Wednesday, November 03, 1999
Web sites provide shopping research
BY LISA BIANK FASIG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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INTERNET SHOPPERS INVITED TO CALL
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Do you buy online? The Cincinnati Enquirer is seeking consumers who have purchased items over the Internet.
Anyone from an online novice to a virtual-store veteran is needed. If you have ever purchased from a dot.com, we would like to hear about it. Call retail reporter Lisa Biank Fasig at 768-8498.
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Greater Cincinnati's most-shopped malls are looking to increase traffic in one of the few ways they have left: the Internet.
But don't think this will put the area Coach store and Bebe at your fingertips — almost all sites are developed to shill, not to sell.
An increasing number of malls or their operators are creating Web locations to make shopping more time-friendly for busy consumers, by providing research material or even an online personal shopper. Kenwood Towne Centre and Tri-County Mall each operate promotional Web sites, and Florence Mall is developing one that may be launched as soon as this week.
But actual e-commerce is left to the stores. Almost every mall in the United States, including those in the Tristate, uses the Web strictly for marketing, promotion and, er, Windows shopping. Still, the sites are considered a necessary — and affordable — marketing step to prepare for a culture quickly becoming conditioned to using the Internet for shopping research.
“What it's basically created is a really educated consumer,” said Malachy Kavanagh, spokesman for International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). “It's more or less a marketing tool for them.”
Mr. Kavanagh said it is
hard for a mall to justify online retail when its tenants may offer e-commerce of their own. So Web sites for malls serve primarily as promotional tools, with links to the store sites.
According to ICSC research, the number of Internet-researchedpurchases at physical stores exceed online purchases by about five to one.
Some malls come as close as they can to retailing without crossing into e-commerce. At Kenwood's www.shopkenwood.com, a user can find specific items with a personal shopper, who will call and explain product availability and, if desired, place orders over the phone. Users also can comparison shop and see what's on sale.
“It's very customer-service driven. I think if you have a favorite store here you might want to look that up to see what promotions they have,” said Kenwood spokeswoman Sandra Holzwarth. “We hope to achieve in the near future that our shoppers will be able to buy gift certificates online.”
Though she could not release the start-up costs, Ms. Holzwarth said ongoing expenses for the site total just a few hundred dollars a month.
To mall operators and management companies, the benefits usually outpace the investment. A Web site's ongoing costs are cheaper than many other forms of advertising, Ms. Holzwarth said, and the medium allows malls to offer services that advertisements can't.
Also, consumer information entered into a Web site as part of a promotion becomes valuable demographic material.
“It's more like a one-to-one mar keting concept,” said said Elena Miller, spokeswoman for Florence Mall. Florence's new site is being established by its management company, General Growth Properties.
“(The site) might increase traffic and sales during certain promotions, if General Growth is able to provide to customers certain incentives,” such as coupons, Ms. Miller said.
Many mall Web sites are operated by the center's management company, which can lead to temporary shutdowns or switches if the mall undergoes a management change.
Such is the case with Tri-County Mall. Tri-County established its Web site (www.mallsus.com/tricounty/) more than a year ago, but the site presently is down because the mall switched management this week to Jones Lang LaSalle. It is expected Jones Lang LaSalle will relaunch the site under its own operations.
Mike Sanderell, general manager of Tri-County Mall, called the Web “just another venue for getting your name out in public.”
“(With) general awareness and with the literacy of computers, more and more people are going to the Web sites,” he said.
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INDUSTRY NOTES: RETAIL
TRISTATE MARKET SPOTLIGHT
TRISTATE SUMMARY
Web sites provide shopping research
