FRESNO - Imagine the newest, scariest ride at the world's biggest amusement park and you've got a good idea how business folks are viewing the World Wide Web these days.
There is immense peer pressure to get on board. Everyone promises an unforgettable payoff. But no one is really sure how it will all turn out.
Make no mistake though. Despite its infancy, the Web as a business tool is not only here to stay, but figures to grow tremendously in popularity over the next few years.
Nielsen Media Research estimates about a fourth
of the 260 million people in the United States are hooked up to the Internet.
The Web is the side of the Internet that supports Graphics and pictures.
An estimated 42 percent of Internet users are women, and overall Internet use has doubled in the last 18 months.
Add in the rest of the online world and that's a lot of potential customers. Valley firms are at the forefront of this revolution.
And their main weapon is the "web site" or " home page," a collection of digital steak and sizzle designed to entertain the Internet surfer while delivering a serious commercial message.
This is just the beginning, not the end," said Gottschalks Inc. Chairman Joe Levy, whose department store chain unveiled its Web page in November.
"There will be a lot of mistakes along the way. But if you don't become a part of it, you can't be a part of the future."
The hard part for business owners is knowing when
- if at all - to take the plunge.
What are a Web site's strengths? Where are the pitfalls?
Whom can it help?
And, most important, how does today's hot Web site
stay hip in a world where technological trends are measured in months or even
weeks?
Valley Web page designers and business owners who
have jumped onto the Internet say there are no certainties in this ever-changing
arena. But here a few truths they offer that should hold up... at least until the
next month:
Size doesn't matter.
A
stunning array of buisnesses can benefit from a Web site, the experts say. Everything
from multinantionals like Coca-Cola to the local auto parts designer.
The common thread is a desire to broaden their customer
base, locally or worldwide.
Dave Scudder, owner of American Bookstore in Fresno,
recently used the Internet to sell a 10-book set of encyclopedias to a customer
in Arkansas.
"Books I wasn't able to sell for $80 here I
was able to sell for $525," he said. The experience, Scudder said has inspired
him to consider starting his own Web page.
Make it fun.
Many Internet shoppers are searching for more than
just a product or a service. They want an experience.
"You can't just think, 'If I build it, they will
come,"' said Thomas Hobbs, owner of Web Portal Design in Fresno. "You have to
make it exciting."
The Web page that Hobbs designed for the Tower District
Marketing Committee in Fresno is a good example Titled "Tower 2000," the site
employs an art deco motif to give up-to-date information on almost all the businesses
in Fresno's premiere entertainment district.
Users are even given a "ticket" from the Tower Theatre
for the Performing Arts as they visit various merchants. It's not integral to
dispensing information, Hobbs said, but it adds to the user's enjoyment.
The world is your oyster.
Levy said Gottschalks has received Internet orders
from as far away as Spain and Japan. He said Gottschalks' Web site is usually
updated according to the season, such as offering a variety of perfumes for Mother's
Day.
Bob Tomlinson is owner with son Rick of CB Performance
in Visalia, a firm that designs and manufactures Volkswagen high performance racing
parts.
He said their business hasn't been the same since
Intesolve Business Systems in Visalia created CB Performance's Web site. "Our
sales are up 30 percent from last year, and I like to think 20 percent of that
is due to the Web," Tomlinson said.
Give them content.
This is both a strength and a weakness for Web pages.
On one hand, a Web site can hold thousands of pages of data.
On the other hand, there's nothing like a stale message to kill a site's effectiveness.
"If you want people to visit it daily, then you've got to update it daily," said Beth Weibert, international marketing and communications director for the California Tomato Commission, which received 14,000 hits on its Web page in the past year.
Changing the content, though, can be expensive.
Weibert said Thielen and Associates in Fresno, the commission's home page designer, made it so she can change the site's copy. But she must go to Thielen for graphic changes.
Interactive is the key.
A Web strength, said Rick Berry.
Readers start with page one and finish at the last page.
Web browsers, though, travel where they want on
a site with just the click of a mouse.
The surfers are in control. "The traditional persuasive
techniques won't work" on the Web, Berry said.
A feature on most Web pages is some form of two-way
communication between user and client, such as e-mail or a chat room.
Tomlinson said a man in Germany recently sent an
unclear e-mail message to one of his mechanics. The mechanic, not sure what he
was getting into, replied to the German. In a matter of minutes, Tomlinson said,
CB Performance had a $1,500 sale.
Woe to slowpokes.
Load time is as important to a Web site's success
as design and content, said Michael Conner, president of MCIC in Fresno.
MCIC designed the award-Winning Club Z, the website
for the International Club for Children, and the KMJ radio home page.
