E-commerce as a Revenue Stream
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Industry Impact: "There's Gold in the Amazon(.com)!"
...and in other companies owing their existence to the explosion of e-commerce
Touted as "the
earth's largest bookstore," Amazon was the top e-tailer in November
2000, according to PC Data Online, netting 3 million shoppers who
made purchases from its site. |
The development of e-commerce is largely responsible for the success of some of today's best known Web sites: Amazon, Priceline, Peapod, eBay and Expedia, to name a few.
"The (1998) Christmas holiday shopping spree lifted Amazon.com over the $1 billion barrier in annual sales. AOL generated $1.2 billion in sales in 10 weeks of holiday shopping alone," according to Jon Weisman of E-Commerce Times.
Success breeds imitation. As a result of eBay's popularity, 1,000 auction sites now operate on the Internet. Barnes and Noble can no doubt chart a good deal of its online success to the trail blazed by Amazon.
And of course Priceline opened the door to the online notion of the reverse auction, where instead of potential purchasers bidding against one another for an item, suppliers respond to prices offered by a potential purchaser.