Over the past several weeks, our group has been struggling with this very simple question: Do traditional "bricks-and-mortar" retail establishments stand a chance in the New Economy? In order to frame our discussion, we looked at the question in terms of a battle that is currently being fought between two business giants - Wal-Mart, which reigns supreme in the physical "Meet World" and Amazon which dominates the virtual "Dot-Com" environment. This unlikely rivalry dates back several years and has, at times, been bitter (see the February 22, 1999 article in the "News from the Camps" portion of our web site.) Wal-Mart is now starting to make business decisions that take direct aim at Amazon (e.g. Wal-Mart's strategic alliance with Books-A-Million), and conversely, Amazon is starting to look like a Wal-Mart wannabe (e.g. Amazon's entry into toys and electronic goods.) When our group embarked on this research project, the consensus hypothesis was that Amazon has a tremendous lead over Wal-Mart in the e-commerce business world and Wal-Mart had better wake up or risk becoming "Amazoned" in the coming century.
As a result of our extensive research, we are in a good position to fairly answer the original question: YES - not only will a traditional bricks and mortar company with a solid e-commerce strategy survive in the New Economy, it should actually thrive against a pure Internet company. Our Hybrid Model page makes specific recommendations on how to begin developing a solid e-commerce strategy, blending the traditional aspects of retailing with the Internet technology. We have also come across a new marketing phenomenon fueled by the Internet, called "segment fluidity", which basically asserts that each and every one of us can move between unique consumer segments from day to day, hour to hour. Finally, this web site provides a link to a tremendous resource at the Stern School of NYU; there you will find the papers of Yannis Bakos, an international authority on the economics behind e-commerce. Whether you conduct business in the physical "meet" world or the virtual on-line world, we hope that this web site adds to your knowledge base and understanding of the issues regarding an integrated e-commerce strategy. Please feel free to download our in-class presentation or contact one of our group members by e-mail.
Group Participants:
Darin Bodin
Rob Distefano
Dom Gaudin
Eric Head
John Lin
Carmen Saleh