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Companies Vie For Marketshare on the Net: E-commerce business models take shape in the nutrition industry; dramatic growth anticipated this year.
What is safe to assume, however, is that the Internet represents a massive shift in how we do business and has the potential to rework the rules of commerce beyond recognition. Witness the now-familiar story of $600-million Amazon.com, the virtual book and compact disk distributor which has become the most successful profitless company in history, with assets on paper worth more than Delta Airlines, K-Mart and Hilton Hotels combined.
The more you lose, the more you're worth; the more you give away, the more successful you are. These and other contradictions represent evolving business beliefs for a new medium--beliefs for amassing wealth which are untested by time but which nutrition industry companies must embrace, adapt or discard. "The Internet will leave no facet of this business unturned or untouched," said Levine. "It will change the infrastructure of the natural products industry."
The Internet certainly appears to be an appropriate selling channel for the nutrition industry, whose core customer base of baby boomers is hooked on self help and personal improvement. The Internet is inherently democratic, delivering vast amounts of educational material to the shopper. Manufacturers universally deem education as key to selling dietary supplements and to expanding the market for nutritional products. "Wherever information is important to what you buy, a virtual store has a tremendous advantage over a bricks and mortar store. There's nothing more important to health than depth and breadth of information," said Robert Purcell, vice president of marketing and business development for Healthshop.com.
Online Channel at $xx Million - According to estimates by NBJ based on a telephone survey of online marketers of all types (see chart on p.4), online sales of supplements and natural products in the nutrition industry tallied $xx million in 1997, rising to $xx million in 1998. Internet sales are projected to reach $xxx million in 1999 and exceed $xxx million in 2001. The potential of the electronic channel has attracted serious e-commerce competitors, eager capital and heavy weight management. Excerpted from the February issue of Nutrition Business Journal, 24 pages of detailed analysis and strategic analysis of the role the Internet plays in the Nutrition Industry.
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