Load time measures how long it takes for a site's
sophisticated graphics to show up on a computer screen. Slow load time will discourage
all but the most committed Web browsers, Conner said. And that's bad news for
business owners.
"You don't want to lose your visitor before they
see your message," Conner said.
It's going to cost you.
Just about anybody can build a Web site. Cyberspace
is littered with vanity home pages and, with the right software, you can even
design a fairly interesting Web site yourself. But most business owners trying
to expand their online commerce turn to professional Web site designers.
Bill Kuebler, executive director of the Tower District
Marketing Committee, declined to say what the Tower District's Web site cost,
but estimated its value at about $100,000.
Berry said he tells clients that a Web site can
cost from several thousand dollars to $20,000, depending on what the client needs.
Art Padron, executive assistant at the Central Valley
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber spent about $4,000 getting its
site online.
But, he added, chamber officials and their 509 members
feel it is money well spent.
"It gives our members added benefit because
there are more people out there looking at what they've got," Padron said.
Do your homework.
All Web site designers aren't created equally.
The experts said clients should do background research when looking for a designer.
"Anybody with a computer can say, 'I'm a Web page
designer,"' said Frank Rogers, owner of Intesolv Design Systems. "It's buyer beware."
Conner said a professional Web site design team
should have four players: a Web architect to manage the entire affair, a graphic
artist, a computer programmer and a client who can articulate a clear business
vision.
"It's up to the clients to educate us about what
they want," Conner said.
Marketing is a team effort.
Berry said consumers head to a Web site for three
main reasons: Entertainment, information about a company or search for the best
price on a product.
But. Berry added, companies shouldn't make the mistake
of viewing a Web site as the only vehicle for pushing their product or building
their brand.
"We tell our clients, 'If you're just going to produce
a Web site and nothing else, then don't waste your time,"' Berry said.
At the same time, don't view print, TV, radio and
the Web like they're all the same animal.
They're not, said Gottschalks Chief Financial Officer
Alan Weinstein, who oversees his company's Web site.
Weinstein said Gottschalks will redesign its home
page because the site is not much fun for browsers. "The kind of Web pages that
work aren't the same as print advertising," Weinstein said.
Give us more capacity.
The experts say the telecommunications industry's
infrastructure just doesn't have the capacity to handle the growing Internet traffic
with speed and reliability.
But it will in the near future as companies invest
billions of dollars in fiber optics, satellites and other high-tech ventures designed
to rapidly process huge amounts of digital data.
"If they don't," Rogers said, "they'll be out of
business."
It's not Just for businesses.
Web sites and diversity go hand-in-hand.
The Tower District is the first neighborhood/business
district in Fresno to have its own Web site.
Tower 2000 went online May 1 and received 6,000
visits, or "hits," in the first week, Kuebler said. "We've always been a progressive
neighborhood, and we thought, 'Hey, let's get ahead of the curve,"' Kuebler said.
The Fresno-based California Tomato Commission's
Web site includes recipes. But its primary goal is to communicate with the commission's
225 growers and 50 shippers.
Beth Weibert, the commission's international marketing
and communications director, said the Web site includes some private data available
only to members with the password.
Gotta have feedback.
One problem with Web sites that may never be resolved
is the visitor's right to privacy vs. the client's need to know his customers.
A client with a marketing plan can find out how
many "hits" a Web page received.
But how does the client get information about home
page visitors such as their income or education level, the stuff that firms really
need to tailor effective strategies?
Experts said e-mail and chat rooms are two ways
to gather more detailed data on users.
But, Rogers added, fact-gathering on users is one
area of the Web site industry that "is still in its infancy.
It may stay that way for some time. Congress is
currently debating the issue of consumer privacy on the Internet.
Rules? What rules?
Experts are unanimous on one point: Commerce on
the Internet will explode in the coming years. But they aren't sure what forms
it will take.
Web sites are only a couple of years old. What will
they look like at the turn of the century?
"It's all heading in different directions at different
times," Rogers said. "If someone tried to apply a steadfast rule, it would quickly
be disproved."
Rogers said one fairly safe bet is the increasing
convergence of computers, television, telephone and radio.
Another trend with legs is simplicity. Technology
is getting easier to use.
The day is just around the corner, the experts said,
when Mr. and Mrs. America will casually surf the Internet with a remote while
sitting on the living room couch.
The future promises to hold breathtaking rewards
and huge risks for anybody who gets into the game.
"The important thing is to stay on the cutting edge,
not on the bleeding edge," Rogers said.
1997 Copyright, The Fresno Bee[Text].
1996 Copyright, WebPortal Inc. [Digital Graphics].All Rights Reserved.
