Web wisdom

The difference between a dot bomb and a dot com could be in the click—as in click-and-brick e-tailing.

According to a recent report in The New York Times, some retail Web sites are providing a 'heads-up' for their company's brick-and-mortar operations by monitoring their customers' purchase patterns. Using data gleaned from their e-tailing sites, a company can refine its brick-and-mortar operation. This is especially true for major corporations.

For the small company, though, the advantage of an e-tail operation is likely monetary.

Carley Zimmerman, owner of Zimmerman's Toyland in Sacramento, Calif., says that her e-tail business (www.zimmermanstoys.com) accounts for about 10 percent of revenues. The site hasn't taken away from the store, she tells PLAYTHINGS , adding that the e-tail operation has "elevated our store from a Mom and Pop."

In fact, Zimmerman says, she has shipped products to locations as far away as Puerto Rico and Israel.

La Toys Etcetera's Internet business (www.latoys.com) accounts for about 50 percent of the Long Island toy store's revenues, which have increased since the site's inception. "Some days it carries my retail business," co-owner Nancy Bloomberg tells PLAYTHINGS.

"It's a terrific boost to our retail business," she says, referring to the online site, which she says she sees as "a separate store. My internet business is different than my retail business."

Bloomberg explains that shopping on the Web is great for people who don't have a particular type of store—like a toy store—in their vicinity, adding that latoys.com's strength is that it is limited to more staple, classic toy products. The Bloomberg's brick-and-mortar toy shop offers the types of products that people want to "see, touch and feel," she says, naming arts and crafts items and dolls as examples.

What people want and expect from virtual shopping as compared with actual shopping is different, she notes, adding that she expects e-tailing to "only keep growing"—along with revenues, no doubt.