Ecommerce - Success Stories and Lessons Learned

Offsetting the failures are hundreds of EC success stories, primarily in specialty
and niche markets (see Athitakis, 2003). Here are some of the reasons for EC
success and some suggestions from EC experts on how to succeed:
● Thousands of brick-and-mortar companies are slowly adding online channels
with great success. Examples are Godiva.com, Uniglobe.com, Staples.com,
Homedepot.com, Clearcommerce.com, 1-800-FLOWERS (800flowers.com),
and Southwest Airlines (iflyswa.com).
● As of late 2000, more companies were pursuing mergers and acquisitions
(e.g., Ivillage.com with Women.com, though each maintains its separate
Web site). Mergers seem to be a growing trend.
● Peter Drucker, the management guru, provides the following advice: “Analyze
the opportunities, go out to look, keep it focused, start small (one thing at a
time), and aim at market leadership.”
● A group of Asian CEOs recommends the following factors that are critical for
success: Select robust business models, foster e-innovation, co-brand, carefully
evaluate a spinoff strategy, employ ex-dot-com staffers, and focus on
the e-generation (young adults) as your market (e.g., alloy.com and bolt.com).
● Consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers (pwcglobal.com) suggests taking extra
care to avert technology malfunctions (e.g., inability to handle a surge of
orders quickly enough), which erode consumer trust.
● Many experts (e.g., The National Institute for Standards and Technology,
NIST) recommend contingency planning and preparing for disasters.
● Huff et al. (1999) suggest the following critical success factors for e-commerce:
Add value, focus on a niche and then extend that niche, maintain flexibility,
get the technology right, manage critical perceptions, provide excellent
customer service, create effective connectedness, and understand Internet
culture.

Conclusion:
Analyzing successful companies, researchers have suggested that if they do careful
planning to reach profitability quickly, many click-and-mortar companies are
likely to succeed. Joint ventures and partnerships are very valuable, and planning
for satisfactory infrastructure and logistics to meet high demand is needed.
In short, do not forget that e-business has a “business” side!
Finally, let’s not forget that history repeats itself. When the automobile was
invented, there were 240 startup companies between 1904 and 1908. In 1910
there was a shakeout, and today there are only three U.S. automakers. However,
the auto industry has grown by hundredfold. The same is happening in EC:
Despite the 2000–2003 failures, the total volume of EC activities continued to
grow exponentially. For example, emarketer.com reported on May 19, 2003, that
B2C revenues in 2002 reached $76 billion; a 48 percent increase over 2001. The
figure for 2003 was over $96 billion—more than a 30 percent increase over 2002.