Alibris's Business Startup Problems & Solutions: Origin of The Report

Alibris’s business startup problems & Solutions

Origin of the Report
As a part of our study curriculum in BBA course, we have been assigned to conduct a study
Alibris’s business startup problems & Solutions by Dewan Mostafizur Rahman. The required
study suggests researching, evaluating and interpreting the financial data, investment policy.
After assigning the required term paper, our group of members becomes interested to make a
clear conscious view of this Case.
Purpose of Report
 To achieve deep knowledge on Startup Business& bridges the gaps between real life
& theoretical knowledge
 To fulfill the partial requirement of our course

 To gain report writing and communication skill.
 To compare and contrast Startup problem& make a better understanding.
Scope of the Report

The proposed report will cover Alibris’s business startup problems & Solutions
About Alibris
Page 1
Alibris is an online store that sells new books, used books, out-of-print books, rare books,
and other media through an online network of independent booksellers. Alibris was founded
in 1997 by Martin Manley and incorporated in 1998. It grew out of Interloc, an online
company founded by antiquarian bookseller Richard Weatherford in 1994. Interloc was one
of the earliest successful efforts to centralize used book data online. It remained a private
network until 1996, when the company launched its website. The company was backed by
venture capital until 2006, when it was purchased by Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private
equity firm.
Booksellers list their inventories on Alibris which in turn offers the books on its
retail website, a separate library services site, and business to business partners such
as Barnes & Noble, Borders Books, Books-A-Million, and Chapters Indigo. It offers more
than 70 million books from a network of over 10,000 booksellers in 65 countries.
Most sales made through Alibris are fulfilled by the bookseller directly to the end customer.
Sales to libraries or other institutions or books needing transoceanic shipping are consolidated
in a distribution center in Sparks, Nevada. Alibris also has a similar network for music
(albums,cassette tapes, and CDs) and movies (VHS or DVD).
Alibris lets you sell and buy at the same time. It charges a starting fee of $19.99, a fee that
varies based on what you're selling what kind of commission they charge. The
domain alibris.com attracted at least 15 million visitors annually by 2008 according to
a Compete.com survey.
Alibris was revealed as a charter member of the Google eBooks service when it was

announced by Google on December 6, 2010. Based on the Better Business Bureau (BBB)
files, this company has an "A+" rating.
Page 2
Case Analysis
In the year 1994, Weatherford launched an online service for buyers and sellers of rare, used
and out of print books services. Interloc was intended to address poor information flows in
the industry. It was an inventory listing service where dealers could use their computers to
post descriptions, including condition and price of the books. Interloc operated as a bulletin
board service (BBS).Manley, a former director at Mckinsey had a diverse past in technology,
service and operations management. Approached by a venture capital, Mckinsey insisted
Weatherford that Inteloc should become an ecommerce company.After that in January 1998
Manley became the CEO of the company and Interloc changed its name to Alibris in April.
Alibris was determined to help other retailers deliver the vast selection of its seller network to
their loyal customers, and thereby enable professional booksellers to reach business and
library customers, not just consumers. Interloc had learned this lesson early by serving as the
first supplier of out-of-print books to nearby Amazon.com.
Many business customers required orders to be consolidated, repackaged, custom invoiced, or

shipped overseas at low cost. By building sophisticated low-cost logistics capabilities from
the start, Alibris would serve those customers and booksellers could enjoy the benefit of
increased sales
Today, Alibris is a vibrant marketplace operating in the two fastest-growing areas of the
worldwide media business: online sales and used/out-of-print books, music, and movies. Our
parent company, Monsoon Commerce, helps independent sellers find buyers through
marketplace solutions and partnerships with scores of leading global media retailers,
including Barnes & Noble, Borders, Chapters/Indigo (Canada), and Waterstone's (UK).
Many, many people have made the Alibris journey possible. Alibris thrives thanks to the
loyalty of millions of business and retail customers and an incredibly capable and dedicated
business, technical, and support staff. Alibris continues to benefit from experienced investors
who stood by the company in good times and bad.
But the most exciting part of the Alibris story is still being written by our customers, sellers,
staff, and investors. It is a story that will feature expansion of the services we provide our
sellers, overseas growth, a vibrant movie and music business, new forms of book purchasing,
and new kinds of sellers who help Alibris connect people who love books, music, and movies
with independent sellers from around the world.
Page 3
Problem Statement
a. Interloc: Establishment of an e- Marketplace

