Abstract

Business-to-consumer e-marketplaces are an important and fast-growing distribution channel. Nevertheless, there is a lack of literature that attempts to describe and classify business-to-consumer e-marketplaces and to analyze their role in the distribution channel. This article seeks to address this deficiency and to add clarity to our understanding of these two-sided platforms. A new innovative marketing functions concept is developed: the PILT framework. It consists of four main functions—product, information, logistics, and transaction—and ten subfunctions. Applying this framework reveals that business-to-consumer e-marketplaces are infomediaries, completely fulfilling only information functions. All other functions must be managed by the sellers themselves or outsourced to other intermediaries such as logistics companies or banks. A case study of Amazon and Walmart Marketplace is presented to further illustrate the PILT framework. It reveals that Amazon Marketplace fulfills more marketing functions than Walmart Marketplace, which may be an important success factor for B2C e-marketplaces.

摘要

企业对消费者的电子市场是一个重要且快速增长的分销渠道。然而，缺乏试图描述和分类企业对消费者电子市场并分析它们在分销渠道中的作用的文献。本文旨在解决这一缺陷，并加深我们对这两个平台的理解。开发了一个新的创新营销功能概念：PILT 框架。它由产品、信息、物流和交易四个主要功能和十个子功能组成。应用这个框架表明，企业对消费者的电子市场是信息中介，完全只履行信息功能。所有其他功能必须由卖家自己管理或外包给其他中介机构，如物流公司或银行。亚马逊和沃尔玛市场的案例研究被提出来进一步说明 PILT 框架。它揭示了亚马逊市场比沃尔玛市场履行更多的营销功能，这可能是 B2C 电子市场成功的重要因素。