WEB-COMMERCE(CS7E408)-2 credits

We are in the age of knowledge management and instant communication and

consequently in the midst of an electronic revolution, the impact of which on the economy is
much more profound than that caused by the industrial revolution. This modern-day revolution,
at the global level has manifested itself in the form of many innovations and breakthroughs and
giant leaps in internetworking technology. With these new opportunities, people can now
transcend the barriers of time and distance with the internet’s speed.
With the inception of the Web, Organizations and individuals are more and more
making use of it to create new business ventures. The WWW is not only a definitive source of
information, but also astounding business opportunity as well. People throughout the world are
venturing out onto the web for buying and selling goods and services. The Web has indeed
proved to be a boon to business, drawing its power from the flow of easy and instantons
transactions, worldwide. Online business is thriving and more and corporate companies are
joining the fray of electronic transactions. Thus the era of E-commerce has established a
significant synergy between the use of digital information and computerized business.
E-commerce refers to aspects of online business involving exchanges among
customers, business partners and vendors. E-commerce has increased the speed and ease with
which business partners and vendors. E-commerce has increased the speed and ease with which
business can be transacted today, resulting in intense competition between enterprises.
Companies are at the crossroads, with just two vistas ahead of them-either go online or go out
of business. Once the choice of online business is made, further roadblocks are encountered:
which business model to adopt; which measurement strategies and tactics will make business
successful. How to explore opportunities, understand limitations, and issues? The solution is
to gain a deeper insight into the e-commerce strategies.

UNIT 1
E-commerce in Indian business context and Business models: Definition of e-commerce,
advantages of e-commerce, disadvantages of e-commerce, e-business models based on
relationship of transaction parties– B2C: Working procedure, B2B: Advantages Tools and
Techniques, C2C and C2B; e-business models based on relationship of transaction types –
Brokerage model: characteristics –advantages- price discovery mechanisms, Aggregator model.
Self learning components:- e-commerce opportunities for industries , advertising model,
subscription model.

Definition of e-commerce
E-commerce refers to aspects of online business involving exchanges among customers,
business partners and vendors.
Ecommerce, also known as electronic commerce or internet commerce, refers to the buying
and selling of goods or services using the internet, and the transfer of money and data to
execute these transactions.
For our understanding, e-commerce can be defined as any form of business transaction in which
the parties interact electronically.
A transaction in electronic market represents a number of interactions between parties. For
instance, it could involve several trading steps, such as marketing, ordering, payment and
support for delivery.
Electronic markets have three main functions such as :
(i)matching buyers and sellers
(ii)facilitating commercial transactions
(iii)providing legal infrastructure
The interaction between participants is supported by electronic trade processes that are
basically search, valuation, payment and settlement, logistics and authentication. The internet
and the world wide web allow companies to efficiently implement the key trading processes.
Electronic commerce (E-commerce) has become a buzzword for business over the fast few
years with increased awareness about the use of computer and communication technologies to
simplify business procedures and increase efficiency.
Combining a range of processes such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), electronic mail(e-
mail), World Wide Web (WWW), and Internet applications, e-commerce provides ways to
exchange information between individuals, companies and countries but most important of all
between commuters.
More simply, e-commerce is the movement of business onto the World Wide Web.
E-commerce comprises core business processes of buying, selling goods, services and
information over the Internet.

Advantages of E-commerce
1. 24*7 operation
Round the clock operation(Always, at any time of day) is an expensive proposition in the ‘brick
and mortar’ world (Means Tradition street side business that offers products and services to its
customers face to face in an office or store that the business owns or rents. Ex: The local grocery
store, the corner bank etc) ,while it is natural in the ‘click and conquer ‘ world.