1. Interloc built an active E-market place even before the internet came along &
very few firms have replicated this success. Why is this?
2. Why is it so Hard to get Desired users to participate in an e-marketplace?
3. How did Interloc Succeed when many others have failed?
4. Can an E-Marketplace get big fast ?if so ,how? if not why?
b. Business changes from Interloc to Alibris

1. “So if Interloc is so successful, why does Manley want to change it as it becomes
Alibris?”
2. “What exactly is going to change as Interloc becomes Alibris?”
3. “How risky is the revenue model change?”
4. : “How could Alibris encourage dealers to list more books?”
5. “What incentive did Interloc have to sell books?”
c. Why Fulfillment?
1. Why did Manely& Alibris feel that they needed to set up the Sparks Facility?
What happened to the dream of touch Less Profit?
d. Holding and buying inventory
1. Should Alibris use the sparks facility like a warehouse with a cross-dock facility?
2. Should the company hold inventory on behalf of dealers at sparks?
3. Should Alibris go as far as buying books and keeping them at sparks? Why or
why not? Are there any circumstances under which it might make sense?
e. The cash crunch
1. Whether or not spending its own money on books is a good idea?
2. Where are the cash drains of Alibris?
3. How bad is the situation?
f. It woes
1. Should Alibris Stick to Oracle product or switch to Thunderstones’s offerings
g. Possible Solutions
Page 4
SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis must first start with defining a desired end state or objective. A SWOT
analysis may be incorporated into the strategic planning model. Strategic Planning has been
the subject of much research.
 Strengths: characteristics of the business or team that give it an advantage over

others in the industry.
 Weaknesses: are characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage relative to
others.
 Opportunities: external chances to make greater sales or profits in the
environment.
 Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the
business.
Identification of SWOTs is essential because subsequent steps in the process of planning
for achievement of the selected objective may be derived from the SWOTs. Whatever
the swot analysis for Alibris is as follows
 Strength :
1. First mover advantage
 Weaknesses:
1. Insufficiency of Potential IT software
2. Scarcity of skilled human resource
3. Slower Search Engine
 Opportunity
1. Business is not Demand but supply constrained
 Threats
1. Extending Vendors
2. Amazon.com
Page 5
Interloc : Establishment of an E-Marketplace
Q: Interloc built an active E-market place even before the internet came
along & very few firms have replicated this success. Why is this?
In the year 1994, Weatherford launched an online service for buyers and sellers of rare, used
and out of print books services. Interloc was intended to address poor information flows in
the industry. It was an inventory listing service where dealers could use their computers to
post descriptions, including condition and price of the books. Interloc operated as a bulletin
board service (BBS).It was an innovative idea.then why others are not following this idea.
The reason is….
 This business Need Huge Initial invest in IT
 ThScarcity of potential software also act as a cause
 High Technical Risk also present
 Unavailability of Skilled labor
Q: Why is it so Hard to get Desired users to participate in an e-

marketplace?
Interloc introduced an innovative idea of selling books.Users are not accustomed to this idea
as they are buying books after going to shop.Moreover E-marketplace is so vast &
competitive.
Q: How did Interloc Succeed when many others have failed?

Services Provided By Interlock
 Inventory listing service.
 Also called Bulletin Board Service
 Service of posting conditions & price of the books
 Facility of storing data at low cost. For each book third of a cent per month is
charged.
Usefulness of the serviceprovided by interloc
 Finding book was much more easy for users.
Page 6
Q: Can an E-Marketplace get big fast ?if so ,how? if not why?

