As Grandma’s Treats prepares to come in the Internet merchandising market. it must do a pick between concern theoretical accounts as to which type will be most the effectual and bring forth the most sum of gross revenues. Companies such as Harry and David. which is a well-established purveyor of fruit and gift baskets. uses both the traditional shopfront theoretical account with its ain web site. World Wide Web. harryanddavid. com. every bit good as the portal theoretical account ; Harry and David gift baskets are besides offered for purchase through portal sites such as shopping. yokel. com. McIlhenny Company. which produces Tabasco sauce. has a similar web presence in that it operates its ain site. World Wide Web. Tabasco. com. to sell its merchandises but many of them are available through portal sites as good. Conversely. retail merchant Williams-Sonoma has opted to offer merely alone points from its web site while retaining its flagship merchandises as available merely through in-store or catalog purchase ( Gallaugher ) in order to retain more value at its bricks and mortar locations.

Harry and David has achieved their success through great selling runs in the yesteryear ; nevertheless the company has non rested on its awards. As new concern chances became available through usage of the universe broad web. Harry and David used new concern theoretical accounts and multiple channels to maintain their gross revenues strong and their name at the head of consumers’ memories. The company uses the basic selling rules of keeping their celebrated warrant. their branded presence. advertisement runs and client service criterions and has applied these to their e-business. Their advantage over rivals is in trade name acknowledgment. entire refund warrant of all merchandises they sell. and the noteworthy. high quality of the merchandises. Harry and David has leveraged those advantages by set uping a presence at several different portal sites. Alternatively of diminishing the figure of distributers. this scheme has really increased the value concatenation. A consumer seeking the Internet for a fruit basket will happen Harry and David listed at the top. non merely at through their ain web site. but from a host of others. Since consumers already have a positive image of the company and its merchandises. Harry and David has created a strong placement in the market place of the universe broad web.

In positioning Grandma’s Treats on the universe broad web. the recommendation is to utilize the shopfront theoretical account. This would be most profitable at the present clip. as Grandma’s Treats does non yet bask strong trade name acknowledgment or consumer trueness. Internet surfboarders are non traveling to seek for the trade name name but the merchandise itself and so the portal concern theoretical account would non be good. Developing a shopfront which enables clients to make histories. view the doctrine and mission statement of the company. supply a listing of positive client feedback. and showcase its merchandises will be most valuable for this start-up company. Because stock list degrees will needfully be low ab initio and the company will non hold to track stock list sold at a bricks and howitzer location. the storefront theoretical account is the one which makes most sense for Grandma’s Treats at this clip. It is cost-efficient every bit good.

Companies without stock list concerns ( whether it be organizing stock list between bricks and howitzer shops and an Internet shopfront or those which offer merely services alternatively of merchandises ) . those which are non yet steadfastly established. and those with a peculiar merchandise or service to sell are best served by the storefront theoretical account. Retail concerns and service suppliers are specific types of concern which would profit from a shopfront. The construct of dynamic pricing could use to this theoretical account for a retail-type concern as it would be an first-class manner to sell off dead stock list although the engineering involved would take a simple shopfront operation beyond its defined capablenesss.

Bibliography

Gallaugher. John ( 1999 ) . “Strategy in the Internet Age” . Retrieved February 21. 2008 from the Gallaugher Website: hypertext transfer protocol: //www2. bc. edu/~gallaugh/stratinnetage. hypertext markup language.

Remenyi. Dan ( October. 2007 ) . “E-business Focus” . Dublin: Trinity College. Retrieved from the TCD Website: hypertext transfer protocol: //www. madcc. kctcs. net/ccunningham/IT291-01ch. ppt.