Great links Kelly,

I bookmarked most of them or emailed friends when they were relevant to them.
By the way I repaired the http://www.bluefly.com link, it picked up an extra
space somewhere. Bluefly still has some work to do on their site it had quite a
few errors. E-commerce certainly is changing the landscape of shopping and
doing business today.

At 05:20 AM 12/12/98 -0600, Kelly Pierce wrote:
>I pass on the following articles not because I endorse the high-impact
>consumer economy and believe the capitalist experience of shopping to be a
>virtue, but because of the independence that electronic shopping offers for
>the blind person.  we now have the ability to have as much information
>about a product as a sighted person without the hassles of hurried store
>clerks who really don't have the time to provide assistance.  There are
>two articles with this post.  the first describes online shopping
>generally and the second focuses on the fact that many well known brands
>are not available online.  the two articles are separated by a line of
>dashes.
>
>
>kelly=20
>
>from the New York Times=20
>
>December 10, 1998
>
>Online Shopping: Good, Bad and Growing
>
>You Can Get Books, Jewelry and Even Miss Melba's Olde Timey Fruitcake=20
>By TINA KELLEY
>
>In many houses, there is a mouse stirring this holiday season: the one
>attached to the computer.  It is being used for one-click gift ordering,
>with the promise of avoiding crowded malls and traffic jams and the hope
>of finding last-minute purchases on the Web.
>=20
> Online holiday purchases are expected to double compared with last year,
>said Nick Donatiello, president of Odyssey, a market research company in
>San Francisco. And while online shopping will still account for only a
>small part of holiday purchases, wired merchants and investors have been
>salivating over the potential increases.
>
>But can shopping online really make the last-minute rush easier? A
>sampling of shopping sites and interviews with Internet retailing experts
>suggests the answer is yes -- at least for products that can be found on
>the Web and especially for near-last-minute purchases.
>
>Just remember that many items are not easily available online, that Web
>traffic itself can suffer from jams and that most of the things you click
>your mouse on still have to be delivered by trains, planes or trucks.
>
>To sweeten the season's shopping experience, Internet retailers have
>developed gift registries, gift suggestions for stumped shoppers and even
>live customer service -- just like stores. And the number of Web retailers
>grows every year, increasing selection and competition.
>
>There are big and efficient online sellers for books, CD's and computer
>equipment, and many sites offer electronic cards and gift certificates.
>There are even games that can be downloaded, theoretically, the night
>before Christmas.
>
>In fact, for grown-ups who would rather visit a root canal specialist than
>a toy store in the next two weeks, there is www.etoys.com, which promises
>that "Santa can go to bed early this year." Toys are categorized by age,
>and pages describe what awards each toy has won. At www.toysrus.com, the
>Toys 'R' Us site, you can check the baby registry created (off line) by
>the moms of the munchkins you're shopping for. At www.justpretend.com
>("toys and playthings that inspire imagination and creativity") there are
>five sets of specialized dress-up sets, with reversible wizard-or-princess
>hats.
>
>For those with quirkier tastes, sites can be found offering four-pound
>fruitcakes, fancy sports equipment, foreign musical instruments and rare
>videos.
>
>Books are among the biggest-selling items online, with Amazon.com and the
>Barnes & Noble site as two major places geared toward last-minute book
>buying.
>
>"My goal is to take a two- or three-week period of hell and turn it into
>15 minutes of a pretty good time," said David Risher, senior vice
>president of Amazon.com, as he tripped through Web screens in his Seattle
>office, demonstrating how to give a present in the fewest possible
>seconds.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>-----
> =20
>Some online sites have gone so retro that they are providing actual human b=
>eings to help shoppers. =20
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>-----
> =20
>=20
>"Let's say you're in a big hurry," he went on. "We have a feature on the
>Web site, Gift Click. You can do it Christmas morning." The function tells
>your recipients via e-mail that you are sending presents and lets them do
>the pesky work of filling in the mailing addresses. For purchasers who put
>their credit card numbers on file, it's one-click shopping.
