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E-COMMERCE
- May
2001 by Claude Hammond
Thousands of Kentucky products will be available online at a website scheduled for rollout later this month. The website – www.kentuckyvirtual.com – will identify, promote, sell and distribute a wide range of products via the Internet. “We hope to have between 5,000 and 7,000 products available by the fall Christmas shopping season. Already, we’ve got a list of a thousand core products that will be available,” said Mark Kaser, executive director of the Kentucky Wood Products Competitiveness Corporation (KWPCC), the organization developing the website. KWPCC and its strategic partners already have targeted more than 4,000 craftspeople, including wood products manufacturers, visual and performing artists, makers of fine musical instruments, food producers, publishers and other manufacturers based in Kentucky. The KWPCC is a quasi-government corporation based in Frankfort. It will manage the site with support from Kentucky State Parks, the Value-Added Foods Division of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the Kentucky Crafts Marketing Program and the Kentucky Arts Council. The effort represents the first joint marketing effort made by these entities. The wide range of products offered online will include everything from Appalachian crafts to auto parts, furniture and gourmet food products. “Everything that will be sold on the site will be made or grown in the Commonwealth,” Kaser said. “We’re very excited about this. Even though I’m affiliated with the KWPCC, the site will offer products for sale that come from an even wider spectrum of businesses than our membership. “We are working with people in horticulture, as well as producers of beef, shrimp, catfish, country hams and other agricultural products. As it is developed, the website will include internal buying groups that will be able to purchase things wholesale, as well as providing surplus and discounted products.” A logistics and fulfillment center for www.kentuckyvirtual.com is being developed by Privity Solutions just off of Interstate 65 in Edmonson County, near the Park City exit. According to Kaser, the advertising budget for the site is $500,000. The KWPCC leader is also optimistic that his organization will receive $1.6 million from the state’s tobacco settlement funds for the project. “We have the only sales and marketing grant application being considered,” he said. “Using this high-tech tool to promote and market Kentucky-made products is just one more step in our overall efforts to bring the New Economy to the Commonwealth,” said Gov. Paul Patton. “Kentucky officials, particularly Kentucky Wood Products and elected officials familiar with the concept, made the best case for us to participate,” said Ron Miller, CEO of Privity Solutions. Miller gave particular credit to Kaser, from whom the idea originated, and to the cooperation of House Speaker Jody Richards, state Sen. Richie Sanders and Edmonson County Judge Executive N.E. Reed, who helped assemble an incentive package for the development of the fulfillment center. “They made the strongest case and ultimately that was what made us choose the Edmonson County Industrial Park for the facility,” Miller said. Other states have approached Miller about creating similar facilities to help market products by their native corporations. Products selected for the Kentucky program will also be promoted through 50 Kentucky State Park gift shops as well as the website. Pilot projects will be underway later this month in two state parks. Kaser said that the site could especially benefit most small cottage-type industries that employ five or less people. “Most of them do not have access to state-of-the-art e-commerce marketing and promotion. Those located in remote areas often have difficulty with packing, shipping and fulfillment of delivery. Our kentuckyvirtual.com has been designed to handle these logistical and fulfillment problems for them more efficiently and at lower cost. “I
think kentuckyvirtual.com is the next logistical step in
the state’s ongoing efforts to use the Internet to
create a strong and diverse economy for the 21st
Century,” said House Speaker Jody Richards.
“Kentucky-made products are second to none and this
cooperation among the producers will ensure more people
outside the Commonwealth discover that.” |
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