Md Imtiaz Ahmed

Task Covering LO1

INTRODUCTION TO E-COMMERCE

E-Commerce, formerly referred to as Electronic Commerce, is the trading of several of goods & services over a wide area of electronic means; such as the Internet or any other Computer Networks. The various sources where the e-commerce is successfully being running and the uses of e-Commerce are mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems and automated data collection systems. E-Commerce allows the exchange of data over electronic means in order to facilitate the financing & payment aspects of business transaction. Within the help of e-Commerce, an organization is benefitted through effective communications & better business conducts.

In order to build up a proper e-commerce website for a business, there must have to be some implementations of these analyses as follows:-

PEST (Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological) Analysis

1. Political- The potential change of government, as well as the changes in the policies & priorities and the introduction of a new government initiative could be major political factors. Such factors include political stability, tax guidelines, trade regulations, safety regulations & employees laws.
2. Economic- Economic factors may also be limited to the home country but as global trade continues to grow, economic difficulties in one nation would tend to have a broad impact overall. Factors affecting the economy in such ways include inflation, interest rates, economic growth, the unemployment rate & policies, and the business cycle followed by the country.
3. Socio-cultural- Socio-cultural factors are those that arise from customers or probable customers. These changes can often be slight and they can be difficult to assume or identify until there’s a major effect or impact. Within this social factor the business finds it helpful to analyze the socio-economic situation of its market by means of fundamentals like customer demographics, cultural limitations, lifestyle attitude, and education.
4. Technological- This area is all about those that are related to the uprising developments on the uses of technology. There are 2 types of changes in technological uses in general: developments in the uses of IT, and, developments in IT in specific industry or market.[1]

In modern days, we have an extension in the PEST analysis which has added two more factors to take effect in the business. These are Legal(L) factors and the Environmental(E) factors, which for instance, stands to be the PESTLE Analysis.

5. Legal- It is very important to take into accounts the factors arising from changes to the law. Changes can be by means of Discrimination laws, Health & safety laws, Consumer Protection laws, Copyright & Patent laws.
6. Environmental- The factors arising from the concerns about the natural environment, in other words the ‘green’ issues, include increasing concerns about packaging and the increase in pollution.

SWOT(Strength,Weakness,Opportunities,Threats) Analysis

This analysis is only focused on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats that are significant to an organization for a brand new scheme.

1. Strength(S)- Internal attributes that are helpful to the organization to achieving its objectives. Example includes: superior product quality, superior technological equipment, education to employees, popular product name, products embraced by consumers.
2. Weaknesses(W)- Internal attributes that are harmful for the organization achieving its goals. Examples include: extension of the distribution system, lack of direct contact with customers, higher prices.
3. Opportunities(O)- External factors that help the organization to achieve its aims & objectives. This might arise from: exports, approaching the youth markets, cross-selling.
4. Threats(T)- External factors that help the organization to achieve its aims & objectives. These are brought up by: huge tax rates on luxury items, indirect competitors.[2]

Onto a business organization, the SWOT Analysis has been divided into two categories, Internal Analysis which is Strengths & Weaknesses, and External Analysis which is Opportunities & Threats.

The Strengths are valued by measuring the ability of an organization to compete with other companies globally or locally. The start-up cost overhead cost is low to introduce e-Commerce system in the business, which is a plus point. Direct consumer communication too takes place while this e-Commerce system is implemented by means of when an order is made; the goods are directly delivered where a personal meet up takes place. So it generally creates a good customer relationship.

Weakness could be the higher prices of their products which will result in less consumer attentions and hence less profit. Another point to take into account as the weakness of an e-Business could be the online page loading time. If the page takes much time to load, the visitors of the site will eventually tend to turn their search off and leave. Hence no profit would be earned by the business.

Opportunities are measured by their 24/7 availability online to serve their consumers. Growth is estimated to continue at high rates and launching an online business allows the merchant to be in a position to benefit from this growth.

Threats are measured by the business’ ability to survive in the field by competing with other organizations. Another point to take into consideration is fraud. Some consumers find it risky to deliver their financial data and such kinds of feeling among the population can be a great threat for any online business stores. Privacy concerns too are a factor to be thought of.

CORE BUSINESS FUNCTIONS OF E-COMMERCE

I am Md. Imtiaz Ahmed, and, Mr. Bashar has appointed me as an e-Commerce Developer in his e-commerce business. He is planning to open an e-Commerce online book store.

Nowadays we see a rapid rise in such businesses that runs online. There are various sectors such as the one Mr. Bashar is planning to open, apart from that there are jewelries, fashion items, perfumes, groceries, electronic appliances, household items and much more. Mr. Bashar wants to organize such an online book store where people from all around the world can get access to and order for their desired books of their own choices & favorite authors.

