|
home
| archive | search
| subscribe
| recommend
this page
the tweney report
5 . 3 . 1999
Internet business news and analysis. by Dylan Tweney
I-commerce on the cheap
FORWARD-THINKING COMPANY: Perhaps epitomizing the fear and confusion
that the Internet engenders in the music industry, Taylor Guitars [1],
a manufacturer of high-end acoustic guitars, last week told its dealers
that as of May 1 the dealers would no longer be able to advertise or sell
the company's guitars on the Internet.
In the high-tech industry, manufacturers often temper their own online
commerce efforts in order to avoid competing with their distributors and
retailers. But I've never heard of a company shutting down its online
channels completely, so I called the Montpelier, VT-based music store,
Play It Again Sam, from which I'd heard the news. Kevin Crosset there
explained the situation.
It's actually quite common for musical instrument makers to prohibit
its dealers from advertising nationally -- including on the Internet --
in order to protect local markets. But for the last year, according to
Crosset, Taylor removed all such Net restrictions, leaving dealers free
to sell online. Some, like Crosset's store, did very well, moving 75%
of their Taylors through online sales, and increasing their inventory
to match the new volume. Pre-Internet, Crosset used to stock 5 or 6 Taylors
worth $1,000-$2,000 apiece, or about a year's inventory. Last week, he
had 23 Taylors in stock, anticipating future Internet sales.
Apparently the "anything goes" policy led to a wide disparity
in pricing for Taylors. Savvy Net shoppers could find the same guitars
for hundreds of dollars less just by checking several different online
stores. That's not good for the perceived value of the company's products,
and leads to price competition -- not a good thing for a manufacturer
going after the high end of a market. The Taylor company responded by
shutting down its online dealers altogether, with a week's notice -- disingenuously
describing itself as a "forward-thinking company" for doing
so.
You can read more about the story from Crosset's point of view in his
monthly newsletter, to be posted May 3 on his store's site [2].
[1] Taylor Guitars
[2] Play It Again Sam
----------
I HATE BANKS, as Mojo Nixon sang a few years back.
Worst of all is when the banks merge with one another, leading to confused
and incompatible information systems -- as I discovered when I tried to
finance a car purchase online last year.
Now the bank that holds my checking account has been acquired by Washington
Mutual. The bank's new owners shut off -- without warning -- online banking
through Quicken, a move that I'm sure will endear it to millions of Quicken
users. I can access my account information through the Web, the friendly
customer service people informed me. But I don't keep my records on the
Web, I keep them in Quicken -- and so I'm back to manually retyping every
transaction in my check register. This is progress?
One moral of this story is that just because an application is Web-based
doesn't mean it's more accessible or more useful. If you've got a large
installed base of legacy applications (e.g. Quicken users), you better
make sure your new Web application integrates with those programs, too.
Second moral: Bank mergers are a pain in the ass for the banks' customers.
----------
NEWS FEED /// Fairly fresh news, sites, events
Acquisition mania
Still hungry for more:
Amazon
buys three companies
Let's hedge the Beanie Baby play with some Chagalls and Toulouse-Lautrecs:
eBay
buys Butterfield & Butterfield
Microsoft's latest acquisition targets, err, e-commerce partners:
IEC:
Microsoft launches e-commerce initiatives
Duh:
Going,
Going, Gone - Auctions Represent a New Way of Doing Business Online
If you thought government bureaucracies were Kafkaesque, check out the
cable companies:
Get a cable modem
... go to jail
This hyar site takes enny Web page, o' plain text, an' translates it
into one of 7 dialecks, includin' Redneck, Jive, Elmer Fudd, Cockney,
an' Pig Latin, as enny fool kin plainly see. It wawks purdy fine, too!
Fry mah hide!
The Dialectizer
----------
INBOX /// What you're telling me
MP3 SUPPORT: Khalid writes "MP3 is unstoppable, like any other grassroots
movement in the net it has given the power back to consumers, who will
be really foolish to trade a proprietary closed format against a free
one."
Andy: "Every musician and music consumer I know now uses MP3 every
day. As a musician myself I am overwhelmed by the fact that, as of this
writing, I can sell my own music over the internet free from corporate
censorship and more importantly without the middleman."
Edward Bauman: "Yes, thousands of bands are putting out MP3 files,
but most of it is swill and will be of no threat to the music industry,
whose savvy scouts are more likely to find the real talent -- maybe even
from listening to MP3 files and seeking out the bands that seem to have
what it takes.
"Like the VCR, an MP3 player makes it quick and easy to put together
an hour of music that I can take with me from all of CDs I have bought
from the very companies that are fretting over the format. The music industry
would do well to review how movie studios, universally sure that video
tape would destroy their business, came to be the largest beneficiaries
of the technology."
And a tip from Thane: check out http://www.mp3.com/hardware/
for a list of currently available and upcoming portable MP3 devices for
your pocket, PC, or car.
Plus: NET
PROPHET: I-commerce on the cheap
Programmer Serge Wilson has spent a lot of time studying how businesspeople
think. That's why I'm betting that his Internet-commerce start-up, Freemerchant,
stands a good chance of success. ... click
for more ...
~ Back issues ~
Digital Darwinism? - QuickTime 4 - MP3 David vs.
industry Goliaths (4.26.1999)
Online multimedia - Cluetrain feedback - Consumers,
unite! (4.19.1999)
Commerce reigns at Spring Internet World - privacy
legislation - online wine - Not just business as usual (4.12.1999)
The whole dang archive...
|