Introduction The purpose of this report is to examine e-commerce and also to provide a broad strategy that should be taken by Amanda Jane Horse Wear. Besides that, it is also to provide suggestion about suitable e-commerce that Amanda Jane should adopt. Firstly, a short summary of the case study, Amanda Jane Horse Wear will be illustrated with the main problem that will be identified.
Next, a brief description of e-commerce in terms of definition, issue and benefits and the current trends will be explained as a part of e-commerce analysis.The relationship between e-commerce and information systems which are data, people and procedure will be illustrate in system specification. Recommendation about ways to implement e-commerce and other suggestion to Amanda will be outlined in recommendation. There will a conclusion of this report at the end. Background Amanda Jane Walters owns a small growing business known as Amanda Jane Horse Wear which sells limited number of horse riding apparel items. But Amanda’s product is not available to other specialist retail stores.
Her business has steadily developed and earned a reasonable income because she can compete with other suppliers. Her sales are mainly during horse events and through previous customer’s recommendation. Besides that, her advertisement is limited to specific clubs and organisations. The main problem of Amanda Jane is absent of online service since customer’s desire towards it has increased. The issue that has been identified is ways e-commerce will boost the sales and direction that should be taken.
eCommerce Systems The meaning of eCommerce Change in economy and business process in present is known as e-commerce (Ratnasingam 2002).According to Walczuch, Braven & Lundgren (2000), electronic commerce is involving telecommunications network in sustaining business relationship, distributing business information and for business transactions. In simple, E-commerce is marketing exchange via internet, mobile or other telecommunication (Elliott, Rundle-Thiele & Waller 2012). E-commerce that customers deal directly with an organization is known as Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce. Benefits Improved Customer Services Customer service is the quality of service the organizations provide to customers while increasing sales.
According to Ratnasingam (2002) level of satisfaction the customer has increased after business adopt e-commerce. This will result in customer’s loyalty and purchasing behaviors. For example, Virtual Vineyards, a wine and specialty food shop only present on the internet is one of the successful cases. Cost savings E-commerce applications will help to reduce daily basis operations cost of producing and distributing the product, usage of paperwork and making bills payment (Ratnasingam 2002).
Motorola and Dell companies gather customer orders for a product; send out them by e-mail to the manufactures.No more 24-hour-time constraints Customers can be contacted at any time by companies and this will help to save from losing customers. Internet can provide well-timed information to users which the customers because of its capability for instantaneous communication, and its accessibility for 24 hours a day. This means more communication can gain customer satisfaction and quicker responses so it helps to increase the sales (Kuzic, Fisher & Scollary 2002). Better inventory management On a daily basis manufacture involve in keep on track, regulating and book-keeping for product inventory.
Through internet inventory control system or processes can be made simpler or eliminate also at the same time are able to manage inventory as a consequence can ensure that there will be no huge stockpiles of inventory, whereas all together reduce out of stock circumstances. Lower telecommunications cost Value added networks (VANs) much expensive than internet usage which were based on leasing telephone lines. It is also much cheaper to send a e-mail or fax via the Internet than direct dialling. In addition, business that dependent on Internet communication can lower long-distance phone and fax costs.
Issues Lower system security and trustworthiness There are bundle of issues a rises regarding reports of hacking websites and databases and security holes in software. For example, there is lot of security warnings and patches for Microsoft software. Several banking and other business websites, including Barclays Bank, and Consumers’ Association in the UK, have experienced breaches in security where ‘a technical oversight’ or ‘a fault in its systems’ led to confidential client information becoming available to all. Rapidly growing and changing technology Business has to follow and not be left at the back.Under the circumstances to keep on track and develop business models to make use of the new opportunities which at times guide to strategy detrimental to the organisation. The easiness which business strategy can be copied and imitate via Internet increase that stress on longer-term competitive advantage.
Problems with compatibility of older and ‘newer’ technology Lead to a number of businesses running approximately two independent systems which data cannot be shared; There are problems where older organisation systems cannot communicate via internet and web based. This leads to invest in new systems, which implement the different systems.In this situation financially costs as well as disruptive to the efficient running of organisations. Current Trends and Examples in eCommerce The customers feedback is one of the latest trends are used by many organisations to improve customer service. Customer re-evaluate are level-headed entry into social shopping, the review is like an online discussion. Feedback is the best way to promote your products and it will add a positive value like Amazon and Edmunds companies following.
