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+++ S P E C I A L R E P O R T +++
"eTail ‘99 ­ Online Retail Conference"
By George Matyjewicz
July 22, 1999
 
 
Moderator's Comments

Hi All:

As promised we have a special report today as I summarized the eTail '99 conference in Chicago. It is long, so my comments will be brief. You may want to print it for reading later. Please send me whatever questions you may have, and I will try to answer. A summarized version of this (1,500 words) will be printed in Gifts & Dec magazine.

George Matyjewicz, C.M.O.
Moderator, E-Tailer's Digest

-------------

 

C O N T E N T S


Introduction:
 
eTail ‘99 was a two-day online retail conference organized by Worldwide Business Research <http//www.wbresearch.com> In addition they had a one day pre-conference workshop on Direct Response TV (DRTV).

What was appealing about the show was the top-level slate of leading online retailers who revealed their success strategies. (See topics and roster at end). What was humorous was the changes that had to take place with the speakers due to the mergers, acquisitions and IPO's.

There were some common threads in the discussions

1. Channel conflicts How do manufacturers grow and make their presence known without upsetting the existing retail channel?
2. Cannibalization Is the online store growing at the expense of the brick & mortar stores?
3. Branding
4. Customer relationships and the lifetime value of a customer
5. Dedicated management commitment
6. Technology required for success.
7. High level of fulfillment
8. Targeted database marketing

... and some talented and highly educated people who see the Net as the future. Two were former attorneys with prestigious schooling (Harvard) and from top firms; one is a Harvard MBA (with honors); many from the Big 5 CPA firms; many with experience growing other companies.

A successful Internet model can be summarized as follows (gleaned from the many presentations)

1. Internet strategy needs to be driven from the top ­ management commitment
2. Internet is the first point of contact for every prospect and customer
3. Internet must be integrated into every part of your business
4. Integrated technology is mandatory and must accommodate customer support
5. Be global and localize your Web offerings
6. Commit to ongoing technology infrastructure spending

Let's follow our normal E-Tailer's Digest agenda

Customer Service & Interaction

There was a lot of discussion on building and maintaining strong customer relations. Samantha Saturn, Director of Online Marketing at CDNow summarized the process very simply in chart form

First contact --> Engaged --> Loyal Customer

-- Who are you? --> I know you --> I know you well
-- What can you do? --> I've tried you once before -->You're reliable
-- What can you offer me? --> You seem OK --> I recommend you often; you ask me questions; you service me

Her formula for success Stated Preferences + Behavioral Attributes = Relationship Marketing Foundation + Predictions Over Time = Drive Towards Profitable Relationships. To attain this, she offered these tips

1. Know your customers -- ask them what they want.
2. Know your brand ­ put customer needs through your brand filter.
3. Establish a creative service approach to business ­ don't merely respond with canned e-mail messages
4. Enable technology to manage customer data intelligently -- create a technology platform to collect ongoing data; learn from customer response; continue to create and refine
5. Have a true commitment to developing and maintaining relationships ­ be certain the commitment comes from the top (a top priority of all speakers)

As an aside, CDNow is the 4th most visited site on the Net; they have 2.5 million customers and do $98.5 million in sales. And they will be merging with, and running the online business of Columbia House, which will give them 41 million customers. They use an Oracle database with online updating.
           
Chuck Davis, President, E-Commerce, Buena Vista Internet Group (Disney) says e-commerce is not brand, price, merchandise, traffic, conversion or technology. Rather it is all about the consumer. What do we know about Net users? They are younger (37 vs 44 average for US adults); smarter (40% are college graduates); better demographics (52% male; 46% have kids in household); motivated & ambitious; busy, in a hurry, prone to multi-tasking; adopting PC/Net as a part of their lifestyle.

