E-Commerce Strategy
Introduction
In the 21st century, e-commerce has come to be understood and appreciated as one of the most vital tools for a business to remain relevant in the market place. A business that does not plan, design and implement a winning e-commerce strategy in this modern day and age can be said to planning to fail. In this text, as the new e-commerce strategist for New York times, I look at a wining strategy on e-commerce can be used by my company for it to compete effectively as well as profitably on the web especially with its competitors like e-News eating into our market.
What e-commerce involves.
According to Reynolds (2004), e-commerce is the use of electronic medium to conduct business. It provides a way for companies and other businesses to electronically enhance their presence. Online presence could take a number of forms. This presence may be used to avail information to customers; it can also be used as part of a businesses market presence.
Whichever approach online presence takes, online visibility has provided businesses with a cost effective measure to do business globally.
Coming up with an e-commerce strategy
According to Laudon (2008) there are several steps involved if the designing and implementation of a successful e-commerce is to be successful. These are the steps my company will follow to ensure that we are able to have a practical e-commerce strategy in place.
an analysis our market
We will look at who buys our products or services as well as how we are going to benefit them by allowing them to make orders or use our services online. This will enable us to predict the level of demand for an online visibility.
clicks-and –mortar approach
This strategy will involve the integration of online with offline resources. This integration comes about because consumers need a physical address they can visit if something goes amiss. This will give us an edge over our competitors whose presence can only be felt online.
shopping experience incorporation
According to Reynolds (2004), a big number of consumers visit the web mainly for information, that is, they visit the site to gather information with regards to the product. Hence most purchases are made either in person or by phone. With that in mind, my company will ensure that it entices customers to buy online by storing their personal information and purchase trail to make it easier for them to make purchases subsequently.
Strategies on how to handle the business process.
We shall come up with the business process involving; stock management, pricing strategy, dispatch arrangements as well as system support and security as well
come up with locality strategy
Laudon (2008) notes that to be able to do good business, especially in a foreign setting, the website and web content should be localized. We shall engage this strategy to enhance our sales across the board.
software selection
This strategy will involve the selection of quality software which will minimize the amount of work to be done internally. As Whiteley (2000) notes, the advent of e-commerce has necessitated the availability of software needed to do most of the work hence offering a business another opportunity to bring down costs.
team selection
For day to day maintenance as well as to make this e-commerce work, we shall need to put together an able team.
marketing
As Laudon (2008) puts it, coming up with an e-commerce strategy and leaving it at that without the actual implementation which involves aggressive marketing is like ‘winking at a girl in the dark’. This we shall accomplish through a proper blend of online and offline marketing initiatives.
Benefits of e commerce to this company
- Ecommerce will enable this company to carry out business regardless of time or distance. Our customers will be able to log into our website and at the click of the mouse make purchases or enquiries at their own convenience.
- E-commerce will prove to be cost effective as the cost-of-sale will be lowered for orders placed through websites. This is because as human interaction in an online pur5chase processing is eliminated hence bringing down labor costs as well as eliminating errors during transaction processing.
- E-commerce will also have a distinct operational benefit to this company. By bringing down the time as well as manpower required to conclude business processes, there will be a considerable strain reduction on the businesses other assets. From a financial point of view, this will free the company’s resources to appropriate and perhaps more profitable utilization elsewhere.
Conclusion
E-commerce has come to be considered a must for today’s businesses. However, it has been noted to have its own risks. Competition also becomes more intense and hence to succeed and with that in mind, e-commerce will require innovation and continuous improvement.
References
Laudon, C.L (2008). E-commerce: business, technology, society, 4th edition. Prentice Hall. PP. 37, 47-46
Reynolds, J. (2004). The complete e-commerce book: design, build & maintain a successful Web-based business, 2nd edition. Focal Press. PP. 45-48
Whiteley, D. (2000). E-commerce: strategy, technologies and applications. McGraw-Hill. PP. 21-27
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