Gazelle in 2010
Posted: 10 Feb 2012
Date Written: October 28, 2010
Abstract
Gazelle has pioneered a reCommerce intermediation model: it buys used electronics from consumers and resells them on eBay or to wholesalers. Going forward, its two main strategic challenges are: 1) deciding how much to rely on partnerships with large retailers for growth; 2) deciding whether to continue as a "merchant," i.e., buying and reselling goods (and thereby taking inventory risk), or to transform itself into a "two-sided platform" connecting sellers and buyers without taking inventory risk.
Learning Objective: Two main purposes: i) analyzing strategic challenges associated with creating a new intermediation category (reCommerce); ii) analyzing economic tradeoffs between two polar intermediation models (pure "merchant" buying and reselling goods and pure "platform" connecting buyers and sellers).
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