 Yes , E-marketplace can get big fast.Example:Interloc, Amazon.com
 Interloc was established in 1994 .By august 1994 the company had 1300
participating dealers & 5 million books in its listing.
B: Business changes from Interloc to Alibris
Q-1: “So if Interloc is so successful, why does Manley want to change it as it

becomes Alibris?”
In 1994, Dick Weatherford, an antiquarian bookseller with 30 years experience launched an
online service for buyers and sellers of rare, used, and out of print books named Interloc.
Manley had been searching for a copy of famous anthropologist Liza Dalby’s book named
‘Geisha’ for several years. Then the book was a out-of-print book. He went to the internet to
find out-of-print books. At last he found the desired book with the help of Interloc.
Manley had recently been approached by a venture capiatal group who was trying to
convience Weatherford that Interloc should become an e-commerce company that allow
customers to purchase books in addition to finding them. The venture capitalists felt Manley
might be a perfect CEO for such a company. They bought Manley and Weatherford together,
and the two immediately hit it off. Manley became CEO of the company in January 1998.
Interloc changed its name to Alibris in April of that year.
The word “Alibris” had no meaning; it met the company’s requirements of suggesting books
that starts with the letter ‘A’ and being available as an Internet domain name. Actually
Manley changed Interloc’s name to Alibris because he wants to Interloc should become an e-
commerce company that allows customers to purchase books in addition to finding them.
Q-2: “What exactly is going to change as Interloc becomes Alibris?”

As Interloc becomes Alibris, bacially its business model is going to change. Manley began to
research the used boo industry, spending three months traveling across the country with
Weatherford to meet and talk with dealers and customers. His other initial task was to
transform Alibris into an e-commerce company.
There were two major elements of this change:
 Modifying how dealers were charged and revenue was generated and
 Becoming an active participant in the order fulfillment process.
Page 7
Alibris also began getting more actively involved in transactions involving Amazon.com by
passing that company’s requests only to reliable dealers, then communicating back their
committed fulfillment dates.
Q-3: “How risky is the revenue model change?”

Alibris was going to scrap its listing fees that allow dealers to enter and maintain as many
books as they liked at no charge. These fees would be replaced with the standard dealer to
dealer payment of 20% of the book’s offering price for each book sold through Alibris. In
addition, the company would increase the dealer’s offering price and it is going to sell more
than the store price, while everything was going to costless at online. As new revenue model
is more expensive for dealers, it is more risky revenue model.
Now we see a example of revenue model of Alibris. Let’s take a $20 dollar book. Alibris
would pay a dealer $16 for the book after deducting 20% fees on offering price.But Alibris
would likely sell it for $26, as it sales more than the store price.
Q-4: “How could Alibris encourage dealers to list more books?”

Alibris would pledge to do advertising and help grow for dealers. The projected revenue
potential of Alibris could account for 10% to 20% of sales of listed books for its dealers. It
was noted that dealers sold about a third of their inventory each year. It was also assumed
that, participating dealers would list all of their books with Alibris and that the company’s
average selling price would be $30. The CEO of Alibris saw that the two best levers for
growing this figure were increasing the number of titles listed on Alibris and ensuring that
more sales flowed through the company.
Q-5: “What incentive did Interloc have to sell books?”

