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My wife and I
have moved our family several times over the years, and with each
move comes the necessity of re-establishing services.
Sure, there's
the top-level needs that must be addressed: electricity, telephone,
cable TV, water and so forth.
In my house,
with each move comes the time when we need to find someone in our
area who sells Avon products.
My wife often
uses Avon products, and I've purchased items from their catalog from
time to time as well.
After this
summer, finding your closest "Avon lady" will be just a
mouse click, thanks to a new Web-based sales approach the cosmetics
maker is embracing.
The move has
two goals, according to a recent story published by TheStreet.com.
The first goal
is economic -- eliminate printing costs for thousands of catalogs,
and you've saved yourself some substantial money. On top of that,
Avon believes that taking orders via the Web will cut its costs substantially.
The second
goal is to broaden the company's appeal to younger, hipper, Internet-savvy
women.
Avon says it
isn't abandoning the company's 114-year-old tradition of direct sales.
No, the
"Avon Lady" of the New Millenium will have the power of the
Web at her disposal.
According to
Len Edwards, Avon.com's President and General Manager, the increased
emphasis on online sales means "We're taking the existing
relationship they (Avon reps) have offline and expanding it online."
Avon will
offer its reps Web sites that can be customized to highlight
different promotions or products.
Avon has been
selling products via its Web site since 1997, but this year's
investment of about $30 million is hoped to reinvent the public's
view Avon and its cosmetics.
Check www.avon.com
for updates this summer.
YAHOO/EBAY
MERGER OFF. Talks of a merger or alliance between Yahoo! and eBay
disintegrated after both company's stock prices jumped at reports of
a possible deal.
Industry
watchers have said that Yahoo! needs to partner with a larger media
or services company, much like the AOL/Time Warner merger.
Buying eBay
would've been quite a feather in the cap for Yahoo!, though analysts
say its high price tag (an estimated $45 billion) would've sucked too
much money from Yahoo!'s coffers.
Speaking of
eBay, the company just recently unveiled its new business-to-business
auction service called Business Exchange.
Business
Exchange will allow buyers, sellers and traders of business equipment
and goods to meet, chat, buy and sell their wares.
The
business-to-business market (or "B2B" in Internet
shorthand) is widely recognized as one of the next big areas for
explosive growth in electronic commerce.
NO NET @
FINAL FOUR. If you're a fan of one of the many sports Web sites
that cover college basketball, don't be surprised if you feel a
little left out of the Final Four in Indianapolis.
That's because
the NCAA has decided to deny press passes to reporters working for
sports Web sites that will be covering The Big Dance at Indy.
''We don't
credential Web sites,'' said the NCAA's Jim Marchiony, director of
media for the Division I men's basketball championship in a recent
USA Today story. ''There's just a finite amount of seats and space,
and there's no legitimate way to distinguish between legitimate and
non-legitimate Web sites.''
The Web sites
will still have access to wire services, but for personal on-the-spot
reporting, if you're not an old-media hack, you're out of luck at the
NCAA finals.
Well, a few
"recognized" Web sites will have representatives --
SportsLine, which is also the official site for CBS sports, and
staffers from the NCAA's own finalfour.net will also attend the Final Four.
Many sites
will not, including the high profile sites from FoxSports.com, ESPN.com.
GAS HOAX.
If your e-mail box has been overflowing with copies of the "GAS
OUT" e-mail message, then you aren't alone.
It seems as
though this message is being sent all over the place. It's making the
news on both television and radio, even national news.
Unfortunately,
according to my sources, the Gas Out message is a hoax.
Gas prices are
high because there is less of it being produced. Other than some sort
of "feel good" factor, there's little that a three-day
boycott can possibly accomplish when it comes to gas prices.
There's no
real harm done by passing the message on -- beyond annoying others,
who probably have already received the message from friends and
co-workers as well.
Comments
and questions about this column may be sent to jbrooks@myoldkentuckyhome.com,
or visit www.myoldkentuckyhome.com
on the World Wide Web.
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