E-commerce - Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Chapter 2: Literature review Page 7
Internet, but how to deploy it profitably. However, the disastrous experiences
of new Internet-based businesses in the "dot-bomb" period have proven that
the pressures to join in are no guarantee of success (Porter, 2001).
In recent years, an increasing number of e-retail businesses have specialised
in selling service products such as airline seats and hotel room nights. As
service intermediaries, these businesses have successfully gained the
interest and patronage of customers because they are able to offer
substantial benefits to the customers through e-retailing, such as product
choices, convenience, and value for money (Foster & Cadogan, 2000).
To maintain this relationship, the e-retailer continues to find ways to build the
customer's commitment and loyalty. For example, when Amazon planned to
introduce their music store they asked customers to help create it. They
asked customers to provide reviews on a number of COs and videos. When
Amazon.com finally opened the doors of its music store, they already had a
potentially loyal customer base. This was a store created by customers for
them; it was natural that they would start shopping there. Customers, who
recognise that an offering is targeted at them, or when they have a hand in its
creation, are more likely to return (Walsh & Godfrey, 2000). The explosive
growth of usage of the Internet provides a great number of potential
customers to e-retailers.
When an e-retail business deploys its website as a source of information and
service interaction for its customers, research indicates that it will discover
that customers will tell them exactly what they want and need with great
precision. Such businesses will probably learn, to their dismay, that in order
to satisfy their customers need they will have to do major work on their
existing systems. In the long run, customers will prefer to do business with
companies that put the customer's needs first (Seybold & Marshak, 1998).