Interloc had a bulletin board, where dealers could upload titles. The real intention was that
dealers could help them each other to find books for their respective customers. Interlock
strengthened dealer-to-dealer communication to make sale. Interloc charged dealers a third
of a cent per month per book for each one listed with the company. Interloc provided e-mail
services to the dealers with a view to easing their communication and business. Interloc also
published a monthly newsletter.
Interloc grew over time as it marketed the business to book dealers at conferences and trade
shows, and as word-of-mouth about the usefulness of the service spread. By August 1998, the
company had approximately 133 participating dealersand 5 million books in its listing. Even
Amazon.com began Interloc to locate hard-to-find books requested by the giant e-tailer’s
customers.
Page 8
Fulfillment:
Alibris decided to involve itself in each shipment between a dealer and a buyer once its e-
commerce capabilities were finalized. The new fulfillment process is flowcharted below:
Customer Time
Places a credit card order on Receives Books
The Alibris Web site for two
Books from two different dealers
Alibris
Forwards to dealers Scans barcode scans barcode for

pays
all books ordered for customer’s customer order, realizes
dealers
From them each order, plus first all books are present for
day, along with a book on shelf
books.
Packing list and until other book
Barcode for each arrives
Order Ships both books to customer
& charges customers credit card.
Dealer -1
Packs all books for all daily
Allibris orders, along with the
Packing lists and barcodes for
Each order.
Dealer -2
Packs all books for all daily Alibris
Orders, along with the packing lists
& barcodes for each other
Page 9
Source: company documents
Reasons for Alibris’s Involvement in the fulfillment process:

1. Alibris wanted to inspect each book and wanted t knows each transaction happened.
2. Another big reason for the fulfillment centre was order consideration. If a library
wants 20 books that originate with 20 dealers, they do not want to receive 20 boxes
with 20 invoices and 20 shipping charges.
3. Selling books to customers and taking responsibility, title & guarantee for the quality.
Using Spark facility:

Sparks facility was to serve as a cross-docking facility that mean receiving shipments from
suppliers, Recombining their contents to satisfy customer orders, then re-packing and
shipping orders. For becoming a viable e-commerce company & ensuring that customer
orders to be fulfilled correctly & quickly, Manley & Alibris felt that they needed to set up the
Sparks facility. Using the Sparks facility, Alibris sold the books to its customers by taking the
responsibility, guaranteeing its quality. As a Result it’s long cherished dream of tochless
profit is fulfilled.
Advantage of Spark facility:
Alibris should go as far as buying books and keeping them at sparks because if Alibris held
inventory on behalf of dealers at sparks then confidence of corporate customers will be lost as
the dealer’s fulfillment performance was low. On the other hand it Alibris held inventory at
sparks then it could use floor space, equipment & most labor as needed basis. This would
save excess cost of warehouse as well as customers confidence would be maintained.
Page 10
D: Holding & Buying Inventory
Q: Should Alibris use the sparks facility like a warehouse with a cross-dock
facility? Should the company hold inventory on behalf of dealers at sparks?
-The Answer is “yes”.
Reasons:
-To build a standard retail storefront on the web.
-To provide ‘speedy’ service to the customers.
Q: Should Alibris go as far as buying books and keeping them at sparks?

Why or why not? Are there any circumstances under which it might make
sense?
Ans: Alibris should not go.
Reasons:
-Substantially larger amount of fund has already been invested in e-Commerce web site
development.
-purchasing books make sense when dealers have less initiative to list desirable number of
books for the customers.
E: The Cash Crunch

Q: Whether or not spending its own money on books is a good idea?
Answer: “NOT”
Reasons:
-Alibris is in scarcity of money
-It has a long line of vendors to be paid
-Current listing service is already generating revenue of 20% of dealer’s offer price
-It has very little money in bank account.
Page 11
- Cash burn rate for implementing IT infrastructure is quite high.
So, it is wise for Alibris to go for simply forward books of dealers at such a situation.
Q: Where are the cash drains and how bad is the situation?
IT crisis in the company was draining money supply from the company. Alibris had spent
large amount of money behind Internet Commerce Server software and hiring consultants and
IT specialists. It had little money in the bank.
Due to the shortage of money it had to extend all of the vendors. Its T1 line was about to be
cut off. So it needed to generate revenue from the business. And it would need to search for
bridge money to support IT manager for solving the problem.
Besides fund crisis Manely and his colleagues were facing intense pressure from Interloc’s
founders, whose listing service had been a simple, profitable, healthy business. It no appeared
as if it might be ruined by an unwise change in the revenue model, by poor technology
decisions, and by the allegedly professional managers brought in to run the new company.
IT Problems
Q-1: a) Why is Alibris having so much trouble putting in place simple e-

