Dan Hesse Quotations

With all these mergers, the future is unclear. This is a transitional time for vendors like Jones.

Last year, online retail totaled over $65 billion, up 26% over the prior year. That doesn't include auctions and travel, which take the number well over $100 billion.

Online travel sales fared even better this year. The sector was up 35 percent versus 2002 and has more than more than doubled since 2001. Non-travel sales recovered impressively from war-related softness early in the year, with 2003 posting a healthy 22 percent total increase over 2002.

The simple fact is big budgets and optimization of search technology tend to win the battle.

The biggest surprise to us this year was the late-season surge in the week before Christmas. This occurred at a time when we usually see a pronounced drop-off in purchases. Instead, we saw a 57 percent growth surge driven by people buying online and picking up in stores as well as the commitment by online merchants to deliver in time.

We're this close, but we don't feel content by being this close. We're going to do everything we can to win the next game, to win the state title. That's what our goal has been from Day 1. We haven't told anyone anything otherwise. It's been our goal, and now we have a chance to achieve it.

While it's clear that a broad range of online merchants saw a strong season, multi-channel retailers were standouts this year. Many of the nation's leading retail brands flexed their muscle this season, with strategies including faster delivery options, significant site redesigns and effective cross-channel promotions.

Certainly, in the same way the Web has leveled the playing field for businesses of all sizes to compete, search has taken that one step further. It allows Mom and Pops to get that much closer to shoppers they wouldn't ordinarily come into contact with.

Retailers turn a profit by bringing in new merchandise and pushing self-purchase categories like lingerie, shoes and denim. Retailing is an event-oriented business. Look at any national holiday, retailers seize on it and find a way to market heavily and drive traffic.

You see on the tape that they (the defendants) are celebrating. They are mugging for the camera and making crude comments. They're dancing around. They know that she's unresponsive, they know that she's unconscious. They're deciding what to do next. They're competing with each other to see who can do the worst things to her.