Talk:Strategy for Information Markets/e-Commerce

Other books
For this book in general, but particularly for this section, should look at other books: TDang (talk) 23:32, 1 October 2010 (UTC)
 * E-Commerce and E-Business
 * Sustainable_Business/E-Commerce
 * The Computer Revolution

Comment
I enjoyed this article on information markets and e-commerce but I do feel that there could be a few things added. While numerous companies are slowly switching to online shopping, it seems like the addition of a 3D platform is rather ideal. Although I agree with the fact that 3D imaging is probably not the most ideal solution to enhancing the experience of online shopping to the comparison of first person shopping, I do believe that there are other alternatives. An alternative that I view as a best case scenario which would go in hand with Schummer's studies is the notion of a human presence with the online shopping experience. Because shopping does incorporate the idea of human interaction and comfortability within a store environment, I believe that the idea of first person video chat could be a solution. Although it may be expensive to initially implement, a video chat service would suffice as a good means of one on one interaction with a human being to answer questions or any thing along the lines of confusion on the consumer side.

Another piece of e-Commerce that I believe that would have been interesting to recognize is the influx online super stores such as amazon.com. More and more people are moving to online shopping and away from the typical brick and mortar establishment style shopping. An interesting topic that has arose in the past couple years has been the competitive level between the classic physical shopping to that of online establishments. Brick and mortar business are required to set a sales tax on purchases made within the store in accordance with the state sales tax. However, amazon.com has been avoiding charging sales tax because it is an online business venture. Many typical brick and mortar business have been arguing that they are losing business to amazon.com because of this factor and states feel they are getting snubbed on tax dollars that should be going to them on each purchase made. Some states have even established laws requiring amazon.com to pay the respected sales tax if they have a physical warehouse in that respected state holding inventories. Amazon.com has responded by shutting down those inventory warehouses and moving them to states that are not requiring them to pay the appropriate sales tax. I find this all very interesting in the debate of keeping the market place competitive. I personally believe that amazon.com should not have to pay the sales tax because they are not a brick and mortar business. Although they have larger warehouses in various states, no sale is actually being processed at the physical location and thus they should not have to pay the sales tax. This notion of a free sales tax purchase is merely a business advantage that amazon.com has in my opinion. In some cases, this could be considered an unfair advantage to stealing customers from brick and mortar establishments but at the same time who is to conclude that a physical location can not be a more convenient way for consumers to get goods as well and thus be a business advantage as well?

Here is an article from the New York Times that explains the whole issue further. --ItsVerdy (discuss • contribs) 23:19, 30 January 2012 (UTC) *Wikipedia article

TDang review April 2012
I'm reviewing this version. I'll likely be more critical than complimentary, because (a) that's the way I am and (b) that's what will help improve things. Please don't take the criticism-over-compliments to mean I have a wholly negative view.

Make sure to check the all-purpose review thoughts as well.

TDang (discuss • contribs) 04:09, 2 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Start with an introduction section-Do that by having no section title on the first section of the page.
 * Portals--make it a section.
 * I recommend moving the Portals section down--it's much less important than it was expected to be in the past OR it's been supplanted and now something like Facebook is effectively a Portal as well as an online social network.
 * "The major benefit that portals offer is that they serve as a starting point for users to find, search, and access specific subjects."--This should be rephrased into the first sentence introducing portals.
 * "Portals also provide disintermediation"--it seems like Portals are intermediaries, so Im' not sure it makes sense,. It should be removed.
 * Market Maker--make it a section
 * "New technologies always create new markets"--This paragraph doesn't say much, it should be removed.
 * "The University of Texas compiled a list..."--need a reference for this list.
 * "It may seem that market makers are the same as portals"--I think it should be clear that market makers are completely different than portals. This kind of warning shouldn't be necessary, they should be described well enough that there's no confusion.
 * Otherwise, this paragraph on market makers is good.
 * "The third market structure..."--Again, this should get a section.
 * Major forms of online business--This can be merged with the stuff above. Many of those mentioned are market markers, for instance.
 * "Nowadays, technology makes a large number of advantages for our life..." From this sentence on, the paragraph reads like hype and should be removed.
 * "Another popular type is business-to-business..."--so does this mean a market maker, or something else?
 * "More and more consumer-to-consumer online businesses..."--This could possibly use elaboration and example. Is "consumer-to-consumer" the accepted term to describe these? For instance, a site like Etsy has lots of small-scale crafters who sell stuff, but they are sellers, not consumers, regardless of the scale. But if "consumer-to-consumer" is the expression used, that's OK, it just should be clarified. On the other hand, do you mean something even more freeform like Craigslist?
 * "The final type is consumer-to-business online business."--I've never heard of this, it seems strange. It will need a reference and probably a good concrete example.
 * "Doing business online is beneficial for both buyers and sellers..."--This section reads like cheerleading. There can be benefits to doing business online, and other benefits to doing business face-to-face. Mostly I think this section is unnecessary for an economics book. We all know that online shopping exists and have a feel for it.
 * "Moreover, online stores are thought to give consumers more choice and comparative information about companies, products and competitors."--However, starting here is good, because it gets at the idea that online shopping might reduce search costs. That's a good start for some economics.
 * Here's a possible reference:.
 * " When consumers search for their needs, the system produces many related items based on consumers previous searching so that comsumers can choose the most appropriate item by comparing with different sellers and prices"--That makes it sound very positive, and it might be. A more negative way of looking at it is that the site is tempting the consumer to buy things they didn't plan on shopping for.
 * "Finally, online business is interactive."--This and the couple sentences after it don't really help.
 * "For sellers, online business is a powerful tool for building customer relationships."--This paragraph is a good start of something, but I'm not sure what. I think it should be combined with the "Value creation" section.
 * For instance, what is implied by a "seller" here? Is it a seller like a retail store? Those sellers already interact lots with their customers. Or is it a seller like a manufacturer who might only interact with retailers and not the final customers?
 * Is this about the tradeoffs a business might make deciding between opening a physical store versus an online presence?
 * "is an American multinational electronic commerce"--since this whole page is called "e-commerce" I think it's OK to say "e-commerce" in that sentence.
 * "The company was renamed after the Amazon ..."--this is unnecessary detail.
 * ''"Until June 30, 2006, typing ToysRUs.com..."--These are interesting, but should be set aside somewhere into "business alliances" or some such.
 * "Many analysts vew Amazon.com as the model for business in the digital age..."--There are two problems with this paragraph. First, it reads like cheerleading for Amazon. Second, it's placed too much in the current time. Things need to be written so that if they're read five years from now they still make sense. It's fine to talk about Amazon's growth, but keep those things in mind.
 * "Amazon.com always tries to make each customer's experience uniquely personal..." This paragraph reads like cheerleading. Talking about the "Recommended for you" feature is good (and mention that it's a kind of collaborative filtering), but you aren't advertising Amazon.
 * "There are many payment options offered to consumers."--This is probably too much detail, unless you plan to analyze some aspect of the payment methods. Otherwise, leave that paragraph out.
 * "Consumers always have a wonderful buying experience on Amazon.com..."--Again, this reads as cheerleading.
 * References
 * "Benefit Cosmetics launches new ecommerce website in the US powered by hybris"--This is a promotional press release, so really not a good reference.
 * "B Mahadevan. "Business Models for Internet based E-Commerce An Anatomy". California Management Review. Summer 2000. Vol 4, No. 4.""--This is listed in the text. It should be referenced more properly with an inline reference.
 * Similarly the references for "Maamar, Zakaria" and "Timmers, Paul" and "Christensen, Gunner and Leif B. Methlie"