Abstract

Following its 1996 liquidity crisis, Ducati, an Italian manufacturer of high-performance motorcycles, took several initiatives aiming at strengthening the company brand, enhancing its portfolio and increasing its sales and profitability. This case first presents the above initiatives and discusses how Ducati streamlined its production process and rationalised its distribution network. It then focuses on the company’s e-business strategy and the capabilities offered by Ducati Internet web site. The key starting point of Ducati ecommerce activities took place on January 1st, 2000 when the limited edition of its MH900e motorcycle was exclusively sold through the Internet. It was the first motorcycle ever sold this way and the first year production of the MH900e was sold out after just 31 minutes, making Ducati one of Italy’s largest e-tailers. The case describes the above pioneering e-business initiative and presents the way the company created the physical and the virtual “World of Ducati” (which contains motorcycles and motorcycle-related products and services). It concludes by highlighting future challenges that Ducati faces, mainly its attempt to solve the online/offline channel conflict and to build the first motorcycle Internet portal. The latter aims at offering content, context, virtual communities, and commerce (i.e. business-to-consumer, business-tobusiness, and consumer-to-consumer transactions).

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