“It wouldn’t be the Christmas Shopping Season if the stores were any less Hotter than they are.” Yes, the quote by Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) from Christmas Vacation still rings true even in this “internet era”. Black Friday showed retail sales of about $41 Billion. Cyber Monday, by contrast, showed sales of about $850 Million illustrating that the internet is still very much in its infancy… at least when it comes to on-line shopping.
Not to say that we haven’t come a long way in the past 15 years. As a matter of fact, 15 years ago, the internet was heard of by a handful of people in the US government, many college students, and a few businesses that had heard of this idea called e-mail.
In a span of about 5 years, that interest grew as on-line startup companies came out of the woodwork and started offering on-line solutions to real world problems. Some of those companies had great business models and were hugely successful and still exist today (Ebay, Yahoo!, Google, Amazon, etc…). Some had simply horrible business models and would have not been funded were it not for the frenzy to get any internet company to market and capitalize. And there were many that had solid business models that went by the wayside. Even on-line shopping was difficult in the mid-to-late 1990’s with most people suffering through dial-up connections on slow PCs.
Then the whole bubble burst! Interestingly, as the bubble was bursting, the bandwidth and faster PCs that make browsing, shopping, and generally using the internet a pleasant experience were being put into place.
Today, you can shop on-line at just about any large retailer and countless boutique retailers. We’ve also seen the use of the internet spread to letting people do tasks more simply on-line that used to take hours such as on-line banking and renewing your driver’s license or auto registration.
Beyond on-line shopping we’ve seen the internet grow into a way to connect people using social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn and mircoblogs like Twitter. We’ve also seen the popularity of growth in User Generated Content – now everyone can be heard on any topic.
And, talk about access! Not only can you access the internet quickly from your Laptop or PC at home or at the office. You can also use your iPhone, Blackberry, Treo, etc…
We believe that Public Chalk is a site that will be part of the next evolution of the internet. It is a place where User Generated Content meets social interaction. It is a place where activities and events such as a holiday party can be planned and discussed real-time before, during, and after the event. And it is a place that is accessible “traditionally” via any web site or via the iPhone (eventually going to include the Blackberry and others).
The next 15 years should be a heck of a ride!
ETJ
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1 comment:
I believe there is a huge opportunity with an evolution of ecommerce. My opinion is that it's still in it's infancy and there are ways to make the experience more enjoyable for the customer, while generating more revenue for the store. I have my own ideas and actually, there are some sites that are close. It will evolve over the next few years...
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