Consumers have different and higher expectations when dealing with online brands

-- Fast response in real time
-- More convenient - open 24 hours per day
-- Personalized relationships
-- Easy, safe
-- Brands
-- Price shopping made easy

In fulfilling consumer expectations, you need

- Customer service
-- 100% order accuracy
-- 24 x 7 support online and telephone
-- Easy access, quick response
-- Exchanges/returns
-- Admit if you screw up and compensate consumer accordingly
-- Adopt best brick & mortar practices (Disney, Nordstrom)

- Ease of use
-- Quick download
-- Simple navigation
-- Full disclosure
-- Speedy check out

- Loyalty programs
-- Frequent shopper rewards
-- Long-term loyalty programs
-- Say "thank you"
-- Give consumer a reason to return

- Privacy/Security
-- Prominently post privacy policy (although other disagree)
-- Ensure all consumer transactions are secure and guarantee it
-- Extend the experience throughout your site

- How you benefit
-- Build a robust database
-- Customized/targeted communications, offers
-- Junk mail gets replaced by targeted e-mail
-- Database management builds better consumer experience; leads to higher revenues

Buena Vista e-commerce properties include Go Shop, Disney Store Online, Shop(at)Family.com, ESPN Store, Disney Travel and Family.com Personalization of your site was a continuous topic. Messages like "Welcome back George" are nice. Also have a profile on the consumer so you would know their needs. In the travel business this is common (Disney travel has 1,600 vacation spots as links). Disney also has a policy where if somebody is ordering who is under 16, they can't use a credit card (they know the age through a profile).

Technology

Everybody agreed that technology is the key to success. Without a good back office system to handle orders, you will fail. One company opened in October, 1998 and through November they were getting approximately 25 orders a day. On December 10, 1998 they suddenly got 10,000 orders in one day! That company purchased a main frame computer before opening it's doors. The venture capitalists thought the owner was nuts, until December 10. Another company did a major promotion for their mall and one merchant got 4,000 orders in one day, and asked if the promotion could stop, as they could not handle the volume.

Online you need technology to handle your particular line of business. If you are selling simple, commodity products with no colors, sizes or options, it is much easier to handle. Once you add more options, and start selling complex products you need better technology. Dell and 800.com are two examples of companies selling complex products (800.com sells high-level stereo equipment).

Technology is also important for tech support, without which, a company could not handle the volumes of support issues. Dell is a perfect example. With their significant use of tech support tools, they get...

-- 40,000 e-mails per month
-- 120,000 files downloaded per week
-- 100,000 order status enquiries per week


Security Issues

Security, while not as much of a real issue as the "experts" would like you to believe is a perception issue for most customers. Help build confidence in your business by using services like BBOnline (Dell recommends) or TrustE

Security also covers privacy, and the speakers were divided on that issue. Those in marketing didn't believe privacy is an issue (naturally). Others thought it was a perceived issue, hence very real.

Kathy Brio (SIG) summed it up best"Privacy? Get over it, we're direct marketers!"

Effective Merchandising

I have to rank the presentation by Rick VanZura, Senior Vice President of Internet & Fulfillment Services at Borders as the best of the show! Borders has their act together, and in my opinion, will be the premiere book store in the coming years on- and off-line (trading on NYSE as Borders Group, Inc. -- BGP -- 14 3/4 as of July 21, 1999. FYI only, not a recommendation.). They implemented a concept called "Retail Convergence" which they define as

"Integrating traditional and emerging retailing channels to create a compelling and enhanced consumer experience."

They have fully integrated their distribution center (DC) with their back office, in-store processing, POS and Internet operations as one company. (Not like CompUSA, where they advertise the online store in the brick & mortar stores, and have a sign at customer service that says if you buy online, you can't return at the store.)

At Borders they will soon have a kiosk in each store which is connected to the Net. If you don't find a book in the store, you can look it up online and place a special order. They then combine all special orders at the head office and place them at the DC or with the vendor. (I suggested that retailers do this years ago when EDI first came into being).

They have total in-store and on-line cross-selling services (gift certificates, returns, promotions, etc.) That's fully integrated ­ a customer can buy products in any venue they select! And Borders will reinforce their brand across multiple channels.

They looked at traditional retail vs Interrnet to determine which channel does better

-- Traditional retail
-- Immediate Gratification
-- Physical product interaction
-- Rich, in-depth social interaction
-- Powerful visual merchandising
-- Direct community/events interaction
-- Coffee

-- Internet
-- Assortment
-- Database Management
-- Content Management
-- Transaction Control
-- Broad community reach connectivity
-- Relationship management

-- Both have Convenience

Borders' objectives using Retail Convergence is to...
-- Intensify all of the traditional advantages ­ "make a good thing even better"
-- Take all of the advantages of the Internet and transport them in-store
-- Use bridges between traditional and Internet to deliver values uniquely possible with the bridge (events simulcasts, on-line/in-store community connections, etc.)

