The customer doesn't have to create a Web site or design a page. In Hong Kong, Tradelink provides varied e-commerce services, supported by the government's programme to phase out paper submissions of transactions such as trade declarations over the next two years. Its chief executive officer, Justin Yue, expects an increase of customers from 6,000 at the end of 1997 to more than 25,000 at year-end 1998. In the US, buying products online is still a small fraction of retail sales, but the habit is spelling opportunity for some retailers and sending shudders among others. This success prompted Barnes and Noble, a major chain book retailer, to add its own Web site.
Airlines also offer special online discounts.
The maps show where the stores are and how to get there. Firms set up own Web sites to sell reference books and air tickets Catalogue giant Spiegel Inc went online three years ago and found Web sales growing five times each year, while sales and circulation of its catalogues slumped. The music industry is divided on the desirability of Internet marketing although there is a consensus that the Internet has changed the music distribution business. The Record Industry Association of America is insisting on the same royalty payments for Internet music transmissions as for traditional broadcasting, but the issue is not legally settled. Some music merchandisers consider the Internet as an ideal means of promoting new artistes as well as a way to avoid large returns of unsold records from music stores.