A New Way of Doing Things

As I mentioned before, the Web is changing how people do business. Instead of booking holidays with a travel agency they're doing it online. Instead of sending each other emails with project attachments they're using Google Docs. Now the revolution has come to the retail sector.

The Retailer

As you may already know, the retailer acts as an intermediary lying between the manufacturer and the consumer. Recognisable brands such as Tescos, Supervalu and Easons have all made their name in the retailing industry. However, the industry is not without it's problems. High volumes of inventory mean that the company needs to have a large building to store it. But this building can't be just anywhere. It has to be in a location that's most convenient to the customer such as the main street of a city. Further costs include staff, management and product availability but is there another way?

eRetailing

Amazon.com were one of the first to utilize the Internet as a sales channel. Since they conduct all of their business online, with no physical stores, they are regarded as a 'pure play' company in eRetailing. They began life as a book store but have since moved into other areas now selling music CDs, DVDs and even beds. What has allowed them to expand so rapidly? Well for a start they don't have to pay huge amounts of salaries because the customer can find everything for themselves and even check out without help. Secondly, the only building they have to worry about is the one that contains their inventory which doesn't have to be right beside the customer. And finally, Amazon don't have to keep building stores close to customers since the customer can access the store from their own home! This gives them an advantage over a bricks-and-mortar company like Tesco, who have since launched their own website to get a slice of this market. Michael Clark, co-owner of Ciocclato, certainly thinks eReatailing is the future:



Impact

eRetailing had a massive impact on the travel & tourism sector in particular. Firstly, it eliminated any intermediary meaning the manufacturers, which were airlines, could offer customers booking without having to go through a travel agency. Secondly, the web increased the distribution of information meaning someone with no previous knowledge of a resort could quickly get an idea of what the place had to offer. Again this cut out the middle man with hotels crating their own websites. Thirdly, the increased competition meant that travel agencies had to improve their service and began offering customizable package holidays. And finally, as mentioned in the Web 2.0 blog entry, the transfer of information between users increased which meant you could go online to get other people impressions and opinions of potential holiday destinations.

You may be asking yourself how this helps you. Well the more companies that go online the better your job prospects and since they would have a global reach you wouldn't even have to wait for a position in your own country, let alone city. You also have access to free career advice and the largest place in the world to market yourself to potential suitors. So maybe globalisation isn't the bad after all.