Preview

Traditional Retailers vs Online Retailers

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
802 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Traditional Retailers vs Online Retailers
Traditional Retailers vs. Online Retailers
AIU Online

Abstract
It appears that over the years the internet retailers have increased the ways for the consumer to shop online. The internet organizations have had to use less capital planning whereas the traditional organizations needs to the use of high capital. This paper will discuss the organizational structures as well as identify two management or leadership challenges in each of the two business types.

Traditional Retailer vs. Online Retailer With the evolving of online retailers, the retail leaders have been faced with finding e-commerce business leaders in an environment where the sources of talent are limited in the extreme (How to Open a Business Guide, nd). Traditional retailers and online retailers share some of the same traits but they also have varying traits.
Wal-Mart is made up of a divisional structure which is one made up of separate divisions where each one is run by management (Lilly, M., 2005). Wal-Mart’s structure consists of three divisional structures which include Wal-Mart Stores, Sam’s Club and International Stores. The International Stores division makes up 20 percent of the income overall for the organization. EBay’s organizational structure has a short chain of command. Its structure is rather simple because the CEO has the majority authority from the rest of the team members (The Official Board.com). The organizational structure is somewhat decentralized because their decision making authority and responsibility is generally passed along to other organizations. The management decisions are left to the senior management team.
Regardless of the type of business model in experience the retail industry one of the biggest challenges is that of leadership requirements. The degree of experience required leaves to question whether it is more or less valuable rather in a traditional retail environment or as an online retailer. Should the e-commerce leader in a



References: Ebay, November 6, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-traditional-organizational-structure.htm January 10, 2013. Russell Reynolds Associates, nd. Internet Retail Leadership Transformational Business Leaders and Potential Group CEOs. Retrieved from http://www.russellreynolds.com/content/internet-retail-leadership January 12, 2013. WiseGeek, nd. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-traditional-organizational-structure.htm January 12, 2013.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Green River Summaries

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages

    When evaluating the possible or probable external forces that may affect the organization, the shift from ‘retail’ to ‘e-retail’ is probably it’s most threatening. As an industry the growth of internet trading and ‘online shopping’ has been phenomenal in the past 24 months, with many leading Australian retailers such as David and Jones and Harvey Norman struggling to come to grips with the changing landscape. Businesses are focussing on their online sales and developing new ways to sell online in order to compete with rival traders. In order for the GRCC to continue to survive and grow, it must move with the times and look down the e-retail strategy. Other factors including increased interest rates, petrol prices and other living expenses means consumers are searching harder for the best prices on the market.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Is535 Final Course Project

    • 3651 Words
    • 15 Pages

    The first key to starting a successful online business is to first understand ecommerce and how it operates. Most people understand that ecommerce or electronic commerce refers to the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. However, it stretches beyond just the buying and selling of goods; it also includes an online process of developing, marketing, selling, delivering, servicing and paying for products and services. “The use of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at one point in the transaction 's life-cycle, although it may encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices and telephones as well”. (Electronic Commerce, modified November 2011, Wikipedia). Today it is said to be over 29.7 billion pages on the World Wide Web. Ecommerce today has gained so much popularity because its core technologies are constantly evolving and keeping up with a technology based world. Each year the number of ecommerce deals grows tremendously. The sales volumes of on-line stores run in a more than comparable race with physical retail stores.…

    • 3651 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    How Heat Affects Lipase

    • 1180 Words
    • 5 Pages

    How is the human body able to digest the food that you eat? How quickly your body digests your food? This is because the human body contains enzymes that are the biological substance, a.k.a proteins, that act as catalysts and help complex reactions occur. There are many different enzymes that each have different specific functions. The enzymes include: diastase, pepsin, lipase, catalyse and urease. Lipase is an enzyme found in the digestive tract that catalyses the break down of fats into individual fatty acids that can be absorbed into the bloodstream. This enzyme will be used in this EEI. The purpose of this EEI is to test the rate in which lipase reacts to different variables such as temperature and pH. Enzymes are found in foods, epically raw foods such as meat, but cooking foods destroys any enzyme activity, including lipases. If the temperature changes then the pH levels will change. The optimum temperature is 37°, that is the average temperature inside the human body; the optimum pH level is 8.0. (Corporation, 2013) The purpose of this EEI and experiment is to calculate the rate in which the pH level of milk changes after it has been heated and the heated lipase is added. Four different temperature will be tested to create the most accrete results possible. When lipase is heated, it becomes a fatty acid that destroys itself, so when the lipase is heated and then added to the heated milk, it rate in which the pH level changes should be high and fast. If the lipase and milk is heated above its optimum temperature (42°) then combined, the pH level will change much quicker and the change in pH levels will be much more clear.…