Sharing on Social media such as facebook and twitter about the particular product where eople share if they like a product its very powerful or influential way to promote. Blogging also will give a greater impact on your product achieve by helping it to stand out in the search engines. Blogging is hot current trend followed many people and also extraordinary implement which will help small business to compete with larger businesses. Furthermore, email marketing also used by many organisations to promote their product. Weekly or monthly basis send newsletters about their new products can gain more awareness and keep the customer to visit the site.
Besides that, live video interaction is a latest trend and newly three companies using it in Sweden. These trends are to help consumers to ask live questions about the products from the retailers. For instance 3? s Live Shop and Cozone are using live video interaction. In additional, apps on mobile because mobile production is reaching higher level and produce more smart phones upcoming to marketplace every day. It means there are loads of consumers you can get in touch through via mobile and make the mobile phone optimised websites for cell phone users or create apps to boost the user experience.
New advanced payment system has been developed and executes that permit secure payments which made directly on ecommerce system from any mobile device. Examples are Paypass by MasterCard, Visa, America Express and Google’s Wallet service. System Specifications PEOPLE Amanda Jane should involve in the system or she can hire a worker who is expert in IT to manage the system. PROCEDURES Procedure of customer obtaining the hire product is change in Amanda Jane’s current business. A client-server model name Three-Tier Architecture also known as multi-tier architecture can be used in this process.This model is a basic model that segment components into three tiers of services, which are the user tier, server tier and database tier.
User Tier Server Tier Database Tier Web Client Web Server Database Server Computers that have requested browser and process web pages besides present and permits the data is known as user tier (Kroenke,Bunker & Wilson 2012).The two main types are traditional application and the Web-based application. Server tier also referred as business logic tier that consists of web server that support resource sharing and process application programs (Kroenke,Bunker & Wilson 2012). These components is used to enforce business rules (legal or governmental regulations) and data rules (consists data structures databases). According to Kroenke,Bunker & Wilson (2012), database tier is actual DBMS access layer that processes SQL request consists recover and store data that support resource sharing.
Through this model, Amanda Jane customer can click on the web page and then find a product which the server will transmit the information of the products. The client can also select and order the product needed and make online payment. After that, the server will send a confirmation email on the product selected to the customer and another copy to admin. Now, the admin will process the transaction payment, inventory process and arrange for shipping to the relevant customer. The similar process will continue to every customer according to their needs of the product.
DATA Data is an important component for both customers and business. From customers view, it allows them to know about the business and their activities (Kohavi, Mason, Parekh & Zheng 2004). For that, the website should display availability, description and price of horse products and activities of Amanda Jane’s business. On the business perspective view, customers registration code, customers information and creation of individual portal are important for customers to place order and for business to target market segments. RecommendationsConsidering the benefits of e-commerce, it will help her business to improve.
Amanda Jane can use the parallel conversion approach to implement e-commerce in her business. Parallel conversion is using both (old and new) system at the same in the beginning. This is to ensure that there are no errors or problems with the new system. Even when the new system is introduced the old system continues running.
Although the approach cost high since running two separate system but Amanda can compare both system to benchmark and measure its effectiveness.Besides that, since old system continues to function with the new system it helps to minimizes the risks of operational and data-processing failures. Conclusion Amanda Jane should direct her business towards e-commerce because it is the best solution to boost her sales. Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce is will help business since the world is moving towards online trading and the usage of telecommunication has increased. Benefits of e-commerce are Improved Customer Services, Cost savings, No more 24-hour-time constraints, Better inventory management and lower telecommunications cost.While the issues in e-commerce are lower system security and trustworthiness, Rapidly growing and changing technology and Problems with compatibility of older and ‘newer’ technology Business must understand system specification to implement ecommerce.
System specification is concentrated on the people, procedure using Three-Tier Architecture and data. Understanding and implementing e-commerce in the right way is important for a business success. In addition, Amanda Jane’s business is small business so it is a good choice to use parallel conversion for smaller systems with existing infrastructure use.
