A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

Competitive threats

1

 

Threat of new e‑commerce entrants

For traditional ‘ bricks-  and-  mortar’ companies this has been a common threat for retailers 

selling products such as books and financial services. For example, in Europe, traditional 

banks have been threatened by the entry of completely new start-up competitors such as 

Zopa (

www.zopa.com

) or traditional companies from a different geographic market that use 

the Internet to facilitate their entry into an overseas market. ING, an existing financial ser-

vices group, formed in 1991 and based in the Netherlands, has used the Internet to facilitate 

Demand analysis

Assessment of the 

demand for e‑commerce 

services amongst existing 

and potential customer 

segments.

Figure 5.10

Competitive threats acting on the digital business

Intermediary

threats

Supplier

threats

Intermediary

threats

New digital

products

New business

models

New

entrants

Buy-side threats

Sell-side threats

Competitive threats

Customer

threats

Organisation

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Part 2  Strategy and applications

Table 5.5

Impact of the Internet on the five competitive forces