Investigacion De Mercados

Articulo 9
Online shopping

Market share

E-commerce B2C product sales totaled $142.5 billion,[3] representing about 8% of retail product sales in the United States.[16] The $26 billion worth of clothes sold online represented about 13% of the domestic market,[17] and with 72% of women looking online for apparel, it has become one of the most popular cross-shopping categories.[18] ForresterResearch estimates that the United States online retail industry will be worth $279 billion in 2015.[19]

For developing countries and low-income households in developed countries, adoption of e-commerce in place of or in addition to conventional methods is limited by a lack of affordable Internet access.

Advantages

Convenience

Online stores are usually available 24 hours a day, andmany consumers have Internet access both at work and at home. Other establishments such as internet cafes and schools provide access as well. A visit to a conventional retail store requires travel and must take place during business hours.

In the event of a problem with the item—it is not what the consumer ordered, or it is not what they expected—consumers are concerned with the ease with whichthey can return an item for the correct one or for a refund. Consumers may need to contact the retailer, visit the post office and pay return shipping, and then wait for a replacement or refund. Some online companies have more generous return policies to compensate for the traditional advantage of physical stores. For example, the online shoe retailer Zappos.com includes labels for free returnshipping, and does not charge a restocking fee, even for returns which are not the result of merchant error. (Note: In the United Kingdom, online shops are prohibited from charging a restocking fee if the consumer cancels their order in accordance with the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Act 2000)

Disadvantages



[edit]Fraud and security concerns

Given the lack of ability to inspectmerchandise before purchase, consumers are at higher risk of fraud on the part of the merchant than in a physical store. Merchants also risk fraudulent purchases using stolen credit cards or fraudulent repudiation of the online purchase. With a warehouse instead of a retail storefront, merchants face less risk from physical theft.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption has generally solved theproblem of credit card numbers being intercepted in transit between the consumer and the merchant. Identity theft is still a concern for consumers when hackers break into a merchant's web site and steal names, addresses and credit card numbers. A number of high-profile break-ins in the 2000s has prompted some U.S. states to require disclosure to consumers when this happens. Computer security hasthus become a major concern for merchants and e-commerce service providers, who deploy countermeasures such as firewalls and anti-virus software to protect their networks.

Articulo 8
How Will the 'Moneyball Generation' Influence Management?

In the past we've discussed the importance of adding nonfinancial measures to the management dashboard, "indirect goals" that help predict and explainfinancial performance beyond the "direct goal" of profit. These might include the speed of aircraft turnaround in the airline industry, the conversion rate of people entering a store who actually purchase something, and employee loyalty in organizations with large numbers of workers in direct contact with customers.

The new movie Moneyball (and the book on which it is based) extol the virtues ofemploying nontraditional thinking and measurement in major league baseball. The Oakland A's studied player performance data through the lens of "sabermetrics" to compete with much better-funded organizations, achieving success with a relatively small investment.

Writing recently in The New York Times, Cade Massey and Bob Tedeschi speculate on whether the film will rekindle the study of...