E-Commerce Spawns Networks of Frenemies

Some sort of model along these lines will be necessary for Brick and Mortar bookstores to retain marketshare in the age of digital books, although in reverse. Traditional bookstores join an affiliate program through a publisher / online retailer to deliver customers, while delivering to customers a place to buy traditional books, or browse and buy ebooks. Think of the Barnes and Noble Nook process but extended to other platforms.

I note that while Kinde was the first device to the market, some of the innovations showcased by the Nook are driving market forces, e.g. Amazon is about to unveil a method to "loan" a book for up to 14 days.

 

 

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E-Commerce Spawns Networks of Frenemies

via Technology Review RSS Feeds on 10/25/10

Why More Web Merchants Now Work Cautiously with Their Competitors.

As marketing chief for a small chain of Southern furniture stores, Robert Hodgson almost laughed when he first heard the pitch. A representative from Furniture.com, a longtime foe of all local furniture retailers, had called with a proposition. What if Hodgson's chain, Brashears, with its three brick-and-mortar showrooms in Missouri and Arkansas, began paying the national website to steer potential customers his way? The proposal struck him as almost comically naïve. "I definitely had to consider all sorts of questions," Hodgson recalls. Most obviously: if the customer leads were really so great, why would a competitor sell them to him?

 

 

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