2. Global reach
The net being inherently global, reaching global customers is relatively easy on the net compared
to the ‘world of bricks’

3. Cost of acquiring, serving and retaining customers

• It is relatively cheaper to acquire new customers over net because of 24*7 operations and its
global reach.
• Through innovative tools of ‘push’ technology (Meaning: Push technology is a service
that pushes information to the client from the server. Push services are often based on
information preferences expressed in advance. This is called a publish/subscribe model.
A client "subscribes" to various information "channels" provided by a server; whenever
new content is available on one of those channels, the server pushes that information
out to the client.) it is also possible to retain customers loyalty with minimal
investments.
4. An extended enterprise is easy to build
• In today’s world every enterprise is part of the ‘connected economy’; as such
enterprise need to be extended all the way to suppliers and business partners
like distributers, retailers and ultimately end-customers.
• The internet provides an effective way to extend our enterprise.
• Tools like enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management
(SCM) can easily be deployed over the internet, permitting amazing efficiency
in time needed to market, customer loyalty, on time delivery and eventually
profitability.
5. Disintermediation
Using the internet, one can directly approach the customers and suppliers, cutting
down on the number of levels and in process, cutting down the costs.
6. Improved customer service to your clients
It results in higher satisfaction and more sales.
7. Power to provide the ‘best of both the worlds’
It benefits the traditional business side by side with the internet tools.
8. A technology-based customer interface
• In a ‘brick and mortar business’ (Traditional business), customers conduct
transactions either face to face or over the phone with store clerks, account
managers or other individuals.
• In contrast, the customer service in electronic is a ‘screen to face’ interaction.
This includes PC-based monitors, ATM machines, PDA’s or other electronic
devices.
• Operationally, these types of interfaces place an enormous responsibility on the
organization to capture and represent the customer experience because there is
often no opportunity for direct human intervention during the encounter.
• If the interface is designed correctly, the customer will have no need for a
simultaneous or follow up phone conversation.
 • Thus, the ‘screen to customer’ interface has the potential to both increase
sales and decrease costs.
9. The customer controls the interaction
• At most websites, the customer is in control during screen to face interaction, in
that the web largely employs a ‘self-service’ model for managing commerce or
community-based interaction.
• The customer controls the search process, the time spent on various sites, the
degree of price/product comparison, the people with whom he or she comes in
contact and the decision to buy.
• The seller has much less power in the online environment due to the control and
information flows that the online world puts in customer’s hand.
• In a face-to-face interchange, the control can rest with either the buyer/seller
or the community member.
• The celler attempts to influence the buying process by directing the potential buyer
to different products or locations in the store overcoming price objections and
reacting in real item to competitive offering.
10. Knowledge of customer behaviour
• The firm can observe and track individual customer behaviour.
• Companies, through third party measurements firm such as Vividence and
Accure can track a host of behaviours on websites visited, length of stays on a
site, page views on a site, content of wish lists and shopping carts, purchases,
dollar amounts of purchases, repeat purchase behaviour and other metrics.
• With this information companies can provide one to one customization of their
offerings and companies can dynamically publish their storefronts on the web to
configure offerings to individual customers.
• This level of customer behaviour tracking is not possible in the brick and mortar
world.

11. Network economics

Network economics refers to business economic that benefit from the network effects.
Network effects as described by Metcalfe’s law, can be expressed as the situation
where the value of a product or service rises as a function of the number of other users
who are using the product.
Example: Rideshare: Uber
Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,LinkedIn
 Disadvantages of E-commerce
1. Some business processes may never lend themselves to electronic commerce.
Example: High-cost items (such as jewellery, antiques etc) may be difficult to inspect
from a remote location, regardless of any technologies that might be devised in the
future.
2. Many products and services require a critical mass of potential buyers who are well
equipped and willing to buy through the Internet.
3. Business often calculates the return on investment before committing to any new
technology. (This has been difficult to do with e-commerce, since the costs and benefits
have been hard to quantify. Costs, which are a function of technology, can change
dramatically even during short lived e-commerce implementation projects because the
underlying technologies are changing rapidly)
4. Many firms have had trouble in recruiting and retaining employees with technological,
design and business process skills needed to create an effective e-commerce
atmosphere.
5. The difficulty of integrating existing databases and transaction processing software
designed for traditional commerce into a software that enables e-commerce.
6. Many businesses face cultural and legal obstacles in conducting e-commerce (Some
consumers are still somewhat fearful of sending their credit card numbers over the
Internet. Other consumers are simply resistant to change and are uncomfortable
viewing merchandise on a computer screen than in person)

