What is e-tailing?

Kajalprety said:
Hello Guys i am looking for Definition and Future of e-tailing. Can anyone Help Me?
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The sale of goods and services through the Internet. Electronic retailing, or e-tailing, can include business-to-business and business-to-consumer sales. E-tailing revenue can come from the sale of products and services, through subscriptions to website content, or through advertising. It is a play on the words "retail" and "e-commerce." E-tailing requires businesses to tailor traditional business models to the rapidly changing face of the Internet and its users. E-tailers are not restricted solely to the Internet, and some brick-and-mortar businesses also operate websites to reach consumers. Online retailing is normally referred to as e-tailing.

Future of electronic retailing

Technology; The investment and improvements in the communication infrastructure will lead to the mass offering of electronic services in the home from several appliances. Established appliances, including the television and telephone will be equipped to provide simple access to electronic products and services. Furthermore, the increased power and portability of computers will facilitate easy, carefree, and daily use of electronic shopping options. “This revolution will achieve the critical mass by as early as 2005 (de KareSilver 12).”

Consumers: As e-shopping becomes the most sensible alternative to procuring needed goods and services, consumers will abandon their traditional views of shopping. No longer will a routine trip to a supermarket or mass retailer, such as Walmart, satisfy the e-consumers expectations. The effort of the trip will require an experience that appeals to ones social needs, entertainment needs, creativity, and curiosity (2, 3).

Retailers: will have to provide an almost elitist shopping experience that one may find in the most expensive stores of Beverly Hills. For example, the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania contains a Bose® outlet, which also houses a Starbucks coffee shop. The “sipping” room is enhanced with music supplied through Bose® audio products and innovations, such as speakers as small as a Rubik’s Cube, but with the sound of a much larger unit.

Brick and Mortar Retail; This new shopping experience segues into the changes required by suppliers. As
stated above, retailers and manufactures will have to rethink their physical selling strategies. Existing retail shops will not survive if the fail to adapt the changes in consumer needs and behaviors. Stores may become a place to showcase new products and services that will be purchased later electronically. However the opposite pattern may initially be an even more important vehicle for retailers. Shoppers will use the Internet to quickly gather product information, including price, to save time in comparison shopping and unsuccessful outings due to lack of stock. Once a product and location decision has been made, the consumer will load up the kids into the SUV and venture in the brick-and-mortar world of shopping. (3)

E-Marketing; In time, however, the dominance of electronic purchasing is inevitable. Suppliers should
bet their lives on it, especially if the product is not particularly differentiated or unique. Marketers must rethink their strategies and target audience. Mass marketing will not have the same appeal to the individual consumer. Marketers must utilize the massive databases that will be built through consumer “clicks” on the Internet, to personalize company advertising efforts. Developers of their company’s e-shopping technology must also do extensive research on how consumers use the Internet and how they search for products. Where traditional media has a generally passive audience, the Internet is more pro-active in its use. It will take more effort for companies to place their product where the consumer will encounter it. Instead of a mass bombing the, which occurs in television advertisements, Internet marketing must be like a smart-missile that can anticipate and intercept the consumer’s product searches (205).

Suppliers; Manufactures and retailers must also evaluate their relationships. “Manufactures have spent the past twenty years dominated by their retail customers (17).” The chain of products to consumers has been drastically altered already. Manufactures are no longer separate from their consumers. They have new opportunity to establish a direct link with the end-consumer (173) Companies, such as Dell Computers, have proven that direct selling to the consumer is more efficient and satisfying to the customer. The only advantage of a retail electronic shopping site is the collection and convenience of many products in one location or site. Manufacturers can still fight back by forming joint web-ventures (5). The retail store may eventually be the biggest casualty of the new technology. It may one day be painfully ironic to a company like Walmart, who utilized EDI and other electronic means of buy, selling, and communicating to become the most efficient and successful retailer, that the same technology will make them obsolete as an organization.

Walmart will most likely adapt to the changes and survive. One day you may enter a Walmart store to receive a doctor’s examination and have your solar-powered SUV detailed, while listing to a Garth Brooks comeback concert.

Vision; The future of electronic retail is indeed the future of retail. However, electronic shopping will transcend the mere transaction and become a pillar of daily virtual activities. On-line purchasing activities will be only a part of a new e-lifestyle. It is the transition and acceptance of the virtual world as part our concrete world that will allow e-shopping to conquer the retail consumer market. Electronic shopping will be faster and cheaper. It will be a time-liberator. The retail power of the Internet will be the catalyst of a new elifestyle age that will enable people to be more social, recreational, and fulfilled.
 
In short e-Tailing is another word for "Electronic Retailing." It includes all the Capabilities of Retail Management and Sales but entrenches them in the world of eCommerce.
 
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