1. Competing in the Information Age

2. Popular View of E-Commerce in 2000
Billions of consumers buying all their possessions over the net
Ultimate 21st century business model: the electronic flea market
Low prices kill profits in race for market share
Lose money, get eyeballs, profit form IPO
Set up a web site and conquer the world
Home shopping dooms conventional retail
Intermediaries, distributors, and salespeople are all headed for oblivion
The dawn of a new era in human history: “the Internet changes everything”
Credit: Dr. Michael Hammer; Copyright: Hammer & Co.

3. Popular View of E-Commerce in 2000
Billions of consumers buying all their possessions over the net
Ultimate 21st century business model: the electronic flea market
Low prices kill profits in race for market share
Lose money, get eyeballs, profit form IPO
Set up a web site and conquer the world
Home shopping dooms conventional retail
Intermediaries, distributors, and salespeople are all headed for oblivion
The dawn of a new era in human history: “the Internet changes everything”
Credit: Dr. Michael Hammer; Copyright: Hammer & Co.

4. E-Commerce in Jan 2001: Reality Sets in
Revenge of the “dirt world”
Delivery and customer service are non-trivial
You can’t lose money forever
The law of gravity applies to all stocks
B2B and B2C = “Back to Banking, Back to Consulting”
Credit: Doug Kinsley

5. The Future of Commerce

6. Age of the Choiceboard by A.J. Slywotzky
Customers become product makers
The coming dominance of Choiceboards
information collection devices and customer relationship builders
Dell, Mattel, Schwab, Chipshot.com

7. Who will Control the Choiceboards
Three types of competitors are vying for the early control
individual manufacturer or assembler (Dell or Schwab)
consortium of existing manufacturers (MetalSite launched by metals producers)
New intermediary (Point.com)

8. War of the Choiceboards
According to Slywotzky, the victors will be those with
the best-designed choiceboards (?)
the most responsive supplier networks
the closest customer relationships

9. Patterns of Disruption in Retailing by C.M. Christensen & R.S. Tedlow
Essential mission of retailing
Product, price, place, and time
Disruptive technologies
department stores; mail-order catalog; discount stores, internet retailing
Profits determinants
margin and inventory turnover

10. Earlier Retailing Disruptions
Department stores
- portals of their day
Catalogs
- virtual department stores
Discount stores
- low-cost, high-turnover model
Shopping Mall?

11. Upending the Discount Stores
Department stores became retailers of soft goods (i.e. products whose key attributes are more complex and harder to communicate).
Most of the surviving discount stores have followed suit.

12. How should we expect the revolution to evolve?
Repeating Patterns?
How should we expect the revolution to evolve?
generalist to specialist
upmarket momentum
from simple merchandise to complex products

13. Hypermdeiation by N. G. Carr
Transactions over the Web involve all sorts of intermediaries.
A future of “hypermediation”
Volume and efficiency
Two Profitable intermediaries
owners of content sites
infrastructure company

14. What is Choiceboard
Choiceboards are interactive, on-line systems that allow individual customers to design their own products by choosing from a menu of attributes, components, prices, and delivery options.