>
>Barnes & Noble, in addition to offering "buy now and get a free book"
>deals for new customers, (www.barnesandnoble.com) posts a chart of the
>last day you can order a book in stock for Christmas delivery.
>
>Another innovation for online shoppers is the gift registry. One example
>is the Wish List offered by iQVC, the Web version of television's QVC home
>shopping channel. About 10,000 people have signed up to use it, said
>Stuart Spiegel, vice president and general manager for iQVC. At iQVC's
>jewelry site (www.gemsandjewels.com), those who think it's blessed enough
>to receive can leave very specific instructions on what they want, right
>down to ring size, favorite stone and preferred designer. Those who are
>going for the greater blessings of giving use the password of the person
>who registered to find out which precious stone to concentrate on.
>
>"It's no different from that magazine left on the coffee table a little
>too long opened to the right thing," Spiegel said. "It is a fun way to
>point people in the right direction."
>
>A similar service is offered at Eddie Bauer (www.eddiebauer.com), where
>you can send out e-mail announcements to friends about what you want from
>the store. They're not subtle: "Hi from (my e-mail address) (my name)! I
>have an Eddie Bauer Wish List at http://www.eddiebauer.com. Just go to
>'Wish Lists.' . . ." The message includes the wisher's password to get
>access to the list, but not so much as a "please" or "thank you."
>
>Another helpful feature for buying off the Web are shopping agents,
>programs that search commercial sites and come back with a list of items
>and prices, which can certainly reduce fingertip fatigue. One,
>www.mysimon.com, will even search for the best bargains for the objects
>you desire, then let you send the results via e-mail straight to people
>who have you on their gift lists.
>
>Some online sites have gone so retro that they are providing actual human
>beings, through chat or e-mail, to help shoppers. During limited hours you
>can try live customer service at Azazz.com, an Internet-based department
>store that offers housewares, apparel and home office supplies, with free
>shipping. Another is Adatom.com, which offers brand-name furniture, linens
>and toys direct from the factory. The humans function much like the
>programs that are always available at sites like Amazon, which provide
>suggestions for other books or movies a "Beloved" or "Titanic" fan might
>like.
>
>For those who would rather decorate the house with all that time freed up
>by not shopping, you can buy live Christmas trees and wreaths or
>artificial trees that arrive at your door already strung with lights. Then
>try poring over the numbing prospect of 26 different kinds of angel
>ornaments available at Christmas Depot (Christmasdepot.com) (mauve satin,
>peach satin, pink satin, red lam=E9 starburst, red sparkle, red velvet,
>silver lam=E9, silver lam=E9 starburst, etc.). At the Menorah.net site, can=
>dle
>holders are available in three-, six- and nine-foot models.
>
>Some of the less delightful aspects of holiday shopping exist on the Web
>as well, like piped-in tinny Christmas carols and traffic that can be
>heavy at peak hours, slowing things to a crawl. And every once in a while
>you might see the screen message, "Please contact the server administrator
>and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might
>have done that may have caused the error." So much for the customer is
>always right.
>
>The Web is never as smooth as it could be, and shopping is no different.
>It can be just as hard to find some things online as off.
>
>For example, for the father who wants a video of the 1939 (not the 1978)
>version of the English drama "The Four Feathers," a search through
>Reel.com, Amazon.com, and MySimon yielded two sites advertising VHS
>versions of the flick (both were out of stock) and one offering a laser
>disk (too high-tech for Papa). Then again, he hasn't been able to find it
>in a real store, either.
>
>=20
> Yet the Web can be very useful for finding obscure items. Frith Maier of
>Seattle had her heart set on a heated toilet seat, like one she had
>enjoyed while visiting Japan, for her sister's outhouse in Alaska. After
>calling plumbing supply companies with no luck, she found one on the site
>of ToTo Toilets. The catch was that the seat, equipped with an extra
>device that delivers a puff of warm air, cost $900.
>
>If you want a used cello (knock-knock.com/mie/cellos.htm) or a bodhran
>(www.bodhran.com), an ancient Celtic drum, your selection will probably be
>greater than can be found by skimming your local classifieds. Bodhrans,
>which are made of goat skin stretched over a wooden frame, abound on the
>Web, from Ireland to Massachusetts and Prince George, B.C., with air mail
>delivery times as short as three days.
