The Electronic Commerce

Introduction

E-commerce is one of the fastest evolving areas of international trade. The Internet has become an extremely powerful tool for conducting business electronically, which has had a profound effect on the way modern business is conducted. E-commerce technologies have provided opportunities for business growth, but they have also presented the business world with many challenges (Schneider & Perry, 2010). The adoption of e-commerce brings with it benefits to business organizations. However, some of them have faced major challenges in the process of e-commerce adoption, which is analyzed under the ethical dilemmas.

Question1: Analysis of Ethical Dilemmas Involved

It will not be possible to sell the domain name at $1, 000 to a new buyer, because online business is a dymnamic field with potential for earning more revenue. Therefore, it would be more appropriate to engage in e-commerce to attract and acquire many customers. The decision not to sell the domain name can be justified by the following arguments.

It is evident that e-commerce technologies can contribute towards rationalization of business processes and saving costs. Electronic technologies make it possible to automate common processes, such as inventory management, distribution, sales and after-sales-service. The Internet solutions have been basically set up for the management of distribution channels, while there has been continual carrying out of supply chain management through setting up of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) applications (Schneider & Perry, 2010). As Internet costs decrease, more new entrants, or small business organizations that cannot afford EDI, are expected to make use of the Internet to manage their supply processes.

Impacts of e-commerce adoption can be seen in designing clothing products, as well as in their production and logistics. The product design impact was observed to be in line with having a shorter design process and higher level of product customization, as well as standardization of parts. As far as production and logistics are concerned, there will be better realization of inventory and supply costs, which will lead to lower inventory level and boosting production. Moreover, e-commerce increases the possibility of production re-location and provides the most excellent framework conditions; while the development of the product design specification or development work is carried out in a clothing store. By using e-commerce applications, business organizations in the clothing distribution and supply chains that were not formerly linked can now establish direct contact. E-commerce produces a powerful impact on the company’s different processes. This comes about when business organizations utilize e-commerce technologies in a practical manner to produce new products (Kelley, 2009). Realization of these dynamic benefits is greatly dependent on the manner in which business organizations carry out integration of e-commerce strategies into their business functions. If at all possible, the application of e-commerce technologies should be carried out all through the value chain of a business.

Implementing the e-commerce approach does not only depend on price-based competition, but rather on the capability to bring in complicated information links, as well as on forecasting abilities and management systems. When implementing an e-commerce system, it is unethical to overcharge customers to meet implementation costs (Kelley, 2009). In addition, it is possible to lose more customers when a domain name is sold to another buyer, because consumer loyalty, trust and confidence will be lost.

Question 2: Analysis of E-Commerce Software

A catalogue display could boost sales of a business, which means that orders would be placed online from clothing stores. Catalogue displays would make it possible to promote/highlight a business’s clothing products and services. A catalogue featuring products’ images could be accessed by clicking on a clothing store link. On the other hand, a shopping cart capabilities function is important, because it provides security. This function is executed by enhancing several passwords application, as well as online technical backup (Kelley, 2009). The e-commerce shopping cart also offers real-time processsing of orders, thus preventing other people from processing business orders. Besides, it provides room for customization/upgrade of an e-commerce website to compete effectively with other businesses. The shopping cart function also provides customers with different payment options, such as PayPal, credit card and AlertPay. Finally, a transaction processing function is important, because it processes several requests from a terminal network without intervention of a business in the process (Kelley, 2009). The reason for this is that it is independent and simple to operate. Moreover, its higher parallelism degree facilitates parallel execution of workload, thus making business transactions faster.

Question 3: Web presence

Improving the website presence and usability makes it possible for customers to obtain required information on a business’s products and services. This implies that the strategy, intent and purpose should be very clear, because they contain ordinary and advanced search engines, especially when one wishes to get more complex information from the website. In order to improve a business website’s content, it is important to incorporate more specific key words to facilitate faster retrieval of required information. As a result, this will save time spent on searching required contents (Schneider & Perry, 2010). Even though a business intends to implement an online support system, it should also incorporate modern features, such as Skype, which is more user-friendly.

As far as visuals are concerned, the layout, colors and typeface reflect the purpose of a website, its business culture, as well as customer expectations. This implies that the tools are somewhat user-friendly. Sometimes, even a new user might find websites easier to use. Notably, visuals give the proper ingression of the items that the client wanted to see in his/her worksheet (Kelley, 2009). Additionally, most of the things including the query for searching information, are perfectly aligned to meet the user expectations or purpose of the text.

Question 4: A Web Marketing Strategy

The web marketing strategy includes networking of functions and sharing them among fashion-conscious teenagers. Moreover, the characteristic of clusters and partnerships makes it possible for the business to derive more benefits from e-commerce. Good opportunities for the business come as a result of integrating demand and supply chains via horizontal inter-business connections between suppliers and customers (Saloner  & Spence, 2002). Such organization provides more room for clothing store businesses to get over their isolation by interacting and sharing information with their partners.

Advertisement on the website can be done through textual/pictorial online displays. It can also be done by implementing an open-brand metric system that incorporates an on-demand experience in terms of efficiency, ease, control, accessibility, and instantaneousness. Moreover, this includes an on-site search, store locator features and RSS feeds, which incorporates well-developed search engines that help retrieve more information matching typed in keywords (Saloner & Spence, 2002). To sum up, considering the client’s worksheet, this might satisfy his/her expectations in terms of clothing by using key words, getting prices, comparing them and making a decision to buy or not to buy. It might also help the client get clothing items quickly.