Broad Impact of E-Commerce

According to Alec Cooper, Senior Manager at Dell the Web disrupts business models and not always the way you think. Barriers to entry are lowered, hence new competitors emerge (Amazon was unheard of and now "the largest book store on the planet"). Customers are the cheapest to acquire today and brands are cheapest to build today.

Long term economic models take time to stabilize. Some ideas that seem to work (according to Dell) is to integrate the Net with the sales force, make the Net the first point of contact, build scalable leadership from the top, focus on customer experience, sites that stay up, an electronic community and a re-orientation towards a buyer perspective.

Things you should forget
-- The "Field of Dreams" theory - "Build it and they shall come"
-- Pricing to protect the channel and a failure to cannibalize yourself (before somebody else does)
-- Building a site and using a poor technological back end
-- Nice site with a poor infrastructure

Some myths about e-commerce

-- E-Commerce is cheap and easy
-- Personalization is simply customer login
-- The Net makes you instantly global
-- Net businesses have dramatically advantaged cost models
-- Security is a problem - customer perception is it is

Shipping and Tax Issues

One item of concern to brick & mortar retailers with an online presence is nexus - state jurisdiction to tax if you have a presence in that state. So, if you are online, and ship to NJ and you have a store in NJ, you should collect sales tax. Which is why many retailers are creating separate companies (other than the raising of significant capital with anything affiliated with the Net).

The guidelines state "A company doing business in several states is generally required to file income tax returns and pay tax in any state in which it has enough presence to give that state a jurisdiction to tax. Such a presence within a state is often referred to as nexus. A sales office with corporate employees in a state results in nexus. A sales person periodically visiting a state to solicit orders may or may not result in nexus."

"The nexus requirement is applicable to all states. It comes from the due process and commerce clauses of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution prevents a state from enforcing its taxes against a company that is a resident of another state, unless the company's activities meet certain threshold requirements that create nexus."
<http//www.riskinfo.com/tech/multista.htm#State jurisdiction to tax - nexus>

Borders chose not to follow nexus, unless the same rules apply to all retailers. They have petitioned the Clinton administration for clear rules for a Net presence, and until they hear differently, or until all e-commerce is taxed, they choose not to collect sales tax.


Promotions and Advertising

A great quote stated a few times, and attributed to John Wannamaker was "Half of my advertising is wasted. Trouble is, I don't now which half."

One of the best speakers was Kathy Brio, CEO of Strategic Interactive Group (SIG). She was funny, and really got her point across. She suggested you look at alternative methods of advertising. For example, banner ads are $30 CPM, whereas television ads are $10 CPM. She doesn't believe WebTV will be the next wave as many think. Television is now the social gathering place for the family, replacing the dinner table. Family members talk to each other (during commercials), and they are not too prone to using TV to surf the Net. With the cost of PC's so low, it doesn't make sense to use WebTV.

One of my favorite statements from the show was by Kathy... "Direct Marketers have been in the closet too long." Direct marketers who don't understand the Net are having a difficult time of it. They are applying offline practices online, and they don't work. And her company doesn't believe in the privacy issues. The Net is a great way to mine a database and to learn a lot about your prospects and customers. SIG, has as clients Fortune 100 companies like American Express for whom they initiated a complete re-design of their site.

Sam Salkin, V.P. Merchandising at Greentree.com suggested that, on your home page, you include what was hot sellers this (or last) week. They increased sales of those items by 300%. (Greentree.com sells nutrition items. It is a $12 billion industry and growing 15% annually. There are no industry leaders and very little branded products.)

Greentree.com also has a "short" 40+ question survey that folks complete which yields your vitamin needs. I asked if they get people to complete this "short" survey and he said 100,000 people did so. They call it a "Nutritional Analysis." (Words do sell).