E-business models
• Business model is the method of doing business by which a company can sustain
itself, that is generate revenue(i.e income)
• Business model can be defined as an architecture for products, service and
information flow, including a description of business players their roles and
revenue sources.
• The business model spells out how a company makes money by specifying where
it is positioned in the value chain.
• Some models are quite simple. A company produces goods or services and sells it
to customers. If all goes well, the revenue from sales exceeds the cost of operation.
• Other models can be more complex. Example: Radio and television broadcasting.
The broadcaster is part of a complex network of distributors, content creators,
 advertisers and listeners or viewers. Who makes money and how much, it is not
always clear at the outset. The bottom line depends on many competing factors.
• A business model does not discuss how the business mission of the company will
be realized. The business model should be able to answer: How is competitive
advantage being built? What is the positioning? What is the marketing mix? Which
product strategy is followed?
Although there are many different ways to categorize e business models, they can be
broadly classified as follows.
1.E-business model based on the relationship of transaction parties
2.E-business model based on the relationship of transaction types.
[Link] by revenue model
A revenue model may comprise:
(a)product sales model that charges customers directly for the products or services they buy
(b)subscription model that charges a fixed monthly or annual rental for the service
(c) transaction fee model that charges a service fee based on volume and value of the
transactions offered. Transaction fee model charges a fee every time a transaction is made
through their platform. Ex: Ebay charges sellers a fee whenever an item is sold.
(4) Classification by distribution channel
A distribution channel may comprise:
(a)Direct marketing where manufacturers such as Dell , sony market etc directly from
company sites to individual sites to individual customers.
(b) pure play e-tailers who have no physical stores, only an online sales presence. Ex:
[Link]
(c) click and mortar retailers who are traditional retailers with a supplementary websites.
Ex: [Link]
E commerce can be classified according to the transaction parties
Model Description Examples
[Link] to Consumer Sells products or services Amazon,Flipkart, Bigbasket,
(B2C) directly to consumers Jabong,freshpicks,
Marjins,Bigbazar, Grofers

Paying and using Netflix at

home etc

[Link] to Sells products or services to SHOP2gether

Business(B2B) other business. Indiamart
Manufacturer selling/issuing Salesforce
goods to the retailer or
wholesaler. Alibaba
Amazon business
[Link] to Business selling to local, [Link]
Government(B2G) state and federal agencies. Business paying tax to the
Refers to businesses selling government
products, services or
information to governments
or government agencies.

(The government puts out

tenders. To put out tender
means to ask companies to
say formally how much they
would charge for a project.
Each formal submission is
called as ‘bid’. The
government selects one of
the bidders and that
company gets the B2G
contract.)
[Link] to Consumers sell directly to [Link]
Consumer(C2C) other consumers OLX
Quikr
 5. Consumer to Reverse of B2C,so the [Link]
Business(C2B) consumer provides a good or
Freelancer
some service to the company
Fiverr
Consumer fix price on their
own, which business accept Trulancer
or decline Amazon affliates
A single individual sells his
or her services to business

[Link] to B2E electronic commerce Online insurance policy

Employee(B2E) uses an intrabusiness management
network which allows
companies to provide
products/services to their
employees.

