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The broad question seems to imply the technical nuts and bolts behind the Internet. What's more important for business is how the Internet business environment works. The Internet is a way for people to connect to people, for businesses to connect to other businesses, and people to connect to businesses. It enables new kinds of personal and business relationships. Often the new relationships are far more important than revenue that can be directly traced to online activity.
In traditional terms, the Internet can be used for:
Also, remember that the Internet has no physical boundaries. Yes, you run into the traditional differences of currency, laws, regulations, and national/ethnic customs that relate to national boundaries, but your information can flow freely and at no incremental cost to anywhere in the world.
The example of a car rental company provides good opportunities for creativity -- coming up with new ideas that take full advantage of Internet capabilities.
First, remember that the Internet is a business environment. Once you start to do business there, you can and should take advantage of all the related businesses and capabilities that are already out there. Partner like crazy.
For instance, car rental businesses have natural affinities with airlines (most pickup and dropoff points are at airports), hotels, restaurants, entertainment, vacation resorts, and business resources commonly used by business travelers (e.g., Kinkos). And since they eventually sell their vehicles as used, they are in the used car sales business.
See if you can partner with and/or advertise at map sites like Mapquest, so when someone gets driving directions in the Tri-State area they immediately get an email or a popup Web page that tells them how much it would cost to rent a car for that trip and where they could pick up and drop off the car.
Likewise, partner and/or advertise with airline-related sites like Travelocity to provide car rental info whenever anyone plans a flight to the Tri-State area.
Check the chapters in my Online shopping book about cars and about travel. They are online at http://www.samizdat.com/shopcars.html and http://www.samizdat.com/shoptrav.html
Consider offering "frequent renter" credits, like frequent flier miles and partnering with airlines so travels could use their airline miles for credits toward car rentals and their car rental points toward airfare and also toward credits at hotels and even restaurants.
Consider partnering with resort area hotels (your business is situated in the Tri-State area, with lots of ski resorts and summer resorts) to offer vacation packages that include car rentals.
Make it easy for people to see their credit/miles online and to understand what they can turn them in for.
Also consider online matching systems to come up with new ways of matching renters with particular vehicles -- to maximize the use of the vehicles in your inventory plus the satisfaction of the customers. (NB -- I belong to an online chess club that has a very simple but slick way of matching players with one another that might be adaptable to this environment).
You could come up with business models that have never been tried before in the car rental industry. For instance, let a renter pick a particular car and particular model to be available at a specific time at a specific place and pay a reservation fee to make sure it will be there then (paying for the time that it will be idle, waiting for this person's arrival). Also, give renters opportunities to get vehicles are little or even no cost when they deliver the vehicles to destination drop off points that need them and at the times when they are needed. Offer dynamic online pricing, based on the current supply and demand at particular locations -- but requiring renter commitment to take advantage of low rates, paying in advance online.
Also, don't just focus on cost. For business travellers, time is often far more important. Do everything you can to make it easy and fast for someone to pick up and drop off a vehicle that they have reserved online. For an extra price, even offer to have someone waiting at curbside when your plane comes in so you don't have to take a shuttle bus to the rental area. Also, for a price, offer vehicle pickup at any time anywhere in the Tri-State area (instead of drop off). The customer tells the company where and when they want to get rid of the vehicle and an employee is there waiting for them. Similarly, offer to deliver rental cars to customers anywhere anytime (for a fee).
Also, check the business model of Zipcar at www.zipcar.com and
see if you might be able to adapt it to some aspect of your car rental
business. For instance, instead serving a corporate customers with
multiple car rentals week after week, offering such a customer a zipcar-style
shared car ownership program. The corporation could buy one or more vehicles
(through you) that would be stationed and serviced at your sites in
urban areas and at airports; and authorized employees of that corporation
could simply pick up and drop off those cars zipcar-style. Or the corporation
could lease instead of
buy. And you might use some (if not all) of your used cars in this
program (instead of selling them).
Think service -- whatever you can do to make the customer happy, to help the customer quickly and efficiently accomplish whatever he/she is making the trip for, whether vacation/entertainment or business.
As far as possible, take clues from your existing customers as to what they would most appreciate. Maybe have info from car experts and local travel/tourism info. Link to or partner with and get live feeds from the sites that provide frequent updates on skiing conditions at resorts in your area. Make it easy for your customers to get info about weather and driving hazards, as well as local events, hotels, entertainment, restaurants, bed & breakfasts, etc.
Remember that as the word "web" implies, businesses in this environment are interlinked and interrelated in multiple interesting and potentially profitable ways. Think of the whole set of activities/needs that car renters are typically involved in. You aren't just renting a car, you are in the business of making trips successful.
I hope these ideas help.
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