Greentree's success comes from

-- Brand marketing
-- Distinctive merchandising
-- Flawless fulfillment
-- Scalable systems
-- Forward-thinking leadership


Jonathan Morris, Executive V.P. at Bluefly.com discussed his company's use of effective advertising - both online (hubs, vertical portals, specialized content providers, affiliate programs, targeted e-mail) and offline (print, radio, TV, billboards and direct mail). He emphasized the use of portals (Bluefly.com has strategic marketing alliances with AOL, (at)Home Network, Lycos, Yahoo, Excite, MSN and Go Networks), and gave tips on what to look for

-- Robust shopping channel
-- Does the portal have a commerce strategy?
-- Who else is advertising with them?
-- Do they understand partnerships and what kind of partner services do they offer?
-- Are they your competitor?

Consolidation is likely to occur with portals and the survivors will have established their brand identify. Today they are interchangeable ­ they all offer the same things. Nobody really differentiates themselves. They should learn from cable TV, not network TV - Discovery Channel, ESPN, MTV not ABC, CBS, NBC. There are some specialized vertical portals like iVillage, Women.com, Oxygen, Travelocity, Doughnet and maybe Amazon.


Before you do use portals (or any kind of advertising), examine your business model

-- What are your objectives? - Customer acquisition? Branding? Legitimacy with consumer? Block competitors? Wall Street attention?
-- What is the lifetime value of your shopper?
-- What does it cost to acquire a customer? Understand the different pricing models, i.e., CPM, cost per click, cost per customer, barter, pure revenue sharing and hybrids.


On-Line Marketing

Is anybody making money online? My favorite statement on this issue was from Alec Cooper (Dell) "Profits count -- no matter who tells you otherwise." Obviously it was a dig at Amazon and others who are heavily capitalized, yet not making money.

But, there were other issues with on-line marketing. Channel synchronization is a big issue. How does a manufacturer sell online and not lose their normal distribution channel (i.e., retailers)? And how do you deliver Unique Value Products (UVP)? According to Angela Kapp, V.P., Special Markets & New Media, Estee Lauder the conversion rate is less than 5%, therefore more than 95% of visitors don't buy. Focus on new customers, not on replenishment. If yours is a destination brand (i.e., household name), you can sell direct to the consumer -- otherwise, no.

One attendee (a Linkshare partner) sent out a mailing to their 300,000 member database along with a $10 gift certificate to be used at merchants in their "mall." 30,000 people took advantage the first day! One merchant got 4,000 orders and asked if the promotion could be stopped!

Kathy Brio had an excellent graphic that showed the flow of suspect to customer. It was a pipe with a wide opening on the left, into which you poured your visitors (suspects). They then go down the pipe to become your identified prospects. However, 90% will drop out before becoming identified as a prospect. Then between identified prospects and customers another 7% drop out. So your conversion rate is 3%.

Most people fill up the opening with more suspects (after all, it's a numbers game). Rather you should focus on converting more prospects to customers. Don't just "gather business cards" go after those that look like good prospects and close them (traits of a great sales person, by the way).

Carol Blindauer, Manager of Scale Food Equity at Kraft Foods noted that effective consumer marketing increases value. Take advantage of the online opportunity to leverage this new channel (Internet) to increase value. An online channel can extend brands, build services, create and refine relationships and converge solutions with transactions. Kraft is able to increase value based on consumer insights.

Consumers tell Kraft that meal planning is difficult and often left to the last minute, which makes purchase, preparation and clean up even more harried. Based on that information, Kraft was able to adjust their site and their packaging to better serve the consumers, which adds value on- and off-line.

Heidi Messer, President of Linkshare said one of her company's success tips is their customized virtual store front. It is pure merchandising ­ like filling racks in a supermarket. They place certain items in the store front which attracts customers, which generates business for the Linkshare client.

Linkshare is the largest provider of affiliate programs on the Net, with over 200 clients and over 1 million relationships. When they started the business in 1996, they learned that e-tailers identified specific marketing needs and goals customer acquisition, increased sales and return on investment. To achieve these goals on the Net, you need to build massive awareness, target and account for the results of your marketing messages and control costs.                 

Linkshare creates unlimited number of cross-selling and cross-referral partnerships, which places an economic value on all partnerships. Their goal is to realize the economic potential of e-commerce through partnership-based selling. And they have an impressive client base.

