The Internet has fundamentally changed the way we purchase our products because firm’s for the first time in history got a direct contact to us as consumers and gave us the opportunity quickly to search information product, order them online 24/7 and for digital products also get the products delivered online. E-commerce had a slow start with many consumers ignoring the option and many failures e.g. inconsistent delivery services. Today e-commerce is a considerable part of total trade and the good news in times of economic are that e-commerce is still growing in product categories where offline sales are stagnating or even reduced. In terms of marketing the growing importance of e-commerce changes the conditions for doing business in a number of areas. Via the ease of getting price information online, the market gets much more transparent and in some product categories this put a pressure on prizes. The direct channel to consumers via online sales gives opportunities for using this contact for add-on sales e.g. via newsletter, etc. Furthermore, the online channel combined with the offline channel gives the opportunity focus on designing the channels taking into account how the different options for customer service create the largest total value for the firm and its customers. Opening a new online channel as producer, may however also create conflict with an existing retailer or distributor that already sells your products; a challenge that needs to be addressed. Also in the field of branding the direct contact with customers alter the scene in that the extent to which the firm conforms to its brand identity is evaluated and given direct response from the customer in the online setting. The recent trend is that ordering product and services via mobile devices is increasing, new devices like ebooks and the iPad may begin to challenge the way newspapers, magazines and books are sold. Also social media is increasingly directly to online sales.

On this background the main topics of the course are:

• Online consumer behavior
• Online (service) branding
• Online pricing
• Multi-channel options
• Channel conflict
• Digital products channels
• Social sales channels
• Mobile online sales

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