Page 95 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

74 3 Retailing in Electronic Commerce: Products and Services

Other B2C Models and Special Retailing the special offers. To assure quality, many clubs buy directly
from the manufacturers.
Several other business models are used in B2C. They are dis- Examples of such clubs are Gilt (gilt.com) in the USA
cussed in various places throughout the book. Some of these (see Wieczner and Bellstrom 2010) and KupiVIP (kupivip.
models also are used in B2B, B2B2C, G2B, and other types ru) in Russia.
of EC. Private shopping clubs can be organized in different ways
(e.g., see beststreet.com). For details, see Chapter 7 and en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_shopping_club.
B2C Social Shopping
Group Gifting Online
Social shopping activities are facilitated by new or improved
business models (e.g., see Turban et al. 2016; Singh and In many cases, a group of friends can collaborate on gifts for
Diamond 2012). For example, B2C sites such as amazon. events such as a wedding. To help coordinate the group activ-
com and netflix.com provide consumers with extensive ities and select the gifts, one can use sites like frumus.com
social context and engagement opportunities, such as prod- and socialgift.com.
uct ratings. Using blogs, wikis, discussion groups, and
Twitter, retailers can help customers find and recommend Location-Based E-Commerce
shopping opportunities. Typical new or improved models
created by social media tools are summarized below. Location-based e-commerce (l-commerce) is a wireless-
based technology used by vendors to send advertisements
Flash Deals (Deals of the Day) relevant to the location where customers are at a given time
by using GPS. The technology is a part of mobile commerce
These are sales in which companies offer heavily discounted (Chapter 6). The model was unsuccessful until social net-
products to consumers for a limited time (usually 24–72 h), working emerged. Today, companies such as Foursquare
directly or via intermediaries such as Groupon. The dis- provide l-commerce services.
counts are so large that the sellers hope that people will
spread the news to their friends.
SECTION 3.2 REVIEW QUESTIONS
Online Group Buying
1. List the B2C distribution channel models.
In these depressed economic times, more people are using 2. Describe how traditional mail-order firms are transform-
the Internet as a smart way to save money. Using online ing or adding online options.
group buying, it is easy to join a group of buyers to get vol- 3. Describe the direct marketing model used by
ume discounts. There are several start-ups in this market: manufacturers.
yipit.com and livingsocial.com. Other sites that used pure 4. Describe virtual e-tailing.
group buy are now concentrating on flash deal sales. For 5. Describe the click-and-mortar approach. Compare it to a
example, see Groupon, dealradar.com, and myhabit.com. pure e-tailing model.
6. Describe the different types of e-malls.
Personalized Event Shopping 7. Describe flash sales (daily deals).
8. Describe B2C social shopping models.
Event shopping is the B2C model in which sales are
designed to meet the needs of special events (e.g., a wedding,
Black Friday). This model may be combined with group pur- 3.3 ONLINE TRAVEL AND TOURISM
chasing (to lower the customers’ cost). For details, see (HOSPITALITY) SERVICES
Wieczner and Bellstrom (2010). Two variations of this online
model are private shopping clubs and group gifting online. Online services are provided by many travel vendors. Some
major travel-related websites are expedia.com, travelocity.
Private Shopping Clubs com, tripadvisor.com, and priceline.com. All major air-
lines sell their tickets online. Other services are vacation
An online private shopping club, like an off-line shopping packages (e.g., blue-hawaii.com), train schedules and reser-
club (e.g., Costco), enables members to shop at a discount, vations (e.g., amtrak.com), car rental agencies (e.g., autoeu-
frequently for short periods of time (just few hours or days). rope.com), hotels (e.g., marriott.com), commercial portals
Members may need to register before they are invited to see (e.g., cnn.com/TRAVEL), and tour companies (e.g., atlas-