On-line Commerce: An Analysis Proposal

Abstract

This article assumes a redoing of a technical report as part of a lawsuit presented by a company against an on-line business through which their manufactured or represented products were distributed. A qualitative analysis of the contents was carried out to give an answer to the said lawsuit. Based on the judicial report, the characteristics of the analysis have been specified, for their publication in AdResearch, in respect to aspects of methodology, phases of analysis, results and conclusions. In addition, some longer reaching opinions have been included, in understanding that the conflict of interests responded to, in reality, the current confrontation between two types of business: the traditional, carried out in a physical space and through interpersonal relations, and the new on-line business, through the web and with electronic exchanges. The aim was to determine if the on-line shop in any way damaged the image of quality, prestige, reputation, glamour and goodwill of the distributed brands through their website. To achieve this, a body of 288 pages of brands and products was created, selected in agreement with the objectives, plus another 39 general pages from the shop. The conclusion is that you cannot judge e-commerce using traditional business parameters. What was needed from conventional business, product visibility on the shelves, the placing of advertisements, free samples at point of sale or direct and personal contact, cannot be translated directly to a new buying-selling relationship.