Business to Consumer (B2C)

• B2C is open system
• B2C e business includes retail sales, often called e-retail (or e-tail) and other online
purchases such as airline tickets, entertainment venue tickets, hotel rooms and share
of stocks.
• The combined brick and mortar/online business are also known as brick and click
companies Ex: Big bazaar
• B2C e-business models include virtual malls, which are websites that host many
online merchants.
Ex: [Link]
Virtual merchants: E-tailer that offer traditional or Web specific products or services only
over the internet.
Cataogue merchants: Some business supplement a successful traditional mail-order business
with an online shopping site or move to web-based ordering. These businesses are sometime
called catalogue merchants.
• Ex: [Link]
Some of the reason why one should opt for B2C are:
• Inexpensive costs, Big opportunities: Once they keep product on the internet ,
opportunities are more as companies can market their product to the whole world
without much additional cost.
• Globalization: Even if company is a small company (Business) the Web can make that
company appear to be a big player which simply means that the playing field has been
levelld by e-business.
• Reduced operational costs: Selling through the Web means cutting down on paper costs,
customer support costs, advertising costs and order processing costs.
• Customer convenience: Searchable content, shopping carts, promotions, and
interactive& user-friendly interfaces facilitate customer convenience, thus generating
more business.
• Customers can also see order status, delivery status and get their receipts online.
• Knowledge management: Through database management system and information
management, e-business can find out who visited the site and how to create better value
for customers.

How does B2C work?

1. Visiting the virtual mall:
• The customer visit the mall by browsing the online catalogue-
• A very organized manner of displaying products and their related information such as
price , description, and availability. Finding the right product is easy by using search
engine.
• Virtual mall may include a basic to advanced search engine, product rating system,
content management , customer support system and other components which make
shopping convenient for shoppers.
2 Customer registers
• The customer has to register to become part of the site ‘s shopper registry.
• This allows the customer to avail of the shop’s complete services.
• The customer becomes a part of the company’s growing database and can use the
same for knowledge management and data mining.
3 Customer buys products:
• Through a shopping cart system, order details, shipping charges, taxes, additional
charges and price totals are presented in an organized manner.
• The customer even can change the quantity of a certain product. Virtual malls have a
very comprehensive shopping system, complete with checkout forms.
4. Merchant processes the order
• Merchant processes the order that is received from the previous stage and fill up the
necessary forms.
5. Credit card is processed
• The credit card of the customer is authenticated through a payment gateway or a bank.
Other payment method can be used as well, such as debit cards, prepaid cards, or bank
to bank transfer.
6. Operations management
• When the order is passed on to the logistic people, the traditional business operations
will still be used.
[Link] and delivery
• The product is then shipped to the customer. The customer track the order/delivery as
virtual malls have tracking module on the website which allows a customer to check
the status of a particular order.
[Link] receives
• The product is received by the customer and is verified. The system should then tell
the firm that the order has been fulfilled.
[Link] sales service
• After the sales has been made, the firm has to make sure that it maintains a good
relationship with its customers. This is done through customer relationship
management or CRM
Business to Business(B2B)
Major advantages of B2B
[Link] interaction with customers
• This is the greatest advantage of E-business. The unknown and faceless customers
including other business , buying the product of a large MNC through distributers,
channels, shops etc.
[Link] sales promotion
• This information gives authentic data about the likes ,dislikes and preferences of
clients and thus helps the company bring out focussed sales promotion drives which
are aimed at the right audience.
[Link] customer loyalty
• It has been observed that online customers are more loyal than other customers if they
are made to feel special and their distinct identity is recognized and their concerns
about privacy are protected. It has also been found that once the customers develop a
binding relationship with a site and its products , they do not like to shift loyalties to
another site or product.
[Link]
• The web is open and offers the round the clock access.
• This provides an access never known before, to the customer.
• Thus company is able to handle many more customers on a much wider geographical
spread if it uses an e-business model.
• The company can set up a generic parent site for all locations and make regional
domains to suit such requirements.
[Link] in distribution costs
• A company can make huge savings in distribution , logistical and after sales support
costs by using e-business models.
Tools and Techniques at the Disposal of B2B Enterprises
It is important to know the right strategies which would be required to sell successfully and
profitably over the web. Web is a medium provides us with a unique platform to enable
various strategies.
[Link] of pricing tools
• The biggest e-tailr i.e [Link] made it big by giving substantial discounts.
• Parts of these heavy discounts is attributed to the distributed level commissions,
which are now being passed to the customers.
• Apart from this, Companies have started giving things free on the internet in order to
get a critical mass of subscribers.
• Ex: Apple IMac computer being given free if the buyer agrees to make a certain
amount of purchases using Apple’s e-commerce website.
[Link] of application service provider model
• Software companies are offering their packages not in CD, and boxes but through the
web server of the company and need not download it into the PC.
• The customer can login over the internet and access the software from the web server
of the company and need not download it into his pc.
3. Use of generic models which are known for efficiency as well as personalized
attention to various business customers.
• The web has given rise to a new partnership between brick and mortar manufacturers-
tailers and express delivery companies.
• These organizations take care of the individual elements of the customer, the order
fulfilment and the post sale complaints if any.
[Link] of comparison shopping
• The internet has brought in a whole new concept of price matching and comparison
shopping.
• Today there are sites which will take you to hundreds of sites to find the cheapest
product to suit your specifications. This would never has been possible without the
internet.
 Business to Business Transactions and Models
B2B interactions involve more complexity than B2C.
Typical B2B transactions include the following steps:
(i) Review catalogues
(ii) Identify specifications
(iii) Define requirments
(iv) Post request for proposals
(v) Review vendor reputation
(vi) Select vendor
(vii) Fill out purchase order
(viii) Send PO to vendors
(ix) Prepare invoice
(x) Make payment
(xi) Arrange shipment
(xii)Organize product inspection and reception

