Dot.com fever has spread across the land this holiday season. For the 25 percent of folks with online connection, the fever comes from a quest to find good deals on the Internet. For traditional merchants the fever comes sweating out what the escalating numbers of Web shoppers will mean for their business, this Christmas season, and in the future.

Both shoppers and merchants need to cool down. E-Commerce is really only about two years old. The Web is not mature enough to safely satisfy the desires of Christmas shoppers, or threaten the bottom lines of traditional merchants.

In fact, local businesses should be acting out of enlightened self interest by letting shoppers know just how bad Net shopping could be this year. CStation has stepped up to the challenge by sending news releases  to The Elkhart Truth, The Goshen News,  The Paper, and The South Bend Tribune, reporting in detail why shopping at home is a better idea than taking to the Net.
line to page two of net shopping

Put Effort Into Your E-Mail

E-mail is the most valuable tool a company can possess with a Web site. The good news about e-mail is that it's simple to use and basically cost almost nothing to operate. The bad news is that far too many businesses pay more attention to emptying the office trash than their e-mail operations.

Nothing angers a web user more than to wait three or four days for an e-mail reply. E-mail messages should be checked three or four times a day and answered within hours. Net users expect that kind of attention. And if they don't get it, you won't get their business.

Promote your email address every place you can. Some newspapers now forbid companies to put e-mail and web addresses in the advertising of those businesses. They fear as people depend more on the Web companies will advertise less in the paper. Demand your control over the space your company is paying for. If necessary, take your advertising somewhere else.

Consider building an e-mail mailing list. Done correctly, e-mail communication has a better response rate than any other form of advertising!

CStation Announces Plan For Local Businesses To Be Seen

Setting up a web site is the easy part of adding E-Commerce capabilities for most businesses. The hard part is finding a way for the site to be noticed. Millions of sites are already online and a lot more will be opening up during the coming year. Even the best search engines list only about one-third of the sites now on the net. Being seen is a real problem for most local businesses.

Communication Station has a plan to get your site noticed. Beginning in April 2000 CStation will begin publication of a direct mail quarterly tabloid to 42,000 Elkhart County homes. Local Web Seen's mission includes keeping Elkhart County residents in touch with what's happening on the Internet.

The first issue of CStation's Local Web Seen will include the print version of  Communication Station's Local Web Directory. Local Web Seen will also feature reports on what's happening locally and not so locally on the Web. For this first issue, businesses that advertise in the tabloid will also be offered free advertising at CStation's web site.

Combining the reach of a direct mail tabloid with the versatility of CStation's gateway guide service will allow businesses a visibility not available before.

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