The cheap and efficient communication the internet provides leads to specialization. Well that was simple to predict. However as the internet has grown in some many aspects of everyday businesses it begins to show its power. So if you have something that can be sold through the internet, make sure you hit a niche and that you have the chance to make the best and most remarkable product (or in Seth's terminology "purple cow").

"When I first started doing work on how the Internet is affecting commerce, like a lot of people, I was really excited by this nearly perfect market," said Erik Brynjolfsson of the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

"His early research found that prices on the Internet were 6 percent to 16 percent lower than prices off-line."

"But when he thought about how people actually shop online, and what they find valuable, he realized that low prices are not the big story. Selection is. The Internet offers variety that is simply impossible in traditional stores."

"When I wanted a contemporary light fixture in copper, I used Google to find a specialty retailer that had one I liked. I recently did the same thing to find a particular brand of Velcro-sealed envelope that I use for receipts when I travel. I regularly turn to Amazon.com and alibris for books I cannot find in local bookstores or even libraries."

"In effect, the emergence of online retailers places a specialty store and a personalized shopping assistant at every shopper's desk," write Professor Brynjolfsson, Yu Hu, and Michael D. Smith in a November 2003 article in Management Science. "This improves the welfare of these consumers by allowing them to locate and buy specialty products they otherwise would not have purchased due to high transaction costs or low product awareness."

"And it's not just the behemoths like Wal-Mart and Amazon that are profiting. Just think about how many small businesses are thriving by selling niche products and services through the Internet. Without the Internet as a marketing and distribution channel, many of those same small businesses would not even be in business. They wouldn't make sufficient sales of unusual or niche products in their local markets through traditional retail."

Thanks Anita !