Josh Goldman, President & CEO of mySimon discussed the role of comparison shopping bots, which first came on to the Net in 1997. Basically they mined sites to obtain pricing information, which allowed the consumer obtain the best prices. Obviously, this threatened e-tailers and they fought back, blocking these bots. Then some retailers actually bought some of these bots (Amazon bought Junglee), which then made them biased, in that the retailer would show the comparisons of those who did not match favorably with their offerings.

They were a complete flop, because they failed to establish value to their two constituencies ­ shoppers and retailers. They assumed consumers shop on price alone, and they stripped away all brand messaging from retailers. In effect they treat retailers as "order fulfillers." And they expected to build their business model on "voluntary" commissions paid by retailers!

Today's bots take more than price into account. Now they understand brand value and the retailers brand messages become integral to the purchase decisions. They are unbiased and comprehensive. Comparison shopping is a true comparison of merchants brands, service, support, policies, costs, loyalty programs, incentives, etc. And their business models are based on the value of customers acquired (over the lifetime of the customer).

You may have seen bots in use with travel sites or when purchasing an auto. Well designed bot sites can attract a desirable demographic. They attain a 50% click -through rate with a conversion rate of 5-25%, depending on the category. Very impressive.


Differentiation

What distinguishes Borders.com? Their site now has an enhanced search engine with "fuzzy logic" and they have received many accolades for their site

-- First fully integrated books, music and video with the most comprehensive fulfillment inventory across all three. They have 10 million items, 700,000 SKU's all available for immediate shipping.
-- Best fulfillment service to customer - on-hand fill rate exceeds 70% with a dedicated chase function for hard-to-find titles
-- Differentiated customer service offering 24X7 telephone, e-mail, infodesk
-­ Rich, award winning community section (Net Café)
-- Exclusive Borders recommendations and essentials list
-- Deepest directory structure - over 400 sections and subsections
-- Best bargain book assortment - hundreds of titles discounted up to 80% daily
-- Unique ability to leverage physical store presence

And they are leveraging their physical store presence

-- Bounce-back cappuccino coupon
-- Cross-over gift certificate
-- In-store Internet kiosks
-- Product returns accepted in-store
-- Borders.com site promotion of physical store events
-- Special order surge report
-- In-store marketing of Borders.com

Alec Cooper (Dell) talked about Dell's differentiation strategy. From the beginning, Dell had three objectives in mind with the Internet

1. Make it easier to do business with Dell
2. Reduce the cost of doing business for both parties
3. Enhance customer relationships

And it looks like they succeeded. Dell now does $18 million a day online (that's $6.57 billion annual sales)! They became a Fortune 200 company and the third largest systems company in the world in 14 years (with total revenue of $16.8 billion).

There were three companies there who offered online grocery shopping (Peapod, Streamline and Shoplink) and one professor (Patrick Kirschling, PhD, Professor, Department Food Marketing, St Joseph's University, Philadelphia, PA) who had a panel discussion on overcoming the challenges of the food and grocery industry online. They all did a lot of research before establishing an online presence and found that 60% of people dislike grocery shopping (as bad as root canal); on average folks spend 2 ˝ hours a week grocery shopping; most U.S. families only have 20 spare hours in a week.

So a new online segment was born. They find that customers are highly loyal (88% remain with the service); high frequency of purchase (80% of customers order more than three times per month); large transaction size (average $98 - $127 per order); 60% of merchandise purchased online is perishable (14% fruits & vegetables) and 40% packaged goods, which is higher than the industry standards; average online 25 minutes per order.

The statistics they have as a result of online purchases is one of the best on the Net, and is valuable to manufacturers. For example, if Kellogg's decided to introduce a new cereal to compete with Cheerios (General Mills) these grocery services could go to their databases and find all those customers who purchased Cheerios in the past year, and offer them a highly-targeted incentive. Brock and mortar grocery chains should be able to do the same, especially with their frequent shopper cards, but they don't.

The three services see major growth in the industry and are planning expansions across the U.S. Dr. Kirschling, however, doesn't see it that way. He believes the industry has remained flat and the advantages aren't really there for the consumers. Being online for 25 minutes is not much of a savings. When they introduce replenishment systems, there will be an increase in the service. ShopLink s looking at that now, and is also considering scanning devices in the home, uploaded via your telephone to them.


