Ducati Motorcycle (Italy): Riding Traditional Business Channels or Racing through the Internet

This case discusses the e-business strategy of Ducati, an Italian manufacturer of high-performance motorcycles. It describes how, on January 1st, 2000, Ducati exclusively sold through the Internet its new MH900e motorcycle at 15,000 Euros per unit. It was the first motorcycle ever sold through the Internet and the first-year production of the MH900e was sold out after just 31 minutes! The case also presents the way the company created the physical and the virtual World of Ducati.

To assess the business opportunities and risks that the Internet creates for a manufacturer To analyze how a manufacturer can exploit the Internet along four dimensions: context, content, commerce, and virtual communities To illustrate how a manufacturer can resolve the online/offline channel conflict and reconcile its e-commerce strategy with the business functions traditionally performed by its dealer network