t may be easy to marvel at the
possibilities on the Internet, but many researchers believe that
the real potential of the web for business is still developing.
Commerce net, a US marketing agency tracking usage on the net estimates the number of users online to be about 40 million, and that figure is expected to double over the next two years.
The Internet is a goldmine, even for small businesses like "Trophies by Edco." Since 1970 they were designing, manufacturing, and distributing mainly to businesses, schools, and other establishments around Miami.
Two years ago the firm's President, Rick Cordary discovered the Internet.
"Now, we're getting almost ten orders a month from all over the country," says Cordary.
For small businesses all the way to giants in industries, from retailing to automobiles, surfing the Internet is creating a tidal wave of sales opportunity.
According to estimates done by MIT, at the end of 1994, more than 38 million "nodes" (computers) were linked to the 'Net. Since a node may offer access to several users, especially in a university or business setting, the actual number of individuals is considerably larger.
Researchers forecast that the
number of nodes will increase 48 percent this year and another
58 percent next year. But of even greater interest is the rate
of increase of those nodes which provide full, worldwide Internet
access.
That figure is expected to grow five-fold this year alone-from one million to five million. And there is no end in sight for this exponential growth.
Moreover, to access this market there is no gatekeeper. There is no mall manager to say a business is too small, or too local, or too narrowly defined.
The explosion of activity on the 'Net has been good news for Internet access providers around the world as well as the Caribbean.
InterServ's Managing Director, Paul Periera, says his plan as an Internet service provider in Trinidad is to get a wide array of business and interest groups on the net.
"This will make our destination attractive enough for people to make repeated hits. Already homepages for the net are being developed for several businesses, trade magazines, charity groups, the University of the West Indies and tour operators.
David Robinson, who opened the Internet Shopping Network in California, USA a year ago ignored, predictions of imminent failure, and set up a local Internet Mall.
"It cheaper than building my own mall," he says, "with more than 600 companies on-line, selling about 20,000 products, we still have room to expand." He says marketing on the 'Net, "kind of takes door-to-door hustling to a different level. The customer is in control, which is most unique. Also, our store is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. We can offer a vast amount of products, we have no shelf space issues, no catalog production cost issues. We're working real time in pricing, promotions and specials."
Every day, some 10,000 customers visit, a number that is doubling each month.
Access to this growth market is also easy. All that's needed to enter the world of Internet marketing is a desktop computer, basic software, and some design sense, says Internet Consultant, Paul Hagen.
But, he emphasizes that starting from scratch, it can take a couple weeks of work to get the homepage ready for access. Consultants may be needed to design the initial layout. This ranges from configuring the prepackaged software to designing homepage screens, indexes, and computer-accessible pages and inserting all appropriate data so that it is easily available to potential customers.
For businesses considering setting up an entire mall, they must purchase the hardware and the communications links that allow the 24-hour, seven-day access to the "store."
Trophies by Edco got on-line using such a consultant. It didn't work out. "He created a few on-line pages that no one accessed," complains Cordary.
But all was not lost. Another consultant in Cordary's building convinced him that there was a better, and cheaper way. Now, Cordary is scanning in his own product images, creating in effect his own on-line catalog. Once the second consultant had "built" the on-line store for Trophies by Edco, expansion was a simple matter.
Still, Cordary's wary. "I've had consultants in here offering to create a Web site for me for ten thousand dollars, and others offering the same service for nine hundred dollars," he says, having come to the conclusion that the latter is a more realistic figure. "These days, it's very much buyer beware."
For additional information Email: transcaribbean@hotmail.com