remember. Hobbs' radical design was way ahead of
the curve back in December of 1996.
When it was finished, it consisted of a slick Madison-Avenue
style magazine set off by Edward Hopper style, fast opening, stunning trademarked
and copyrighted original layouts, text, and graphics that were at once, interactive,
informative, and communicative of a 1938 roadhouse experience complete with fully
functional digital jukebox, music, movie theater, movie clips and current restaurant
menus.
Use of the Web site cost the Tower District merchants
nothing. Ownership remained with WebPortal Inc. and to have local content posted
on the Web site a small administrative fee was charged participating members.
This was the foundation that created a huge following of loyal users of www.tower2000.com
from the national to the local sources and venues of arts and entertainment.
The Tower2000.com nonprofit alternative is available
to community organizations that addresses the issues of researching, building
and maintaining full-featured interactive Web sites.
The Web Portal Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif. based Web
site design firm launched its Tower2000.com venture to help the unincorporated
Tower District Marketing Committee establish its community-based shopping
mall and arts and entertainment district in Fresno in 1997. Typical of the WebPortal
Inc. mission and regardless of the Tower District relatively small size, nonexistent
budget, absence of Internet technical expertise and no current use of the Internet
- Tower2000.com has been able to leverage participating Tower District stores
to the point of glimpsing the possibility of an online marketplace.
Instead of charging thousands of dollars for Web
services, WebPortal Inc. supports itself through mutually beneficial affinity
marketing programs that help nonprofits like the TDMC benefit from e-commerce
thus creating a new revenue stream for the association.
If such community organizations for which WebPortal
Inc. provides Web site design & development strictly observe the terms of the
Advertising Agreement they could possibly, in three years, be able to gain control
of the programs and vendors that are introduced on the Web site designed and maintained
by WebPortal Inc. On the other hand, should the community association fail to
keep to the strict terms of the Agreement with WebPortal Inc., or fail to make
any service fee payments within a specified time period, the Web site is taken
down and further service to the association terminated.
With the online population in the United States
currently increasing by roughly 10 million households each year, an army of first-time
users going online every month. Through banners, e-mail promotions, or even links
on charity portals, the possibilities for reaching these fresh faces - as well
as the schooled ones - are vast, but depending on the consumer, some methods are
more effective than others. This makes understanding the attitudes of the online
customer extremely important.
A snapshot of Tower2000.com's most active users
over the past three years is a focused portrait of Internet elites -- the most
affluent, technologically sophisticated and educated buyers of the Web. Yet, at
this writing, http://www.tower200.com demographics are shifting. For example,
in the past three years, the number of users with online services in their homes
has grown from 6 million to 37 million. Of those, 10 million came online just
during the last year.
These new e-shoppers are reflecting the values,
the e-savvy buying habits and the attitudes of affluent mainstream Americans.
Tower2000.com advertisers need to know who's clicking
through the the Web site and why. They need to know who'll respond to an impulse
buy, and who'd prefer to read the disclaimer. And perhaps most important, they
will need to know what's holding back the nonbuyers.
Over the past three years a certain allegiance to
the past began to disappear as people began to imagine themselves selling things
online.
This week, WebPortal Inc. estimated 41.2 million
ad banners were completely loaded on users' computers. These banners were delivered
to 4.5% or 2.3 million home Internet users. What is sparking this excitement?
Its basic economics. Last year, Congress has issued a moratorium (exempted) on
Internet purchases from use and state sales tax levies. After that, online sales
began to skyrocket. Now, if you have a traditional brick and mortar store
but not an Internet bricks to clicks online store also, you are losing
your old customers faster than a speeding bullet.
The Internet is breaking down geographical barriers,
finally making possible the global village first described by Marshall McLuhan
30 years ago. To remain competitive against all your competition you will want
a bricks to clicks online transition so you can catch many new customers
locally, nationally and globally. In this coming year you can expect online marketing
to wireless devices to be the edge you need to stay ahead of your competition!
Too much trouble, too expensive, you say? Then you
have not learned the lessons of U.S. e-commerce winners -- As markets mature,
customers become more expensive to acquire.
Generating web site traffic is important, but the
real magic is in converting browsers into buyers. That's a trade secret in Web
Portal Inc.'s codebook that Tower District merchants will have to learn the hard
way, without charity.
[Editor's Note: Whether it's building
a house for Habitat for Humanity, organizing an arts and crafts fair for inner
city children, or participating in an AIDS walk-a-thon, online community partnerships
are well-known and include for-profit and nonprofit organizations. For example,
in San Francisco, nonprofit partners include the Volunteer Center of San Francisco,
the Volunteer Center of San Mateo, Street Project and two City Cares organizations.]