commerce capabilities?
Allibris faced many IT problems when it prepared to modify its IT infrastructure and started
the e-commerce business. These IT problems are described below:
Move database from Massachusetts to California:
Alibris needed to migrate the listings database from Interloc’s facilities in Massachusetts to
co-location facility operated by Exodus in Santa Clara, California. The task was very
challenging because it had to keep open its Interloc website and provide services to customers
and also continue its migration task at the same time.
Establishing T1 communication link:
The firm had to set up a high speed T1 communication link in its Emeryville California
Headquarter. T1 communication link was not working properly. It had problem in its
connection.
Transitioning the Interloc Database from a simple listing of text fields to salable stock-
keeping units (SKUs):
Page 12
The challenge for Alibris in setting up its e-commerce business was changing its previous
text based database to a set of saleable pieces of Stock Keeping Units or SKUs. It used a text
based database of Thunderstone, a relatively small software company, named Texis. Texis
did not have any e-Commerce capabilities. That’s why Alibris needed to change the database
and migrate to a large company for meeting the future prospect of large growth.
Problems in Applying Record Locking system:
For making the ecommerce system effective Alibris needed to employ a system for locking
its SKUs those were first reserved by prospective customers as they shopped and then
purchased. That means locking the record in the database so that it was unavailable to anyone
else. It also faced problems with applying this technology because Thunderstone was not
capable of employing this technology.
Each book has separate records:
After converting the text based database to SKUs the database of the Alibris became very
large because each book had its separate record. Each book had its own description, condition
information and price all of which were input by a dealer. It found no way of integrating its
individual SKU records to bring them in a group of books.
No contemporary ecommerce software for handling this large database:
There were no contemporary eligible e-commerce software to handle this large database with
five million SKUs. Standard ecommerce software was geared toward a reasonable number of
SKUs, with multiple quantities of each one. For solving this database problem Alibris turned
to Oracle from Thunderstone, because Oracle was a large corporation and it had a good
prospect of future improvement in its database and ecommerce software. Alibris purchased
the ecommerce software of Oracle named Internet Commerce Server. This software was not
perfect but it was the safe bet since it came from a large well-established company.
Lack of Skills of value-added retailer (VAR) in installing Oracle’s ecommerce software:
After purchasing the E-commerce software from Oracle it faced problems with installing the
software on Alibris’s new Unix server. It experience two consecutive failures on the Oracle
installation during the summer 1998. The value-added retailer (VAR) of Oracle could not
figure out how to install Internet Commerce Server on Alibris’s new server. It was very
alarming for Alibris because it had already invested large amounts of time, effort and money
in the product.
Having bug in the e-commerce software itself:
Besides this installation problem there were problems in the e-commerce software itself. But
Alibris thought Oracle could solve the problems as it was a large and reputable company.
Slow search engine: Alibris faced problems with database migration. Its search engine was
slow, presented a serious problem. Its benchmark was that search performance couldn’t be
worse than at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble, because that’s what customers were used
Page 13
to. Customers were not going to sit for 20 seconds with a blank screen waiting for its searches
to come back.
Need of large amount of custom coding for Allibris e-commerce system:
After two consecutive failures of installing the ecommerce software Alibris understood that
the ecommerce software needed to be custom coded for making it work. To address all these
problems Alibris’s database developers and consultants were writing a great deal of custom
code for the company’s ecommerce system. At last it became clear that they would have to
rewrite or modify some of the code that controlled fundamental aspects of how the software
functioned.
The management and IT team of Alibris was not efficient:
Alibris hired some consultants and reputed managers but they were not efficient to run
startup company. The IT team was not capable of solving the problems. This employee
problem led the company to a deep crisis.
All these IT problems led it to a great crisis because its launch date was very close.
Q-2:Would there remain Problem of Oracle Product even if Alibris had a

