Title: Selected trends in online trading with special focus on group buying - case study

Authors: Sandra Misiak-Kwit; Małgorzata Wiścicka

Addresses: Department of Human Capital Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Institute of Management and Marketing, University of Szczecin, Mickiewicza 64, Szczecin 71-101, Poland ' Department of Marketing, Faculty of Economics and Management, Institute of Management and Marketing, University of Szczecin, Mickiewicza 64, Szczecin 71-101, Poland

Abstract: The pace of changes taking place in the area of social networking sites result in new trends occurring in customer and enterprise environment. Identification of these trends constitutes an important element of formation of competitive economy, regardless if the country is just implementing new technologies, or a developing one. This paper has a theoretical and empirical character. The theoretical goal of the article is to identify essential trends in online trading. Theoretical considerations focus on description of selected trends in trading on the internet. The empirical part presents the importance of the internet in development of SME and describes a case showing characteristic features of using group buying tool from microenterprise's point of view in service sector in Poland.

Keywords: e-commerce; electronic commerce; s-commerce; social commerce; group buying; social networking sites; SNS; internet; SMEs; micro enterprises; small and medium-sized enterprises; case study; ICT; globalisation; relations; knowledge management; social media; service industry; services; Poland; group purchasing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2016.078844

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2016 Vol.17 No.3, pp.313 - 329

Received: 01 Jul 2015
Accepted: 04 Nov 2015

Published online: 03 Sep 2016 *

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