Doing Business Internationally

Neil Asford from IBM, quoted some interesting statistics Eleven nations have more than 10% of the population online and 4 trillion e-mails a day processed through the Net.

He also discussed Safeway in the UK starting using hand held PDT's (portable data terminal's) which were given to customers as they shopped. The customers scanned the merchandise in and it was uploaded to a computer when done. Safeway was then able to analyze customer purchases vs strictly product sales. Since they had a profile on the customers, they were also able to target what income level purchases which products. A good example was the sale of a particular brand of cheese, which was their 250th best seller, and about to be dropped. Until Safeway discovered that it was one of the best sellers for the high income group! They increased inventory and sold more at higher margins.

Alec Cooper (Dell) discussed moving from a domestic market to a multi-cultural audience. In the "Industrial Age" the business channels were straight forward - suppliers to manufacturers to distribution channels to customers. Then came the "Information Age" and we have a value shift in accommodation and acceleration. Vertical integration from the industrial age became virtual integration in the information age. Now you have...

-- Inventory becomes Information
-- Physical Assets becomes Intellectual Assets
-- Closed Channel becomes Collaboration

Virtual integration in the information age is a mosaic of customers, Dell ( or your company) and business partners, which results in

-- Ease of use
-- Cost savings
-- Personalization
-- Rapid quality feedback
-- Visibility into demand trends
-- Differentiation
-- Efficiencies

Dell now does 30% of their Internet sales volume internationally. They have Web sites in 42 countries translated into 21 languages.            

Effective Web Site Design

Sites should be simple and easy to navigate. Tell folks what they want to hear, and don't show your corporate organization chart. What are the benefits of doing business with you? Kathy Brio (SIG) showed examples of sites that were downright dumb and others where her company changed them. American Express is one of SIG's accounts, and it used to have the American Express organization chart and other boring details. SIG changed it so that they now have three choices on the home page - Personal, Small Business or Corporation, and you are taken to sections that makes sense to you the consumer.

One of the funniest was a Calvin Klein site that supposedly had "artificial intelligence." It showed a typical CK picture and you could send the man a question (robert(at)ckone.com) and he would respond based on what you said. Kathy Brio sent him a note and he responded something about being in Paris in the park for the summer, which had nothing to do with her question. So she sent him another note asking where she could purchase the item he was advertising. Your guessed it - the same answer as above was sent back!
           

Roundtable

They had roundtable discussions with a moderator and ten to a table. I sat at the table with Bob Schwartz, General Manager Internet, Nordstrom's, who is a brilliant and affable speaker. Nordstrom's is also embracing the one company policy like Borders. They have 10 million customers on file and 4 million charge customers.

Our table discussed cannibalization vs market growth. Everybody agreed that some cannibalization is inevitable, and if you don't cannibalize your store, somebody else will. Nordstrom's uses a "needs state" process when dealing with customers - what does the customer need, where and how can I satisfy those needs. This seems to be the latest trend in market research also.

Summary

eTail 99 was one of the best shows I ever attended and I highly recommend the next one - eTail 2000 in San Francisco. I am trying to get copies of the talks from the various speakers and will make them available to list members.


Roster and Topics

Day 1 Wednesday, July 14, 1999

"Chairman's Opening Address" Neil Isford, Vice President e-Commerce & Services, IBM

"Building One-To-One Customer Relationships Online And Developing Personalization Strategies Focusing On My CDNow/My Boulevard" Samantha Saturn, Director Online Marketing, CDNow

"The Changing Facets Of E-Business" Neil Isford, Vice President e-Commerce & Services, IBM

"Formulating Criteria To Profile the Online Consumer & Understand What They Want" Chuck Davis, Senior Vice President, Buena Vista Internet Group

"Adapting To The E-Business Environment-Ready For Change?" Gina Maniscalco, Vice President Business Development, GTE Internetworking

"Retail Convergence A Borders Case Study On Merging The Online & Instore Experience" Cedrick (Rick) VanZura, Senior Vice President Internet & Fulfillment Services, Borders

