Thursday, June 12, 2008

AN EXAMPLE OF AN E-COMMERCE FAILURE AND ITS CAUSES


One of the failures of e-commerce is Webvan. Webvan was an online credit and delivery grocery business which was started in the late 1990s. At the beginning, the company offered services in ten U.S. market and hoped to expand to 26 cities. Unfortunately, the company was shut down in year 2001.

Webvan failed is because of the poor management decisions. The company was expanded too fast with too little of money. Its money is used to build up the expensive infrastructure and expand rapidly across the country when it was popular. The company was run out of money. A net loss of $217 million and accumulated deficit of $830 million forced Webvan have to close up their business.

Besides, the inability to connect with their customers also may cause the e-commerce failed. Webvan tried to delivery the groceries in 30 minutes to fulfill the customer satisfaction. It is quite a good service but some of the customers would like their groceries to be delivered at night since they are working at day time. Moreover, the deliveries will sometimes be late and the customer was not at home when the van was there. Although the customer could reschedule the time, if the customer would need the groceries at the same day then they have to get the things from the supermarket which may cause inconvenience for them.

The company is unable to raise more cash to avoid the bankruptcy. Finally, on 9 July 2001, Webvan filed for bankruptcy and began its liquidation.

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