Many factors like size and number of competitors in the industry, degree of product differentiation, switching costs for the buyers, and exit barriers lead to this determination. Blue Nile has both primary and secondary competitors in this market. Other online retailers like Diamonds.com, Ice.com, Whiteflash.com, and JamesAllen.com are the primary competitors. Secondary competitors include traditional diamond and fine jewelry retailers like Tiffany & CO, Helzberg jewelers, Zale’s, and other brick and mortar stores. There is no clear market leader in the industry amongst the competitors listed there are also numerous small firms and single location retailers, this increases the competition in the industry.
The mass market traditionally focused on generating “hit” products that occupy the head and neglect the low-revenue niches markets comprising the tail. The niche customers have different needs especailly for those hard-to-find product and they willing pay a premium to a firm that best satisfies them. Therefore, the overlooked niches provide a potential growth and profitable market for company and is unlikely to attract many other competitors. Furthermore, technology is dramatically changing the the way we live and we do business. As a result of consumer’s embrace of the internet as a shopping media and the internet has directly contributed to the shifting of demand of products from hits to niches comprising the long tail.
Threat of New Entrants is weak. Entry barriers are high because of the economy, significant experience-based cost advantages, other cost advantages held by industry members (e.g., access to inputs, favorable location), brand loyalty (which comes from membership and other services), strong network effects and high capital requirements. 5. Substitute Products or Services is moderate. Warehouse clubs like a magnet for customers and pulling them away from other traditional retail channels such as supermarkets, department stores, drugstores, office supply stores, consumer electronics etc… All three warehoused club rivals - Costco, Sam’s and BJ’s – have similar strategies: Low prices, low operating costs, geographic expansion – Costco; Sam’s Club concept is to sell merchandise at low profit margins, which means at low prices to members; and BJ’s offers brand-name merchandise at prices that were significantly lower than the prices found at retail, supermarkets, dept.
Through arrangements with suppliers, they are able to offer a large inventory of loose diamonds at low prices. Until a customer orders a stone, Blue Nile does not have to purchase it. Besides being able to have small inventories, this set up allows them to be paid by the customer before they have to pay suppliers. Using this cost saving supply chain also gave them the advantage of being able to set a markup price lower than competitors. The nature of their business model enabled them to enter the fairly new online market and compete based on lower prices.
• Current location of South End business up for sale. • There is a limited amount of employees. This may hinder customer service. Internal perspectives The primary issue that Skadurz Pro faces is an increase in local competition that is reducing the advantage that Skadurz Pro has over it's online competition. A few issues that they are facing is trying to compete with a larger chain that is opening across from the current New Sundbury store and online retailers.
• Competitors like Marvel are wooing customers with low cost per click-through • Condition-specific websites like cholesterol.com has a better chance of converting a visitor to a customer. • Setting a price competitive to Marvel’s would drop MedNet’s revenue by 80% • Since advertisements are the only source of revenue, MedNet’s has to rethink their revenue generation strategy to sustain their business. • It is considered as a product problem because they may have to change the value proposition Note that technology is fragmenting the market and disrupting the business model What are the decision options? • Charging for the content, treating site visitors as patients. • Extend coverage of alternative health information • Develop and manage corporate websites What does he/she need to know to make a decision?
“likes” measures the about of new likers of a brand. b. Carmex: engagements are more important than likes because you can have people “like” pages with promotions without any knowledge of the product or true interest to ever purchase the products. A lot of ‘likes can provide inaccurate information due to the amount of individuals that simply click it without reading. 3 a. Engagement: Connecting to the Facebook audience by posting quality content daily that might attract consumers and gives them an opportunity to engage.
Homework Week 9 1. Why do most business choose not to do their own web hosting? Because doing their web hosting can be expensive. They have to manage, design the site – which is a lot of works. Renting a web hosting space is more reliable and fast connections to the Internet and also have backup power and high security 2.
MODELS Five-Forces Model of the On-Line Retail Jewelry Market NEW ENTRANTS SUPPLIERS BUYERS SUBSTITUTES INDUSTRY RIVALRY Summary of the Competitive Nature of the Industry Generic Strategy Model Narrative summary of model analysis results Company Value Chain Narrative summary of model analysis results: Indicate which segments are most important and most costly and discuss the significance of the situation and what should be done. Competitive Strength Assessment Weight Blue Nile Other on-line only Major Chains Breadth of product line .15 Reputation/ Image .25 Quality/appeal of product offerings .15 Caliber/completeness of product information .15 Relative Cost Position .10 Customization capabilities .10
Lee Schwab Unit 1 Assignment IT331-38COBL: Technology Infrastructure Professor Shelia Sorensen Kaplan University 1) Would the cost of becoming a member in one of the professional associations above provide more benefits than joining one of the free networking sites, such as LinkedIn or monster? What are those benefits? I do feel that the cost of becoming a member, let’s say TechAmerica for this part of the assignment, of a professional association most definitely outweighs some free networking sites like LinkedIn. I read in an article online from Bloomberg Businessweek that the more contacts you have on LinkedIn, the more desperate you might appear to be (Paskowski, 2008). If you join TechAmerica, you would be able to be in contact with key policy-makers with 35 advocates on staff, they build connections with a list of over 34,000 active members that is continuously growing ("About us," 2013).