Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is rapidly gaining popularity as a way for individuals and companies to purchase items. The Internet offers 24-hour a day availability, can accept credit cards, and allows companies to display pictures (and even animation) illustrating their products. This research considers two different web sites, one in retail (www.landsend.com) and the other an auction site (www.ebay.com) and considers the effectiveness of those sites for their intended audience.

The intended customers at e-bay are individuals interested in buying and selling specific types of items. E-bay serves as a medium for the transaction, and facilitates the bidding process, but E-bay does not make any warranties regarding either the products or the people selling the products. The site is divided according to category, and in viewing the site, it appears that e-bay designed the site for those individuals who possess some amount of knowledge about the items in which they are interested. Because e-bay requires new sellers on a regular basis, the site also must appeal to those individuals who have something to sell and who are looking for a way to reach large numbers of people in a short period of time. Repeated visits to the site are generated by the fact that items are available for only a limited period of time, and new items are added continually.

Lands End is a catalog retailer which has essentially put its catalog on-line. The site has

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have a limited appeal. Certainly having these products available on the Internet increases the exposure that the products receive, and buyers are saved the expense and trouble of searching out opportunities at garage sales or second-hand stores. However, ebay may not be the most efficient from the standpoint of sellers who might be able to realize a higher price if they sold their goods through traditional methods. Using the Web site to purchase goods through Lands End is an efficient way of obtaining merchandise from this retailer in that the company does not offer traditional retail sites. Consumers of Lands End products are used to catalog shopping; the Internet offers a different, but similar, version of on-line shopping through the Web. The Web is certainly a profitable venture for e-bay, which does not have any other "traditional" presence. By serving as a facilitator for the transactions which take place on its site, the company has little risk and considerable reward. However, the company must actively promote its site in order to ensure that sellers believe that they are getting value for their products (and so are likely to sell again) and buyers have the same opinion. These two objectives, which may seem to be

Category: Science - E