6. Products and services in E-Commerce

Question 1

E-Commerce services

Answer 1

• E-commerce in the service sector offers extraordinary opportunities to deliver information, knowledge and transaction efficiencies
• major service industry groups: finance, insurance, real estate, travel, consulting, marketing

Two Categories:

• Transaction Brokers = acting as intermediary to facilitate a transaction
• Hands-on servie provider = servie with direct and personal interaction with client

Features:

• Service Industries are knowledge and information- intense, which makes them uniquely suited to E-Commerce applications
• Personalization and customization, but level differs depending on type of service

Question 2

Online Media

Cannibalization vs. Complementary

Answer 2

• Cannibalization = reduction in sales as a result of the introduction of a view product by the same producer
• Complementary = INternet and traditional media are complementary and mutually supportive rather than substituive
• Internet users
  
  • spend relatively less time with traditional media
  • consume more media of all types than non-internet users
  • often “multitask” with media consumption

Question 3

Media convergence

Answer 3

= phenomenon onvolving the interconnection of information and communication

• Technological: develpment of hybrid devices that can combine the functionality of two or more existing media platforms into one single device
• Content = convergence in the design, production and distribution of content → new tools for digital editing and processing
• Industry = merger of media enterprises into firms that create and cross-market contetn on diffrent platforms

Question 4

The retail sector

Answer 4

• Most important theme in online retailing is effort to integrate online and offline operations

Question 5

E-Commerce retail: the early vision

Answer 5

1. Reduced search and transaction costs; customers able to find lowest prices
2. Lowered market entry costs, lower operating costs, higher efficiency (at marketing and order fulfillment)
3. Traditional physical store erchants forced out of business
4. Some industries would be disintermediated (wegfall)

• Few of these assumptions were correct
• Instead, structure of retail marketplace has not been revolutionized
• Internet has created new venues for multi-channel firms and supported a few pure-play merchants