Page 260 - DMGT550_RETAIL_MANAGEMENT

Unit 14: Information System in Retailing

Notes
Did u know? Electromagnetic book theft prevention systems were first introduced to
libraries during the 1970s.

14.8 Electronic Retailing

E-tailing is the selling of retail goods on the Internet. Short for “electronic retailing,” and used
in Internet discussions as early as 1995, the term seems an almost inevitable addition to e-mail,
e-business, and e-commerce. E-tailing is synonymous with business-to-consumer (B2C)
transaction.
E-tailing began to work for some major corporations and smaller entrepreneurs as early as 1997
when Dell Computer reported multimillion dollar orders taken at its Web site. The success of
Amazon.com hastened the arrival of Barnes and Noble’s e-tail site. Concerns about secure
order-taking receded. 1997 was also the year in which Auto-by-Tel reported that they had sold
their millionth car over the Web, and Commerce Net/Nielsen Media reported that 10 million
people had made purchases on the Web. Jupiter research predicted that e-tailing would grow to
$37 billion by 2002.
E-tailing has resulted in the development of e-tailware - software tools for creating online
catalogs and managing the business connected with doing e-tailing. A new trend is the price
comparison site that can quickly compare prices from a number of different e-tailers and link
you to them.
E-tailing is gaining ground. In the year 2003, clothing and apparel segment clocked online
revenues to the tune of $ 3.6 billion. Online retailing is classified into three main categories:

1. Click: The businesses that operate only through the online channel fall into this category.
Prominent examples in this category include: Dell, Amazon.com and e-Bay.
2. Click and Brick: The businesses that use both the online as well as the offline channel fall
into this category. Common example includes: Barnes and Noble’s.
3. Brick and Mortar: This is the conventional mode of retailing. The businesses that do not
use the latest retailing channels and still rely upon the conventional mode belong to this
category.
E-tailing offers the consumers huge amounts of information in the form of web sites with useful
links to similar sites that allows consumers to compare products by looking at individual items.
The convenience of online shopping is unmatched indeed. Shopping out of your home or office
reduces the stresses of waiting in lines and dealing with irritating sales people. However, E-
tailing causes problems with fit, since the consumer cannot try the items on. Return policies may
also act as turn offs and items can be difficult to return. The shipping and handling costs may
turn the customers away. e-tailing requires technology savvy customers and this puts a limit on
its potential reach. We can see that E-tailing is emerging as an interesting phenomenon in the
retail industry that is on a rise despite the disadvantages associated with it.

According to a recent study:
1. Presently there are 4 million Internet users in India and the number is growing.
2. Computer Hardware, cinema, Books, Music cassettes/CDs, travel tickets and gifts are sold
through the net in a big way.

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