B2B model
The B2B model could be oriented to a vertical market or to a horizontal market.
The model can be described as follows:
[Link]
• In aggregator model, one company aggregates buyers to form a virtual buying entity
and/or aggregates suppliers to constitue a virtual distributor.
• For example, in the science marketplace , one company became the central buying
location for thousands of buyers to implement their own purchasing rules and obtain
volume discounts.
• The aggregator takes the responsibility for selection and fulfilment ,pricing, and
marketing segmentation.
• Another ex: Electronic company

[Link] or Process integration

• Hubs have been defined as neutral internet base intermediaries that focus on a specific
business process.
• Vertical hub: That serve as a vertical market or a specific industry such as
energy,steel, telecommunication and plastics.
• Functional hub: Specialize in horizontal markets across different industries.
• Functional hubs focus on business processes such as project management and
MRO(Maintenace, repair and Operating, and Procurment)
• An electronic business company that provides office supplies to many industries is a
good example of a functional hub.
3. Community or alliances
• In the community model, alliances are used to achieve high value integration without
hierarchical control. Members and end-users play key roles as contributors and
customers. Ex: MP3,Linux, Opensource
[Link]
• It has the purpose of facilitating trading. Revenue can be generated from subscription,
membership, and advertising. Ex: There are e-companies that sell information about
contract to bid market intelligence and analysis and jobs by industry.
[Link] or Dynamic pricing markets
• Auctions are dynamic and efficient mechanisms for mediating and brokering in
complex marketplace.
• Provide marketplace for buyers and sellers to enter competitive bids on contract.
Consumer to Consumer(C2C)
With C2C e-business model, consumer sell directly to other consumers via online.
Ex: [Link]

Consumer to Business(C2B)
• Also called reverse auction or demand collection model enable buyers to name their
price, for a specific goods/services generating demand.
• The website collects the demand bid and then offers the bids to the participating
sellers.
Ex: [Link]
[Link]

E-Business model based on the relationship of

transaction types
• Brokerage model
• Aggregator model
• Info-mediary
• Community
• Value chain
• Subscription
• Manufacturer
• Advertising
• Affiliate

Brokerage model
The characteristics of the brokerage model
• The price-discovery mechanism is its key principle(Auction, Reverse auction, Market
exchange)
• It is a meeting point for sellers and buyers
• Auctions and exchanges are the modes of transactions
• It is a free market
 • It consists of Global Network of Buyers and Sellers
• It is a virtual market place enabled by the Internet
• It encompasses all types of organizations now.

