An example of an E-Commerce failure and its causes

The example of e-commerce failure is Pets.com which is running the business through online. Pets.com is the latest internet company which had shut down. The business which is carry out by Pets.com is selling pets such as puppies and cats. Everyone can choose the type of pets they want and even the age and gender of the pets.

However, Pets.com is making a failure in running the business through online. This is because Pets.com does not offered a convincing reason to buy pets through online. Moreover, the buyer who wants to buy a pet can be more easily find pets in any pet shop which is nearer in their place. In addition, the delivering and the supplying of the pets food to the consumers is not convenience since they can buy the pets food from the grocery.

Another reason that the consumers do not prefer to shop online is because of the time consuming in receiving their pet. The consumers can only receive their pet after few days after they make an order. As if the pets cannot be received on time, it may reduce the trustworthy of the company on their services they had been provided. From this reason, consumer will be persuaded to buy pets from shop rather than online.

Other than that, it is not a good environment for business to customer (B2C) for Internet companies. Furthermore, it is difficult for Internet companies to provide a convenience place for the consumer especially Pets.com. Whenever the consumers would like to request about the problems that have been faced by their pets, they probably cannot get the answer directly from the supplier or seller. They may be required to contact them through online and get the reply from the supplier.

In conclusion, although doing business online has a great prospect, a company still has to consider various matters before conducting business through online.


Related links:
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-248230.html

http://www.pets.com/

An example of an E-Commerce success and its causes

There are several websites operating e-commerce business in the world. Among them are eBay, Amazon.com and others. Basically, these websites provides a space for buying and selling products through internet. However, not all website commencing online trading business is successful. Being ranked the top e-commerce website in the world, Amazon.com has several key strategies that lead to their achievement since the beginning of this website.

Amazon.com was started by selling only books through online. However, in 1995, they started to change the variety of their goods from books to other types of goods such as DVDs and electronics as required by customers. Since then, they started to sell various categories of products through online which include books, electronic products, home products, grocery, and others. Until today, they have 31 products categories which fulfill 49 million active customer’s needs.

Besides the variety of goods available in Amazon.com, they also provide clear and user-friendly features for sellers and buyers. Amazon requires sellers to post high-quality images of their products to attract buyers from viewing, and selection of product can be done by choosing from the catalog provided in the website. A 12-Digit Universal Product Code (UPC) helps their customers to accurate allocate the products of their favorite.

To provide convenience to their customers, Amazon requires the sellers to submit keywords and a title for their products before the items are posted on the website. Keywords can help buyers to search for the products they desired. After the selection process, buyers can add the items to a “Buy Box” and the total price of the items will be computed by the website.

Reliability is one of the main factors of success in business. Therefore, Amazon provides order and shipping confirmation to ensure the orders are shipped on time. Moreover, this can help to improve their reputation and reliability of sales. Buyers can also rate their experience in the feedback system in the website. This system ensures Amazon improves their services at all time and makes correction whenever there is a complaint from buyers. In addition, Amazon requires all sellers must accept returns from their customers if there are material differences between the items and the descriptions provided in the website. Sellers are also required to respond as soon as possible to claims and a refund is issued if necessary.

By having all the mentioned features, Amazon ranked the top of Internet Retailer’s annual top 400 lists, ahead of their competitors which includes Dell Inc, eBay, and Office Depot Inc.

Related links:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/05/tech/main706351.shtml
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/600-secrets-to-amazons-success
http://ssc.channeladvisor.com/strategies-amazon-success
http://www.amazon.com/

Revenue Model for Google, EBay & Amazon.com

The 5 Revenue Models

Sales : Revenue from sales od goods or services.

Transaction fees : Commssions paid on volume of transactions.

Subcription fees : Monthly or yearly fixed amount paid to get some services.

Advertising fees : Payment from advertisers.

Affiliate fees : Commisions for referring customers.


Revenue model of Google

Google is a search engine which focuses on the internet search solution and advertising solution. Google’s main revenue engine is online advertising. It generated itas revenue more than 90% from advertising fees. According to the research, Google reported that the revenue increased from USD 5.2 million to USD 5.51 billion in year 2009’s first quarter if compare with the first quarter of year 2008. In year 2009, Google’s net income is $1.42 billion. It has increased 8.4% if compare with the net income in year 2008 which was $1.31 billion.

