Excerpt from E-Business Report
Leveraging the e-Business Marketplace
An entirely new paradigm, enabled by e-Businesses, is rapidly beginning to
shape. Business will no
longer use manual methods to sell their products. Instead, business transactions will become seamless as buyers are
linked through an electronic network. The results will be dramatic: transaction processing will be
largely automatic, supplier relationships will be sealed electronically,
service will be significantly improved, and costs will be reduced. In fact, e-procurement strategies will shift from cost reduction
to revenue enhancement.
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As shoppers experience the convenience and highly personalized
service of the Internet,
traditional
retailers will be required to be more customer focused, and to
sell through non-store as well as retail channels.
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The history of retailing is marked with a number of watershed events that reshaped the industry. Among these are the advent of new retail formats such as the discount department store and the introduction of new technologies such as the POS terminal. These events are what Intel’s Chairman, Andy Grove, calls "strategic points of inflection" a time in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change.
Today, the Internet and on-line shopping are bringing the industry to another strategic point of inflection. The power and flexibility of electronic commerce are raising consumers’ expectation levels and changing their shopping behavior. The Internet has given consumers more sources for merchandise, greater convenience, more information, and greater facility for comparison-shopping. As a result, the industry is about to undergo a major
transformation.
The retailers that adapt to the expectations of these more demanding consumers will succeed. But the old formulas will not work with these consumers; nor will the old ways counter the new competition the on-line
merchants.
A Two-Pronged Strategy for Success
(Name) Consulting has developed a strategy to help retailers succeed in this new environment. The strategy is based on the belief that retailers who create strong customer relationships will survive and win.
The strategy has two components:
To operate across multiple channels, enabling consumers to make purchases through whatever channels best suit them.
To become more customer-centric, and have customer expectations drive all strategic, product, and technological decisions.
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The
following pages outline the steps to employing this strategy and
aligning your organization with your customers’ expectations.
Excerpt from Book-Length Study for Consulting Firm
"The Internet and the Automotive Industry"
Forrester Research, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, analysis firm, reports there were more than 50 online car-buying services in the United States as of September 1998.
According to the J.D. Power 1999 Dealer Satisfaction with Online Buying Services Study (The Power Report, April 1999), more than one-fourth (28%) of all dealer principals are currently under contract with at least one buying service. That's double the number from the previous year's study. And dealers believe these outside lead-generating companies are doing a better job for their dealerships' sales departments than their own web pages are doing. Dealerships receive an average of 37 leads each month from their services, 61 percent of which are serious shoppers.
A NADA survey reported in Automotive News (October 1997) that more than half of all new-car dealerships in the U.S. had Web sites; 40 percent of those without a site at the time planned to have one in six months.
Excerpt from Report on E-Business
Web Site Purposes
Responses to this E-business survey indicate that about three-out-of-four retail companies (76%) currently have a functioning Web site, and two-out-of-three without a site plan to have one, probably within a year.
Half the companies without a site say they do not know why they don't have one. Twenty percent, however, say a site would be "too costly." Others, in smaller numbers, say they have no need for a Web site, are not interested, or are not sure of its value.
Strategic Purposes and the Web Site
Of those that have a Web site, the number one reason for doing so is to gain competitive advantage. Forty-two percent of responding retailers cite that purpose. Twenty-two percent maintain a Web site to achieve competitive parity. Some 38 percent, however, say their web site is not strategic.
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