Internet Retailing - An Internet Business Model

In my previous article I have highlighted different internet business models available. Internet Retail or Online retail or E-Retail or Etail is one such model. Selling products online is not a new concept or may be you have not tried it because of some Business or financial or technological issues, but there are hundreds of companies to help you start internet business.

So who is an internet retailer, Internet retailer is the one who runs an online shop, e-shop, web shop, online store, etc. that actually propagate products over the internet which would ultimately lead to sale either in a physical store or through online.

Types of Internet Retailer:

Brick and Mortar Retailer – No Online Store but having a Physical Presence still have an online presence through online ads.

Click and Mortar Retailer – Online store with a physical presence

Online or Pure-Play Retailer – No Physical Presence but only an online presence.

Internet retailing is popular because of speed, ease of buying, product and price comparison just with a single mouse click. Internet Retailing mostly serves B2C market. (Business to consumer)

Challenges faced by an Internet Retailer:

High Traffic – Sorry not just High Traffic, but High quality targeted traffic – Targeted Customer lead.

Acquiring new Customer – Getting new customer is a big headache of an internet retailer


Competitive Price Offering – There are 100s of 1000 companies who market product or services online like yours. Offering lower price by comparing competition to have a competitive edge is a big challenge to an online merchant or internet retailer.


Effective ROI – Return on Investment or Revenue on investment is also a challenge of an online retailer. Investment can be made in Online Ads or Purchasing software etc etc to get a positive ROI an online marketer has to have a ground-breaking marketing strategy.

You Might Also Want To Read