BRANCH PROFILE
An Etailer is a retailer without a physical store. But sometimes they do have inventory. The big Gorilla here is Amazon. They try to sell everything to you (some people still think it is a book store). Basically everything that can be sold in a real store can be sold in an online store. People buy cars online. Personally we would like to make a test drive first. Some online markets like Ebay provide a place for sellers to meet buyers and don't need to have inventory. It saves a lot of money and that's the way to profitability. The nice thing about an etailer is that the store is always open. The bad thing is that you have to wait for the goods to arrive at your home.
WHY INVEST?
The costs of running an online store are much lower. No buildings, fewer expensive and stubborn personnel, and lower inventories. Being an etailer is hard because you are not alone. And people sometimes don't trust you because you don't have a store to complain or to bring goods back to. However the opportunity is there and it is big. Nobody in Europe buys on the Internet because we don't use credit cards and we just don't trust it. But in a few years we will understand that it actually is convenient so the etailers will do well over here as well. We think Amazon can have big inventories to do well because it is Amazon. Sometimes retailers disguise themselves as etailers.
| We describe the following companies: | ||
| Logo | Ticker | Name |
 |
AMZN | Amazon |
 |
ABTL | Autobytel |
 |
AWEB | Autoweb |
 |
BNBN | Barnesandnoble |
 |
BFLY | Bluefly |
 |
BYND | Beyond.com |
 |
CDNW | CDnow |
 |
COOL | Cyberian Outpost |
 |
EBAY | eBay |
 |
EGGS | Egghead |
 |
ONSL | Onsale |
 |
PCNL | Priceline.com |
 |
TVLY | Preview Travel |
 |
UBID | Ubid |
 |
VERT | VerticalNet |