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                204  Part 1 Introduction


                                  8 Downloads
                                      Download music
                                      Listen to music
                                      Watch online videos.
                                  9 Interaction
                                      Connect with my friends
                                      Communicate with others
                                      Instant message others I know.
                                 10 Search
                                      Get answers to specific questions
                                      Find information I can trust.
                                 11 Exploration
                                      Find interesting web pages
                                      Explore new sites
                                      Surf for fun.
                                 12 News
                                      Read about current events and news
                                      Read entertainment news.

                                 Web advertisers and site owners can use this framework to review the suitability of facilities
                                 to meet these needs.

                                 Purchased online
                                 Increasing numbers of consumers are now purchasing online, but research on behaviour
                                 suggests it takes time for individuals to build up confidence to purchase. Frequency of pur-
                                 chase is also increased through adoption of the broadband Internet. Figure 4.4 shows that
                                 initially Internet users may restrict themselves to searching for information or using e-mail.
                                 As their confidence grows their use of the Internet for purchase is likely to increase with a
                                 move to higher-value items and more-frequent purchases. This is often coupled with the use
                                 of broadband. For this reason, there is still good potential for e-retail sales, even if the per-
                                 centage of the population with access to the Internet plateaus.
                                   You can see from Figure 4.4 that Internet users take longer to become confident to purchase
                                 more expensive and more complex products. Many of us will initially have purchased a book
                                 or DVD online, but today we buy more expensive electronic products or financial services.
                                 Figure 4.5 shows that the result is a dramatic difference in online consumer behaviour for dif-
                                 ferent products according to their price and complexity. For some products such as travel and

                                 cinema and theatre tickets, the majority buy online, while for many others such as clothes and
                                 insurance fewer people purchase online. However, consistent with the trend in Figure 4.5, there
                                 is now less difference between the products than there was two or three years ago. The figure
                                 suggests that the way companies should use digital technologies for marketing their products
                                 will vary markedly according to product type. In some, such as cars and complex financial
                                 products such as mortgages, the main role of online marketing will be to support research,
                                 while for other standardized products like books and CDs there will be a dual role for the web
                                 in supporting research and enabling purchase.
                                   The extent of adoption also varies significantly by country according to other political,
                                 economic and cultural factors. Table 4.4 shows that there is a marked difference between the
                                 amount spent online in different countries which will affect revenue projections for site in
                                 different countries. It also shows the potential for further growth in e-commerce in countries
                                 where e-commerce adoption has been lower.
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