This is more fundamental take on the internet vs. 'retailing' or dot-coms pushing the small dealer out-of-business. My attitude towards retailing hasn't changed: You succeed in business by taking care of your employees and your customers.
I don't think the internet is a passing fad and it has become a must use medium in some respects. Perhaps the 'bubble burst' really applies to those who tried to expliot the technology prior to it becoming a business neccesity, let me explain.
Here's a story about 'communication technology' with some similarities to the implementation of the internet.
I've got two dealerships, one built in 1946 and the other in 1966. Quite ancient by contemporary measures but think about the technology available at the time of construction: telephones. In the old store (1946) the telephone was relatively new and used only in a few offices. We even had our own PBX with wires to connect the calls. I'm sure it was expensive but invaluable. And how many people had phones in their homes in 1946? (or televisions, either).
When the 'new' store was built, phones were cheap and were put everywhere. Most homes had telephones and it became a must-have method to communicate.
Because phones were expensive in 1946 an intercom system was installed to communicate within the store. By 1966 it was cheaper to use telephones instead of the intercom. Result: we broadened the use of technology when it became financially feasible AND it solved a business problem.
If it wasn't for the NEED to communicate with the employees, we'd not demanded a rohbust phone system. Today, we have the stores linked by a private T1 network for voice, data, voice-mail, etc.
Now for the internet...
About 10 years ago it became apparent that a new form of communication was on the horizon. Some of us had experience with the 'net via e-mail, compuserve, etc. and the proliferation of this technology was limited by cost of equipment and the connection to handle the traffic (like telephone technology in 1946). Much faster than the 20 years of the telephone story, we are able to field personal computers to just about everyone at the dealership for $150 each (cheaper than the phone units in some cases!) and connect them with a high-speed data network. But is there demand for this expense?
There is for us. Our mfg (GM) has put almost everything they do on a website somewhere: gm-dealerworld does alot of stuff (bulletins, VIS lookups, incentives, lease programs, parts locators) and providing access to these tools has been important to getting our job done. I'm also able to communicate to my managers (or the factory) via e-mail and that is much more time-convenient.
What about selling stuff on a web-site? We keep our site pretty fresh, load inventory info (although gmbuypower is rather accurate for new cars), provide helper sections, answer questions, etc. I'd say we sell some cars but not as 'directly' as others, we like to have people come to the store. Just like a phone call: when someone calls we try to get them to visit the store.
In the '40s we'd advertise our phone number as 'sycamore 95203' where sycamore was the local exchange. Today we advertise a toll-free number AND the web address.
Think of the issue this way: Could you survive in business today without a telephone? Hardly. Has the internet provided the same 'revolution' in business as the phone provided in 1946? Not yet, but it will.
scott
[This message has been edited by sallen1 (edited 03-26-2002).]