CASE STUDY

Last year, online computer products and electronics e-taller and auctioneer Egghead.com Inc. was looking for ways to distinguish itself in a growing online marketplace.

The Menlo Park, Calif., company began adding features such as office supplies, DHL Worldwide Express delivery service and leasing options. Six months ago, it began in earnest to lay the groundwork to add its newest line: e-learning.

To create the e-learning program, Egghead partnered with e-education vendor Instruction Set Inc., Natick, Mass., to offer coursework to Egghead.com's customers. They will begin doing so, in a co-branded page on Egghead's Web site, this month.

The move is intended to expand the company's customer base, build customer loyalty and drive sales, said Merle McIntosh, Egghead's senior VPproduct and site management.

"The fact is, we've got a very, very broad business customer database today and several hundred thousand business customers," he said. "We want to make sure we've got everything they need to make sure they keep coming back to us."

The e-learning courses will be promoted through the company's existing online and off line marketing programs as "another one of the great offers that Egghead.com brings to its business customers," McIntosh said.

While Egghead offers some consumer goods, Egghead, page 18 such as sporting goods and travel packages, its primary target is small to midsize businesses.

Coming attractions

Egghead will feature about 350 of Instruction Set's web-based training courses, which primarily focus on information technology. The course offerings will be initially accessed via Egghead's Business Center area but will be integrated as an add-on offering sometime this month or next, McIntosh said. So, for example, if a customer buys Microsoft Office software, they would be asked if they want to be trained to use the product, he said.

The courses will not be free, though. Instruction Set will set the prices for the coursework it sells through the Egghead site; for every sale that Egghead cornpletes, it will earn a commission. Instruction Set will bill the customer.

"We are constantly looking for different products and services, particularly in the information technology area, that more fur ly round out our product offering and help our customer base," he said. "Clearly, training in the small- to medium-size business world is avery important aspect ofgrowing business:'

And by using an outside vendor, Egghead had to make little investment itself. "With the relationship we have with Instruction Set;' McIntosh said, "we'll do some stuff on our end to make sure that it's linked properly, and that we've got the right marketing going on, but all ofthe heavy lifting will be done by [them]."

McIntosh declined to estimate sales projections for the coursework. "I think it's a little early to call;' he said. "Weve been doing some internal studies that indicate this will be very well received by our customer base. ... We expect good things 11 El