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Hi everyone, Here is an interesting spin on what's beginning to happen re. portals and commission sharing on sales created from a specific website, namely Yahoo. Cheers, Leo ------ ------------- Yahoo to Take Cut of Sales on Web Site (US) Tom Stein, Chronicle Staff Writer Saturday, October 30, 1999 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999 /10/30/BU52238.DTL Web retailers may have to pay more money for the right to set up shop on Yahoo's Web site, the most-popular destination on the Internet. Yahoo Inc. in Santa Clara said it will start charging transaction fees to merchants who create virtual store fronts on the Yahoo Shopping site. Yahoo plays host to more than a thousand companies, from flower shops to toy stores, which list their products on the site. These companies currently pay Yahoo a monthly hosting fee of anywhere from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the number of items they list and how prominently they are featured on the site. But, according to retailers who sell their wares on Yahoo, the company soon will change that model to one in which merchants will have to hand over a percentage of all sales they generate on the site. A company that sells, say, $1 million worth of merchandise a month on the Yahoo site, may have to pay 5 percent, or $50,000, to Yahoo. Officials at Yahoo could not be reached for comment. The company did not specify what percentage it would charge merchants. The Yahoo shopping site typically appeals to small retailers who could not otherwise afford the up-front investment to set up their own e-commerce Web sites with such technologies as high-end computer servers and online shopping carts. Some large national retailers such as Brooks Brothers and Eddie Bauer -- which have their own, stand-alone e-commerce sites -- also list their products on Yahoo Shopping. All these companies benefit from the huge numbers of consumers who surf the Yahoo site each day. Yahoo.com is the most heavy traffic site on the Internet, with more than 32 million visitors each month, according to Internet research firm Media Metrix in New York. Web retailers had mixed opinions about Yahoo's new transaction model. ``I like the pay-per-performance model, even though it could ultimately be more expensive for us,'' said Preston Beale, chief executive of BabyFurniture.com in New York. The company, which sells such items as car seats, strollers and playpens, pays Yahoo a fixed monthly fee of about $15,000. ``I think Yahoo now has more of an incentive to make sure we do well,'' added Beale. ``The more we sell, the more money they make.'' He expects Yahoo will use the extra cash to beef up the site's technical reliability and create more engaging content and graphics to lure customers. But some Web retailers are not yet convinced. ``This model really depends on the percentage that Yahoo plans to charge,'' said Chris Oberst, president of AnimalDen.com in Hillsboro, Ore. AnimalDen, which sells gift items for animal lovers, now pays Yahoo $500 a month. ``I think that's a high enough price the way it is,'' he said. ``I don't know if I want to pay more.'' _________________________________ Leo J. Deveau, Executive Director, Chebucto Community Net, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Canada _____________________________________ People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it. -Unknown _____________________________________ A community will evolve only when the people control their means of communication. -- Frantz Fanon
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