E-commerce is basically functionalized as to deliver the customers with the desired service in an online basis. For instance, the customers will stay at their favored place from where they can easily place an order for the product they want. They will either make the payment online using debit/credit cards or, they can also make the payment on cash while the product is finally delivered at the right place. That’s one of the most efficient and generally important function though which the system runs.

Named Boibazaar.com, Mr. Bashar has set his online storefront targeted to basically the people of any ages since there are absolutely no limitations to read books. Starting from the youngest to the oldest, anyone can order for books as they want or would like to. Mr. Bashar targets to deliver his potential customers by serving them the right output as required.

There are various functional areas partly divided in a sense to run the e-Commerce business on a smooth flow. Among them, follows are the most important ones that Mr. Bashar’s online storefront must implement:-

1. The Sales Function- This department is assigned to maintain the sales & promotion of the business, for instance, by means of effective advertisements & discount offers. It also responds to their customers’ queries and tries their best to deliver them with the best possible solutions. Their task is to sell their products either over the telephone or using the face-to-face method of business transactions. They decide the estimations to offer discounts on their selling items, this is done through effective & persuasive advertisements. Financial terms too are anyhow maintained by this department in some businesses. They also provide technical advices & keeps records of their customers updated.
2. The Production Function- This department plays a vital role in any business organization since it checks & monitors the storage of raw materials. It also builds up the schedule of the productions for the maximization of the uses of equipments. Producing the items is the core function of this department and hence it also assembles the finished output. This functional area is also assigned for the quality checking of the products all through the production process. Machinery inspections too are managed by this area of business.
3. The Purchasing Function- This department is necessary since its task is to order inputs/raw materials for the production of expected items from its suppliers. If any problems, such as disagreements from a supplier to sell raw materials, are faced, then the department would hold the right to change the supplier and order from the new one. If to introduce new items, new kind of raw materials is to be bought and utilized. In such cases, this department would search for new suppliers to meet the requirements. It also refers to the problems on delivery, e.g. quality or quantity. It is also very necessary for this department to be in good relation with its suppliers so that the business doesn’t face any negative trust issues amongst each other.
4. The Administration Function- In simple senses, this department is all set to maintain the legal documentations, paper works & necessary record keepings. In some business it helps their customers by providing expert advices for the queries faced.
5. The Customer Service Function- Similar to the above one, it responds to their potential customers and gives them the best soluble options. It also provides after-sales services including the replacements of damaged items, arrangements for repairing the items, etc. It deals with the customer complaints and takes necessary steps to overcome the problems arising.
6. The Finance Function- All the financial works are maintained by this area of business. The money that is received is well recorded by this department. The checking & paying of the invoices received are too done by this department. All any financial documentations & payments involved in the business are monitored by the Finance Department.
7. The ICT Function- Most of the tasks of the Administration Department are followed by this ICT area such as maintaining the records on computer. Also the online helps too are done by this department. All that are related to the IT are controlled by this department.

Since Boibazaar.com is an online book store, the Production Department is not much necessary since Mr. Bashar’s business does not produce books but deliver what are available on the market, just by means of selling on the online method. The ICT Department is the most important one since the business is online basis and thus the whole thing is maintained according to its own ways as supposed.

Boibaazar.com has categorized their selling items according to the genres so that the visitors of the site find it handy & easy enough to find out what they are looking for. The prices too are mentioned so that they don’t really need to navigate to any more pages to go for inner details. Seller contacts too are added so that if customer decides to purchase can make direct deals with the seller easily.

Boibazaar.com agrees accepting the method of payments on Cash on Delivery basis for local consumers. Soon they will be accepting Card Payment method using VISA, debit/credit cards and online payments. For local consumers, the shop is also accepting the online payment procedure of Bkash. Regarding International consumers’ payments, the store is working on to accept methods followed by banks and also The Western Union process. But customers must be sure that there are different methods to follow for payments for different orders. Cash on delivery basis is highly being appreciated by the customers who prefer dealing online for their desired products. It’s less hassle and over all the difficulties that might appear compared to physical trading.

AIMS & OBJECTIVES OF E-COMMERCE

Profit maximization is the core aim of any organization whether it is a physical business place or the one that runs online. Some organizations even aim to survive with just less or no profit at all. Breakeven, one method of surviving is to focus on breaking even over a certain period. This means making enough money to cover the total costs involved in producing and selling the goods or services, and running the business, although there is no profit, no money is lost. Also there are some businesses that only tend to focus on selling (sales maximization) as more products as possible in order to expansion in their business.

BUSINESS STAKEHOLDERS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP IN THE BUSINESS

Below is a table that shows the aims of the business following the relationship of their stakeholders into the business. Stakeholders are those people who are both directly and indirectly related to the business in general means. The table below will help make a clear view:-

Task Covering LO2

[1] http://pestleanalysis.com/pest-analysis/

[2] http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/SWOT-analysis-strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-and-threats-analysis