Advantages of the Brokerage Model

• C2C trading
(a)Allows buyers and sellers to trade directly bypassing intermediaries and
(b)Reduces cost for both the parties
• Global reach
• Trading conveniences, which
(a)allows trading at all hours
(b)provides continually updated information
• Sense of community through direct buyers and sellers communication
• Efficient access to information
• Alleviation of the risks of anonymous trading

Brokerage Price discovery mechanisms

There are three kinds of price discovery mechanisms, which form the basis for the brokerage
model. They are:

[Link]
[Link] auction
3. Market exchange

Auction broker
Today, different auction formats are aggregated on certain common attributes.
There are open and sealed bid auctions.
There are auctions where the auctions price ascends as the auctions proceeds
There are auctions where the price descends at regular intervals
There are single and double auctions

English auctions:
• It is also known as open-outcry auction or the ascending price auction.
• It is frequently used for selling art, wine, and other physical goods which do not have a limited
life time.
• In this case, the auctioneer starts off the auction with the lowest acceptable price or the
reverse price.
• He then receives bids from the bidders until the point from which where there is no raise in
the bid. At that point the auctioneer ‘knocks down’ the item, which indicates that the highest
bidder will receive the item in exchange for the sum of money he bid for.
• The bidders are often anonymous., especially if the bidding occurs through electronic means.
This is done to preserve the identity of the bidders.
Note: A well-known bidder may increase the price expectation of the product just because a person
known to him has entered a bid. He may be his business rival. Therefore, this kind of bidding will not
be beneficial for the bidders. The seller might benefit from a non-anonymous bidding process, if he
wants to acquire the highest price possible.

Dutch auctions:
• The dutch auction was developed in the Netherland to auction flowers and other products
with a limited life.
• It is also known as the descending price auction
• In dutch auction the opening price is set as extremely high
• The price then descends with a predefined amount at predefined time interval, until a buyer
claims the product to be mine.
• When many items of the same product are auctioned at the same time, many bidders may
claim the product as mine at different points of time until no more items of the product are
left.
• This process results in different prices for different bidders, with the first person claiming the
product as mine being the one who pays the highest price.
• The auction time period is often very short.
• This auction format is normally used for the products that will perish in a short time.

• First price sealed bid auctions:

This has the main characteristics of not being an open-cry auction like English auctions,
Dutch auctions and thus individual bids are hidden from other bidders.
• This auction has two different phases.
A bidding phase in which all the bids are collected in which all the bids are collected
A resolution phase in which the bids are opened and the winner is determined.

• During the bidding phase each bidder submits his bid which is based on his own valuation.
• The bidder is thus totally ignorant of all the other bids that have been submitted.

• In the resolution phase, all the bids are opened and sorted from the highest to the lowest
bid. If it is one item that is auctioned the highest bid will be the winning bid.

• If multiple items of the same product are auctioned, the items are awarded to the highest
bids until no more items are left.

Vickrey auctions:
• William vickrey the winner of the 1996 Noble prize in Economics developed the
Vickrey auctions.
• It is also called uniformed second price auction.
• In vickrey auction the bids are sealed and each bidder bids from his own intuitive
knowledge ignorant of all other order bids.
• Therefore, in a Vickrey auction, the individual is bidding the maximum amount they
are willing to pay and are not disadvantaged by it.
 • What is different in this auction format compared to the first price sealed bid auction
is that the winning bidder will pay the price of the second highest bid which is the
same as the highest unsuccessful bid.
• Thus, winner pays less than what he has bidden.
• In a Vickrey auction, bidders are unaware of the bids of other individuals. The winner
of the bid does not pay the winning bid price – they pay the second-highest bid price.
• In such an auction, individuals are encouraged to bid their maximum willingness to
pay.