>
>For kids who need a specific brand of soccer ball, beyond what the mall
>stores sell, www.soccer.com, for example, offers more than 25 kinds.
>
>Since online orders can be entered and registered so quickly, consumers
>can be forgiven for believing they can put off their shopping to the very
>last minute. Lands' End's site (www.landsend.com), announces how many
>"shipping days left!" until Christmas, and Christmasdepot.com counts down
>the very seconds. For Father's Day, Amazon.com processed lots of same-day
>sales, with gift-certificate orders coming in via e-mail that morning and
>being sent out the same hour, Risher said. The same is expected on Dec.
>25.
>
>With the under-$1,000 computer hoping to attain Most Favored Donation
>status, computer sites on the Web are revving up for a high-volume
>December.
>
>Computershopper.com, on its gift ideas pages, gives hints on buying
>someone a PC and have it last longer than a year. But earlier this week,
>CompUSA, in its holiday Web section, listed a few items that were already
>out of stock and back-ordered.
>
>One big site selling computers, Cyberian Outpost (www.outpost.com), has
>warehouses and shippers located together and offers next-day delivery for
>items ordered up until midnight Eastern time. And with the wide variety of
>software available there and from other sites to download onto children's
>computers, a popular game could arrive this Christmas morning via the
>phone line, instead of the chimney.
>
>There are other aspects of the holidays that the Web can help with, of
>course, like planning dinner. Where else but online could you find a
>recipe for Hanukkah Candle Salad (www.pastrywiz.com/archive/channuka.htm)
>that features half a banana stuck in a pineapple ring, topped with a
>gumdrop, with mayo dripping down to represent melted wax and a green
>pepper handle for the candle holder?
>
>And what brick-and-mortar store has as many kinds of fruitcake as the Web,
>with Miss Melba's Olde Timey, Monastery, Gloria's Classic, Babs' Jamaican,
>Sunshine Hollow's Real Handmade Pecan and Carolyn's Cajun (from Cut Off,
>La.)?
>
>And for when the holiday hangover clears, there's always the return policy
>to think about. At www.azazz.com and Cyberian Outpost, returns are
>accepted for any reason. Amazon.com asks no questions about returned
>books, though CD's and videos need to be unopened. A printed packing slip
>for returns comes with every order. Beats driving downtown, parking and
>having to look someone in the eye and explain why that gift from your
>beloved isn't a keeper.
>
>-------------------------------------------------
>
>December 10, 1998
>
>Not Every Maker Wants Its Products Sold on the Net
>
>By SAUL HANSELL
>
>With online sales booming, millions of people are going to try to see if
>they can cut down on trips to the mall this holiday season and do some
>shopping over the Internet.  Some will end up being disappointed.
>
>Anyone whose shopping list includes, say, a Ralph Lauren sweater, a
>Pioneer car radio, a Burton snowboard or even the latest Beanie Baby from
>Ty Inc. will search high and low in cyberspace without finding it. The
>reason? These manufacturers prohibit retailers from selling their products
>online.
>
>To be sure, the Web is brimming with retailers, and new stores and shops
>are going online every day, leaving the impression that the Internet is a
>vast, freewheeling bazaar. Still, many well-known brands cannot be found
>online because their manufacturers contend that the Internet flattens even
>the most luxurious item to a garish, flickering image and then pits
>retailers around the world in a grueling price war. "We don't think of our
>products as commodities that can be managed by point, click and order,"
>said Ed Sachs, executive vice president for sales at Pioneer Electronics,
>which prohibits dealers from selling its audio and video products online.
>
>Pioneer's stance is still common in many industries. That is especially so
>among makers of more expensive lines, which are concerned about
>controlling the image of their brands and have always tried to have a
>small number of local stores, whose loyalty they are loath to upset. Other
>manufacturers are resisting the Internet because they want to join it
>later, selling their goods themselves.
>
>For now, Internet shopping remains a very slim slice of the retailing pie.
