Objectives of knowledge management

Mixed-mode journey
Estate agent’s
site
vs
vs
At home
Phone/e-mail
Search engine
Online journey
Portal:
Rightmove
Book online
E-mail/text
Local property
paper
Offline journey
Go to agents
At home
Monthly letter
Awareness
of agent
Search and
select agents
Negotiation
Viewings
feedback
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57
Chapter 2
Marketplace analysis for e‑commerce
Commercial arrangement for transactions
Markets can also be considered from another per‑
spective – that of the type of commercial arrange‑
ment that is used to agree a sale and price between 
the buyer and supplier. The main types of commer‑
cial arrangement are shown in Table 2.4.
Each of these commercial arrangements is simi‑
lar to traditional arrangements. Although the mech‑
anism cannot be considered to have changed, the 
relative importance of these different options has 
changed with the Internet. Owing to the ability to publish new offers and prices rapidly, auc‑
tion has become an important means of selling on the Internet. A turnover of several billion 
dollars has been achieved by eBay from consumers offering items such as cars and antiques.
An example of a completely new commercial mechanism that has been made possible 
through the web is provided by priceline.com (
www.priceline.com
). This travel site is char‑
acterised by its unique and proprietary ‘Name Your Own Price™’ buying service. Here, users 
enter the price they wish to pay for airline tickets, hotel rooms or car hire together with their 
credit card details. If priceline.com can match the user’s price and other terms with inven‑
tory available from its participating suppliers, the deal will go ahead. The brand has also been 
licensed in the UK and Asia.