Virtual Merchants

A Virtual merchandiser is any website which offers the sale of goods or service in a return for remuneration. (Tatum, 2010) Virtual merchants are essentially the same(p) as a retail outlet, except they only operate online, shell amazon. They allow the consumer easy and instant access to view/purchase trade in at the click of a button anytime and anywhere. Online stores are now be called e-tailers as they are highly popular with the general consumer.For use in 2008 Amazon had over 76 million active guests accounts and order completion to more than 200 countries. (DaveChaffey, last modify 13-03-2008) Amazons success and domination in the market place is well known. Customers tend to stay loyal to the e-tailer as they are extremely reliable on delivery, drop an easy and user friendly online interface and are constantly learning and establishing trading relationships with its customers example possible likes e-mails.This loyalty aspect is one riddle which most virtual m erchants face and in Amazons case the customer oriented strategy they employ seems to be very effective at maintaining shop loyalty. Relentlessly focus on customer experience by crack our customers low prices, convenience, and a wide endurance of merchandise (DaveChaffey, last modified 13-03-2008) Many trading merchants offer the virtual trading aspect to their animate physical melodic phrase to stay agonistical and diverse within in the market place.This retail outlet coupled with the virtual merchant allows the business to appeal to a larger target market of potential customers, example the convenience shopper (online) and the physical shopper. This type of merchant can be referred to as bricks and clicks merchant example Wal-Mart. The care for proposition defines how a companys reaping or service fulfils the needs of customers (Kambil, Ginsberg and Bloch 1998). In Amazons case the value proposition is quiet simple as it aims to offer the worlds biggest choice of certain goods and be extremely customer focused and orientated.Amazon offers a personalised and customized service at a very competitive cost to their customers at the click of a mouse. According to Kambil 1997 and Bakos 1998, offering personalization, customization of product offerings and a reduction on product search costs are extremely important factors in developing a companys value proposition. A companys revenue model defines how they set apart to generate pelf and return on investment. In the virtual merchant market place there are several shipway where gelt can be generated.Firstly there is the unionize sales profit margin and in amazons case they dont have to bring retail outlets in busy high streets etc only merchandise storehouse storage etc, this accompanied with its online trading medium means that overheads, example direct contact with customer and reduction in sales support costs, are kept to a minimum allowing Amazon to offer an unrivalled selection and value for mo ney. This places Amazon extremely competitive within the market place. second they offer other businesses space to advertise on their webpage for example Hewlett pacard, Thompson holidays, prompt lodge etc.Virtual merchants are constantly looking to be dynamic and diverse in their service which they provide and different ways in targeting bare-assed customers. The e-tailer market is constantly growing as new users and accounts are set up every day. Amazon began in 1995 and have gained there competitive advantage within their market, they generated over 5 jillion in sales in under a decade. When we compare this statistic with Wal-Mart (a bricks and clicks merchant) it took them cardinal years to hit this sales figure. This is an indicator of how big and expanding the e-tailer market is.