Yes, You Can Profit From E-Commerce.

• Author: Biehn, Geoff

Those who have survived the past year have witnessed fluctuating and shifting business philosophies. People forgot what it meant to do smart business. Many seasoned business professionals were operating under the assumption that a new economy called for a new way of doing business. Not so.

When the coffers of venture capitalists began to run dry last year and the investments they made weren't the cash cows they had hoped for, a shakedown of the New Economy took place. As the dot-com backlash continues to leave one failed company after another in its wake, one thing remains certain: It's time to brush up on business basics and rethink the way we make profits on the Internet.

According to Fortune, "The dot com era is over. The Internet era, by contrast, is just getting started." The practical implications of that proclamation mean that it's time for CFOs to lead their companies with a rolled-up-sleeves approach to address the fundamental tenets of running a successful business. While in the not-so-distant past it was possible to create business models that failed to provide any immediate ROI -- or for that matter, profitability -- within the first five years, now we must return to the basics.

In the past few months, we've been able to see a shift in what determines a successful e-commerce company. The primary question that should be asked of all new online companies is, "Could this business exist before the Internet?"

Just because you can go online doesn't mean you should. Certainly we can all think of companies that were created solely because the technology allowed an online adventure. As the trends continue to emerge, it is becoming evident that the formation of "pure play" companies is decreasing, and it is the "bricks-and-mortar" companies' evolution to "clicks and mortar" that is shaping the current Internet economy.

With clicks and mortar in mind, what is the best use of the Internet? To use more new economic vernacular, the Internet is an enabler. Although the media has been quick to announce that "the sky is falling" in the e-commerce world, opportunities remain for companies to grow with their Internet strategies. Indus try experts concur that the Internet is most successful when it "enables" companies to integrate their Web sites with existing fulfillment, logistics and marketing.

For example, Imaginair, the company known for its aero [TM] brand of products like the Aerobed, realized that it needed to reach out to consumers who...