E-Commerce Cases (general), Items 1 to 50

"E-Commerce Cases (general)" includes 51 items
This page contains items 1 to 50

1. A Look at How to Mix Off-and-online Marketing, by John Gaffney, 1 to 1, 8-1-2006 Gaffney says that retail banks are leading the pack when it comes to integrating online and offline efforts. Reviews Pepsi's and McDonald's mix of ads, packaging, taste, online experience, and the reputation of the company.
2. Tech Startup 2.0, by Robert D. Hof, Business Week, 1-6-2005 Hof explains how new companies are forging a different, more productive path than their predecessors: founder or hired members of the management team are veterans of several ventures, going global right from the start, among others.
3. Google Here, There, and Everywhere, by Alex Salkever, Business Week, 12-16-2003 As the search giant keeps expanding into new services, Salkever says it's becoming a rival to just about every other Net company out there. Looks at Google's strategy to provide "all things to all people."
4. Online Personals: Big Profits, Intense Competition, by Ryan Naraine, InternetNews Ecommerce, 6-27-2003 Matchmaking and personal classifieds are big business on the web. Overview of the many successful sites in the profitable niche, with mini case studies explaining what works for the most successful, including Match.com, PlanetOut and Boston.com.
5. Case Study: CassetteHouse.com, by James Maguire, ECommerce-Guide, 4-14-2003 Since 1995, Art Munson has built and operated a group of profitable online retail outlets in a home-grown, do-it-yourself fashion, using simple, low-cost software and services to sell niche products centered around audio cassettes. ECommerce-Guide
6. The New Lords of E-Biz, by Elana Varon, CIO, 3-15-2003 Says money is being spent, to a degree, on e-commerce. Sears, Roebuck has upgraded its e-commerce support: "That means the back end of e-commerce—pick, pack and ship—has to be every bit as good as the click, select and check out."
7. A Case Study in Order Fraud Detection, by Ralph F. Wilson, Web Commerce Today, 10-15-2002 Recently, I detected a fraudulent order in my online store. This case study describes why the order caught my attention, and how I was able to detect that it was bogus.
8. Search Engines Are Still in the Model 'T' Era, by Andrew Goodman, Traffick.com, 12-17-2001 Responds to questions: What does the future hold for search engine technology companies? What about larger companies like Yahoo? Can they survive on their own? How will they prosper? What technologies loom on the horizon?
9. Regaining Traction, by Mel Bergstein, Context Magazine, 8-1-2001 Advises managers to keep a cool head when the economy skids, and follow a few rules, such as focusing on cash flow and assets, investing in the future. Cites examples of General Electric investing heavily in the Internet for its supply chain,
10. Count Your Blessings, by Rev. Charles Henderson, CIO, 6-1-2001 "You can find as many websites by looking for "god" as you can find searching for "sex," says pastor of the First Church of Cyberspace. Predicts digital technology will find wider uses within traditional spiritual communities.
11. Failure: The Motion Picture, by Andrew Strickman, eCompany Now, 5-1-2001 Startup.com, a new documentary film, traces the birth, rise and fall of a dotcom, GovWorks, through actual footage of the company's inner workings, including pitches to venture capitalists and the dismissal of one of the founders.
12. Dots Dashed, by Lucy McCauley and Christine Canabou, Fast Company, 2-1-2001 Sixteen experienced leaders of Internet businesses offer advice and predictions based on past experience. Covers branding, team diversity, level of capitalization, speed of growth, other characteristics.
13. The Kiosk, Where Brick Meets Click, by Brian Alexander, New York Times, 12-13-2000 Clicks-and-bricks retail is supposed to meld the Internet with traditional store spaces, capitalizing on the best of both worlds. The in-store web kiosk is the hypothetical centerpiece of the technique. A look at reality, as evidenced by shops such as Sephora, General Nutrition Center, Service Merchandise, Store of Knowledge and others.
14. Web Shopping in Shinjuku, by Ken Belson, Business Week e.Biz, 12-11-2000 Describes how an American price-comparison site offers help to harried Japanese shopaholics. Reports promising results as visitors clicking on 12,000 pages per day spend twice as long as American counterparts in seeking bargains.
15. Pay Up or Shut Down, by George Anders, Fast Company, 11-1-2000 Asks, "What should you do when millions of users visit your Web site but don't feel like paying?" Addresses challenge of getting visitors to switch from free to upgrade, fee-based services. Juno, Homestead.com, other experiences cited.
16. It's Lonely on the Edge, by Paul C. Judge, Fast Company, 9-20-2000 Three executives, of a group of 60 that meet every three months to discuss the challenges of moving their companies into the Internet economy, tell their stories. Provides insights into what it takes to transform a big company into a Net company.
17. Brick slayers, by Meredith Levinson, CIO, 7-15-2000 Seven executives speak on competition, suppliers, partnerships, "launch and learn" and other strategies used by established players to protect their businesses against online start-ups. Panelists from General Motors, DuPont, Dartmouth University, others.
