首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
A Brief History of Online Shopping When Amazon.com opened for business 15 years ago, it was nothing more than a few people p
A Brief History of Online Shopping When Amazon.com opened for business 15 years ago, it was nothing more than a few people p
admin
2013-07-11
74
问题
A Brief History of Online Shopping
When Amazon.com opened for business 15 years ago, it was nothing more than a few people packing and shipping boxes of books from a two-car garage in Bellevue, Wash. Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, had left New York City for the Pacific Northwest, using some of his time on the road to write the company’s business plan. Books were packed on a table made out of an extra door they found lying in the new home—a practice the company continues today in spirit by making many of the office’s desks out of doors. Now, on its 15th anniversary, Amazon can raise a toast to being one of the largest online retailers in the world, selling everything from trumpets and golf carts to dishwashers and clothes. Despite the economic recession, online retail in the U.S. grew 11% last year, according to a report released this March from Forrester Research. More than 150 million people—about two-thirds of all Internet users in the U.S.—bought something online last year. It’s a staggering leap for an industry used by 27% of the nation’s online population a decade ago.
One of the first known Web purchases took place in 1994. It was a Italian pizza with mushrooms and extra cheese from Pizza Hut, a somewhat appropriate purchase for the early days of the Internet. When Amazon came on the scene not long after, selling books online was a curious idea. After all, why would people buy a textbook online when they could go to a bookstore? But eventually, a revolutionary change in culture and groupthink took place. Buying things online was all about price and selection, says Ellen Davis, a vice president with the National Retail Federation. If you lived in a small town with just one bookstore and they didn’t stock the novel you wanted, the Internet was a solution. The big sellers were "hard goods," those things you didn’t have to touch, feel or smell in order to buy, such as books, computers and other electronics. Now, nothing is off limits. "As the Internet has evolved, it’s become a channel where you can buy anything," Davis says. "You can buy fragrances(香水)—something you would have normally thought you would need to go to a store and actually experience before you decided to buy."
Part of the shift has, to do with the normalizing of giving out personal information online. All it takes is one click of the purchase button before consumers start to feel more comfortable using their credit-card information online, Davis says. Now some consumers have so much trust that they allow retailers to save their credit-card and shipping information, which has given rise to a painless checkout process.
And part of it had to do with making the online experience more like an in-store shopping trip. Many sites geared themselves toward consumers who like to try before they buy. While Web shoppers technically have to buy the item first, sites such as Zappos, which specializes in shoes, and Piperlime, which sells clothes and accessories, offer free shipping on returns. If you buy it, try it and don’t like it, having to return the item is less of a concern. Other stores try to make it easier for customers to get the look and feel of a product without actually handling the goods. Sears.com and Gap.com allow customers to zoom(拉近)way in on products to examine their material and color up close. Others such as Bed, Bath & Beyond and Buy.com feature product videos that allow shoppers to see, for example, a grill(烤架)cleaner in action. And then there are sites like Overstock.com that capitalize on the goods physical stores can’t sell. Beyond its discounts, Overstock.com wins customer loyalty by making online deals with flat-rate shipping of $2.95 on everything from earrings to refrigerators.
Even famously resistant designers and luxury retailers are putting goods online. According to Bain & Co.’s luxury-goods study last year, while the luxury-goods industry overall lost 8% worldwide last year, luxury sales online grew 20%. This September MarcJacobs.com will have more than just videos of models walking on the runway on his website. Jacobs will join others such as Jimmy Choo, Hugo Boss and Donna Karan, all of whom sell, or will soon start selling, products through their websites. The upside? Consumers will soon be able to buy many high-end goods without enduring the bad service of a department store salesclerk.
All of this online shopping has given rise to a new version of one of America’s favorite holidays. Cyber Monday was coined in 2005 to represent the boom in online sales that comes the Monday after Black Friday—the day after Thanksgiving and the largest shopping day of the year. Though Cyber Monday has never overshadowed Black Friday’s sales, customers are more comfortable doing shopping online than ever. 83% of consumers say they are more confident in making a purchase when they have conducted research online as opposed to speaking to a salesperson in a store.