>The Direct Marketing Association predicts that this year, $4.7 billion
>worth of goods and services will be sold online -- slightly more than 5
>percent of the $87 billion that will be sold by direct mail and
>telemarketing and a tiny fraction of the $2.6 trillion in overall retail
>sales in the United States.
>
>In the future, of course, Internet selling is expected to claim a much
>bigger share of the shopping dollar. Virtually nonexistent four years ago,
>shopping online is now the fastest-growing form of retailing. This year's
>Christmas sales are expected to be two and a half times last year's, with
>hundreds of thousands of people buying online for the first time.
>Consumers have been lured by the shop-at-home convenience and the ability
>to pick from a huge selection of products, whatever the omissions. And
>early fears about credit card fraud are fading as millions of people buy
>products online with few reported problems.
>
>As online shopping begins to move into the mainstream, manufacturers are
>coming under increasing pressure to allow their products to be sold in
>cyberspace.
>
>"There is a spiral effect," said Maria Latour Kadison, an analyst with
>Forrester Research, a Cambridge, Mass., firm that tracks Internet trends.
>
>"As more consumers come on the Internet, it drives retailers to expand
>their offerings online. And when the retailers offer better selection and
>easier-to-use stores, it draws even more consumers online."
>
>So while many manufacturers are "afraid to hurt the existing
>brick-and-mortar retail channels that have supported their brands," she
>said, "they will either change their minds or they will lose out." There
>are already many brands that encourage online sales, including Philips
>Electronics, Donna Karan and Mattel.
>
>Other manufacturers have kept online stores from selling their goods
>simply because they want to sell their goods themselves.
>
>Macy's flagship store at Herald Square in Manhattan, for example, has rack
>upon rack of jeans and chinos from Levi Strauss. But Macy's new Internet
>site, macys.com, does not carry a single pair of Levi's among its 250,000
>items. Why? Because Levi's insists that the only place to buy its products
>on the Internet is at www.levi.com.
>
>"We want to present our brand at its best, both in terms of assortment and
>presentation," said Jay Thomas, Levi's director of digital marketing.
>
>
>Levi's, moreover, faces vigorous competition from the Gap, which has been
>doing a brisk business at its Internet store. The Gap (www.gap.com) does
>not face any retailer-manufacturer conflicts, because it makes and sells
>its own products.
>
>Some manufacturers, however, have been forced to restrict online sales
>because of pressure from their existing dealers.
>
>"At first, we sold to a number of Internet sites, but we had to stop,"
>said Lee Carlson, president of Belinda Barton Furnishings for Children, a
>maker of expensive sheets and towels in Cutchogue, N.Y. "Our stores were
>upset. Their main concern was that people would go online and find prices
>that were lower than what they were selling for."
>
>Online shoppers are caught in the middle of these squabbles. Gregory Frye,
>for example, a fan of Calvin Klein, has been able to find only a few of
>the designer's perfume items at the Macy's site and some of the underwear
>line at a small site called www.metromanusa.com.
>
>Robert Triefus, a senior vice president for Calvin Klein, said the company =
>was worried that it would lose control of its brand image if its goods were=
> sold on the Internet. Moreover, the company has not figured out how cybers=
>pace fits into its existing geographic distribution agreements.=20
>
>"Some of our licensees have agreements that cover certain territories,"
>Treifus said. "The Internet, by definition, is worldwide distribution."
>
>Such concerns about control show that the retail universe in cyberspace,
>despite the booming online trade in books, compact disks and computer
>equipment itself, is still at a fledgling stage.
>
>Without access to the merchandise, online entrepreneurs cannot hope to
>become the next Amazon.com.
>
>The best example is in consumer electronics, where none of the small
>online merchants have anything close to a complete selection.
>
>Greg Drew, chief executive of 800.com, a start-up company with an Internet =
>consumer electronics store, said he has been able to buy the basic lines of=
> television and audio equipment that are sold in such mass market retailers=
> as Kmart, but not the sort of sophisticated models that many Internet user=
>s want.=20
>
>"We can get the low-end stuff, but the high-end stuff we can't even get clo=
>se to," he said.=20
>
>Similarly, many makers of consumer appliances, like Maytag, have not been
>willing to let their dealers sell online.
