Applicability of Success Factors in US Electronic Commmerce to the German Market

This paper identifies factors that are driving success in the business-to-consumer area of e-commerce in the US and analyses their applicability to the German market. Some of the success factors refer to critical mass phenomena and are likely to be effective in Germany once a certain threshold has been overcome. For others, specific functional solutions have been developed historically in Germany which are no less efficient. Yet other factors relate to cultural differences — consumer behavior, customer service attitudes, company cultures, language. They are difficult to change and might result in a less dynamic evolution of electronic markets in Germany, compared to those of the US, in the long run.