Study on Niche Markets in the Internet Era: Evidence of online retailers

• Main Authors: Kornusov Erendzhen, 伊瑞
• Other Authors: 吳學良
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/61124648951178635958

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 國際企業學研究所 === 99 === The purpose of this thesis is to show the extent to which the needs of niche segments are identified and aggregated for their business potentials in the internet era. The long tail theory is applied to shed light on the niche product markets and prescribe some strategic actions for those opportunities (Anderson, 2004). Various entrepreneurs today, have the goal to increase their market shares and comparable competitiveness; and, they began to think about niche products, about its market structure, future behavior and theoretical background. The best approach is to combine and compare a detailed knowledge of the traditional brick – and- stone retailer with established market products and the modern internet entrepreneur’s organizations as ‘amazon.com’, Netflix and the e-retailers of travel industry with rapidly developing sphere of internet retailing. The investigation includes three different markets: book retailing, music and video commercialization, and the travel business. The markets have in common a complicated structure and complicated market boundaries to entry. The differences between the consumer preferences and the distribution ways of end products plus geographical location, service demand and marketing activities make these markets are very hard to compete. The data has been summarized and analyzed by using different approaches: using information sources like printed literature, sources available on the Internet and branch organizations, distributors. The four main propositions of this study are as followed: ‧ The long tail theory makes substantial effects on business strategy and structure of retailing industry, such as Amazon.com ‧ The strategy based on the long tail theory works through creating more freedom of choice for consumers. ‧ Without new advanced high tech application – the WEB 2.0 & other internet tools (that was emerged at Internet Era) the long tail strategy is limited. ‧ The long Tail theory could help the modern entrepreneur to enter the mature market by identifying and capturing the niche market. The result of this Master Thesis research has shows that the three nice markets of books, music, and travel should be treated differently because of the markets are in different levels of their development. The markets demand different products and is needed to be treated different. The book niche market is much older and has more traditional features, need to be approached in the consumer preferences, different supply and demand during the year and its cost structure. The music niche market is a market, which is increasing at the moment, especially with new developing of new technology tools as Apple’s ITunes and Internet free broadcasting. The Air ticketing & travel niche market, especially e-ticketing for the remote and not popular destinations involves a lot of potentials but still closely linked to the external unpredictable cost on oil prices.