Re: Question on Channel conflict

[William Toh]

A important aspect of critical thinking is the ability to not only understand concepts, but to describe it in your own words.

Only then would one be able to apply concepts to new situations.

The book's definition of channel conflict refers to the dangers of a new channel negatively impacting existing channels.

If the existing channels involve external distributors and retailers, obviously the new channel will upset these partners

and hence threaten their continued participation.  That is what the book is saying.  So it should be clear that there is

no difference between your understanding and the "text book definition" of channel conflict.

Channel conflict is in effect a form of cannibalism, where the introduction of a new feature/channel/partner may obviate

or severely dilute the effectiveness of an incumbent.  It is critical that businesses determine, on the onset, the priority of

new channels vs existing channels.  If they believe that new channels can effectively complement existing channels, they

must work towards clearly differentiating and leveraging on the specific qualities of each channel to maximise the effects

of co-specialisation.  Failure to do so will result in confusion amongst employees and customers, and general waste.

On Tue, Mar 20, 2018 at 2:47 PM, WONG GAN ZHI VALENCIA <gzvwo...@mymail.sim.edu.sg> wrote:

Dear Mr Toh,

My name is Valencia and I am from one of your e-business class. May I the term, clarify channel conflict with you? From your tutorial 4 answers:

Channel conflict occurs when the new channel

- Does not attract new business

- Takes away customers or resources from an existing channel

However as I was referring to the textbook, channel conflict is defined as: 

A significant threat arising from the introduction of an Internet channel is that while disintermediation gives a company the opportunity to sell direct and increase profitability on products, it can also threaten distribution arrangements with existing partners 

(under E-marketing, channel conflict at page 460-461 of Dave Chaffey's E-business and E-commerceManagement Strategies 4th edition)

So my question is:

1. are the two definitions the same? 
2. channel cannibalism is a subset problem of channel conflict or channel conflict = channel cannibalism? (because from what I understand, channel cannibalism is where the new online channel does not attract new customers, it is where existing customers from traditional offline stores switch to buy the product online)

I hope you can help me clarify my doubts and I apologize if my question is too confusing for you 😥 Also, will you still be conducting revision workshops (in small groups) that you have mentioned before? Thank you.

Regards,

Valencia