Web Commerce: Building a Digital Business

When you're thinking about opening a store on the Web, a realistic perspective is one of the hardest elements to come by. Oh, you can find out lots about webservers and shopping carts, but when it comes to your business model, the Web becomes pretty silent. That's why Web Commerce: Building a Digital Business is such a welcome addition to the literature on e-commerce.

Author Kate Maddox has an excellent overall grasp of the subject, having reported on e-commerce for the past four years. Currently she is editor of Interactive Media and Marketing for Advertising Age magazine. If you read co-author Dana Blankenhorn's weekly A-Clue.com newsletter (http://www.a-clue.com/), you know that he is not shy about stating his opinions and insights. In Web Commerce they're toned down a bit, but still cogent. While many books tell only success stories, Web Commerce lets you in on some of the mistakes companies have made in setting up online stores -- and those lessons are invaluable. They're interwoven throughout the book both as case studies and passing mentions.

The first section of the book examines some business models on the Web, with a closer look at Horizon Tours (a small operation) and Cisco (a big one). But don't expect to find a well developed array of business models here; the authors' contribution is more anecdotal. The second section describes the various pieces required for online commerce: Web hosting, store-building software, payment options, and security. There's a good chapter on higher-end store software, such as Netscape CommerceXPert, Broadvision One-to-One, Connect OneServer, Open Market's OM-Transact, and Interworld. I found Maddox and Blankenhorn's coverage strong for medium to large systems, but weak on the less expensive ways to set up a store online.

The book's third section focuses on industry applications, with a helpful discussion of how business-to-business companies are using the Web with increasing effectiveness. A separate chapter describes how NECX set up an online business-to-business computer exchange, with its attending successes and challenges.

In the final part of the book, the authors outline the main approaches to providing personalized content to online shoppers. The chapter on site promotion is brief, touching the highlights of Web marketing.

If you've been asking "Where's the Middleman?" you'll find an interesting perspective. He doesn't disappear with the Internet, the authors argue, but his role changes. In the industrial era the middleman purchased goods and resold them at a profit. In the Internet economy, the middleman provides "information to buyers to use in choosing merchandise, and [offer] sellers access to those buyers." They illustrate their point describing how John Audette of Multimedia Marketing Group gradually developed his I-Sales Discussion List from a free information channel into an advertising-supported profit-center. The final chapter contains the authors' take on the future of Web commerce, surveying some of the legal questions and technologies on the horizon.

The chief value of Web Commerce, I think, is its broad overview of the issues involved in e-commerce, along with a realistic assessment of what seems to work and what doesn't. This is a valuable book to place in the hands of a businessperson seeking to move a business onto the Web.