e tailing benefits & limitations

E-tailing has certain advantages over catalog retailing:

• Customers have a much wider choice at their fingertips (many e-tail sites etc.) Thus the web creates a global bazaar style marketplace that brings together many consumers and many retailers.
• With web search capabilities (which need further development) it is easier to find the types of goods a customer is searching for, catalogs are received passively, at the behest of the retailer.
• Customers can execute transactions via the same medium the information is provided, so there is no disconnect between the desire to purchase and the ability to purchase. (Payment schemes are still evolving and therefore this advantage is likely to become more apparent in the future.)
• E-tailers can use price descrimination more efficiently than catalog retailers (which may use coupons to lower certain "fixed" prices). E-tailers can use previous transactions to identify the likelihood of products being purchased at certain price points.
• E-tailers can change the product placement (user display) based on previous transactions, to increase the visibility of goods that the user is more likely to purchase based on their close relationship with previous purchases. Thus placement can be designed based on the context of the previous purchases.

E-tailing has certain disadvantages over catalog shopping:

• Not all customers have access to the web, as they do to the postal system. This is a temporary issue as the evolution of the web continues.
• Ease of use is a problem, as the web design is still complex, or at least somewhat chaotic. E-tail stores are not standardized in design in the way catalogs and retail stores have become. Therefore different user bahaviors (navigation schemes) need to be learned for each e-tail store. This is a temporary issue as the evolution of the web continues.
• Trust, security and privacy concerns prevail. Consumers are concerned with the use of the data they provide during transactions.
• Graphic presentation is not as compelling for the web as it can be for catalogs. This is a temporary issue as the evolution of the web continues.