>
>"Appliances are a huge business which has become increasingly concentrated
>through the major retail chains: Sears, Circuit City, etc," said Trevor
>Traina, a founder of Comparenet, an electronic shopping guide
>(compare.net). "Their cozy relationships with retailers are keeping them
>from doing things that will build their business."
>=20
> James G. Powell, a spokesman for Maytag, said local dealers provided
>better service and support for its products than Internet sellers who
>might be halfway across the country from the buyer. "We want to protect
>our premium brand reputation," he said.
>
>Of course, designers, electronics companies and others have long sought to
>preserve their reputations and prices by limiting the number of stores
>they sell through. And whole industries have evolved to help consumers get
>around those restrictions. In fashion, there are many stores selling
>close-out items and overstocks at discount prices. There are discount
>electronics stores that sell goods purchased in the gray market -- that
>is, through unauthorized distribution channels -- rather than directly
>from the manufacturers.
>
>All these businesses have their counterparts on the Internet. Bluefly
>(www.bluefly.com) sells off-price clothing, including some items from
>designers like Ralph Lauren who will not directly supply Internet stores
>with their goods.
>
>And there has also been a rise of gray market dealers of other goods, even
>Beanie Babies, those small stuffed animals whose ever-so-cute variations
>have made them a rage among collectors. There is a vast secondary market
>for older Beanie Babies among the Internet auctions. But Ty Inc. refuses
>to sell directly to any company that wants to offer new Beanies online. (A
>spokesman for Ty did not return several calls for comment.)
>
>"It's not easy to get Beanie Babies, but we get them," said Toby Lenk,
>chief executive of Etoys (etoys.com), an online store that is usually able
>to buy directly from the big toy makers. "But since we go through a
>middleman, we charge $8.99 or $9.99 for a model that people who get the
>product directly sell for $5.99."
>
>The scarcity of Beanie Babies is an exception, and most manufacturers fear
>that the gray market, and Internet sales in general, will lower, rather
>than raise, the prices of their goods. They argue that this will
>ultimately hurt them and their customers by squeezing out local stores.
>
>"Maybe if you bought a snowboard on the Internet, it might be a few bucks
>cheaper, but it wouldn't help the sport," said Jake Burton, founder and
>chairman of Burton Snowboards in Burlington, Vt., which will not let its
>products be sold online. "The specialty retailer has played a huge role in
>getting this sport off the ground."
>
>Still, a number of online stores have been able to persuade manufacturers
>to sell to them by promising not to discount their products or otherwise
>cheapen their image.
>
>Fragrance Counter, an online cosmetics store (www.fragrancecounter.com),
>has won over some of the most reluctant and image-conscious manufacturers
>by seeking to create an upscale boutique that is the "57th Street and
>Madison Avenue of cyberspace," said Eli Katz, chief operating officer of
>the company . "We sell everything at suggested retail price, and we
>romance and describe every product."
>
>But perfume vendors were not convinced at first.
>
>"They thought that selling fragrances on a computer was bizarre," Katz
>said. "Now people see how the Internet adds incremental sales." Fragrance
>Counter now carries nearly every major perfume line except for some very
>expensive brands.
>
>Other Internet holdouts like Oakley, a maker of sunglasses, are also
>beginning to dip their toes in the online waters. But Oakley has spurned
>the sites of big dealers like Sunglass Hut, granting online rights only to
>Eyevault, a California start-up.
>
>"We have always focused on selective distribution," said Link Newcomb,
>Oakley's chief executive.
>
>I don't think that online retail should be any different."
>
>
>VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
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Marty Tibor
1 Stop Speech Recognition and Adaptive Technology Synapse
3095 Kerner Blvd., Suite S, San Rafael, CA  94901
toll-free 888-285-9988
http://www.synapseadaptive.com
Providers of adaptive and assistive technology solutions.
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UNIX, mainframe and Mac speech recognition
http://www.synapseadaptive.com/joel/default.htm
Synapse hosts the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Unofficial Information Pages


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
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 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
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