Published December 08, 1999
Online shopping is like entering a big empty department store, and no one’s there, no clerk to help. Using the Web to research gifts is a great idea, but buy locally. We need the business here in Montana.
What gadgets do you want most? How about an Electronic Pocket organizer, phone diary and 6 language translators with optional vanity mirror? Or maybe your own Secret Voice recorder the size of a deck of cards, packed with calendar, alarm and spoken functions, FM radio, and batteries included.
Downtown merchant’s have it: remote control cars, walkie-talkies, puzzles, nature kits, scientific electronic learning aids and games, movies, music, or sports equipment.
“Current online service levels would never be accepted offline,” said Cormac Foster, analyst with Jupiter Communications. “We found that customer service online is poor and shows no signs of getting better.”
Jupiter reports that 40% of Web sites studied, customer service response time completely failed. Those sites offered no email address. They never answered calls for help within five days.
Foster said Web companies have invested heavily into marketing to attract potential customers. But lacking adequate customer service ensures buyer’s retreat, and no looking back. The other 60% are somewhat responsive, but incomparable to live touchy-feely in-store shopping that we’re all familiar.
For those who choose to play along, the somewhat unique experience of ordering electronically and the immediacy of live customer-clerk interaction has been retained in a process called Internet Chat.
“Chat is taking the whole interaction you would have with a customer in the store to the Web environment,” said David Gerken, VP of business development at Net Effect. “There’s so much more that can be done on the Web once you can launch a dialogue between two people.”
Net Effect, recently acquired by Ask Jeeves, and Rightstart.com, an infant and children’s retailer, use this chat between consumers and company representatives. “We thought that live online help would be the most effective way to address questions that customers have,” said Rightstart’s CEO Jerry Welch.
The Internet Generation is looking for action and interaction. Board games are boring anymore. Scott Ray, of Wild Planet Toys in San Francisco says, “I think children are looking for a meaningful application of technology and interested in how it lets them better interact with the toy.”
Forrester Research predicts holiday shopping online will reach $4,000M this year, up 235% from 1998. Wired News lists these popular favorites toys:
Pokemon cards, video games, and videos have joined Gameboy on the list. The Play QX3 Computer Microscope enlarges images 200 times onto a computer screen to be manipulated with a paint tool. Digital audio players join in, like the Rio Player, Nomad or Lyra. And digital cameras, overly expensive and inferior to regular photography, are still desired by all ages.
Sega Dreamcast’s realistic video graphics enhance the feeling of live action play. Smart toys from Zowie Entertainment animate traditional toy figurines on CD. In Ellie’s Enchanted Garden, monkeys and giraffes play. Recover hidden treasure with Redbeard’s Pirate Quest.
For the serious first-timers who wants to enjoy the computing and Internet experience, the popular iMacs and iBooks continue to be a strong seller, due in part to their ease of use, powerful processor and five-color styling.
The hot topic of conversation across the Net is Wireless and the equipment it will proliferate. The traveling business person would be happy for a radio antenna attached to their laptop, to be online from anywhere—not quite yet.
By the time batteries last weeks, not just hours, the infrastructure for television-speed connections will be more common. Handwriting and voice recognition, in the absence of a keyboard in the field, also must be solved. Until then, how about a nice gold-inlay fountain pen?
Since 1995, the perceived model has remained the same: text-only Web browsers, real-time stock quotes, and improved access to news, weather forecasts, and electronic commerce from a Palm Pilot or other advanced 007-gadget.
This year it’s about delivering all those data services, but to screens smaller than the average business card, to customers who function in a market connected to cellular phones, paying by the minute for the benefit of mobility.
“For this to become the center of the universe, it can no longer be just about voice,” said Keith Paglusch of Sprint PCS. Carriers have advanced wireless data services to millions of mobile phone customers, with much more to come.
“We’re sort of hitting the peak of the hype cycle and heading toward the trough of disillusionment,” said Bob Egan of Gartner Group. What will be the next big thing for wireless data? “Just doing weather and sports and stocks, that’s very nice, but you have to expand out,” said Paglusch.
A possibly lucrative area might be pinpointing a user’s exact geographical location using Global Positioning Satellites (GPS), said David Douglas, CTO at Sun Microsystems. He also suggested an adaptation for alerting automobile drivers to available parking in nearby garages; but privacy issues bar such information.
The market is still in its early stages. And everyone already knows the one thing people want most from their cell phones is a real human voice on the other end.