Lessons from B-Webs in Grocery Business

Abstract

In the old days before supermarkets appear. small family-owned food store delivered groceries to most of people. Today we are finding that some people are ordering and getting groceries at home. But the grocery store offering delivery service and many others is not a small business any more. It is usually a large e-business company. Using internet. people get some new service in several industries including groceries. Getting to know the famous Amazon.com, most people would think that the standardized and easy to deliver goods such as books, CDs, video games are the right ones for e-commerce. Also information goods such as securities should be more than perfect for e-commerce. But in this paper. we study the grocery industry in the context of business webs. It is not easy to standardize groceries. and they have many characteristics which make it hard to handle.