Pixmania.com

Our economy is characterized by complex distribution networks on several levels. The Internet makes it possible to reduce this complexity. In the mature markets, the control of the distribution networks and the relations with faithful customers had a great value which often benefited from the intermediaries. The Internet makes it possible to touch diffuse customers and in the extreme case, the 'small customer', forsaken by the traditional methods, can profit, on Internet, from the same services as the 'large accounts' because the marginal cost is null; it becomes possible to reach each potential customers in a way not very expensive. At the same time it makes it possible to offer a service strongly personalized, each customer having consequently of his 'own' source of supply, his 'own' interlocutor, and even sometimes, specific products. At dawn of the 21st century, traditional stores, like Surcouf or Darty, let in more place to the services of e-business sites on the Internet which became the new source of innovation and thus the new engine of growth for the sector. One attends the phenomenon of convergence between e-business sites, contents and technologies which open new prospects in terms of incomes, services and outlets. The Internet companies direct and control this 'techno-sociologic revolution', while influencing territorial dynamics.