18. Catalog Companies Exploit the Web, by Bob Tedeschi, New York Times, 5-15-2000 Unlike most web-only e-tailers, established catalog sellers that have expanded onto the Internet are showing strong profits and growing fast. Examples: Land's End, Hanover Direct, BMG Direct.
19. Online Retailers Set Their Sights on Private-Label Merchandise, by Bob Tedeschi, New York Times, Trend: online retailers are seeking to speed up their march toward profitability by manufacturing their own goods and selling them alongside well-known brands. The advantages are higher profit margins and better inventory control. Examples: Ashford.com, Chipshot.com, Furniture.com.
20. Crossing Over; Evaluating an Online Strategy, by Emilie Rutherford, CIO WebBusiness, 5-1-2000 Part 3 of series on making the transition from bricks-and-mortar to online business. Among other suggestions: "Don't set up a new e-commerce channel." Sidebar offers differentiation between large and small company strategies.
21. Predicts The Imminent Demise Of Most Dot Com Retailers, by , Forrester Research, Inc., 4-11-2000 The combination of weak financials, increasing competitive pressures, and investor flight will drive most of today's Dot Com retailers out of business by 2001. To survive etailers must redirect investments from branding into scale, service, and speed.
22. Eyes Wide Open, by Steven C. Currall, CIO Magazine, 4-15-2000 Author observes "the Silicon Valley startup model is not infallible. Notwithstanding all their advantages, startups often make flawed business decisions" to refute value Wall Street has been placing on e-commerce and dotcom startups.
23. How to Speed Up Your Startup, by Katharine Mieszkowski, Fast Company, 5-1-2000 Venture capitalist says: "Four months: That's the narrow window of opportunity that a would-be Internet entrepreneur has to transform an idea into an actual product that's available on the Web." Lessons in speed from experts, including an anthropologist.
24. Separating the Winners from the Losers, by J. Neil Weintraut and Walid Mougayar, Business 2.0, 4-1-2000 Offers two lists of 10 ways to identify "substance" and "froth" in Net economy companies. Examples: how many analysts are following a company, speed of its website, cash on hand, level of innovation, smartness of its people.
25. Dot-consolidation: Internet Mergers Looming, by Marius Meland, Forbes, 4-24-2000 Reports declining margins, huge numbers of small e-tailers, online brokers, others create environment for acquisitions by large companies. Yahoo states it will continue to acquire strong companies with limited distribution.
26. Why the E-Tailing Shakeout Is So Sweeping, by Heather Green, Business Week Frontier, 4-24-2000 "Many startups spent big bucks to get big fast -- yet didn't take pains to create customer loyalty," notes author. Calls foolish the "hundreds of companies" that tried to copy what AOL and Amazon did, blames them for difficulties worthier startups face.
27. Web Sight - Let Your Customers Lead, by Katharine Mieszkowski, Fast Company, 4-1-2000 Interview with Web strategist David Siegel. Answers questions such as: what are e-commerce companies losing sight of; what's the right way for companies to think about the Web; how do you put your customers in charge of your company.
28. The End is Near, by Tom Kaneshige, CIO, 3-1-2000 Brief article reviewing Gartner Group's predictions on the demise of old model e-businesses and their transformation into a self-reliant, balanced combination of brick and click. Electronic profitability predicted by 2008.
29. The VC Explosion, by Jesse Berst, ZDNet AnchorDesk, 2-8-2000 Tips for venture capitalists: look for clear business model; avoid unoriginal plans with low barriers to entry. Those seeking VC should keep presentations simple, target a small number of VCs, and stress the start-up's talented team.
30. Beyond the E-Commerce Shakeout, by Chet Dembeck, E-Commerce Times, 2-18-2000 Forrester Research proposes a formula to determine webstore viability: to stay healthy, a site must achieve 50% growth in registered users this year, and increase the number of purchases and the average amount spent per customer by 10%.
31. Spin to Win, by Maria Seminerio, PC Week, 1-24-2000 Many larger retailers are spinning off e-commerce branches to be separate companies, seeing advantages in agility, minimizing parent company risk, attracting personnel, etc. But other companies are not cutting the cord, in order to integrate customer service. Gives examples from a number of companies.
32. E-Transformation: The Fast Track To Becoming An E-Business, by Clinton Wilder, Information Week, 12-13-1999 Sees 2 strategies among billion dollar businesses: (1) Most common is immersion -- the process of gradually deploying E-business applications and initiatives across most of a company's business units. (2) Second is collaborating with a partner that lives and breathes Internet business every day--a Web-only startup. Examples of companies that use one of these models: 20th Century Fox, Millipore, KBKids.com, and Merrill Lynch.
33. Better Than Business-to-Business, by Nick Usborne, ClickZ, 12-17-1999 Proposed model for hybrid e-commerce websites that sell three ways: (1) to consumers (2) to contractors and service providers (3) through commissions for bringing consumers and providers together.