"Innovative Ideas & Strategies To Convert Casual Browsers Into Satisfied Buyers No More Window Shopping!" Angela Kapp, Vice President Special Markets & New Media, Estee Lauder Companies

"Changing Customer Behavior Brick and Mortar to E-commerce" John Wi11iams, Director Merchandising, DRUGSTORE.COM

"Panel Discussion Overcoming The Ch1allenges Of Internal Re-Organization To Meet The Requirements When Making The Transition From Traditional Channels To Online Retail "
Bob Schwartz, General Manager Internet, Nordstrom
Wendy Riches, President Global Direct Marketing, Hasbro
Lauren Freedman, President, The E-Tailing Group
Catherine Hargrave, Director Operations, Andromedia

"Developing Innovative Techniques To Create Customer "Stickiness" And Achieve High Loyalty And Retention" Sam Salkin, Vice President Merchandising, GREENTREE.COM

"Panel Discussion Exploring The Opportunities For Manufacturers To Fulfill The Needs Of The Online Consumer Without Alienating Traditional Retail Channels"
Angela Kapp, Vice President New Media, Estee Lauder
Carol Blindauer, Manager Scale Food Equity, Kraft

"Creating A Customer Acquisition, Retention & ROI Strategy For Your Online Retail Initiative" Catherine Hargrave, Director Operations, Andromedia

"Creating A Customer-Driven Service Strategy For Your Online Retail Initiative" Darryl Peck, President & CEO, Cyberian Outpost

"Harnessing The Power Of The Web To Market Your Online Business Successfully" Heidi Messer, President, Linkshare

"Evaluating The Impact Of Online Retail On Your Total Sales Cannibalization vs Market Growth" Robert Schwartz, General Manager-Internet, Nordstrom

"Assessing The Role Of Comparative Shopping As Online Retail Evolves" Josh Goldman, President & CEO, mySimon

Day 2 Thursday, July 15,1999

"Developing And Implementing Strategic Solutions To Overcome The Challenge Of Building A Global Storefront Moving From A Domestic Market To A Multi-Cultural Audience" Alec Cooper, Senior Manager, Dell Online Worldwide

"Panel Discussion Developing A Branding And Merchandising Strategy That Works"
Ram Shrirarn, Vice President of Business Development, Amazon
Alec Cooper, Senior Manager, Dell
Jonathan Morris, Executive Vice President, BLUEFLY.COM

"Envisioning The Future When One-To-One Marketing Really Works" Kathy Biro, CEO, Strategic Interactive Group

"Incorporating Consumer Privacy Concern And Sensitivity Into Your Online Strategy"
Bob Lewin, Executive Director, TRUSTe

"Building One-To-One Relationships With Online Consumers To Build Brand Loyalty, Drive Electronic Commerce And Generate Revenue" Dionne Schaffner, Vice President Garden.com

"On-line Retailing Complex Products vs Commodity Products" Greg Drew, CEO, 800.COM
       
"Leveraging Your Online Presence Through Strategic Distribution Partnerships To Gain Greater Market And Customer Share" Jonathan Morris, Executive Vice President, BLUEFLY.COM

"The Reel.com Experience of Specialty Retailing on the Internet" Dave Rochlin, Vice President of Marketing, REEL.COM

"Planning & Co-ordinating The Necessary Steps To Ensure The Successful Implementation Of Your Online Strategy" Cary Pearlman, Electronic Business Consultant, GTE Internetworking

"Consumer Direct Customer Requirements & Behavioral Patterns" John Icke, President & CEO
Shoplink

"Linking Together The Three Components That Drive e-Commerce & E-Business Success"
Lee Morgan, e-Business Sector Executive, Distribution, IBM Global Services

"Panel Discussion Overcoming The    Challenges Of Incorporating The Unique Characteristics Of The Food And Grocery Industry Into Your Online Strategy"
Tim Dorgan, Vice President Marketing, Peapod       
John Icke, President, Shoplink
Pat Kirschling, PhD, Professor, Department Food Marketing, St Joseph's University

"Customized Fulfillment To The Home For Consumer Packaged Goods A General Overview and Business Model For Success" Frank Britt Vice President Marketing & Merchandising, Streamline

###

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