A web-based e-commerce facilitator intermediary for small and medium enterprises: A B2B/B2C hybrid proposal

Abstract

The importance of intermediaries in electronic commerce and also in electronic marketplaces has long been recognised in specialised literature. In this paper, we propose a web-based intermediary for e-commerce, whose main goal is to facilitate the entry of small and medium enterprises into the virtual business arena, by allowing the formation of enterprise coalitions based on the role of this intermediary, which acts as a shopping-window for their products. The main characteristics of this intermediary for e-commerce are as follows. First of all, it offers a trading area, based on product catalogues (multi-vendor e-catalogues). Secondly, SMEs are represented by a software catalogue-designer tool that leaves the definition, publication and update of catalogues of products in the hands of these enterprises. From this point of view, the intermediary represents a B2B/B2C hybrid proposal instead of the typical B2B variety of these commerce intermediaries. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002.