The Channel Strategies for delivering Digital Value to customers

The Channel Strategies for delivering Digital Value to customers

The Internet era has shown that companies have risked damaging relationships in their physical chain to compete in the electronic channel. The ubiquity of the Internet the fact that cross-linkages are possible to any degree, has meant that companies have usurped the role of other value providers in the value chain to gain competitive advantage. When companies pirate the value chain of the industry they are essentially eliminating layers of costs that are build into the current distribution system. However pirating the value chain does not mean that the number of intermediaries in the whole process would necessarily decrease. The emerging economic structure of Electronic Commerce would mean that profits would lie in the intermediate transactions rather than in the final sale of the good. Companies would aim at cutting down their traditional margins (give up the cost plus pricing structure) and aim at high inventory turnover. In retailing profitability is primarily.

The challenge will lie in managing these multiple channels of experience

 It is likely that most companies will find that they will have to integrate several distribution channels to provide the customer with a seamless purchase process. The key challenge is thus to ensure that the personalized nature of the experience is not much different across channels. Can an Internet bookseller allow its customers to experience the same ambience on the net as it does in the bookstore or vice-versa? If it cannot then companies will face friction among the alternative distribution channels and the already established physical channel might complain about its profitability being affected by digital purchases. This may be typified by friction between vehicle dealers and the company over orders trough an auto company’s Web site. Complementary to the problem of managing multiple channels of distribution is the development of infrastructure needed to support such a distribution network. The billing system and pricing strategies have to be properly frames and executed