Tag Archives: Ecommerce

Using customer financing of prototype designs to cover manufacturing costs

Posted on September 24, 2011 by aviyer2010

A New York Times article (Sept 23, 2011) describes Kickstarter – a crowdsourcing website model to fund designs. Designs are proposed along with a fundraising goal with an “all or nothing” model – if the minimum is not met, no … Continue reading →

Posted in Collaboration, Operations Management, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged Collaboration, Consumers, Ecommerce, Service, Supply Chain | Leave a comment

Ecommerce, couriers and cash on delivery in India

Posted on September 15, 2011 by aviyer2010

An article in the New York Times (Sept 14, 2011) describes FlipKart – an ecommerce company in India that employs couriers for home delivery of orders with cash paid on delivery. Given the preference for cash transactions and payment ion … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecommerce, Global Contexts, Service Operations, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged competition, Consumers, Cost, Ecommerce, Retail, Supply Chain | 2 Comments

Ecommerce Robustness during economic downturn

Posted on August 15, 2011 by aviyer2010

A Wall Street Journal article (August 14, 2011) describes the potential growth of ecommerce businesses (10 % in 2011 and 9 % in 2012) even as overall retail sales are expected to decrease. Increased selection, pooled inventory that can be … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecommerce, Operations Management, Service Operations, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged competition, Consumers, Cost, Ecommerce, Efficiency, Service, Supply Chain | Leave a comment

Brick and Mortar Retailers urge sales tax collection by etailers

Posted on March 18, 2011 by aviyer2010

A Wall Street Journal article (March 17, 2011) describes a move by retailers such as WalMart and Target to force internet merchants to collect sales tax – a much needed source of revenue for struggling states. The move has resulted … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecommerce, Service Operations, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged Ecommerce, Inventory, Margins, Service, Sustainable | Leave a comment

Limiting number of times ebooks are issued in libraries

Posted on February 28, 2011 by aviyer2010

A New York Times article (February 28, 2011) describes a move by HarperCollins to limit the number of times an ebook at a library can be issued to customers to 26. Once this limit is reached, the ebook has to … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecommerce, Operations Management, Service Operations | Tagged Consumers, Cost, Ecommerce, Supply Chain | Leave a comment

New retail outlets for book publishers – apparel, hardware stores

Posted on February 28, 2011 by aviyer2010

A New York Times article (February 28, 2011) describes book publishers use of apparel retailers (Marc Jacobs, Kitson, Urban Outfitters), hardware stores (Lowe’s Pro Bass Shops) as outlets for book sales. The decline of Borders, and the increased focus on … Continue reading →

Posted in Operations Management, Service Operations, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged Capacity, Consumers, Cost, Ecommerce, Margins, Service, Supply Chain, Trends | Leave a comment

Choosing the Apple option or the Google option – a quandry for publishers

Posted on February 21, 2011 by aviyer2010

An article in the New York Times (February 21, 2011) summarizes two choices for publishers wanting electronic magazine sales – go through the iTunes store and pay Apple 30 % and get no consumer information, or go through Google and … Continue reading →

Posted in Operations Management, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged Consumers, Cost, Ecommerce, Margins, Service, Supply Chain | Leave a comment

Using phone credits to pay

Posted on December 6, 2010 by aviyer2010

Nicholas Kristof in an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/opinion/05kristof.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fopinion%2Findex.jsonp) writes about a program by Mercy Corps in Haiti. This NGO will transfer money to people’s phone accounts – the money, in the form of phone talk time, … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Contexts, Service Operations | Tagged Ecommerce, Global, Low Margins, Phone credits, Poor, Survival | Leave a comment

Quidsi, Diapers.com and $ 500 million of diapers

Posted on October 17, 2010 by aviyer2010

Bloomberg Businessweek (Oct 11, 2010) has a story about Quidsi, the holding company that owns Diapers.com and Soap.com. The story reports on how a focus on diapers, with low 5-7 % margins, has enabled the company to build a loyal … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecommerce, Operations Management, Supply Chain Issues | Tagged Algorithms, Ecommerce, Low Margins, Sustainable | Leave a comment

Multi-Channel Logistics at Nordstrom

Posted on October 1, 2010 by aviyer2010

In the August 24, 2010 issue, the New York times page B1 had an article titled “The Web as a Store Window – Nordstorm Links Online Inventory to the Real World”. The article describes how customers can look for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecommerce, Service Operations, Supply Chain Issues, Uncategorized | Tagged Coordination, Ecommerce, Growth, Multi-channel | Leave a comment