| The rapid development of internet has brought a new business revolution-revolution in e-commerce. Online retailing, as a branch of e-commerce has also developed rapidly, especially in recent years.The rapid development of online retail has brought tremendous impact to traditional retail and it also brings great opportunities. This new type of retail has injected new vitality to the world's retail industry as. well as to China's retail industry. There is a huge difference both in transaction size and the breadth and depth of trading between online retail and traditional retail. With the development of economy and the improvement of people's living standard, online retail will show more of its strong vitality and creativity in the future.As an addition to the physical retailing, online retailing is the combination of traditional retailing and e-commerce, and this paper draws on mainstream concept from foreign online retail textbooks:online retail refers to the retail through the internet, it provides goods or services for individuals or families, and belongs to the electronic business activities for end customers (non-productive customers). Online retail includes B2C and C2C e-commerce and it provides both tangible and intangible products.Online retailing originated from the United States and began to perform as the form of online bookstore, which sells distance products such as books and CDs, and later developed into a comprehensive online store selling a variety of goods. Online retailing also includes some professional online retail website (e.g. Redbaby.com, 360buy.com), and some niche oriented online retail stores whose target consumers are relatively less and decentralized (e.g. Cattoys.com). As the further development of online retail related economic and financial environment, cultural environment as well as legal and logistics level, online retailing has shown a good momentum of development. It's only a little more than 20 years since the birth of online retailing, but the rapid rise of U.S. online retail brand has attracted a growing number of consumers. Pure-play online retailers and offline retailers with an online transaction website are co-existed and both are enjoying a good development. In contrast, China's pure-play online retail business is relatively small, the online retail market structure is irrational, and it's not very often for a traditional retailer launching an online retail store.China's online retailing developed rapidly in the past several years and has performed its strengths in the financial crisis. In 2010, the increase rate of online retailing sales is 109.2% and has accounted for over 3% of the total retail sales in China. But due to the relatively late development and the environmental deficiencies, there are many problems behind the rapid growth.U.S. is the world's most developed country for the development of online retailing, and this paper will obtain the differences of online retailing between China and U.S. by comparing U.S. and China's online retailing development environment, status and case study-Dangdang.com vs. Amazon.com, and later point out some of the strengths and weaknesses of China's online retailing.The deficiencies of China's online retailing lie in that the online retail channel is not very common for China's traditional retailers, while it's relative mature of U.S. online retailing market and it's very common for the United States' traditional retailers to carry out online retail channel and has achieved a seamless multi-channel layout; Chinese retailers are selling products more consistent while our counterparts in the United States provide goods with a relatively large degree of product differentiation; the size of the U.S. online retail business is relatively large and concentrated on the several relatively large scale retail enterprises while China's online retail business is relatively small and not concentrated; the online retailing enterprises have begun to expand out of the United States and the trend is very clear while China's online retail enterprises are developing rapidly domestically and busy coping with the aggressive foreign competitors. Through the comparison we got the problems of online retail in China including irrational market structure, environmental problems for the development of online retailing, the existing problems of online retailing companies, and the concept constraints of online shoppers. The next is the suggestive solutions to the above problems including different suggestions for government, online retailing enterprises and online shoppers.Current' research of e-commerce focuses on the field such as website technology, online marketing, e-commerce law, the relationship of e-commerce and logistics etc. The study of online retailing, as a constitution of e-commerce, is relatively less and chaotic; previous study of similar problems are mostly of the e-commerce industry, including all the B2B, B2C, C2C in form of e-commerce. Although the development of online retailing is rapid in recent years, there is no enough attention from theoretical community; some articles even research the online retail as all the non-physical retailing which results in the lack of theatrical support of online retailing.This paper is based on the original theory on e-commerce and studies the online retailing as a separate industry. This paper is not only written for the supplement and enrichment of the previous e-commerce theory but also an enrichment of the traditional retail theory.This paper consists of the following six parts:The first part is an overview of the online retail industry. The main contents include the introduction of online retail concepts, classification, and SWOT analysis of the online retail, the growth driver for the online retail development, and the development of the world's online retail industry.The second part is an analysis of the environment for the development of online retailing between China and U.S. The main content is a description of economic and financial, cultural, logistical and legal environments which are close to online retailing. The descriptions of online retailing related environments between the two countries have paved the way and provided support to the following discussion.The third part is a comparison and analysis of the development status between China and U.S. At first, it's an overview of the online retailing development status and development process of China and U.S. respectively, and then the analysis and summary of the main difference:the traditional Chinese retail enterprises have not really started e-commerce while the online retail business transformed by traditional retail businesses in American are becoming more sophisticated with multi-channel integration; the category of online retailing in China is highly consistent, and the U.S. B2C sales are showing a trend of diversification; the sizes of the U.S. online retailers are large, highly concentrated and the market structure is relatively mature while the sizes of China's B2C businesses were not yet large and fragmented; the online retailing enterprises have begun to expand out of the United States and the trend is very clear while China's online retail enterprises are developing rapidly domestically and busy coping with the aggressive foreign competitors. At last, through the comparison of the-online retailing growing path of China and U.S. we realized that China's online retailing is showing a similar development process with the U.S., but Chinese online retailers are enjoying a faster pace of growth than their counterparts in the same development stage due to the natural advantages of online retailing and the Chinese market characteristics.The forth part is a case study of Dangdang.com vs. Amazon.com on behalf of the online retail industry of China and U.S. In the beginning, there is an introduction of the basic conditions of the two online retail enterprises and then the development modes of the two companies including similarities and differences. The next is the differences of the services provided by the two companies including the services and problems of Dangdang.com and the characteristics of the marketing strategies of Amazon.com. At last, it's a summary of the forth part:Dangdang.com and Amazon.com are both started with an online bookstore. Dangdang.com is now aiming at being the biggest Chinese online book store as well as an online department store; Amazon.com is the world's first online bookstore and now online provider of variety of goods.The fifth part is the existing problems of China's online retailing and suggestive solutions for these problems. First, we discuss the problems of online retail in China including irrational market structure, environmental problems for the development of online retailing, the existing problems of online retailing companies, and the concept constraints of online shoppers. The next is the suggestive solutions to these problems including different suggestions for government, online retailing enterprises and online shoppers.The sixth part is the conclusion of the thesis. The e-commerce economy will be the engine of economic growth in the twenty-first century and is now regarded as the key to future productivity improvements and competitiveness. China's online retailing has enjoyed a rapid growth in the past several years. Due to the advantage of without time and space constraint of online trade as well as China's largest population of netizens, Chinese online retailing has a very big growth potential and the development of it is relatively faster than that of its counterpart in America in the same development stage. Although there are a lot of problems in China's online retailing, there is no doubt that China has a better growth path and the online retail related environment will be improved during the future development process. The rounds of successful financing of Chinese online retailing companies and the successfully going public of Dangdang.com represent that China's online retailing is recognized and favored by international investors. |
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