Bilingual Web site courts Hispanic women

NEW YORK -- Retailers and suppliers interested in tapping into the Hispanic market will be posed with a new online partnering opportunity with the launch of eviva.net, which its founder touts as the Web's first bilingual online network and marketplace for Hispanic women.

The site plans to offer a wealth of information for Hispanic professional women interested in health and financial issues. It also will serve as an outlet for consumer products.

Aliza Sherman, founder of eviva.net, also founded Cybergrrl Inc., an online publishing and marketing company. She founded her new online venture because she believes Hispanic needs should be more aggressively addressed.

"The Hispanic consumer has a spending power of $350 billion a year, and much of that [goes toward] health and beauty care products," said Sherman, who is of Mexican descent.

Much of this buying power comes from eviva.net's target customers: Hispanic women who are 18 to 34 years old. Women make up 30 percent of the more than 7 million U.S. Hispanics online today.

Hispanic women "are entering college, moving up the corporate ladder and starting businesses at an unprecedented rate. There have been no bilingual resources online that provide them with the information and connections they need professionally," Sherman said.

Sherman's co-founder of Eviva LLC is Amy Ormond, who created an early online pharmacy for women. Sherman and Ormond are talking to a range of potential partners, including both suppliers and retailers who are looking to gain Hispanic foot traffic.

"It only makes sense for [mass retailers] to get serious about Hispanics. They are loyal customers," Ormond said.

For brick-and-mortar retailers, eviva.net could perform educational tasks at computer-equipped kiosks in the beauty sections of stores. For suppliers, eviva.net offers a customer base for testing new products. The Web site will serve both retailers and suppliers by conducting online surveys of its users, generating valuable market data. The site also will recommend and merchandise products for the Hispanic woman professional.

The launch of eviva.net was expected shortly at press time. Management deals were being ironed out with unnamed Hispanic women executives who are expected to fill marketing, advertising and public relations roles. Sherman said she would reveal marketing and advertising plans after eviva.net launches.

Ormond noted that hitting their target audience will not be as expensive or erratic as trying to reach a more general market. "The attractiveness in [the Hispanic] market is you can be very surgical in marketing," she said. "You can pinpoint the market by looking at a map, and our marketing strategy will reflect that."

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