small, simple database?
• Yes, I think Alibris would face problems with Oracle Product even if Alibris had a
small, simple database.
Reasons:
The arguments behind my opinion are-
-The process of integrating Alibris’s IT infrastructure with oracle product was too
complicated.
-Many structural and design decisions were crucial and
-there was Imperfection in the Internet Commerce Server software. It was not standardized
because then Information Technology was not too developed.
Q-3: Is it rare for a new software product from an established, well reputed
vendor to not work properly?
• No, it is not rare but it is also not frequent.
Reasons:
It is not rare because
 The most obvious example is Oracle’s Product’s problem with Alibris.

 In the time of releasing a new product the technology may not be too much developed
Page 14
 The product may not work in all intended contexts
But the problem is not frequent because-
• Problem may occur in Individual user’s Hardware.
• Large vendors release beta version: which is an experimental version of the software
before launching a new product.
• Large vendors invest a large amount of time, effort and money in developing a
product. Such as micro soft invested $5 billion in making its operating system
Windows Vista.
• They are concerned with their reputation.
Fund Crisis:
IT crisis in the company was draining money supply from the company. Alibris had spent
large amount of money behind Internet Commerce Server software and hiring consultants and
IT specialists. It had little money in the bank.
Due to the shortage of money it had to extend all of the vendors. Its T1 line was about to be
cut off. So it needed to generate revenue from the business.
Possible solutions
Solution to IT problems:
At this point of crisis Manely the CEO of Alibris got a call from Thunderstone that it would
be able to solve the IT problems of Alibris. But Manely was in little doubt about
Thunderstone’s capabilities of solving the problems because previously it showed its inability
to set up Alibris’s IT infrastructure for ecommerce. Now the question that stood in front of
Manely was- should Alibris continue to try to make Oracle Product work Alibris or switch to
Thunderstone’s offerings.
I think Alibris should not continue to try to make Oracle product work. It should switch to
Thunderstone’s offerings; Because Thunderstone addressed all concerns of Alibris in right
ways.
Reasons of switching to Thunderstone’s offering-
• Thunderstone helped e-Bay to get rid of this type of problem.
Page 15
• It would be able to solve record locking problem: One previous concern with
Thunderstone was it was not able to apply record locking system. But in the meantime
it found the way to apply record locking system.
• It would make the website up and database searchable.
• Alibris had a concern with the database of Thunderstone; the Texis. Texis was coded
with a proprietary language called Vortex that would increase the expense of Alibris.
Thunderstone address that it would change the coding language of Texis.
• Alibris would get refund from Oracle. Alibris was also concerned with the money
spent behind Oracle product. But would get the refund from Oracle as it did not use
the product of Oracle.
• Alibris was also concerned with the time and effort spent behind Oracle product. Its
launching date was very close. Here, my argument is for getting better things one
needs to sacrifice time.
Solutions to Fund Crisis

An investor offered 200,000 to keep the company Live, but demanded control over the
company and the firing of most of the staff.
It is a possible solution to the fund crisis but it is too costly. Manely should go for a bridge
loan from another source.
What happened to Alibris in Reality

