Chapter 9 Homework

1. Why were so many entrepreneurs drawn to start businesses in the online retail sector initially?

costs were less, they were able to quickly react to customers needs, and could personalize things.

2. What frequently makes the difference between profitable and unprofitable online businesses today?

Economic Viability

3. Which segment of the offline retail business is most like online retailing? Why?

4. Name the largest segment of U.S. retail sales. Explain why businesses in this segment have achieved and continue to dominate online retailing.

Consumer Durables. These goods have a long lifespan

5. Name two assumptions e-commerce analysts made early on about consumers and their buying behavior that turned out to be false.

6. Why were customer acquisition costs assumed early on to be lower on the Web? What was supposed to reduce those costs?

7. Explain the distinction between disintermediation and hypermediation as it relates to online retailing.

8. Compare and contrast virtual merchants and bricks-and-clicks firms. What other type of online retailer is most like the virtual merchant?

9. What is the difference between a supply-push and a demand-pull sales model? Why do most manufacturer-direct firms have difficulty switching to one of these?

10. What are five strategic issues specifically related to a firm’s capabilities? How are they different from industry-related strategic issues?

11. What are some of the difficulties in providing services in an online environment? What factors differentiate the services sector from the retail sector, for example?

12. Compare and contrast the two major types of online service industries. What two major features differentiate services from other industries?

Chapter 8 Homework

1. What basic assumptions does the study of ethics make about individuals?

2. What are the three basic principles of ethics? How does due process factor in?

3. Explain Google’s position that YouTube does not violate the intellectual property rights of copyright owners.

4. Define universalism, slippery slope, the New York Times test, and the social contract rule as they apply to ethics.

5. Name some of the personal information collected by Web sites about their visitors.

6. How does information collected through online forms differ from site transaction logs? Which potentially provides a more complete consumer profile?

7. Name three ways online advertising networks have improved on, or added to, traditional offline marketing techniques.

8. Explain how Web profiling is supposed to benefit both consumers and businesses.

9. How could the Internet potentially change protection given to intellectual property?

10. What capabilities make it more difficult to enforce intellectual property law?

11. What are some of the tactics illegal businesses, such as betting parlors and casinos, successfully use to operate outside the law on the Internet?

Chapter 7 Homework

1. Explain the difference between marketing and marketing communications.

2. What are some reasons why online advertising constitutes only about 9 percent of the total advertising market?

3. What kinds of products are most suited to being advertised online?

4. What is the difference between an interstitial ad and a superstitial ad?

5. What are some of the reasons for the decline in click-through rates on banner ads today? How can banner ads be made more effective?

6. Why are some affiliate relationships called “tenancy” deals? How do they differ from pure affiliate relationships?

7. There is some controversy surrounding paid placements on search engines. What are some of the issues surrounding paid placement search engines? Why might consumers object to this practice?

8. What are some of the advantages of direct e-mail marketing?

9. What is the difference between hits and page views? Why are these not the best measurements of Web traffic? Which is the preferred metric for traffic counts?

10. Define CTR, CPM, CPC, and CPA.

11. What are the key attributes of a good domain name?

12. What are some of the steps a firm can take to optimize its search engine rankings?

13. List and describe some Web site design features that impact online purchasing.