34. Looking for Winners Now That E-Christmas Is Over, by Heather Green, Business Week, 12-27-1999 Presents rationale for looking beyond data collected to understand company ratings and relationship to e-commerce success, for example: high cost of sales, trouble in filling and shipping orders, only low margin products sold.
35. If You Can Dream It - Proceed With Caution, by Nick Usborne, ClickZ, 10-29-1999 Passion and vision do not a viable business make. Be certain you have a product or service that large numbers of potential customers actually want.
36. Narrow Your Focus to Broaden Your Sales, by Michel Fortin, The Profit Pill, 7-18-1999 Recommends combining niche marketing (marketing within a define product/service range) and target marketing (marketing to a select demographic), and not trying to be all things to all people.
37. A Print Shop for Work and Leisure, by Jason Feldman, Internet World, 6-28-1999 'iPrint.com takes one of the most outsourced businesses and centralizes it on the Web.' iPrint sells everything custom printable, from business cards to photo golf balls. By doing prepress through direct online ordering, iPrint reduces costs (prepress is 20 - 50% of a print order cost) as well as the potential for errors.
38. Internet Business Plan Checklist for Online Start-Ups, by Ralph F. Wilson, Web Commerce Today, Issue 22, 5-15-1999 Recommends a written business plan to make sure that your online start-up covers the main obstacles that stand between you an success. Outlines points to include in your business plan.
39. Do-or-Die Lessons from a Look Back at Netrepeneurs Who Just Did It, by Anne Stuart, CIO WebBusiness, 5-1-1999 A valuable update of case studies originally published in 1996 and 1997, considering the lessons learned since then: iPrint, Cyberian Outpost, BusinessTech, and Ask The Builder. Three success stories, one semi-failure. Links to the original case studies.
40. Creating a Business Model for E-Commerce, by , CIO WebBusiness, 5-1-1999 Extensive white paper details some challenges faced and solutions adopted in e-commerce initiatives by Crutchfield (consumer electronics), Tower Records, HP, Intershop, FTD (flowers) and others. Summarizes relevant current research on consumer attitudes.
41. Warner Bros. Brings Bevy of Brands Online, by Brian Caulfield, Internet World, 4-26-1999 Warner Bros. is just now recognizing the online value of its many brands, and is on a roll to capitalize on them. The company has set up a design studio to build content for its many properties, and is adding transaction and community elements to the portfolio.
42. The Next Net, by Jesse Berst, ZDNet AnchorDesk, 5-14-1999 Recommends taking advantage of opportunities where the Net excels: (1) instant information, offer time-sensitive applications, bidding information, etc., (2) selection and scale, dominate niches with wide variety, (3) searchable and sortable, move large catalogs to the Web, (4) digital vs. physical, ship information products over the net, eliminating inventory and shipping charges, and (5) no boundaries, shuck time and geography limitations.
43. Meet Mister buy(everything).com, by Eric Nee, Fortune, 3-29-1999 Profile of Scott Blum of Buy.com. Business model is to sell products at cost to gain marketshare. Profits will eventually come from advertising, warranties, and equipment leases. Blum also owns 4,000 domains such as buytoys.com, buycars.com, etc.
44. Throw Out Your Old Business Model, by Heather Green, Business Week, 3-22-1999 Describes online businesses morphing their business models to accommodate new revenue sources, such as referral fees, Mentions Buy.com's rock bottom approach that seeks ad revenue.
45. Cost of Acquisition, by Michael Tchong, Iconocast, 9-3-1998 Displays amazing statistics, first on the percentage of sales and marketing costs to revenue for some major Net portals, and then the high cost of customer acquisition figures for several Internet sales companies.
46. E-Businesses Break The Mold, by Dan Tapscott, Internet Week, 9-14-1998 "Evidence is mounting that new forms of doing business, other than the traditional firm, are emerging-all based on the Internet. The most important of these appears to be the E-business community (EBC)." Discusses 4 types of communities: Open Market, Aggregator, Value Network and Alliance.
47. How NOT to manage an online business, by Melanie Shannon, Sell It!, 6-27-1998 Starts out tongue-in-cheek extolling the glories of managing in your pajamas, but then outlines issues which must be thought through in an online business plan.
48. Window of Opportunity, by Debby Young, CIO WebBusiness, 6-1-1998 Describes several Web businesses which took a system developed in-house and have marketed it to others: CyberSource, Fisher Scientific, and Studio Now!
49. (Almost) Making Money on the Web, by Mark Halper, CIO WebBusiness, 1-15-1998 While most companies that are climbing onto the World Wide Web have yet to realize returns, three electronic commerce ventures are showing exceptional promise. What REI, Schwab and Chrysler are doing right.
50. The Friction-Free Economy, by John Case, Inc., 6-1-1996 p. 27. As the barriers to competition evaporate, the world is becoming the small businessperson's oyster. Three rules for how to compete.