(b) Good Sports Limited has successfully followed a niche strategy to date.Assess the extent to which an appropriate e-business strategy could help support such a niche strategy.(8 marks)

正确答案：
(b) Good Sports has pursued a conscious niche or focus differentiation strategy, seeking to serve a local market in a way that
isolates it from the competition of the large national sports good retailers competing on the basis of supplying famous brands
at highly competitive prices. Does it make strategic sense for Good Sports to make the heavy investment necessary to supply
goods online? Will this enhance its ability to supply their chosen market?
In terms of price, e-business is bringing much greater price transparency – the problem for companies like Good Sports is
that customers may use their expertise to research into a particular type and brand of sports equipment and then simply
search the Internet for the cheapest supply. Porter in an article examining the impact of the Internet argues that rather than
making strategy obsolete it has in fact made it more important. The Internet has tended to weaken industry profitability and
made it more difficult to hold onto operational advantages. Choosing which customers you serve and how are even more
critical decisions.
However the personal advice and performance side of the business could be linked to new ways of promoting the product
and communicating with the customer. The development of customer communities referred to above could be a real way of
increasing customer loyalty. The partners are anxious to avoid head-on competition with the national retailers. One way of
increasing the size and strength of the niche they occupy is to use the Internet as a means of targeting their particular
customers and providing insights into the use and performance of certain types of equipment by local clubs and users. There
is considerable scope for innovation that enhances the service offered to their customers. As always there is a need to balance
the costs and benefits of time spent. The Internet can provide a relatively cost effective way of providing greater service to
their customers. There is little in the scenario to suggest they have reached saturation point in their chosen niche market.
Overall there is a need for Good Sports to decide what and where its market is and how this can be improved by the use ofe-business.