Final Customer Purchasing from an Intermediary of the Product

Use Steps: Use steps include all the Final customer's activities to find the appropriate product category at the Intermediary, to choose among the alternatives to the product and to take delivery of the product.

B.
Resources: Reduce resources required for the use of the product

2.
Time: Reduce the time the customer must spend with the product

A. Reduce steps the customer must use with the product

Bring products closer to the customer
Serve current customers with new products, saving customer purchase time

Increase depth and breadth of choices within existing product category

No.	Year	SIC	Note
1	2000	4841	Local television station coverage is available through EchoStar in 28 markets for an extra $4.99 a month. Direct TV charges $5.99 and offers local stations in 23 markets. In all other markets, the consumer needs an antenna to get local stations.
2	2003	5300	Wal-Mart's music-sharing service will seek to distinguish itself from an increasingly crowded marketplace by offering titles and categories its competitors lack or skimp on. For example, the song list is expected to be heavy with high-profile country-music stars. Wal-Mart, which accounts for about 20% of U.S. music sales, is entering a field flooded with new arrivals.
3	2004	5311	Target Corp. is pushing its fashion advantage over Wal-Mart and is continually adding more food offerings. Best Buy and Bed Bath & Beyond are also strengthening their offerings in apparel and electronics, product categories in which Wal-Mart has few advantages. The result was a poor start for Christmas selling season for Wal-Mart.
4	2000	5331	Giant combination stores have an average size of 190,000 square feet and are double the size of general-merchandise stores. These stores are expected to grow by 25% annually during the next few years.
5	2001	5331	99 Cents Only stores are both attractive and carry lots of stock so that they have broader appeal than some of the bigger players like Dollar General and Family Dollar stores.
6	2003	5399	eBay's strategy is relatively simple. It provides a worldwide marketplace where it collects taxes on transactions. It grows by bringing buyers and sellers together.
7	2001	5411	Whole Foods has 125 stores which average about 35,000 square feet as opposed to main competitor, Wild Oats, whose average amount of square feet is 20,000. Consequently, Wild Oats has a lesser selection and array of product than Whole Foods. Whole Foods encourages its employees to experiment with new ideas and engage with customers.
8	2001	5661	Shoe Carnival's massive retail shops dwarf competitors with 11,500 square feet compared to Payless' and Footlocker's relatively diminutive stores. The chain focuses on in-store promotions and department store brands. Sales perked up when Nike agreed to let the retailer offer Nike Air Jordans.
9	2003	5999	QVC Inc., a U.S. based company, is trying to incorporate the use of drop-shipping in countries that don't use drop-shipping as extensively. QVC.com, the company's U.S. Web site, offers nearly a million different items.
10	2001	7841	Netflix also beats Blockbuster on selection. It has a library of 10,000 titles. That is more than 10 times larger than the largest Blockbuster store.

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