C2C The New Garage Sale?

The growth of consumer to consumer business has been steady throughout the past few years. On average the growth of this marketplace is 5-7%.

The question is, can this business segment replace the "normal" business to consumer marketplace? Many researchers have found that this marketplace could be the "wave of the future." The most popular consumer to consumer site is EBay. Around the world consumers use EBay to sell not only their used goods but new goods as well. This allows them to reach a global marketplace of consumers that they may have never been able to reach before.

There are many benefits of Consumer to Consumer businesses for example, price savings, enhanced customer choice, reduced search and transaction costs, and cross border trade. With the world-wide economy in a downturn many of these characteristics could be quite favorable to the average consumer. Instead having to drive to the mall to shop, they can do so from sites like EBay and Amazon enjoying many of the benefits listed above. Either way they save time, and money, attributes that are quite valuable to many people.

Consumers can also have their own virtual "garage sale." In the past when you wanted to get rid of a few things you had to put them in front of your lawn and hope that someone would pass by and purchase it from you. Now with the online Consumer to Consumer marketplace you can sell your goods without the time & labor needed for a typical garage sale. In addition, you can have people bid on your goods and receive more than you would have if you tried to sell it the traditional way.

The C2C marketplace has revolutionized the way most consumers purchase goods. With the ever pressing need to save money, consumers around the globe are sure to turn to these sites to purchase items before visiting some typical business websites, and even before they visit a brick and mortar store.

Sources: ec.europa.eu/competition/sectors/media/ebay_frontier_report.pdf

Does everyone NEED social networking?

Social media is the "new wave" of advertising and media placement for many companies today. Many small to medium sized businesses feel like they are not "in tune" with this new form of advertising if they do not jump on this "bandwagon."

But is it necessary for every business to be involved in social media? There are a few things that a company should think about before considering joining a social media network. It may seem easy to just create a Facebook or a Twitter page, but careful planning should be done in order for you to get the most impact from these websites. These sites require constant updating that may up to a few hours a day to maintain. Just because you go away on Vacation doesn't mean that your Facebook or Twitter site does also! With this amount of dedication you should ensure that the impact you may receive from these sites will in fact be worthwhile and most of all reach your target market. Researching how these sites work and how you can maximize them will help greatly.

Keeping regular and relevant information on your social media site can prove to be extremely beneficial as well. You can advertise through these channels everything from
upcoming sales to offering coupons to your following customers.

Social media in itself is free but as shown above, the time and energy required to keep up with it may become costly to any firm. It is only after careful evaluation of your firms target market, goals and objectives, and creating a strategy for your social media networking, that you can truly evaluate whether social media networking is the right choice for your organization.

Source:
www.fwbusinesspress.com

Mobile E-Commerce..a new wave

Mobile commerce or m-commerce is use of wireless devices to enable transitions on the wold wide web. You can use wireless networks through your phone to access the web and perform a wide variety of tasks. Gone are the days where your phone is used just to dial a number, you can now do almost anything through this small device.

People use their phones to do everything from mobile banking to shopping in the palm of their hands at any time or place. This more than anything I believe is going to change e-marketing and the growth of the Internet and the web. Companies should focus on this new era of mobile marketing and develop the software necessary for consumers to reach their products from a hand held device.

In the world of apps there is an app for everything. Recently a law firm even came up with the first app that would assist people in assessing the costs associated with a divorce shown on www.cnn.com If you think about it, now consumers who are making a costly decision like that can access your firm, and most likely use you as their legal representative simply because they were able to access information provided by you through their phone.

As phones become more technologically advanced so will the software for them. This can only add to the endless possibilities of advertising and ways that consumers can be directly linked with companies around the globe.

A New Way of Thinking..Paying for News?

We all know that companies have less money these days to allocate to advertising. In an economic downturn Advertising should not be one of the areas where money is cut but the reality is that most likely it is. News publications who generally rely on advertising dollars now have to turn to other avenues to keep afloat. In this case the New York Times, a world known publication, has decided to allow users to only access their publications a limited amount of times before requiring them to purchase a subscription.


According to www.nymag.com the New York Times "is growing into an English language global newspaper of record." Going to a subscription system may generate additional revenue but may limit their circulation from other nations. For instance, individuals in developing countries who visit the site would not be able to afford a subscription therefore making them refer to other sites. Unlike most publications the NY Times has over 20 million readers allowing them to capitalize on web advertising. For example, their homepage has sold out on numerous occasions in the last year.

Unless the top publications of the world come together and decide that they will uniformly charge users for information, they will continue to use free sources. Users are accustom to this practice and now more than ever are savvy with search engines which can assist them in finding the information they need.

I am aware that the NY Times is a "for profit" enterprise but as journalist, do they not have due diligence to provide the citizens of the world with quality news? As a leading English publication they must provide quality information to the public. This allows our global citizens to stay up to date with global events and issues. Knowing that this publication does not believe in access of quality information to all, will ultimately limit readers from accessing their site, and fewer readers means less revenue.

I do not think that the NY Times will revert back to complete free access but they may uplift some of the restrictions that they have implemented. In the end, the users will decide whether they will stand for this and according to my research users do not seem to be willing to pay for news, when quality free information is still available.