priceline case study

1. What is Costco’s business model? Is the company’s business model appealing? Why or why not?

Zappos is an online shoes retailer that started its business in the year 1999. Later on the company had expanded its business to include the beauty products, clothing and even the housewares within its leading e-commerce website. This case emphasizes on the customer service department of Zappos Company and initially the business focused only on the drop ship method. Later on the company also increased the variety of the products. The company had also created a bricks and mortar storefront to expand the business and increase the sales of the business.

Senior management at Outrigger is aiming towards entering management agreements with large brands and third part owners. Online agencies such as Expedia, TripAdvisor, and Orbitz are threatening Outrigger’s ability to provide consumers information through human travel agents (Piccoli). I would recommend implementing more functionality into their web services to handle all kinds of travel requests so no revenue is lost to competitors. This would also eliminate the need for travel agents, instead replacing them with the occasional, cheap customer service employee, cutting costs as

Renee McDonald (“Plaintiff”) allegedly sustained personal injuries on October 8, 2015 while shopping at a store owned and operated by Costco (“Defendant”) in Brooklyn Park, Maryland. According to the plaintiff, while walking through the store, she tripped on mop water which caused her to fall to the ground and suffer “severe bodily injuries.” The Plaintiff claims that her fall was caused by the mop water. The mopped area had been secured with a yellow caution sign that warned customers of the wet floor. At the time of the Plaintiff’s fall, however, the sign had fallen down and was lying on the floor. Plaintiff alleges that the store did not have proper signage to warn of the hazardous condition.

2. Also, you can do your own comparisons with the well advertised ones like, Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, and

What is Costco’s business model? Is the company’s business model appealing? Why or why not?

Costco’s business model is to generate high-volume sales and rapid inventory turnover by offering low prices on a limited set selection of brands and a few selected privately labeled products. This model does not turn a profit on its own with the company operating slightly below its break-even cost. However, to make up for this Costco charges a membership fee and this is a simple way of padding their profit but also enabling them to provide a customer experience that emphasizes value.

Even if the company can have a strong position against its buyers due to the business characteristics the close relationship that the customers have with the travel agencies gives their a greater influence over the ticket price.

àAs a result, the number of user-oriented travel tools on airlines’ direct Web sites increased dramatically in just a few short years. Aggregator Web sites : —  Such as Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, and Priceline.com —  A pseudo-competitive position relative to the airlines' own direct Web sites but also offered services beyond flight purchase, including hotel and vacation packages. —  The airline paid a fee to the

I believe that Groupon has become successful for many different reasons. First of all, Groupon was the first to transport the traditional “Coupon clipping” to the online world. This opened many opportunities. It was something new, exciting to consumers that they hadn´t seen in this way. So Groupon had a first mover advantage even though they only connected already existing ideas and technologies in a new way. By being online Groupon could reach many, possibly millions, of people at once. This was a strong argument when Groupon talked to local merchants. As most of these merchants did not have an extensive marketing budget and were not necessarily familiar with new

HN (Harvey Norman) (established in 1982) is recognised as one of the most efficient businesses in Australia at marketing their products predominantly in regard to knowledge and the implementation of their Marketing Plan and the necessity in regularly monitor the effectiveness of the marketing plan. The role of marketing is to connect a business with their consumer and the potential or future customer base. The role of marketing in HN is a huge part of its success story.

Mr Price Group is a retailer that focuses the value fashion markets. More than 80% of revenues are realised through cash sales which results in the company being less susceptible to the cyclical nature of the retail industry and also not reliant on credit to drive sales (Mr Price Group Ltd, 2016).

Zappos started out by selling shoes online to become the world’s largest online retailer of shoes. Subsequently, in their quest to boost sales, they moved beyond footwear to become an E-tailer that sells ‘anything and everything’.

The global cruise industry continues to be the fastest growing travel sector in the world with strong consumer attention and substantial cruise line investment in a diversity of mind-blowing ships that travel to the most exotic locations in the world and offer exceptional vacation experiences.

Following a 220% increase in profits and 800% increase in revenues over six months, eBay Inc. is considering the following courses of action: