The i.merchant 40 Aug 1, 1999 12:00 PM
, Sherry Chiger
JobZone
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Many of the companies that make up the i.merchant 40 listing of the top
online marketers aren't household names - unless your household consists of
electronics engineers. Manufacturers and distributors of technical and
industrial components such as Ingram Micro, Marshall Industries, and Tech
Data Corp. account for the top slots on the chart. In fact, at number 13,
Amazon.com is the first consumer marketer on the i.merchant 40.
The dominance of technical and computer companies among online catalogers
is no surprise. For starters, their target market was using the Web at a
time when many consumers had yet to click on a mouse. What's more,
computers and networking equipment cost appreciably more than, say, books
and apparel, so it stands to reason that sales of such items would total
more than the revenue from many consumer goods. And finally, companies like
$26.27 billion Intel (number 2 on the list) and $81.67 billion IBM (number
3) had the resources and the inhouse know-how to create effective
e-commerce systems.
But while only 13 of the companies on the list sell exclusively to
consumers, and while the average total annual revenue of the companies is
roughly $9 billion, smaller catalogers and consumer marketers can still
pick up pointers from the big guys. So on the following pages, in addition
to the i.merchant 40 listing, we'll look at a few of the features that make
these companies' Websites so successful.
On the home computing section of its site, computer chip behemoth Intel
includes icons next to technical terms (such as "sound card") in its
product descriptions and editorial content. When users click on one of the
icons, a definition of the term pops up. If your market - be it
needlecrafts, gardening, or graphic design - has its own jargon, pop-up
definitions could make your site more welcoming to novices and prospects.
Why make customers submit an order before revealing the shipping and
handling charges? On the nonauction portion of its site, Onsale includes
the S&H price ranges (the final charge depends on the shipping address) for
UPS Ground, 2 Day Air, and Next Day Air on the bottom of each product page.
Apple Computer goes beyond the basic onsite search engine: In addition to a
pulldown menu enabling users to select the type of product they're looking
for, it offers a pulldown menu so that shoppers can also narrow their
search within a price range.
Fellow computer marketer NECX lets users search by model name,
manufacturer, product category, catalog number, or manufacturer part number.
Through July, computer giant Dell was sponsoring the "Search for the Oldest
PC": The small business with the oldest PC in use would win a Dell server
and desktop and notebook computers. Not only does a contest like that
generate good will, but it can also garner publicity.
