Open your own shopping mall--online.Here's how to set up shop as a cybermall and mind all the stores When Anthony N. Jones expanded his video wedding invitation business, he built a Web site to reach his market of brides- and grooms-to-be. Within the first month, he received around 100 orders for customized videos (at $3 a pop). Individuals pay him to create and distribute to their guest list taped personalized invitations that include instructions to the church and reception hall, and a photomontage pho·to·mon·tage n. 1. The technique of making a picture by assembling pieces of photographs, often in combination with other types of graphic material. 2. The composite picture produced by this technique. of the couple. As Jones expanded his business into birthday, graduation and Christmas video invitations, he looked for ways to form alliances with other distributors. He began investigating online malls. Frustrated with other content providers' high costs and poor graphics capabilities, he set out to build a cybermall from scratch. In 1996, using $9,000 in personal savings and loans savings and loan n. a banking and lending institution, chartered either by a state or the Federal government. Savings and loans only make loans secured by real property from deposits, upon which they pay interest slightly higher than that paid by most banks. from friends, Jones signed with an Internet service provider Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. (ISP (1) See in-system programmable. (2) (Internet Service Provider) An organization that provides access to the Internet. Connection to the user is provided via dial-up, ISDN, cable, DSL and T1/T3 lines. ) and hired a design firm to create the African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. Community Mall (www.aacmall.com). Today, AACMall hosts about 100 stores, which each pay $570 up front and $75 per year in fees. Jones is among a growing number of entrepreneurs who have increased their sales by joining forces with others peddling complementary products in cybermalls. It is an ever-evolving industry that brings in about $40 million a year, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. IMALL Tipster tipster A person who provides inside information. , a newsletter that helps would-be mall owners set up shop or storeowners find the right cybermall. Maddy Logan, the newsletter's publisher, explains that Internet mall owners are earning profits by charging storeowners flat fees ranging anywhere from $200 to $1,000, or taking in 15% of each store's gross annual sales. According to Forrester Research Forrester Research is an independent technology and market research company that provides its clients with advice about technology's impact on business and consumers. Corporate facts
You can create a regional or a general mall offering a host of products from books to flowers, or a cultural mall targeted to women, teens or a specific ethnic group. For example, the MelaNet African Marketplace (www.melanet.com) specializes in goods and services In economics, economic output is divided into physical goods and intangible services. Consumption of goods and services is assumed to produce utility (unless the "good" is a "bad"). It is often used when referring to a Goods and Services Tax. provided by African Americans. Most experts believe that the malls that survive are the ones that have a specific target market. SETTING UP SHOP You'll need to do the following to create an online mall: * Lease space on an ISP's server. Whereas the average Web site may use 5-20MB of space, you may need more than that to set up your mall. Scout around to find the best rates. Web-hosting fees may range from $16 for 5MB to $250 for 100MB. Among the popular ISPs are Earthlink, AT&T Worldnet, MCI (1) (Media Control Interface) A high-level programming interface from Microsoft and IBM for controlling multimedia devices. It provides commands and functions to open, play and close the device. (2) (Microwave Communications Inc. , AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. and Erol's. Be sure to get high-quality connectivity to the Internet, which means a T1 line or better. * Get a domain name. Your address (URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. ) should be easy to type and easy to understand. * Register with directories (like the Universal Black Pages (www.gatech. edu/bgsa/blackpages.html), as well as general search engines, such as Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com), Infoseek (www. infoseek.com) and AltaVista (www. altavista.digital.com). IT'S NOT ENOUGH JUST TO RENT SPACE Too often, companies spend thousands of dollars to launch their sites, only to sit back and wait for consumers to come to them, failing to develop an online promotions strategy. To be successful, you have to advertise heavily and make it easy for customers to navigate and access stores in the mall. As a mall owner, your job is to generate traffic to the site and add value to your tenants. You can promote your tenant's services by joining news groups and mailing lists, arranging links with other sites, advertising in trade publications or newsletters, and distributing written literature about the mall's various storefronts. Moreover, storefront owners may expect you to help them design and maintain their sites. You'll have to provide the necessary tools for processing orders and credit card information, and encrypting currency transactions. To locate some malls, check out Universal Cybermall (www.umall. com), MarketPlaza (www.marketplaza.com) and Majon's Cybermall (www.majon.com). You can also be listed with existing malls for a small fee. For example, Internet Mall (www. internet-mall.com), with more than 25,000 stores, will charge you $48 a year to provide a link to your site and give a brief description of your business. |
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