We've brought nearly two dozen clients on to the Net --profitably

Automotion, North America's leading seller of parts and accessories for Porsches, was our longest-term client. We began work with them in 1977, producing their catalog.
Automotion's 1998 catalog cover featuring the new 911--a car not available until months after the catalog was printed.	Automotion was purchased by Performance Products when its owners decided to retire in 2000. By this time, Web Commerce represented over 50% of all revenue. From the beginning, we wanted to tailor Automotion's presence on the Web to the particular strengths of the medium: interactivity, newsworthiness and the ability to add value. This we achieved through delivering news of the Porsche world (and our new products, of course), maintaining extensive up-to-date links to other Porsche sites, and engineering an 'artificial intelligence engine' to recommend the best car cover materials to our customers, based on their specific requirements. In March of 1999, the final incarnation of the site went on line. It offered shopping cart capabilities for all 13,000 skus carried by Automotion, and had the capacity to nearly double that number.
The site incorporated a secure commerce server, but it still offered a downloadable order form for people who would prefer to order by fax. In Automotion's first year on line, 1995, they exceeded expectations, breaking even before the fourth month and reaping new sales from countries all over the world. On the new site, we added 'suggested selling' and context-sensitive tips to make sure any do-it-yourself project goes smoothly and successfully. The next step was to have been to 'narrowcast' the catalog to owners of specific Porsche types, which the new owners, Performance Products have implemented. We made it easy to do so by designing the keys for that capability into the data base from the beginning. In 1999, we saw the order rate nearly double with full e-commerce capabilities. And although the marketplace is very specialized, the site enjoyed over 30,000 visitor sessions a month, and received orders from 96 countries. In 1999, Automotion's site was chosen by Amazon as one of their 'Z Shops' -- a validation of our attempts to bring an "Amazon shopping experience" to this small market niche. The secret to Automotion's success on the web (and anyone's, for that matter) is not just to create a superior site, but to market it well--both on the web and in traditional media.
We are bringing other agency clients onto the Internet, as well as providing Web services on a project basis. Among those we've completed are an extensive, evolving site for a fine artist, Christina De Musée (maintained by the artist's manager), A medium-sized site for Wheel Enhancement, a simple, basic site for Microvault, a graphics-rich promotional site for the Nissan Open (taken down after event), by its host city, Valencia, and many others. In addition, we have created or consulted on many other web sites. We consult for hotels, restaurants, public utilities, municipalities, physicians and marketing services providers of all kinds. Can your business profit from a web site? Does net commerce make sense for you? What about promoting the site? Here are our thoughts.