DBMODELS

Ricardo, tutti.ch, autoscout24,

eBay, Airbnb, Booking.com

Galaxus , microspot.ch,

Manor.ch, Amazon, Zalando

Google, Facebook, WhatsApp,

top prices , TripAdvisor

• create transparency.
• create extensive networking.
• enable transactions.
• provide customer reviews.
• specify processes.
• provide communication.

• Consumers' entry point into online purchasing processes. 
• Extremely high market transparency from analyzing data from various sources. 
• Expanded offerings to include classic retail value creation functions. 

Digital platforms generate revenue through various models, including taking a commission from transactions on their platform, charging for subscriptions, selling advertising space, and offering premium services. This revenue generation is directly related to the services they provide, such as facilitating transactions, providing visibility to businesses, or offering a platform for social interaction.

• platforms position themselves between providers/sellers and customers/buyers.
• For individual suppliers they are: Useful 
• Unpredictable (unequal power with conditions changing daily). 
• Competitors (in the form of customer relationships). 
• As a consequence, existential dependency should be avoided. 
• The use of the platforms by individual suppliers requires: Differentiated strategy. (One should be present on platforms and be successful there).
• Technology (Handle all incoming data) 
• Controlling know-how (Mechanisms of Platform must be known).  

Digital platforms in consumer goods distribution can be classified into online marketplaces, like Amazon or eBay, where transactions for goods and services are facilitated between buyers and sellers, and customer access service providers, like Google or Facebook, which connect businesses with potential customers through advertising and visibility.

Direct network effects occur when the value of a service increases for existing users as more users join the network (e.g., social media platforms). Indirect network effects arise when the value of a product or service increases due to the interaction between complementary services or products (e.g., more apps for a smartphone platform increasing its value).

Digital platforms offer significant opportunities for individual providers by giving them access to large markets, customer insights, and efficient distribution channels. However, challenges include dependence on the platform, loss of direct customer relationships, potential conflicts of interest (as platforms may favor their own products), and the need to adhere to the platform's rules and fee structures.

1. Product (If product differ in relevant way from other products on the market).
2. Customer-Oriented Services (as a product supplement, depend on specific needs situation).
3. Architecture of value creation (Through IT-supported processes, and cooperations with players).
   1. Example 1: SBB with Fairtiq to create EasyRide.
   2. Example 2: Regional Farmers with Farmy for Free Local Food Delivery.
4. Revenue Model (Rent, Subscription, Short-Term Use, Flat Rate, etc.).

• Increases Competitive Pressure → companies are looking for partnerships in which they can collectively achieve a higher performance potential. 
• Partnerships enable companies to:
  • Include external resources in their own offer. 
  • Monetize their own resources in the offerings of third parties. 

• Most challenging phase in e-commerce.
• Every purchase starts with a purchase impulse (wish or need).
• Suppliers want to be perceived by passive potential customers and encourage them to actively engage with their offer.
• Passive Customer Attitude Towards a Pruchase:
  • Address customers where a need arises.
  • Addressing customers when spending time on the internet (Ads, social media, News, etc.).

• Suppliers aim to convince interested parties of their offer and to trigger a purchase wish.
• Active Customer Attitude Towards a Pruchase:
  • Customers especially want to go to a certain vendor. Strong Brand Name.
  • Customers actively look for a product.
  • Customers need to solve a problem and actively look for solutions online.

• The underestimated phase in e-commerce.
• Suppliers aim to convert the purchase wish into a purchase.
• Customer has a purchase intention.
• Potential for Business Model Innovation:
  • With mass customization to an incomparable offer.
    • Examples: 121Time Watch Configurator, MySwiss-Chocolate Configurator.
  • Drastically simplify shopping, (=Making Purchases Easy).
    • Examples: SBB/BLT App Buy Tickets with 2 clicks, EasyRide.
  • Eliminate the agreement phase with (flexible) subscriptions.
    • Examples: Flexible Nespresso Subscription

• The decisive phase of success in e-commerce.
• Providers aim to secure payment and to transfer ownership of the purchased services quickly and efficiently to the customer.
• Its about Satisfaction of a contract for both parties.
• Logistics important for customer satisfaction (and thus the profitability of supplier. Success Requirements are:  
  • Availability of goods offered.
  • Managing Returns.
  • Time and Place of Handover.
  • Total Logistics Costs
• Example: Coop’s own delivery service; Amazon Go.
• Innovation in Logistics: Goods are procured according to demand. Example for this: Farmy.

