 | | Abstract | Most leading e-commerce companies are not taking full advantage of the opportunities that community programming might bring. Basex has observed that traditional community applications, such as chat rooms and message boards, are generally not effective at creating new business or driving purchases. Still, community does have a place at the e-commerce table: a new community model — Communities of Reliance — offers the best paradigm for e-commerce companies to create strategic, valuable community programming.
Basex examined 40 top e-commerce companies to determine whether and how e-commerce companies are implementing community programming today on their Web sites. Basex chose the 40 sites based on a compilation of both public and proprietary information, including online sales, consumer attitudes, and Basex' judgment of who is doing important or innovative work in online commerce. The sites include business-to-consumer and business-to-business players and cut across many categories, including computer hardware and software, apparel, general merchandise, discount offerings, and auctions. One quarter of sites surveyed offer traditional message board-type communities.
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