Direct marketing and online consumer information services (OLCISs): Implications and challenges

For over 25 years the idea of consumers using computers to shop electronically, and to receive all types of information directly into their homes, has been put forth as the wave of the future. During the early 1980s a number of such services were tested and brought to the marketplace. But consumers showed little interest in the electronic information services and the ability to shop via such services. Today there seems to be a renewed interest in such computer information services and the potential they offer for direct marketing. A few online consumer information services (OLCISs) have shown slow but steady growth during the past few years, and a number of new services have been introduced with some market acceptance more recently. Several such systems are mentioned as part of Business Week's cover story articles on interactive media (20) and retailing's new frontier (27). We believe that a critical mass of OLCISs is beginning to form and that it is time for marketers and academics to give more attention to these emerging technologies. Our comments toward that end are organized in several major areas. At the outset it is important to look at the beginnings of OLCISs to help achieve an appreciation of how these services have developed. Then we want to examine some of the relevant literature on the retailing status and potential of OLCISs. To provide a more current perspective on OLCISs and where they are likely to lead in the coming years, we present survey results concerning the opinions and attitudes of 100 key informants about OLCISs in general, and their use for retailing in particular. We conclude with implications and challenges for direct marketers and academics.