Implementation of E

When e-Cards were first offered online as a free electronic consumer service by Blue Mountain Arts in 1996, all companies in the greeting card business were compelled to take notice. The emerging e-Cards had all the appearances of what the future might look like for the greeting card business, which had reached the dreaded plateau stage for growth. However, offering a non-revenue producing service to Web-consumers meant that greeting card companies would have to dramatically reshuffle their long-term business plans.

In a move to combat Blue Mountain for online business, Hallmark Cards made the decision to charge a fee for their electronic online e-Card service. Being the largest greeting card company in the world, and having the image for elegant-looking cards—"For those who wish to send their very best!"—Hallmark was banking that electronic consumers would be willing to pay for higher quality online cards as well. It turned out to be a costly decision.

As a result of their free e-Card offerings, Blue Mountain emerged as the clear leader in Web-based greeting cards, procuring more than 65% of the electronic greeting cards market and more audience than all of their competitors combined (Press Release). Blue Mountain grew to become the 14th most-trafficked Web property, according to Media Metrix (October, 1999), and by last Fall were having over nine million unique users per month.

But what really rocked the eCommerce boat for greeting card companies was when Excite@Home purchased Bluemountain.com for $780 on October 25, 1999. When that happened, Hallmark threw in the towel and began to offer their e-Cards as a free service to their electronic customers as well.

The market for DaySpring Cards has always been more narrowly defined than Blue Mountain's and Hallmark's. Their business plan has been to provide a service for Christians, paying careful attention to their preferences. Unlike the typical greeting card companies whose sales have flattened out over the past several years, the Christian bookstore business (DaySpring's primary market) is still growing at a rate of 12% annually. DaySpring also estimates they have only reached a market of six-million Christian consumers out of a total of eighty-six million professing Christians—in the United States alone. However, they also realize that the Internet holds the key to their long-term future growth as well.

Therefore, the biggest challenge facing DaySpring is—how to provide a service of "communication and encouragement" online, and then finding a way to turn that electronic service into a revenue producer? This is actually quite exciting for the company as well, because technology is driving them to create and develop unique new services for Christians, and the Internet provides the avenue for offering these new ministries to everyone around the globe.

In late 1998, the managers at DaySpring began to get serious about developing a Web-site for their company. Steve Ritz, the Information Services Manager, formed a team from graphics, editorial, concept design, and himself. As the Web plans began to develop, it was clearly apparent that e-Cards would a free service which they would be offering from their main Internet site.

Because e-Cards would generate no direct revenue for the company, it was decided to use all "in-house" staff to develop the electronic cards. The first e-Cards offered were taken from existing card stock, scanned into the computer, and placed on the company's web server. Afterwards, it was observed that copyrights would have to be honored. Therefore, the resolution was made to use only existing cards which were created wholly within the company, and without any outside contractual commitments. The company's Web site officially opened in May, 1999, and twenty-five e-Cards were offered as a free service to all electronic consumers visiting their homepage.

It was then decided to make e-Cards part of the same developmental and design process which was being used for all the cards created within the company. Therefore, the only cards which would be used on their e-Card site would be either copies or re-designs of existing or developing card merchandise.

The following table shows the developing stages involved today in the creation of an e-Card for DaySpring:

Development Stages for Designing Greeting Cards
1. Recognition of Need	What captions are needed?
2. Concept Design	What direction to go? Existing art is pulled. Animation is created if going to be used for e-Cards
3. Creative Operations	A job ticket is made, and all raw materials needed for the job are brought together
4. Graphics	The fonts, color, and layout are tweaked
E-Card Route
5. File Placed on Web Server	Animation is added (if used), and HTML is tested
6. Editing	Final wording for captions are made
7. Go Live	E-Card is activated

Since no new designs are used for DaySpring's e-Cards, the developmental process only involves a re-assemble from existing stock or after a new product (card) has been created. After an e-Card is activated, it still may be tweaked a few more times, but that usually only involves captions, color, and fonts—not the art design itself.

Mr. Gildner is now in the process of creating a method to allow all primary participants involved in the e-Card developmental stages to post their work directly on the company's Web-server. By providing this option, developers can access the e-Cards at any time to make changes or editings as the design is being refined.

One of the questions which has been deliberated in the developmental stages has been how many e-Cards to offer? Blue Mountain offers around 10,000 while Hallmark offers about 1,000. DaySpring currently has 170 e-Cards online, and their latest goal is to add 25 new e-Cards per week.

DaySpring shares Hallmark's philosophy, which is to keep the focus on quality over quantity. Most e-Card users will only go three-four cards deep in their search before making a decision as to which e-Card to send. Therefore, Hallmark constantly reshuffles their e-Card positions on their site, making freshness the big issue. It is believed that e-Card sites like Blue Mountain try to do too much, which in the end lowers the quality of the end product.

The test market phase is probably the easiest part of the e-Card development process. Consumers are always online waiting to try out the latest offerings. Once a card is placed "live" on DaySpring's e-Card site, Web visitors have the immediate option of using the new e-Card product. Within a couple of days, the marketing department can detect whether the new e-Card is a winner or not. Usually there are only 2-3 very popular cards in each topical category which the consumers choose, while the rest are chosen on an irregular basis.

One of the most difficult transitions companies have had to make in the past few years is developing a Web site for their company which maintains their character and properly advertises their product. The format of the Internet is a totally different and non-traditional environment. As such, it may not produce new buyers for their product, but it does provide great world-wide exposure for their company.

Therefore, by being in the unique position to provide free e-Cards to visitors of their Web site, this new service furnishes incentive to bring people back to their company time and again. It provides an interactive hook for the consumer.

Regarding weaknesses of the e-Card program, DaySpring's managers felt that too many "part-time" people were involved in its design and development. Since the program was entirely developed "in-house" with no group or department having e-Cards as their only focus, this seemed to create some confusion and misunderstanding at times. However, now that Mr. Bos has been given the company's Internet site as his primary responsibility since January of this year, the development stages of e-Cards seem to be going much smoother.

The primary reason Excite@Home purchased Bluemountain.com last October was to bring new visitors to their site (nine-million per month). Their acquisition immediately jumped their Web audience rankings from 6th to 5th, overtaking Disney's Go Network who originally had that spot.

Similarly, DaySpring has been considering offering their e-Card services to other Christian companies who are desiring to increase their Web exposure and activity. By embedding DaySpring's e-Cards within other Christian companys' homepages, this service will no doubt provide a unique hook to site visitors and bring them back every time they want to send someone another Christian e-Card message. What could be better interactive advertising for a Web site than this?

Another addition being given considerable attention to DaySpring's e-Card site is to provide e-mail notification whenever the consumer's e-Cards are sent and viewed. There is a caution, however. The Internet is an information overload commodity already. As such, a company does not want to come across as an intruder using an unwanted push technology. Thus, if this service is to be added, the consumer will be given a choice whether to use that option or not.

It is evident that new technologies bring both new concerns and new opportunities for businesses today. Since these technologies have developed so quickly, there is little opportunity to learn from the experience of others. Therefore, companies must experiment on their own and find out what works for them and what doesn't. So far, it appears the track DaySpring has set for itself in regards to their early e-Cards development might just be the door which will open up the path for most of their future ministries.