Basically its main products or services included Google AdWords and Google Adsense. Google AdWords is a “pay per click advertising program” which will show the sponsored links of a particular product on the right hand side of screen if a user searches Google search engine. Google recognize the amount charge on the advertisers as revenues when their advertisements are published in the magazines. Besides that, Google Adsense is an advertising serving program which implement by the Google. It allows the owner of website to post the text, image, and video advertisement on their websites. Revenue is counted base on a per click per-thousand-ads-displayed basis. This program consists of Adsense for search and Adsense for content. Google advertisers have to pay Google each time once the advertisement is clicked by users which is displayed on the Google Network member’s site. Another service is Froogle which is easier to search information of the products for sales online. It is a price engine website launched by Google.


Related links:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/163306/google_profit_and_revenue_up_in_q1.html
http://organicspam.com/google_revenue_model.asp




Revenue model of Ebay EBay’s revenue model is transaction fees. It is an online auction which allows the businessman or individual buy and sells products or services in the whole world. EBay has more than 2 million items for auctions daily. EBay generates revenue based on transaction fees such as insertion fees, promotional fees, and final value fees. When individual post an item on the EBay, he or she will be charged a fee from EBay as insertion fee. If that item is sold, the individual will be charged by an additional fee which is final value fee. Promotional fees are charged for additional listing option in order to attract the buyers.

In addition, half.com which is a subsidiary of EBay offers items at a fixed price. The items include books, music, movie, video games, and video games consoles. EBay is generated revenue through sales revenue model because it charges 15% commission of the completed sales. Furthermore, EBay is also generated revenue from advertising fees. It draws user’s attention by posting advertisement on the website.

Related links:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.htmly.com/help/sell/fees.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebay#Profit_and_transactions


Revenue model of Amazon

Amazon.com is a well known online shopping. The Chief Executive of Amazon, Jeffrey P. Bezos said that Amazon contains 16 million items for sales. The items included books, movies, music, computer, electronic, toys, sports, and so on. Amazon.com is generated revenues through sales revenue models because it can make the sales of products or services from users. Moreover, it also is using transaction fees because it allows individual sell products directly by using Amazon.com. Amazon.com will charge a fee on the sales price as commission.

Furthermore, Amazon.com earns affiliates fees because it is pioneer affiliate partnership marketing. A website owner can create an online store to sell the products of Amazon.com. The website owner is not allowed to sell their own products. Website owner will sell the products from Amazon.com’s store and earn referral fees on the products purchased by the website visitors. That fee normally is in the range from 4% to 10% of the product price.


Related link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com

The History and Evolution of E-Commerce

E-commerce is the process of buying, selling or exchanging products, services and information via computer network. As a result, the trading activities are available at anytime and anywhere provided you have the computer and the internet connection.

In the late 1970s, the process of commercial transaction was being executed electronically with the help of the technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).From the 1990s onwards, enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing were included in E-commerce.

In 1991 Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first web browser, WorldWideWeb.In 1994 Netscape was arrived, which allowed easier access to electronic commerce.The year of 1995 could not be forgotten as it marked the beginning of two giants in the E-commerce business - Amazon and eBay. Often, many sellers use eBay and Amazon to take advantage of the exposure and setup convenience of such sites.

Indeed, E-commerce has evolved from online billboards to a fully functional, personalized shopping experience over the past decade. While there were admittedly a few bumps along the road, the holiday shopping season from 1994 through 2004 is full of crucial milestones of Internet pioneers and technology innovators.

The web is changing from a document delivery system to an application platform. Thus, Web 2.0 was introduced in 1999 and it refers to a supposed second generation of internet based services that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among internet users.

Today, as we are the online users, the E-commerce has allowed us to carry out the exchange activities without the barriers of time or distance.From E-commerce's history and evolution, we know that as technologies change, E-commerce has attracted a lot of people make use of the internet and the web to transact business conveniently.

Additional source:

Source from: http://newmedia.medill.northwestern.edu/courses/nmpspring01/brown/Revstream/history.htm

Related links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_commerce
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2
http://www.flysyk02.netfirms.com/Ecommerce/History.htm
http://www.ecommerce-land.com/history_ecommerce.html
http://www.ecommerce-journal.com/articles/electronic_commerce_aka_e_commerce_history
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Evolution-of-E-Commerce&id=1517989