Il Settore del Commercio Elettronico: strategie, dinamiche competitive e analisi strutturali

E-commerce is the form of business which shows the most signs of development with ever increasing volumes year after year. This situation has aroused the curiosity of the author, encouraging him to investigate this sector and the companies that operate there. This thesis will investigate the structure, operation and profitability of e-businesses. The research process was descriptive, explorative, and of a qualitative nature as it sought, by analyzing the collected data, to analyze and verify every single transaction that enables the realization of electronic commerce. The study was structured in two stages, the first, purely theoretical, and developed through an analysis of the sector, its taxation, contractualization and regulation , its organizational and competitive structure and the search for some theoretical models suitable for companies in this sector. The second part, on the other hand, saw the analysis of the data collected through the use of the AIDA database and the questionnaires which were given to companies in the area of E-business. The investigation revealed that the exponential development of the e-commerce sector is caused by the frantic search by the customers for the lowest price. In this context, companies tend to apply cost strategies, but vice versa, they cannot make up for the margin created, as they are forced to reduce the selling price by the same amount . By doing so, the volumes increase and the margins are reduced. From the economic, financial and other information collected (management, structural, organizational, etc.), the fragility of these companies has an elemental structure and creates a precarious balance between sources and uses and the need for forms of short-term financing. All of this creates a balance which is easily upset by minimal fluctuations in costs and revenues, leading to profitability being extremely reduced and decreasing even as volumes increase.