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11-01-2001
Attention Shoppers: Enjoy the Internet Tax Holiday While It Lasts Is the honeymoon for online shoppers about to end with the moratorium on Internet taxation having expired in late October? Not just yet. While the US Congress failed to renew the tax moratorium contained in the Internet Tax Freedom Act of 1998, states still are prohibited by a Supreme Court ruling from forcing out-of-state e-businesses to collect state sales tax unless an e-business has a physical presence in the state, according to the online news source Business 2.0. Though Congress could render the court ruling moot by enacting legislation allowing states to collect taxes on out-of-state entities, lawmakers appear in no hurry to sort through complex state tax codes to make such a law possible. Nor do they appear inclined to pursue legislation that could further damage the already-hurting e-commerce sector and the economy as a whole. It could be two to three years, observers say, before Congress takes a serious crack at the issue.
A Recipe for Internet Indigestion Internet users in the U.S. continue to gag on spam while the legislative and judicial branches of government grapple with laws to keep purveyors of unwanted e-mail from jamming unwanted marketing messages down consumers' throats. Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, the European Union is chewing on legislation that would keep online companies from reaching too far into the cookie jar.
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Holiday Forecast Despite expected shipping delays and other fall-out from the September 11 terrorist attacks, Forrester Research is sticking to its projection that online holiday shopping in the upcoming holiday season will reach $11 billion, up 10 percent from a year ago. To avoid shipping problems, e-businesses should encourage customers to shop early and offer in-store pickup of online purchases, the Cambridge, Mass., technology research firm suggests.
Total Site News Total Site has been busy doing function and design upgrades for a number of existing and new clients:
For Boulder's premier Real Estate Developer, The W.W. Reynolds Companies, we completely restructured the web site to take advantage of the high visitor traffic in the regularly updated property listing pages (using Fresh Buzz™); adding the ability to e-mail listing pages for brokers, agents, or potential lessors.
For Japanese Technical Fabric Manufacturer Gelanots, Total Site restructured and redesigned the site to emphasize product technical specifications and applications; a secure large-lot ordering area was installed for the company's worldwide dealers.
Total Site provided Percept Technologies, a product testing and verification laboratory, with a restructured and redesigned web site. Based on visitor traffic analysis from Percept's previous site, Total Site suggested the site should contain more in-depth materials. Sample test and reliability reports were added to the restructured site. Total Site also provided facility and process photography.
The Boulder Wine Merchant site was completely redesigned to highlight the expertise of the store's two Master Sommeliers. The site is updated monthly with seasonal selections; these specials are then delivered to a large e-mail subscriber base as HTML using Total Site's Mail Mule™. Total Site provided training for our web applications and digital product photography
The Colorado Venture Capital Association site was rebuilt to provide more online services and provide easy, web based site maintenance. A complete redesign of the site, including the creation of a new logo, allowed Total Site to improve the visitor experience. A registration form for the 19th Annual Venture Capital in the Rockies Conference, the associations' signature event, as well as membership and contact management forms are available online. Member profiles, press releases, and conference event descriptions can be easily maintained using Fresh Buzz™. Total Site configured the new web site to be available through three different domain names — vcac.net, coloradovca.com, and coloradovca.org.
We are also pleased to announce that we have been engaged by Bolind, Inc. to create a fully- secure web-enabled version of the "Good Old Bruce Bolind Catalog."
Total Site has started development of a Macromedia FLASH application to demonstrate the web services of SilverBack Technologies of Billerica, Mass.\0
The Spam Antidote: Opt-in E-mail Amid the consumer backlash against unsolicited e-mail (Spam) how does a business deliver useful new, product announcements, and special offers via e-mail? The answer: opt-in e-mail.
People who want access to news, product offers and other marketing info ask to be provided with information by providing their e-mail address - or "opting in" to receive this material. Each message you send to your opt-in list provides the recipient with a click-through to stop delivery whenever they chose. The user has control — and, more importantly, is unlikely to view your messages as an annoyance.
How effective is opt-in e-mail? Our clients' web sites always display a "spike" in visitor traffic when a Mail Mule™ message is sent. During the holiday season last year one of our e-commerce clients sent out a special offer to their opt-in list and did $10,000 in business in the following 5 minutes.
Mail Mule's automated process gives you the power to broadcast the latest product announcements, discounts, even a company newsletter directly to interested customers' e-mailboxes. Click here to take Mail Mule™ for a test drive.
Attention Shoppers: Enjoy the Internet Tax Holiday While It Lasts Is the honeymoon for online shoppers about to end with the moratorium on Internet taxation having expired in late October? Not just yet. While the US Congress failed to renew the tax moratorium contained in the Internet Tax Freedom Act of 1998, states still are prohibited by a Supreme Court ruling from forcing out-of-state e-businesses to collect state sales tax unless an e-business has a physical presence in the state, according to the online news source Business 2.0. Though Congress could render the court ruling moot by enacting legislation allowing states to collect taxes on out-of-state entities, lawmakers appear in no hurry to sort through complex state tax codes to make such a law possible. Nor do they appear inclined to pursue legislation that could further damage the already-hurting e-commerce sector and the economy as a whole. It could be two to three years, observers say, before Congress takes a serious crack at the issue.
Holiday Forecast Despite expected shipping delays and other fall-out from the September 11 terrorist attacks, Forrester Research is sticking to its projection that online holiday shopping in the upcoming holiday season will reach $11 billion, up 10 percent from a year ago. To avoid shipping problems, e-businesses should encourage customers to shop early and offer in-store pickup of online purchases, the Cambridge, Mass., technology research firm suggests.
Total Site News Total Site has been busy doing function and design upgrades for a number of existing and new clients:
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The Spam Antidote: Opt-in E-mail Amid the consumer backlash against unsolicited e-mail (Spam) how does a business deliver useful new, product announcements, and special offers via e-mail? The answer: opt-in e-mail.
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A Recipe for Internet Indigestion Internet users in the U.S. continue to gag on spam while the legislative and judicial branches of government grapple with laws to keep purveyors of unwanted e-mail from jamming unwanted marketing messages down consumers' throats. Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, the European Union is chewing on legislation that would keep online companies from reaching too far into the cookie jar.
Consumer protection advocates were claiming a measure of victory after the US Supreme Court refused to review a case challenging the state of Washington's anti-spam law, which among other things prohibits transmission of e-mail that includes a false header, misleading subject or fraudulent originating address. The high court's ruling lends credence to anti-spam laws now on the books in about 20 states, Tom Geller, head of the SpamCon Foundation , told CNET News.com. "It's saying at the highest federal level that the state laws are valid and enforceable." Groups such as SpamCon, Junkbusters and SpamCop are pushing anti-spam legislation at the federal level, but the US Congress thus far hasn't swallowed any of their proposals.
Also in the name of consumer protection, European lawmakers have proposed requiring a web site to gain "explicit, prior consent" from a web user before delivering a cookie to the user's computer. Sponsors of the proposal labeled cookies — hidden mechanisms buried on Web pages and used by the online industry to track and profile Internet users — as "spy devices." The U.K.'s Interactive Advertising Bureau responded with the "Save Our Cookies" campaign, contending the proposal would cost British online companies as much as #187 million (about US$273 million). Rather than protecting consumers, according to the IAB, the proposal would not only force companies to rebuild and restructure their web sites but drive users away from the Internet by forcing them to re-register or re-enter preferences when they revisit a site.
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