HotTopics: Web E-Commerce For B2B Publishers And Information Providers - New Channel Demands New Ways Of Thinking

Business-to-business (B2B) publishers are starting to use Web commerce channels to sell their content, but to date little has been published about outcomes, norms, or benchmarks that provide a good baseline for comparing the success of those efforts. Based on actual transaction data from a major Web commerce provider, this HotTopics fills the information gap for B2B content publishers and provides norms as well as a look at the challenges, successes, and opportunities of Web commerce. It includes data on the function, industry, and geographic location of content buyers and prices paid. Interviews with content providers show a range of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with their Web commerce results. The HotTopics concludes that companies that put in a full range of marketing or sales efforts around their Web commerce channels are the ones most likely to report satisfaction with results. It also concludes that Web channel sales tend not to cannibalize higher-end sales, and that Web commerce is valuable as a way to reach new markets and leverage existing content, rather than, for the most part, as a lead generation tool for upselling. The HotTopics provides a list of essential actions for content providers that will help them maximize their investment in Web commerce.