While retailers were initially terrified of what bad reviews could do to their bottom line, they’ve since witnessed the power of a compliment and embraced the practice. Despite initial fears, says Craig Berman, Amazon’s vice president of global communications, product reviews have only served to increase their customer loyalty. "It helped us build customer trust," he says. "It put us in a special place with customers in that they could come to the site and get honest and comprehensive—and over time, very substantial— firsthand knowledge from other customers." Berman says the company has some reviewers who take online shopping to heart. "There are some customers who are extraordinarily proud of being one of our top reviewers—they take their job really seriously." Some of Amazon’s customers are greedy readers who consider it their duty to review one or two books every single week. While the company may have come a long way from its roots, the company’s original specialty has not been forgotten.
Having seen the power of compliment, Craig Berman believes that product reviews help Amazon build______.
选项
答案
customer trust∥customer loyalty
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/cV07777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
AsanexcellentgraduateoutoftheuniversityinAugustthisyear,he__________(就适应了)theworkingenvironmentbythistimeofn
Therearetwotypesofpeopleintheworld.Althoughtheyhaveequaldegreesofhealthandwealthandtheothercomfortsoflife
A、Peoplecanmakemoremoneyinstocksthaninteaching.B、Theproverb"Nopains,nogains"isconfirmed.C、Tobecomerichisev
FixingaWorldThatFostersObesityEnvironmentforsteringobesityWhyareAmericansgettingfatterandfatter?Thesimplee
Insome【S1】______centers,workaholismissocommonthatpeopledonot【S2】______itunusual.Theyacceptthelifestyleasnormal.
Insome【S1】______centers,workaholismissocommonthatpeopledonot【S2】______itunusual.Theyacceptthelifestyleasnormal.
A、Weshouldfocusonthefuturelife.B、Weshouldreacttoliferatherthanact.C、Weshouldbuildourhousesinlife.D、Weshou
Whatis______man’sabilitynowistodesignarobotthatcanrespondindependentlytoachangingworld.
Aisforalwaysgettingtoworkontime.Bisforbeingextremelybusy.Cisfortheconscientious(勤勤恳恳的)wayyoudoyour
A、Designingbetterears.B、Buildingmorehighways.C、Increasingpeople’sawarenessoftrafficproblems.D、Enhancingdrivers’sen
随机试题
卵巢性闭经不包括
A.髓质型B.蕈伞型C.溃疡型D.缩窄型E.腔内型
4个月患儿,被外院拟诊婴儿腹泻,中度脱水,经补液后脱水征消失,但突然出现呼吸变浅,反应差,腹胀而转来院。体检:体温36.8℃,心率140次/分,呼吸28次/分,神萎,面色苍白,前囟平,皮肤弹性可。心音低,腹胀,肠鸣音1~2次/分,膝反射消失。最可能的诊断是
【2016年济南市济阳县】文化无时不在、无处不在,其对教育的影响是全方位、多方面的,其影响突出表现在()。
小王是一名小学生,上课期间他为了得到老师或同学的关注经常做出奇怪的小动作,而老师与同学没给予其希望得到的强化,他的此类行为逐渐减少了。这符合操作性条件作用基本规律的()。
造成人类社会分裂为发达国家与后发展社会的主要原因是各国家、各民族之间的原始起点差异,除南非、东非、拉丁美洲大部分地区外,亚洲、北非、西非及墨西哥、秘鲁在工业革命时代以前已进入较发达的农业社会,其发达程度毫不逊色于欧洲。然而,这些国家由于自身社会的传统特点,
Inafamilywheretherolesofwomenandmenarenotsharplyseparated,notionsofmalesuperiorityarehardtomaintain.Thepa
软件设计包括总体设计和详细设计两部分,下列陈述中()是详细设计的内容。
Anelderlycarpenterwasreadytoretire.Hetoldhisemployerofhisplansto【C1】______thehouse-buildingbusinesstoliveamo
Thegovernmentistobanpaymentstowitnessesbynewspapersseekingtobuyuppeopleinvolvedinprominentcases(1)______thet
最新回复
(
0
)