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Net Gains (Mar 03, 98) |
There was this one book I had heard so much about that I just
had to get my hands on a copy for myself. Yes - contrary to popular
belief, even hard-core netheads like me do enjoy reading books
- life does exist beyond cyberspace for us. The only problem was
that this particular book, like most good books, was published
and printed abroad. I tried asking around in the bigger bookstores
in vain - getting it would take over a month. Besides it would
cost a bomb ! For the first time in a long time, I wished I was
in the US - all I would have to do would be pick up the phone
and order the book…
When I logged on that night, I realised that all hope was not
lost. I quickly fired up my browser and keyed my way to Amazon.com
(http://www.amazon.com). For those of you who haven't heard of
Amazon.com till now, here's a brief background. Amazon.com is
a virtual bookstore on the Net. There is no corresponding brick-and-cement
building - this bookstore exists ONLY on the Net ! And it is one
of the common success stories everyone talks about when the topic
of electronic commerce on the Net comes up in conversation. Net
revenues reached $66 million in the last quarter of 1997, up from
$8.5 million a year ago and up 74 percent from the previous quarter's
$37.9 million. Customer accounts grew to 1.51 million in the quarter,
a 61 percent jump from 940,000 accounts the previous quarter.
The bookseller had just 180,000 accounts a year ago. A point to
be noted though, is that even though they are making money, they
are not making profits as yet; in fact the net loss for the fourth
quarter ended December 31 was $9.3 million. The online bookstore
is estimated to start earning profits only towards the end of
1999. On the brighter side though, the kind of books purchased
in 1997 from the site showed a move away from technical books,
confirming analysts' predictions that an increasing number of
mainstream consumers are shopping online.
Back on Amazon.com, since I knew that it was a marketing related
book, I quickly browsed through the marketing category on the
site and found the book. Had I not known the section the book
fell under, I could have used the search feature to search either
by the title, or author's name. Clicking on the title of the book
took me to a page that had the smallest details about the book
- the size, availability, synopsis and reader feedback and even
an interview with the author. To top it all, the book was being
offered at a discount of 20% - the low investment in setting up
and maintaining an online bookstore permitted that discount. Shipping
cost would depend on the method of shipping I opted for. Before
making my decision, I surfed over to another online bookstore
- Barnes & Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/), and compared
the price of ordering the book from there - it would cost me an
extra dollar or two.
Shipping it to India would double the cost of the book, so I
had to get it done through friends in the US. One used his credit
card to order the book and have it shipped to another who was
coming down in ten days. To ensure that it reached the latter
on time, we went with the slightly more expensive two day shipping.
My friend got a confirmation email and was automatically listed
in a mailing list to keep him updated about new offerings by Amazon.com
- and like any nice mailing list, he was given the option to unsubscribe.
For Amazon.com, this database is a very important way to track
customer preferences and tastes.
Everything seemed to fall in place, and it looked like I would
be able to devour the book within two weeks. But as the saying
goes… "If something can go wrong, it will …".
More about that next week …