James Galloway, General Manager Marketing, Myer Stores Ltd., 246 Bourke Street, Melbourne 3000. Email: agalloway@bigpond.com
Stewart Adam, Senior Lecturer, School of Marketing, RMIT University, Level 14, 239 Bourke Street, Melbourne 3000. Email: stewart.adam@rmit.edu.au
Bandwidth, category killers, computer mediated marketing, e-commerce, e-business, electronic commerce, electronic business, electronic marketing, Internet, integrated marketing communication, knowledge media, marketing channels, new media, online business, online marketing,portals, real estate, database, value transformation, World Wide Web.
This paper examines the notion of value transformation in the residential real estate market in Australia stemming from use of the Internet (Net), or more specifically the graphical face to the Net - the World Wide Web (Web).
The paper discusses such aspects as:
It is suggested that the impact on intermediaries in this market is likely to centre on category killer real estate portals. These portals will initially adopt a productivity increase model (Hanson 2000) and gain competitive advantage from lower operating costs. It is suggested that the per transaction revenue at such Websites is likely to be lower initially. It is further suggested that while some portals may adopt a revenue growth model, the main gain will not come from an expanded geographic market, nor from growing the local market, but rather from productivity increases and service augmentation. The paper postulates that intermediaries may also forego some sources of income augmentation, such as property search and consultancy fees, in addition to commissions on the sale of loan and insurance products. These changes are likely to occur due to the emergence of category killer real estate portal Websites offering content and software which enables them to add value by offering more than the limited services offered by traditional real estate agents. Such a range of online services will include help to enable consumers to decide on communities to live in, as well as financing options and assistance with offering price, among many other customer benefits.
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