It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Dec 18 1998

The news days get a little slower before Christmas, and the natural tendency of the digital news corps is to focus on trends, especially online sales. Without a unifying theme, today's raft of e-commerce stories among the tech sites paints a somewhat jerky picture of Web shopping.

Nando Times played up an "e-commerce in the hinterlands" piece by Solomon Banda of the Associated Press this morning, telling the story of Dan and Maureen Crotty of Dike, Iowa. While rural folks are less likely to buy online, according to studies, farmers like the Crotty family find it easier than trucking out to the mall. And they use the Net for more than just holiday gifts - farm implements and replacement parts are also solid Web buys.

ZDNet, meanwhile, featured one of those big-number stories that seem well-timed for slow news days: Forrester's estimate that business trade on the Internet will hit $1.3 trillion in 2003. That means the Net biz will surpass 9 percent of total U.S. business sales. The big number, says the study, will come about as the Internet makes its way into virtually every facet and sector of American business. The Internet business, according to Forrester , is about to enter a period of "hypergrowth."

Thomas Webber of The Wall Street Journal looked at important emerging issues in e-commerce, the looming battle over digital wallets. There's no doubt that one of the barriers to the growth of e-commerce is the requirement that consumers do a fair amount of data entry - name, credit card numbers, delivery address - at each site where they shop. Digital wallets allow people to type their information once into a browser or applet which can be read across e-commerce sites. Webber's piece focuses on the battle underway between competing technology vendors and financial institutions fighting for control.

One of the most interesting angles Webber uncovers is the reactions of retailers. While the portal players seem to like the wallet idea, retailers show some apprehension. Webber quoted Toby Lenk, chief executive of eToys, as saying, "If you let big people get in between you and your customer, it's kind of scary." And apparently, from portal players looking to adopt one standard or another to technology vendors, heavy backroom lobbying is underway at the leading online stores.

Eli Katz, of the Fragrance Counter, told Webber he's been flooded with calls from portal sites hoping to recruit him into wallet programs. But Katz pointed out that he's more interested in developing his own one-click shopping platform.

Internet Shopping Found in Rural America
The Nando Times

Study: Online Biz to Explode
ZDNet

Internet Titans Are Drawn by Lure of Electronic Wallet
The Wall Street Journal