Subject: Introduction to eBusiness
– Recommended textbook for the assignment: Laudon, K. C. & Traver, C. G. (2013). E-commerce Essentials, 1st Edition. Pearson. ISBN-13: 9780133544985. (CHAPTER 6).
– Read and answer the questions in APA style:
1. From your perspective, what are the key value-propositions driving the growth of eBusiness. One hypothesis is that growth of the big chain stores has reduced customer choice to a point that buyers feel frustrated by the lack of options that can’t be satisfied by going to another store in the chain, since they all have the same products. While there are other chain stores, their stock is often not that different. Another hypothesis is the inability of major retailers to have truly current products available. A third is the convenience of shopping without needing to drive around, burn up gasoline, fight traffic, and find, let alone pay for, parking. From your research and reading, what are the key requirements that drive consumers to eBusiness?
2. Consider the way you buy products and services. How important is comparison-shopping to get the best deal? How important is having access to truly informed customer service personnel in order to resolve questions before the purchase is made or deal with issues after the sale? What are all of the important aspects of an online shopping experience that are important to you, in priority order, and why? What would the experience have to be for you to say that the online experience was “better?” Provide a concrete shopping scenario to explain your answer.
3. What are the important goals for online marketing and advertising? How are firms currently achieving these goals? From your perspective, how well do you believe these tactics are working? If you were placed in charge of an online firm what tactics would you select and tailor? Explain your thinking.
4. A rather vocal relative of yours is once again complaining about how it seems that everything on the Internet is moving toward bombarding people with advertisements. He’s now at a point, he asserts, that he is refusing to purchase products from egregious over-advertising firms. Is this the fault of the firm or the fault of some Internet marketing firm? Is not purchasing from the firm the best tactic or is there something else one should do instead or in addition to the boycott?
5. Your sister asked you why more firms don’t advertise by providing useful information and training in a manner similar to the way Williams Sonoma does with its recipes and its technique videos (http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/ and https://www.youtube.com/user/WilliamsSonoma). Is this a concept that could be useful? If not, explain why. If so, explain what kinds of business would benefit from it and why.