Getting Real About Virutal Commerce

Getting real about Virtual Commerce Philip Evans and Thomas s. Wurster Why e-business writes the new page of future commerce

In a virtual community, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) model are changed since customer interest is priority and competitive advantage of business entity.

Navigation as a Separate Business - Unbundled from production, marketing, and distribution. Navigation is the battlefield on which competitive advantage will be won or lost. The services navigators provide will correspond only coincidentally to any physically defined business or industry. Many people continue to view Amazon. com, for example, as an on-line bookseller, but its true business is navigation.

The three dimensions of Navigational Advantage Reach - it is about access and connection. It means simply how many customers a business can access or how many products it can offer.

Affiliation - is about whose interests the business represents.

Richness - is the depth and detail of the information that the business gives the customer or collects about the customer.

Competing property Traditional Internet agency

Reach Convenient locations and Website with good Connectivity and Contact newspaper Navigation system

Affiliation Customer read newspaper Consumer-affiliated Change form Media to as Information is based on navigators help customers Consumer side it e.g. Newspaper with more relevant information Richness Rich customer information Agency know what the Rich consumer info a basis information the consumer for building relationship wants Rich product information Agency could control the A data-mining for information release to the consumer preference consumer

Getting real about Virtual Commerce Philip Evans and Thomas s. Wurster

Brands Mfg use branding to communicate rich, product-specific information to their consumers. Some companies attempt to convey facts or beliefs about product attributes through branding.

A belief Sony persuades consumers to believe that it will deliver superior technology, high manufacturing quality but warranted price premium. A belief about Sony products is perhaps true or perhaps not.

An experience Other marketers use branding to communicate an experience: feeling, association, and memories. "Coca-Cola" cannot be paraphrased as a set of propositions about the drink. The brand is the taste, the curvy bottle, the logo, and the set of emotional connotation.

Case Study: Centralize Property Agency Reach - The website provide the platform of property information for lease and sale to the potential customer without physically attend every site. The platform provides as many as available property sites on the Net and these could be freely access by customer from remote using Internet.

Affiliation - According to the agency theory, the customers are principal whereas Centralize plays as the agent. To maximize the benefit of the principal is competitive advantage for Centralize in the property agency market. Therefore, online information could enhance the transparency to eliminate the opportunism and bounded rationality of traditional agency business.

Richness - Detail and in-depth information of the property market could be made available to customers for purchase decision rather than wrong and outdate information and advertisement in the newspaper. The transparency of the property market information means the transaction cost is minimum as the market hierarchy of the property market is provided with relevant market information.