Online Strategy - America Online Inc., Adobe Systems Inc., Compuware Inc.

Businesses use online strategies to plan their Internet-based activities. Quite often, online strategies are designed to work in conjunction with other business strategies not related to the Internet. For example, traditional retailers like department store chain J.C. Penney, clothing chain The Gap, and book giant Barnes & Noble developed online strategies in the late 1990s, hoping to supplement existing revenues with online sales. In addition, leading software firms like Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. sketched out their strategies for developing a leading presence on the Web by offering suites of Internet-related technology and services in addition to their more traditional products. An online strategy can also form the core of a company's business plan, as is the case with dot.com upstarts of all kinds such as Amazon, CDNow, and Ebay.