• The freestyle in e-commerce.
• suppliers have two objectives:
  • they want to handle the customer’s concerns in connection with a previous purchase as efficiently as possible.  
  • they want to use the customer’s knowledge to make particularly useful offers and thus trigger additional purchases.
• Innovation: CRM
  • information systems provide the knowledge needed to support front-office processes in marketing, sales and service in an integrated manner, helping to improve customer acquisition, retention and profitability.
• Examples:
  • Samsung Opening Their Own Phone Repair Shop.
  • Migros App: Personalized Purchase suggestions for products customer is likely to need again soon.

Cross-company collaborations can foster innovation by pooling resources, expertise, and markets. Examples include strategic partnerships for technology sharing, co-developing products or services, and joint ventures to explore new markets. These collaborations can lead to innovative solutions that may not be achievable by companies working independently.

• Brand identity creates connections (Animation Phase). Promotional activities (e.g. cooking needs a well-kept kitchen + good food processer from X)
• Brand identity is a source of content (Animation Phase).
  • Brand fans and communities as ambassadors on social media (e.g. Victorinox).
• Customer Advice Counselling (Information Phase).
  • At Jura Coffee, they offer instant online live customer advice for machines vie Zoom.
• Customizable Products (Agreement Phase)
  • Personal Product Configuration (e.g. Mass Customization of Victorinox).
• Customer Service by Manufacturer
  • Samsung takes service for Samsung phones in its own hands by opening a repair shop.
• Brand Identity and Customer Relationship
  • Brand releasing a limited edition of one of its products (e.g. Victorinox Knife).

Goal of a Brand: Give a Product a value that goes beyond the value of a no-name product with similar functionalities. → This creates an added value of the brand.

• Online offering Increased → Branded Products are offered redundantly as they are easily identifiable. 
• Distributors can only differ in terms of price and availability. 
• Price war undermines the brand’s value. → Branded products that appear expensive on the brand’s shop are hardly sold. 

• Brands have lost control over international distribution. 
• On the grey market goods are moved from one country to another at wholesale level behind brand’s back. 
• This results in a regionally differentiated product range and pricing policy. 

Some brands responded to declining retailer performance by not working with those retailers anymore. 

• 1884 to 2001: Distribution exclusively through resellers (B2B).
• 1989: Extension of the assortment to watches, luggage, clothing, perfume.
• from 2001 onwards: distribution through resellers (B2B) and direct distribution (D2C) D2C through physical store in USA, then Switzerland.
• D2C through online shop later on too.
• D2C though selling via Amazon as supplier.
• D2C through selling via Amazon Marketplace.

• Local proximity, spontaneity, immediate transport.
• Customer-oriented multi-brand range.
• Physical experience of goods with all senses.
• Real Life: Encounters, weather, leisure.
• Purchase suggestions through product presentation:
  • Discover new things – very important for brands.
  • Spontaneous purchases – create moments of happiness.
• Product comparisons, personal advice if necessary.
• Simplicity, language independence, cash payment

• Many items are purchased online after the visit to the retailer. 
• Retailers are particularly upset when their brands are in direct competition with them. 
• Example (Carrera) 

• The brand separates an entire market segment from the potential of retail. 
• E.g. BMW dealers are particularly annoyed by the expansion of direct sales, which the Group handles with key customers on its own. 
• Another Example: E-books in the book trade. 

• Retail as Exhibition of goods:
  • Unlike traditional retailers, the company does not live off the sales of goods, but charges the manufacturers a monthly placement fee… Product presentation and customer advice do not go hand in hand with the compulsion to sell something.’ 

The most important approaches, besides direct sales with a marketing focus and a low turnover share:

1. Balanced direct sales.
2. Enhanced direct sales.
   1. Example: Adidas will generate more than half of sales in direct sales (mostly online).
3. Direct sales via online marketplaces.
   1. Brands without existing distribution.
   2. Brands with existing distribution.
4. Hidden direct sales. 
   1. Targeted circumvention of existing distribution.
   2. Necessary connection with other products.
5. Flash sales.

Internet technology produces a variety of digital communication and sales concepts that can be integrated into business models.

• Multichannel concepts: newly discovered to avoid sales losses in the new variety of channels.
• Multi-brand or multiple-channel concepts: established in order to pursue different positionings in parallel.
• Omnichannel concepts: pursue the goal of being wherever the customers are.
• Cross-channel or cross-channel concepts: want to serve customers consistently across channels.
• No -Line: a vision of consistent, all-encompassing offering and service presence.

“Those who reach customers on all channels have good opportunities in the digital shopping world of the future.”