Introduction
Business models are possibly the most discussed and least understood facet of the web. Brokerage models, such as Priceline.com are market makers: they bring buyers and sellers together to facilitate transactions. Priceline.com leads the way to a unique new type of e-commerce known as a "demand collection system". Priceline.com is the world's first online buying service through which consumers name the price they're willing to pay. Leveraging the unique attributes of the Internet, Priceline.com finds sellers willing to meet buyers' needs and price.
Jay Walker, the founder of Priceline.com, created a new concept and business model. This model shifts the setting of prices from sellers to buyers. The company seeks to use its patented system on products such as airline seats, hotel rooms, gasoline and groceries. Using a simple and persuasive consumer proposition called "Name Your Own Price," Priceline.com collects consumer demands for a product or service at a desired price. Priceline.com reroutes that demand within their own databases or simply directly to participating providers. Priceline.com fulfills customers' offers from inventory provided by participating sellers.
Priceline.com enables sellers to generate extra revenue without disrupting their existing distribution channels or retail pricing structures. In this sense it uses the Internet's communication and information abilities to turn customary retailing upside down; alternatively it opens up to the individual consumer a form of transaction which has previously only been open to corporate entities.
Key Issues
Priceline.com incurred tremendous success in its beginning years. However, the success story has been put on hold in 2000. Priceline.com is now faced with many critical issues. Recently, Priceline.com has suffered a serious beating from its investors and is now hanging on the edge of survival with both failures from WebHouse Club and Perfect Yardsale. Major areas of concerns, which will be analysed in further details later on, for Priceline.com include: contested patent techniques, poor customer service, need of new brand identity, dependence on travel industry, falling stock price, and fierce new competitors.
Now, dealing with monumental problems, Priceline.com is faced with a daunting future and a questionable long-term success. Will Priceline.com find itself pushed out the market by copycats, despite its patent? Fundamentally, can Priceline.com's survive?
SWOT
An evaluation of Priceline.com's strengths and weaknesses arises as an inspection of the company's internal mechanisms, which are relatively easier to control than outside factors. On the other hand, opportunities and threats were analyzed as part of an external environmental analysis; over which Priceline.com no control.
Nordstrom can continue providing their exceptional online experience and client focused approach using their online system by offering an unmatched online experience that copies their in-store customer service. This would allow Nordstrom to raise its revenue considerably as well as further improving their brand image. I will also discuss specific ways of successful execution, and the steps required to provide Nordstrom a stunning picture of how to execute strategy.
In order to perform my research, I used Priceline’s 10 K report to get the financial information that was needed for this research. In addition, I used the company’s website where I found basic information about Priceline history and also other businesses that Priceline’s group owns. Yahoo finance and Priceline’s website assisted me with their presentation of financial charts and analysis of them. I found very useful Forbes website, where I was able to find out a lot of information about Priceline and its subsidiaries. Social responsibility and Ethics practiced by Priceline were part of the research and its website was very useful in my research. Also the textbook helps me with basic concepts and, played an important role in finding information. Yahoo and Google were the search engines that I widely used to find information about Priceline, and its direct competitors such as Expedia.
Amazon.com operates in the Online Retail Industry. The sector is one of the fastest growing globally and is outperforming the ordinary retail marketplace. It was created after 1995 and it was only the Internet that made it possible for such an industry not only to be established but to become one of the most flourishing sectors in the business environment. What is interesting is that Amazon.com, together with eBay is the pioneer in the field. Both companies were launched in 1995 and are still extremely successful. The creation of e-mail in 1996 had a huge impact on the development of online retail by introducing a fast and easy way to communicate with customers. For this two-year period Internet usage doubled annually, thus, allowing for the expansion of the industry. Google is launched a year later, in 1998, only to become the most used search engine in the world and an essential partner for the online retailers by helping them tailor their websites to customer’s personal preferences and by advertising. After that, more and more people see the opportunity in the growing industry and enter it. By 2001 there are more than 513 million Internet users globally, which calls for action in terms of creating regulations and laws to protect the users and personal property. In 2003, Apple launches iTunes, and provides a platform for low-cost digital downloads. Another major change is the appearance of social media from 2004, which is one of the biggest influencer on the state of the industry. With the launch of iPhone in 2007, this trend strengthens as people get to enjoy the Internet anywhere they want to. From then on, technological advancements have made it extremely easy and fun to shop online, making it ...
