1. Introduction

1.1. Definition of e-Commerce
• B2C
• Intermediation platforms: B2B2C, C2C

1.2. Consumption
• Increasingly widespread
• Increasingly frequent…
• Internet user categories
• Motives for online shopping

2. e-Commerce Value Chain

2.1. The market
• A thriving market
- Steadily rising sales
- Still only a fraction of retail sales
- Value of the average shopping cart rising
• The most commonly purchased products/services
• Typology of e-Commerce sites
- Most popular e-Commerce sites
- Traditional retail players
- Pure players
- Veteran mail order companies
• Market growth factors

2.2. e-tailer cost structure
• Revenue structure
• Operating account structure
- Costs: logistics, IT, marketing, advertising, payment
• Operating revenue
- Varied models: affiliate commissions, auctions, order processing, subscription, ad revenue, financial gains
• Profitable models… despite the current crisis
- Profitable businesses, with investment capacities
- Impact of the crisis: results down

2.3. Comparative profitability of the offline/online model
• Gross margins and operating results
- Travel agency sector
- Retail chain sector
- Distribution of cultural goods
• What differences in the business models?
• Better profitability in the long term?
- Gross margin and net profits
- Operating account
- What long-term profit levels?
- Is the e-commerce model scalable?

3. Challenges and Innovations

3.1. Steering qualified traffic to the site
• Affiliation: performance marketing
• Advertising: a direct sales channel
• Traffic: flash sales

3.2. Making the sale
• Shopping suggestions: personalising the offer
• Enhancing the shopping experience: rich media, 3D
• Accompanying the purchasing process
- The customer service challenge
- Virtual agents
• Reliable and diverse payment solutions
- Online payment: a matter of trust
- Development of online credit

3.3. Building customer loyalty
• Shipping
- Areas for improvement
- The e-tailer/shipper relationship
• Web 2.0 building loyalty
- Widgets and RSS feeds, communities

4. Opportunities for Operators

4.1. Direct positioning
• Extension and offshoot of offline operations
• An audience-centric strategy
• TV networks: ABC, ITV, NBC, M6, ProSiebenSat.1, TF1
• Operators: AT&T, Free, Orange, T-Mobile, Three UK, Verizon, Vodafone
• Internet companies: AOL, Cyworld, Facebook, Flickr, Google, MSN, MySpace, Yahoo!

4.2. Monetising the audience
• Evolution of the ad-funded model
• Large audience on operators’ sites
• e-Commerce strategy integrated into the portal

4.3. B2B2C technological solutions
• Online payment
• Click-to-call
• CDN
For each service analysed:
- Advantages for e-tailers
- Market: sales, key players
- Opportunities for operators
- Quantified forecasts up to 2012