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ND's top selling Internet product? Lefse What's the top seller
among about 400 products available online through North Dakota's Internet Mall, www.shopnd. com?
Lefse. The second biggest seller? Kuchen. "Over 90% is sold out of state, to buyers whom I believe have their roots in North Dakota," says Lee Kaldor, with ComMark, the Mayville, ND business that developed the web site to showcase "Pride of Dakota" branded products to a national and international audience.
Many of the businesses that participate on the site are small, and receiving more sales and exposure than they are otherwise through catalogs and other merchandising means. Business via the web also means a
cost-savings of about 5 to 10%, says Kaldor, citing an estimate by Forrester Research. E-commerce is growing rapidly, with $30 billion in revenue in 1998, according to a University of Texas study. "That's nearly
as large as the U.S. auto industry," says Kaldor, who adds that e-commerce was only a $3 million industry in 1994. Businesses in the region are already taking advantage of the medium. He points out that WeFest,
one of the region's largest summer music events, sold so many more tickets through its web site than through Ticketmaster last year that this year it has dropped Ticketmaster as a concert ticket middleman. "The
Internet is a huge network allowing storage of endless amounts of data, and access to it empowers business," says Kaldor. E-commerce can benefit rural-based business, but only if development is encouraged. "Local
businesses need to be encouraged to use the Internet. We need education and training to develop Internet skills, community web fairs, and e-commerce seminars," he says. High speed connections
are a critical issue for rural areas now, he says. However, technology is coming that will allow speed of information to be 10 times faster than a T1, one of the fastest Internet connections available now. This could be
a real boon for rural areas, he says. |
