E-commerce as a Revenue Stream
for editorial web sites
E-commerce is big on the web...but is it big for editorial sites?
By the Brownline: Emily Hiser, Ben Lanka, Wai Li and Felicia Oliver
Is E-commerce turning a profit on editorial sites?
With Internet editorial sites looking for ways to turn a profit, many have attempted to sell products and merchandise directly from their sites. The question is whether editorial sites, like CNN.com and Salon.com can generate significant revenues through e-commerce when non-editorial sites like Amazon.com and Travelocity.com are selling similar products. Users are more inclined to go to these e-commerce sites to purchase products, because "familiarity breeds net sales," as stated in a February 2001 Business 2.0 report.
E-commerce is a broad term, ranging from the purchasing of stocks online (business-to-consumer transactions) to companies buying large shipments of parts from another company (business-to-business transactions). This report will focus on B-to-C transactions because it is the type of e-commerce transaction editorial sites generally use.
Before looking at how editorial sites use e-commerce, it may be helpful
to look at the history of e-commerce and see how it has developed into
where it is today and project where it will be tomorrow. Explore the navigation
on the left for a look into our research.