 Manley secured another bridge loan
 Went Live in 1998 by Thunderstone
 Thunderstone’s software works was ok.
 Alibris now has a database of over 90 million used, new, and out of print books a
network of over 10,000 sellers.
 Now it has a fast search engine and very effective ecommerce system and its
customers are satisfied with its service.
Page 16
Conclusion
Alibris is an online store that sells new books, used books, out-of-print books, rare books,
and other media through an online network of independent booksellers. Alibris was founded
in 1997 by Martin Manley and incorporated in 1998. It grew out of Interloc, an online
company founded by antiquarian bookseller Richard Weatherford in 1994. Interloc was one
of the earliest successful efforts to centralize used book data online. But the transformation of
Interloc’s business to Alibris’s business was not an easy task. Alibris faced many IT
problems and fell in a fund crisis while implementing the business model. Alibris turned to
Oracle for setting up its ecommerce facilities but Oracle failed to setting up the ecommerce
facilities. It seemed Alibris was near to failure. But at last Alibris’s all IT problems was
solved by Thunderstone, a relatively small software company. Alibris’s fund crisis was also
solved by the arrangement of an additional bridge loan. Alibris accepted the book dealer’s
proposition of using its storage facilities and setting up its own storage facilities At last
Alibris became able to stand on its feet and now it runs it business successfully. This case
shows that a start-up can’t be run by consultants. Consultants had the right idea; they just
didn’t execute their plans smoothly.
Page 17
Bibliography
1. www.Alibris.com
2. www.wikipedia.com
3. www.harveysoft.com
4. www.soe.ucsc.edu
5. Management Information System, O.Brien.
6. library.alibris.com/case-studies/tulane
Page 18

Alibris's Business Startup Problems & Solutions: Origin of The Report

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Alibris's Business Startup Problems & Solutions: Origin of The Report

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Alibris's Business Startup Problems & Solutions: Origin of The Report

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Alibris’s business startup problems & Solutions

Alibris’s business startup problems & Solutions

 To fulfill the partial requirement of our course

Scope of the Report

Alibris was revealed as a charter member of the Google eBooks service when it was

Many business customers required orders to be consolidated, repackaged, custom invoiced, or

a. Interloc: Establishment of an e- Marketplace

b. Business changes from Interloc to Alibris

 Strengths: characteristics of the business or team that give it an advantage over

Interloc : Establishment of an E-Marketplace

 This business Need Huge Initial invest in IT

 ThScarcity of potential software also act as a cause

 High Technical Risk also present

 Unavailability of Skilled labor

Q: Why is it so Hard to get Desired users to participate in an e-

Q: How did Interloc Succeed when many others have failed?

 Inventory listing service.

 Also called Bulletin Board Service

 Service of posting conditions & price of the books

Usefulness of the serviceprovided by interloc

 Finding book was much more easy for users.

Q: Can an E-Marketplace get big fast ?if so ,how? if not why?

B: Business changes from Interloc to Alibris

Q-1: “So if Interloc is so successful, why does Manley want to change it as it

Q-2: “What exactly is going to change as Interloc becomes Alibris?”

There were two major elements of this change:

Q-3: “How risky is the revenue model change?”

Q-4: “How could Alibris encourage dealers to list more books?”

Q-5: “What incentive did Interloc have to sell books?”

Places a credit card order on Receives Books

The Alibris Web site for two

Books from two different dealers

Forwards to dealers Scans barcode scans barcode for

Source: company documents

Reasons for Alibris’s Involvement in the fulfillment process:

Using Spark facility:

Advantage of Spark facility:

D: Holding & Buying Inventory

-To build a standard retail storefront on the web.

-To provide ‘speedy’ service to the customers.

Q: Should Alibris go as far as buying books and keeping them at sparks?

E: The Cash Crunch

-Alibris is in scarcity of money

-It has a long line of vendors to be paid

-It has very little money in bank account.

- Cash burn rate for implementing IT infrastructure is quite high.

Q-1: a) Why is Alibris having so much trouble putting in place simple e-

Move database from Massachusetts to California:

Establishing T1 communication link:

Problems in Applying Record Locking system:

Each book has separate records:

No contemporary ecommerce software for handling this large database:

Lack of Skills of value-added retailer (VAR) in installing Oracle’s ecommerce software:

Having bug in the e-commerce software itself:

Need of large amount of custom coding for Allibris e-commerce system:

The management and IT team of Alibris was not efficient:

Q-2:Would there remain Problem of Oracle Product even if Alibris had a