Stableford calls the consumer packs a completely new thing, both for the company and the market as a whole. I am comfortable saying that we are the first in Hawai'i that are online and unloading our own boats. The fish is bought in Honolulu each Tuesday, flown to Seattle, then cut and delivered to customers.
Delivery is overnight within the continental United States.
Honolulu Fish Co. has not yet started advertising the new consumer packs, and Stableford says when it does, the initial focus will be in Hawai'i. The company is also hoping its commercial customers will use the site to place orders, instead of the current phone or fax system, with restaurants getting a 5 per cent discount for ordering through the Web. A just-released Gartner Group study says the North American Internet retailing segment is set to exceed USD 29.3 billion in 2000, up to 75 per cent over 1999's USD 16.8 billion. The study says online retail activity currently represents less than 1 per cent of overall consumer spending in North America, but by 2004, it will grow about 5 per cent to 7 per cent of total retail sales in North America, with the strongest growth coming from the entertainment and home consumables categories.