Catalogers are also the most responsive retailers, shipping merchandise an average of 1.5 days after an order is placed. Traditional offline retailers are also making waves online, according to a study by ActivMedia Research . Instead, online-only companies are being acquired by companies with complimentary assets. Peapod, for example, is becoming part of an offline grocery chain that has backstage service. Consolidation is the e-commerce world is just the same as what happened in the computer and automotive industries years ago.
Industries start with a proliferation of small opportunists.
Successful ones gobble up pieces that help make them whole or are absorbed into the traditional mainstream. Copyright 2001 INT Media Group, Incorporated All Rights Reserved.