Poter's Five Forces Model in E-Commerce

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FIVE COMPETITIVE FORCES OF INDUSTRY Michael Porter has postulated that the intensity of competition in an industry is determined by its underlying economic structure1. And he further contends as we saw above, that the industry structure is shaped by five basic competitive forces: the threat of new entrances into the industry, the bargaining power of suppliers to the industry, the threat of substitute products or services, the bargaining power of customers or buyers, and the Rivalry among Existing Firms. The figure shows these competitive forces. The threat of substitute products The existence of close substitute products increases the propensity of customers to switch to alternatives in response to price increases (high elasticity of demand).  buyer propensity to substitute  relative price performance of substitutes  buyer switching costs  perceived level of product differentiation The threat of the entry of new competitors Profitable markets that yield high returns will draw firms. This results in many new entrants, which will effectively decrease profitability. Unless the entry of new firms can be blocked by incumbents, the profit rate will fall towards a competitive level (perfect competition).  the existence of barriers to entry (patents, rights, etc.)  economies of product differences  brand equity  switching costs or sunk costs  capital requirements  access to distribution  absolute cost advantages  learning curve advantages  expected retaliation by incumbents  government policies The intensity of competitive rivalry For most industries, this is the major determinant of the competitiveness of the industry. Sometimes rivals compete aggressively and sometimes rivals compete in non... ... middle of paper ... ...pliers is low, caused by existence of many suppliers in the Industry. Firms like Microsoft due to their position in the software product market, we can say that their bargaining power as supplier of firms that sells products like Office, for example is strong, perhaps to have others firms in the industry. 5) Threats of substitute products or services In general, it is easy to sell in the internet, so, there are threats of substitute products or service in the e-commerce industry. There are threat of substitute products, by fact of products sold in the industry could be sold by others firms that are inside or outside of industry, for example, if the buyer do not get satisfied with price of a DVD or Book supplied by Amazon.com, for example, these can choice to buy other product that is being sold by another firm that belongs or not this industry, to a price more low.

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