E-Tailing

Abstract For e-commerce, or e-business “…the e stands for ‘electronic networks’ and describes the application of electronic network technology” which can include the internet or other electronic data. “E-commerce covers outward-facing processes that touch customers, suppliers and external partners, including sales, marketing, order taking, delivery, customer service, purchasing of raw materials and supplies for production and procurement of indirect operating-expense items, such as office supplies. It involves new business models and the potential to gain new revenue or lose some existing revenue to new competitors. It's ambitious but relatively easy to implement because it involves…suppliers or intermediaries such as Web-based marketplaces; and integration of technology with modestly redesigned processes for order handling, purchasing or customer service. E-business includes e-commerce but also covers internal processes such as production, inventory management, product development, risk management, finance, knowledge management and human resources.” (Bartels, 2000) Electronic-network retailing, or e-tailing, is how a firm retails or sells its products or services via the internet. It is a subset of e-commerce and includes many of the multifaceted layers of e-business.
This essay will give an overview on the current state of e-tailing. It will examine the critical success factors, advantages and drawbacks, size, growth trends, and areas of consumer products that do well and not so well.
Introduction
In order to fully grasp e-tailing it is important to understand the many channels of distribution of e-commerce. Again, a “marketing channel…is a group of organizations that moves products from their producer to customers... Organizations that bridge the gap between a product’s manufacturer and the ultimate consumer are called middlemen, or