3.7 Service provider

While e-tailers trade goods, service providers offer services online. A typical example is online document backup and sharing services such as Dropbox, OneDrive or GoogleDocs, of which the latter also integrates several editing features.

As they are web-based, service providers cannot offer certain types of services, such as dentistry or car repairs, but they can offer comparisons and make arrangements. They can even provide grocery services.

Success in this type of business model is based on the marketing capability to build trust and communicate reliability to potential customers.