Web business models differ as to kind of skills and specific responsibilities involved. Each model also has a particular source of profit. The three most common web business models are:

=>selling physical products =>offering services =>information delivery.

Product Sales

This is web business model that comes to people’s mind most easily thanks to major product sales sites like amazon.com or online malls like neimanmarcus.com. This model is about selling physical products that merchant must ship to his customer upon receiving an online order.

The three main ways to carry on a business under this model is by web storefront, auction site and online mall (a site that sells products from different vendors).

Service Sales

Besides selling products, you can also sell services online. For example, many web designers have their “shops” which market their web designing service set up in cyberspace. With popularity of small businesses, especially home-based ones, conducting business via Internet, there are a number of sites offering services for web business owners. For instance, screensaverbranding.com designs a screensaver that you can offer as a free download to web users to brand and market your web business. Another example is websites offering to write your web copy, so that your site is filled with language and emotion that will entice your prospects to click on “buy” button.

Information Delivery

However, completing some of tasks that are required for Competition Analysis can be overwhelming and expensive. This is a disadvantage for e-commerce startups with limited budgets.

The following is a suggestion that has worked for us at Rothline Entertainment, an e-commerce site located at http://www.rothline.com. After reviewing information on completing Competition Analysis, we immediately knew we could not afford to have an outside source complete these tasks. We were also overwhelmed with idea of attempting to complete tasks ourselves.