

Retailers and wholesalers provide essential functions such as the extension of credit, aggregation of products from different suppliers, and processing of returns. However, Internet-related disintermediation occurred less frequently than many expected during the dot com boom. The existence of laws which discourage disintermediation has been cited as a reason for the poor economic performance of Japan and Germany in the 1990s. Disintermediation is also closely associated with the idea of just in time manufacturing, as the removal of the need for inventory removes one function of an intermediary. In the non-Internet world, disintermediation has been an important strategy for many big box retailers like Walmart, which attempt to reduce prices by reducing the number of intermediaries between the supplier and the buyer. This may be considered a new form of disintermediation. If the buyer, having connected with the seller, circumvents the platform and talks to the seller and does her deal directly with the seller, then the platform owner is unlikely to get her revenue share.
CUTTING OUT THE MIDDLEMAN EXAMPLE PRO
There is quid pro quo for the vendor for the use of the platform, else it would make no business sense to create such a platform. Direct sellers and buyers connect with each other because of the platform created by the virtual marketplace vendor. The virtual marketplace sellers like Amazon are edging out the middlemen. Disintermediation has acquired a new meaning with the advent of the virtual marketplace. It has been argued that the Internet modifies the supply chain due to market transparency. Impact of Internet-related disintermediation upon various industries Only in the late 1990s did it become widely popularized. It was later applied more generally to "cutting out the middleman" in commerce, though the financial meaning remained predominant. The original cause was a U.S. government regulation ( Regulation Q) which limited the interest rate paid on interest bearing accounts that were insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The term was originally applied to the banking industry in 1967 disintermediation occurred when consumers avoided the intermediation of banks by investing directly in securities (government and private bonds, insurance companies, hedge funds, mutual funds and stocks) rather than leaving their money in savings accounts. These are the supplier, manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer and buyer. To illustrate, a typical B2C supply chain is composed of four or five entities. However manufacturers will still incur distribution costs, such as the physical transport of goods, packaging in small units, advertising, and customer helplines, some or all of which would previously have been borne by the intermediary. Often, a business-to-consumer electronic commerce (B2C) company functions as the bridge between buyer and manufacturer. Buyers can alternatively elect to purchase from wholesalers. Buyers may choose to bypass the middlemen (wholesalers and retailers) to buy directly from the manufacturer, and pay less. Disintermediation initiated by consumers is often the result of high market transparency, in that buyers are aware of supply prices direct from the manufacturer. ĭisintermediation may decrease the total cost of servicing customers and may allow the manufacturer to increase profit margins and/or reduce prices.

Instead of going through traditional distribution channels, which had some type of intermediary (such as a distributor, wholesaler, broker, or agent), companies may now deal with customers directly, for example via the Internet.
CUTTING OUT THE MIDDLEMAN EXAMPLE SERIES
Although Webvan failed in its goal of disintermediating the North American supermarket industry, several supermarket chains (like Safeway Inc.) have launched their own delivery services to target the niche market to which Webvan catered.ĭisintermediation is the removal of intermediaries in economics from a supply chain, or "cutting out the middlemen" in connection with a transaction or a series of transactions.
