E-tailing
Julie Cantagallo
Summary by Sara Kennedy
Julie Cantagallo spoke about the concept of E-tailing. Starting in the mid 1990s and continuing though the present day dot com companies have boomed. In the beginning many of the companies failed, but the survivors are making great progress today. E-tailing has been very successful to date. In 2003, clothing accounted for the top selling item with revenues totaling in 3.7 billion dollars and rising. The three types of online retailers are Click, Click and Brick, and Brick and Mortar. Amazon.com and E-Bay are both successful examples of Click retailers, because they are solely online. An example of click and Brick would be REI.com. Advantages of E-tailing are that the web sites are full of information usually with links to other helpful sites, which allows consumers to compare products by looking at individual items. Another positive aspect to E-tailing is the convenience. Shopping out of your home or office reduces the stresses of waiting in lines and dealing with sales people. On the contrary, E-tailing can have its disadvantages. Often when dealing with online shopping, consumers experience problems with fit, since they cannot try the items on. Return policies are also a turn off; items can be difficult to return. The cost of shipping and handling may turn costumers away as well. Another aspect of E-tailing that can be a downfall is the lack of access to technology by many people. Many top designers take these negative aspects of E-tailing into consideration when thinking about getting involved in the business. The lack of infrastructure and high costs of online business cause these designers to be reluctant. So, as we can see, E-tailing is a very interesting aspect of the retailing industry that we will continue to grow in the future despite the disadvantages it can possess.