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Join date : 2011-01-09
 | | Subject: Why an existing traditional firm must sell on the web Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:51 pm | |
| Why an existing traditional firm must sell on the web
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An existing firm will probably have to complement (possibly
not replace) its business using e-commerce forced by new and
existing competitors.
We mentioned Barnes & Noble. This is a traditional,
giant chain of bookstores in the US. Amazon.com started as a
web retailer of books and shortly thereafter B&N was forced
to establish a web store, too. The traditional stock brokers like
Merrill Lynch are, reluctantly, trading shares on the web (at
much lower commissions than they charge for their
conventional service) forced by low cost web brokers such as
E-Trade.
The traditional shopping mall is not going to disappear,
but is certainly under siege. Are the owners of the malls
worried? At least one of them is. The Wall Street Journal
reported that the owners of The Saint Louis Galleria, a 170-
store mall, prohibited tenants who operate the stores from
advertising the sale of their products on the web.
. The opportunities for start-ups
Imagination is the limit. From an ambitious objective of
competing head to head with the giants (as Amazon.com
does) to a housewife wanting to sell hand-made dolls, all is
possible with e-commerce.
Establishing a business like Amazon.com still costs a lot
of money, although much less than opening 500 or 1000
traditional stores. But Yahoo, Amazon.com and many others
are offering to sell anyone's wares on the web, no matter how
small the volume of sales might be. Many companies,
including IBM and CNET Store.com, will open an ecommerce
store for you at a reasonable, affordable price.  | |
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