NYT: Online Stores Branch Out

The Times reports e-commerce firms are again branching out into related - and sometimes unrelated - product categories to take advantage of existing customers. The period of consolidation appears to be mostly over, as companies play a free association game of expanding from cars to car loans to house loans to real estate, and so on.

Part of the branching is a normal process in maturing businesses, as some product categories are pared and others are enhanced. Business models that anticipated one type of customer adapt to the different reality as the markets deliver a different type of customer. Brands built and customer lists can be sometimes best exploited in related product categories.

Perhaps most notable isn't the fact that e-commerce firms are branching out, but that many e-commerce firms have been around long enough to have lasted through at least a couple business cycle iterations.