Zipcar Case Study

1- Analysis of business model of Zipcar using porter's five forces model: Threat of new entrant: Zipcar reduced the threat of new entrant by spending high investment in its fleet in addition to the technology and information systems like networking, software, processing systems, RFID and GPS vehicle tracking systems. For that, this sector of business has a high cost of entry which eliminates the opportunities of other competitors to enter the same field. At the same time, Zipcar built a wide market in Us, Canada and UK that made it difficult for any new entrant to cover this market and to compete over this range. Zipcar also created a public image for itself using social networking technology by developing an online community of Zipcar members. Bargaining power of buyers: Zipcar built the technologies that focus on customer satisfaction, starting from online reservation services; GPS enabled wireless systems that allow Zipcar members to find and reserve the nearest vehicle by using cell phone. All these services provided in user friendly technologies that make it less attractive for customers to get the same service from another competitor ''high switching cost''. Bargaining power of suppliers: This force is weak in the Zipcar case due to the availability of many suppliers of vehicles and IS systems components used by the firm. At the same time, Zipcar use their proprietary IT platform that carry information flow between customers, vehicles and company IS systems. The only foreseen force of supplier could come from the gas suppliers. Increasing fuel prices will affect the company revenue but it will have the same impact on the other competitors of the same business field. Threat of substitute products This force always depends on buyers' willingness to substitute and the switching cost to move to another product or another product provider. Zipcar targeted the customs of a certain market sector who need and prefer the hourly bases car share rather than full day car...