Objectives of knowledge management

Chapter 2
Marketplace analysis for e‑commerce
Summary
1 
The constantly changing digital business environment should be monitored by all 
organisations in order to be able to respond to changes in social, legal, economic, 
political and technological factors together with changes in the immediate market‑
place that occur through changes in customer requirements and competitors’ and 
intermediaries’ offerings.
2 
The online marketplace involves transactions between organisations and consum‑
ers (B2C) and other businesses (B2B). Consumer‑to‑consumer (C2C) and con‑
sumer‑to‑business categories (C2B) can also be identified.
3 
The Internet can cause disintermediation within the marketplace as an organisa‑
tion’s channel partners such as wholesalers or retailers are bypassed. Alternatively, 
the Internet can cause reintermediation as new intermediaries with a different pur‑
pose are formed to help bring buyers and sellers together in a virtual marketplace 
or marketspace. Evaluation of the implications of these changes and implementa‑
tion of alternative countermediation strategies are important to strategy.