By SCOTT FLANAGIN
Times Staff Writer |
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Where in the world can you go to order a pizza, play some games,
read a newspaper, get a coupon, check the stocks, sell something, buy something, chat with
someone, research a term paper, mail a letter? The list could go on forever. And so does
the World Wide Web, where all this is possible with the click of a mouse. |
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For business owners, the Internet is a 24-hour-7-days-a-week medium. It is being used for
advertising, informing, buying and selling. From delivering pizzas to selling things at
online auction, local business is booming on the Internet. |
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A man in brown safari gear standing atop a mountain greets visitors to the Virtual GraphX,
Inc. website at www.nwahotpsots.com/. |
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"Cavalier Joe is a faceless individual. He is everybody," said Will Louden, NWA
HotSpots project manager. "It is a jungle out there and Cavalier Joe is your guide to
the hot spots." |
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Movie listings for Malco Theaters, coupons, and trivia can all be found on the HotSpots
website. |
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"Our founding mission was to take the printed word, which is the publication (NWA
HotSpots Survival Guide), and the digital word, which is the Internet, the exploding new
mass media, and marry the two," Louden said. |
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*Above, this Ebay Auction website allows anyone to register for auctioning or bidding on
items from around the world. Experienced Denim is using the site to sell items that may
not sell at the Fayetteville store. Right, the nwahotspots website has a trivia game,
online coupons, and an online ordering service for a local Pizza Hut. |
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Combining a coupon book in print with a website means more exposure for the advertisers in
both, he said. Advertisers with NWA HotSpots include Sonic, K-mart, and Pizza Hut. |
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"We want to create for the Internet, a user system that encompasses day-to-day life
tasks. We want to make taking care of those chores and tasks easier," Louden said.
"Complete them from the comfort of your own |
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| home or office." |
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"We are basically the only web system in the region that you can go to and listen to
some music, play some online games, order a pizza, find out when K-mart is open and when
they close, find out what's the hottest coupon they are running, and apply to win a
bicycle," Louden said. |
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"You can log onto our system, receive a company's coupon if they have one, check
their hours of operation, and where their locations are in the Northwest Arkansas
area," he said. "We provide links to businesses' web pages or we are in a
position to design pages for companies that don't have them. We receive in the
neighborhood of 3,000 to 4,000 hits per week, and that is growing at an exponential
rate," he said. The site has already won four awards for website design and
innovation. Pizza anyone? |
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A trivia contest is one of the biggest draws
to HotSpots, but a new way of getting a pizza delivered to the front door may be the
hottest spot. |
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The Pizza Hut online ordering system is exclusive in Northwest Arkansas to the NWA
HotSpots website. "We are asking the public bear with us in our quest to bring this
product online. It is a new technology, and a this juncture it is developing on an hourly
basis," Louden said. "We are really poised to release the most efficient system
possible." |
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John Elledge, manager of Pizza Hut on Leverett Avenue, said his superiors made the
decision to get online ordering with NWA HotSpots, and he is pleased with their decision. |
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"I’d love it if everything came over the Internet for us," Elledge said. |
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While the Leverett Pizza Hut store has a wide service area, the online ordering is now
limited to delivery on and around the University of Arkansas campus. The UA brings Elledge
90 percent of his business overall, he said. |
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"Who has one phone line? Who eats pizza? Who uses the Internet," Elledge asked.
"College Kids." |
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"It is targeted towards college areas," Elledge said about Pizza Hut’s
online ordering. "A lot of the kids don't have two phone lines, and ordering a pizza
from Pizza Hut online makes it so much easier. If I am on the Internet I |
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| don't want to leave it. I am looking at something I am interested
in." |
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However, while the Pizza Hut online ordering system is still new, the customer will have
to get off the Internet and wait for a phone call from the store before the pizza will be
delivered. |
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"In the beginning for verification we will have to call them back," Elledge
said. |
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While this may be inconvenient and defeat the purpose of ordering online, it will have to
be done initially so the customer knows "we actually are doing this and we got their
order," Elledge said. "And at the same time we have to say 'are you really
ordering this?' I don't want to send my drivers out with 100 Internet orders and nobody is
there." |
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Elledge said he hopes for a 10 percent increase in sales through the Internet, but since
the system is so new he really has no idea what to expect. |
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"One percent is an increase in sales, and that is what we are going for. This is so
experimental," he said. " How many people are going to visit (the website)? We
are sending out booklets and flyers and everything we can to get this thing going. We are
trying to push it. I would love it if we just became an Internet store." |
*Picture referenced not available. Portions of
this article have been edited for pictorial content. |
Republished with the permission of the
Northwest Arkansas Times. |
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