Perhaps an emphasis on price has blinded Priceline to intangibles like quality service and a satisfying experience. It's unclear whether consumers are willing to sacrifice brand and product features to save a few bucks. The announcement in early October that the company's WebHouse Club subsidiary for groceries and gas would close, was a shot heard 'round the Web and Wall Street and signaled the model might be broken.
Krishnamurthy, S. (2004). A comparative analysis of eBay and Amazon [PDF file]. Retrieved from http://faculty.washington.edu/sandeep/d/amazonebay.pdf
Among them some customers are cost-conscious and they are affecting the environment of Zappos. These customers won’t affect Zappo’s business too much because this store has its feedback facility. If those customers have problems regarding price, quality or other issues, they gave positive as well as negative feedback to the website.The feedback shows that 99% of customers are happy with the service given by Zappos.Thus, cost-conscious customers are not affected much by the web store.
Helgeson, James G., and Eric G. Gorger. "The Price Weapon: Developments In U.S. Predatory Pricing Law." Journal Of Business-To-Business Marketing 10.2 (2003): 3. Business Source Complete. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
Pricing is an important aspect of every business. Chief Financial Officer’s (CFO) use pricing to create financial projections, establish a break-even point, and calculate profit and loss margins (Power Point, 2005). It is the only element in the marketing mix that produces revenue. Price is also one of the most flexible elements of the marketing mix as it can be changed very quickly. This is usually done to beat competitor prices in an attempt to fix the product’s market value position very low (Anderson & Bailey, 1998). After all, high prices make it difficult to become the market share leader. The leading US retailer, Wal-Mart, is an expert at low product pricing as evident in 2004 with $250 billion dollars in sales to their 138 million weekly shoppers. However, they are also responsible for reducing prices so low that it drives specialty stores out of business. This is the effect Wal-mart has had on many toy stores and has almost closed the doors of the famous toy store Toys “R” Us Inc.
Based on these concerns, retailers in the international marketplace have their work cut out for them. But through proper education of consumers, and the ever-expanding growth of the infrastructure in many countries, the future seems to be leaning heavily towards using the Internet for many needs.
Priceline.com is an e-commerce site which when founded in 1998, brought forth a new angle to conduct business. Traditionally marketers scan the market to determine which prices purchasers are willing and able to pay for products or services. The sellers then offer their product for a price which meets their internal criteria. With priceline, instead of the seller setting the price, the buyer makes an offer of what he or she is willing to pay and sellers compete for the buyers business. This innovation represented a first in that general non commercial consumers have never been able to name the price they will pay and have sellers respond.
and is especially popular among eBay customers. Fig.1 briefly illustrates Company’s business. The system enables its
The Internet is rapidly becoming widespread and widely used as a tool for globalization across the world. As the Internet became more easily accessible by most people in the world, the web is bringing significant implications and changes to the way we live, including the way we shop. There is a rapid growth with e-commerce and moving businesses onto the web and retail success is no longer about stores and shopping centers. In developed countries, about two thirds of the population have access to the Internet making the option of online shopping is easily accessible to most people (Valerio). With the ease of shopping in your own home there are many benefits of doing your shopping online. Consumers can easily compare prices online, there is a larger range of products on the web, you can save time by having your shopping delivered right to your doorstep and it also overcomes physical barriers. Over the last decade online shopping has challenged and replaced the traditional means of physically going into shops as the digital world has provided customers with further convenience, flexibility and comfort from shopping from your own home.
All items are hand-picked and have been established for 3 years. Mr Price will need to combat this threat by closing the gap where potential customers are escaping by merging businesses, or creating a competitive advantage. A competitive advantage is achieved by having lower prices, better quality, customer’s loyalty or best service. (Retief, 2015)
Online retail and shopping sales has been growing consistently every year, not just in the US but worldwide. Not only does online shopping give customers more convenience, more variety, and more discreetness but it also gives customers better prices. While it is quite true that Wal-Mart has product variety and cheap prices – things customers want – the physical stores do not really give the convenience and discreteness that online retail and shopping does.
Mr Price is also very up to date with technology and continues to implement mobile POS, Tap ‘n Go, paperless receipting and online store fulfilment to strengthen the brand and increase the customer experience satisfaction as well as reduce checkout and delivery times.