Transparency: the client sees everything, knows everything
and can do anything
As Internet is a world-wide information medium in real
time, it's easy to understand why it makes comparison
simpler than in the physical world of goods and services,
where organising suppliers takes up an enormous amount
of time. With this tool, not only can we closely follow
the evolution of the economic services of our usual suppliers,
but Internet allows us to identify new suppliers overseas,
thanks to its directory Websites, such as Yahoo, to specialised
listings in a particular field, to the online yellow pages
service and various other intermediary services which
have appeared with Internet. Your business can indeed
view cyber-commerce as a way of allowing it to make the
best buying choices, even before considering it as a way
of increasing its sales. But once again, it's no good
improvising : you must adopt a strategic approach.
The transparency of Internet is just as important business-to-business
as it is for large-scale buying : in the first case, complex
intermediary systems created by General Electric in 1996
which allow several suppliers to compete by putting the
distribution out to tender. In France, a simplified system
exists, known as OPALE, managed by the ACORUS.
As far as consumer products areconcerned, comparison
shopping systems (see in the following pages) are still
thinly spread : sellers don't like to feel they are in
competition. But little by little, the discount stores
are playing the game and the consumers can increasingly
identify the lowest prices for each type of product. It's
interesting to see even now, how many individuals enter
into a complex buying process for computer equipment.
Let's imagine that you want to buy a faster modem for
your cherished computer. Formerly, you would go to your
usual hypermarket (Carrefour or Auchan, for example),
to an computer shop (a 'Taiwanese') known for its reasonable
prices. Most of the time, you don't even go so far as
to consult the advertising in your favourite computer
magazine, because you've already spent three or four hours
trying to save 15 euros.
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