    • 1180 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    In today's businesses e-commerce is becomingly more effective in the modern world. Two major companies stand out, one solely relying on online business and the other both store and online services. Most individuals are familiar with these companies, Amazon and Nike. Both of these companies carry strong points in their own right, and as demand for their products grows, so does opportunity. Amazon was once very plain and unattractive but was still the primary bookseller for consumers on the Web, and Nike was a small growing firm that made athletic shoes imported from Japan, making its presence in the American market.…

    • 1113 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Organizational Structure

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Wal-Mart has been sectioned into a three product divisional structure. The three include Wal-Mart Stores (located here in the United States), Sam 's Club (Located here in the United States), and some global…

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    rwt task 1

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Advantages and Disadvantages of Entering Online Retail Introduction • • • This research business report was compiled at the request of Management to review the advantages and disadvantages of entering the online retail business. How many times have you remembered you needed an item, but the store was closed? The web offers a place where consumers can locate the best price and deal (Shannon, K., 2010). Impact of Online Sales to the Company • • •…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If you were advising a successful leader in a traditional retailer who was interested in making the transition to working as an online retail organization, what advice would you give?…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    508

    • 1291 Words
    • 4 Pages

    For this analysis we will be examining internet retail and the professional services industries. First we will look the internet retail industry and more closely Zappos. In 2008 the internet retail industry was valued at $325.2 billion dollars. Internet retail is sector is dominated by electronic sales, as well as the largest online retailer Amazon. Apparel does make up a significant segment of the market as well, with 15.8% of sales coming from this segment. Additionally Americans make up almost half of the customers of online retail. In contrast to many other industries smaller companies are able to compete with the larger ones in the online space (Internet Retail Industry Profile: Global, 2009). Smaller businesses are also supported on platforms such as Etsy, which creates an online marketplace for small companies to sell their goods. Along with this there are fewer regulatory barriers to prevent new companies from entering the market, and without the overhead of store space the cost to enter is significantly lower (Internet Retail Industry Profile: Global, 2009). The current regulatory freedom in the industry may shrink as government starts to move into the space.…

    • 1291 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    There are many different business trends shaping e-commerce today. For one, ecommerce remains the fastest growing form of commerce when compared to physical retain store, services, and entertainment. Another trend is that the online demographics of shoppers broaden to match those of ordinary shoppers. Also, small businesses and entrepreneurs continue to flood through the e-commerce marketplace, often riding on the infrastructures created by industry giants and increasingly taking advantage of cloud-based computing resources. Lastly, pure e-commerce business models are refined further to achieve higher levels of profitability, whereas traditional retail brands use e-commerce to retain their dominant retail positions.…

    • 1925 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Costco Case Study

    • 1590 Words
    • 7 Pages

    After reading the Costco Case Study found in Gary Yulk’s book entitled Leadership in Organizations (7th Ed.), positive thoughts about how leadership has emerged and a feeling of confidence became eminent. Leaders really can be effective leaders and run a very productive company as shown by Jim Sinegal who is CEO of Costco. His outlook on the company is very inspiring and motivating for those reading the case study.…

    • 1590 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    In 1998, the prevailing wisdom was that e-retailing made sense for every vertical and that all entrenched businesses would eventually fall to a new category-killer, brick-and-mortar was finished forever. Which turned out to be true for some industries (books, music), half true for others (apparel, autos) and not true at all for a few (supermarkets - anyone seen Peapod lately? Webvan?)…

    • 1256 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The leader I selected is Sam Walton, founder of Walmart Stores. He was a humble man which built a multi-billion-dollar retail empire (Loeb, 1992). Sam Walton had a passion for retail which made him a retail visionary (Springer, 2010). This line of thought led to him to become the first every-day low cost leader (Springer, 2010) in retail. This strategy became a model for others in the discount variety industry. He also developed business rules to follow which are still used today. One of his rules as a business leader is to “exceed your customers expectations” (Walton, 1992). Sam Walton became a model leader who changed the way business was done in the retail industry.…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Flexible Leadership Theory

    • 1322 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A leader is any person who influences individuals and groups within an organization, helps them establish goals, and guides them toward achievement of those goals, thereby allowing them to be effective (Nahavandi, 2015). Leaders in turn are responsible for the overall success or failure of an organization. Over the years, there have been many leadership theories developed. Flexible leadership theory (FLT) theorizes that businesses implement three key factors to achieve organizational success. These three factors are as follows; efficiency and process reliability, innovation and adaptation, and human relations and resource. Years of research and findings have been combined to develop FLT. These components directly affect a company’s success and lead to happier employees, customer satisfaction, and increased profits. The following case study will assess Costco operations as they apply to FLT.…

    • 1322 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “We are living in an era when leadership is needed more than ever. The environment today is turbulent, and organizations have had to reconceptualize almost every aspect of how they do business to meet the needs of increasingly demanding customers, keep employees motivated and satisfied, and remain competitive in a rapidly changing environment.” (Sambajee, P. 2012)…

    • 2224 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    7-11 tows matrix

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. Increasing high levels of educated people, consumers are now more skeptics and are more demanding.…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays