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The Internet brings three potential benefits to consumers: increased search efficiency, better product evaluation, and enhanced transaction convenience. However, actual benefits can vary a great deal across different product categories. In particular, difficulties in performing evaluation online have significantly reduced the volume of online transaction in a number of important product categories. Ignoring the differentiated impact of the Internet at different stages of the consumer decision-making process is a major reason for the failure of many previous online initiatives. The article identifies five e-business models that best utilize the inherent advantages of the Internet at different stages and matches what the Internet can offer with what customers truly value.
Zeng et al. (Wed,) studied this question.