Geographic constraints defined this optimal retail chain, one that has undergone little change for hundreds of years. Vertical integration is not optimal for consumers. Let's say you want to decide which DVD player to buy. Any one merchant knows only what you have done on that particular site. So for both objectivity and pan-Web personalization, there will be separate consumer companies that focus exclusively on product selection and reviews.
Markets make better decisions than bureaucrats or middle managers.
An ecology of competitors will be more adaptive to change and will move more quickly than a big retail company bureaucracy. These fulfillment agents will differentiate themselves on service and customer support. Product merchandising, promotion and support may migrate from the retailer to the product manufacturers. What they have found is that recently, product companies even large product-based corporations from Estee Lauder to General Motors have had to start talking to customers on a daily basis. All that changed when the manufacturers put up Web sites and the emails started pouring in.