Secondary offer suppliers
It's not enough to put together a commercial service
and present it on a website to sell it. You also have
to attract buyers to the site, by using all the relevant
webmarketing techniques to reach the targeted audience
: registering, exchanging hypertext links, communication
outside Internet, on and off-line advertising ... everyone
knows how it should be done and everyone does it. To increase
and consolidate its commercial visibility, it has quickly
become indispensable to sign agreements with access providers.
The market leaders of CDs, books, cars or financial services
distribution have all signed sponsoring agreements which
resemble affiliation programmes, with the portal sites.
But it is noticeable that consumers need more and more
detailed information in order to choose among the vast
range of primary service providers, such as portals or
communities.
This is where the secondary offer suppliers come in,
who offer a qualitative approach, which is complementary
to the quantitative approach offered by the primary offer
suppliers.
1. The selectors
There are any number of selective guides in the physical
world (Michelin, Argos for cars and other consumer-orientated
guides). Their income is mostly generated from subscriptions
and advertising. Even if they are not yet widely available
on Internet except in the domain of computer technology,
their number is growing. But their economic concept will
probably be slightly modified, as the service itself becomes
more and more complicated.
Acheter.net presents itself as a buyer's guide for the
cyberconsumer. It continually carries out trials to test
the quality of services sold in online stores, and follows
the latest news of network sales. This idea is midway
between that of the Michelin guides and Which ? magazine.
eSmart-http://www.esmart.com is a pioneer American version
whose content is both extremely rich and intelligently
thought out. It concerns a series of specialised mini-guides,
on such subjects as banking, cars, food products, toys,
computer technology ... Each of these guides presents
a state-of-the-art critical review of the service available,
reduction coupons and shopping assistants which precisely
compare a product's lowest prices, in the same way as
comparison shoppers. Discussion spaces allow shoppers
to share their online shopping experiences and, if appropriate,
give their opinion on a particular retailer. The site
is sponsored by commercial sites, or those linked to the
world of consumerism, as is the case with Brainplay.com-http://www.brainplay.com
or Etoys.com-http://www.etoys.com, two sites aimed at
children. But the site has also made a selection of the
most useful sites for the consumer (eSmart recommends
SOAR: Searchable Online Archive of Recipes-http://soar.berkeley.edu/recipes/
which presents over 50,000 recipes). Finally, free newsletters
reinforce eSmart's community approach, which presents
itself as a community for online buyers. For the moment,
the community aspect is in fact an additional accessory,
and the fundamental concept is that of a buyer's guide.
The primary service providers' strength lies in the importance
of the service which they offer. As for the secondary
service providers, they are based on a qualitative selection
of this overall service. The selection might, for example,
be made according to price or the quality of goods.
General guides
Beatrice Web Guide-http://www.bguide.com
Internet Shopper-http://www.internet-shopper.com
Digital Consumer (Spain)
Storesearch-http://www.storesearch.com
Shopping Extra-http://www.consulweb.com/shopping-extra/
Specialist guides
Le juste Prix-http://www.justeprix.qds.fr
Computers.com-http://www.computer.com
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