Reverse auctions
A reverse auction is an event where the buyer puts a request for goods and services they need,
and sellers bid the price for the specified goods and services.
At the end of the reverse auction, the seller who quotes the lowest amount will win the
auction.
A reverse auction does not work well with all kinds of goods and services.

If a good or service is offered only by a few sellers, the reverse auction is not the ideal way to
deal with it.

It is suitable only when there are many sellers who offer the specified goods and services so
that there is a competitive advantage in the process.

Note: On the other hand, there is a danger of sellers focusing on winning the bid by offering
low-quality goods for a lower price. Consequently, the buyer may suffer from the low-quality
of the lowest-priced bid of the reverse auction. Therefore, a buyer must communicate all the
specifications of the goods/services he is looking for to make clear to the sellers.

Example

The government offers most of the contracts through reverse auctions. The requirements for a
project will be announced by the government through all popular newspapers. Also, the
bidders for such auctions must be approved contractors. These contractors will come up with
a quotation for the project and take part in the reverse auction. The contractor that bids the
lowest price with the best quality wins the bid.

The reverse auction business model is described on the [Link] website. Using a simple
and compelling consumer proposition “name your price “ they collect consumer demand for a
particular product or service at a price set by the consumer and communicate that demand
directly to participating sellers or to their private databases. Consumers agree to hold their
offers open for a specified period of time to enable [Link] to fulfil their offers from
the inventory provided by the participating sellers.
Aggregator model
Classic wholesalers and retailers of goods and services are increasingly referred to as “e-
tilers”.
Sales can be made based on list prices or through auctions.
Following are some of the aggregator models:
1. Virtual merchant
• This is business that operates only from the web and offers either traditional or web
specific goods and services.(Internet Banking)
• The method of selling may be list price or auction.
• It offers live customer support for e-commerce websites.
2. Catalogue merchant
• Catalogue merchant is the migration of mail order to web based order business.(e.g
Levenger)
[Link] and turf
This is traditional brick and mortar establishment with web storefront. The model has the
potential for channel conflicts.
[Link] vendor
• This merchant that deals strictly in digital products and services and in its purest form,
conducts both sales and distribution over the web.
[Link] model
• In this the users pay for access to the site. High value added content is essential.
• Amazon prime.
•
What do aggregators do?
• Based on the electronic marketplace, the aggregator model bypass distributors so that
the buyers and sellers come together.
• To be more precise, the aggregators are the connectors between the buyers and the
sellers.
• They are all involved in the overall process of selection , organization,matching the
buyers requirements with the perticulars of the available goods, fulfillment of the
orders and enabling the customers to create a value about the sellers.
 There are 4 types of aggregators:
1. Content aggregator
2. Mainstream aggregator
3. Event aggregator
4. Shopping aggregator
Content aggregator
• The first large scale sites on the web
• Represent large publishing companies
• Their basic challenge is that content has to be attractive enough to make the site
viable
• Ex:Wikipedia
Mainstream aggregator
These include sites like Yahoo providing a web directory
and a search engine, along the bunch of attractive tools like
e-mail addresses , home pages, reminders and many others.
Event aggregators
• These are the sites that provide in depth content and tools tailored to the needs of a
particular group, which doubles as a clearly defined customer base.
• Ex: Mortgages: build tools, rates, advice and the ability to purchase a mortgage online
in the same place.
Shopping aggregators
• Shopping aggregators let consumers roam through hundreds of sites and catalogues
and find the best price in seconds.
• They help consumers sift through dozens of e-commerce sites.
• Ex: [Link]
[Link]