We are familiar with going to a store and putting items in a shopping cart. Most times it’s at a brick-and-mortar operation. Increasingly, however, it’s online; so much so that companies that don’t compete well online, such as Borders books, get eaten up by the competition.
In marketing we talk about channels of distribution. The Internet is just another channel of distribution. For instance, you can buy and sell using online ad sites like Craigslist, Oodle and Kijiji. You can also e-mail a publication, use a browser to read a catalogue and use a form to electronically submit an order. In fact, two large companies, WorldPay and PayPal, provide payment processing capabilities to individuals and companies trading online for a fee based on the value of the transactions.
Is E-Business for You?
Take the example of Borders, which filed for bankruptcy. According to Mark Evans, former Director of Merchandise Planning and Analysis at Borders, replying to a question on quora.com, the money-saving decision to outsource Borders.com to Amazon.com caused the “branding, multi-channel strategy, and customer base (to) suffer.” And they “dropped the ball on e-books.”
