Bricks to clicks

by Ed McMahon

Gone are the days when managers could throw money at the Web in the hope that some of it would stick. An unplanned approach is risky. Just ask Levi Strauss and Toys "R" Us, and CD Universe. Over the past two Christmas sesasons, Levi Strauss and Toys "R" Us each suffered sales losses and brand damage when the seasonal demand overwhelmed their distribution capabilities and they failed to deliver orders taken on-line. And in January 2000 a security crisis threatened to sink CD Universe when an on-line hacker hijacked almost 350,000 credit card numbers and threatened to post them on his Web site unless he was paid a ransom. But the Internet is here to stay, and many businesses have figured out how to make it work. Look at Dell, which pioneered the direct sales of personal computers to end consumers in an industry that had until then relied on value-added resellers for the distribution of product to retail outlets. Dell has proven that selling on-line has unlimited potential when the go-to-