Category killer

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.

This article has no lead section. Please help by adding an introductory section to this article. For more information, see the layout guide, and Wikipedia's lead section guidelines. (March 2013)

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted.
Find sources: "Category killer" – news · books · scholar · JSTOR · free images (April 2013)

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March 2013)

This article relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. (March 2013)

This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. (March 2013)

This article relies on references to primary sources. Please add references to secondary or tertiary sources. (March 2013)

Category killer is a term used in marketing and strategic management to describe a product, service, brand, or company that has such a distinct sustainable competitive advantage that competing firms find it almost impossible to operate profitably in that industry (or in the same local area).^{[citation needed]} The existence of a category killer eliminates almost all market entities, whether real or virtual. Many existing firms leave the industry, thereby increasing the industry's concentration ratio.

The definition most often associated with the term is a big-box retail chain (such as Home Depot, Best Buy or Toys "R" Us) that is focused on one or few categories of merchandise and offers a wide selection of merchandise in these categories at relatively low prices. The emergence of such stores has taken a toll on specialised local stores in the same market (such as toys), but also affected many larger department stores.

An example of a category killer business is eBay. The online auction site has a near-monopoly because buyers and sellers naturally gravitate to the largest, most liquid market. As a result, the site has almost no competition and has forced similar auction sites (like those run by Yahoo!) into a very small portion of the market. Jupiter Communications has estimated that eBay earned 90% of all revenues in the consumer-to-consumer auction market in the year 2000.^[1]

References [edit]

^ Wolverton, Troy (2000-09-28). "Net antique site lending a hand to eBay sellers". CNET News.

References [edit]

See also [edit]