Advantages of E-Business: Unlocking Business Potential Through Technology - Essay Sample

Introduction

In the current world, business enterprises embrace the ever-growing communication technology. Growth of information and communication technology initiatives many features that give a business great potential. The online store brings about great possibilities. E-business eliminates geographical barriers and the cost for construction of brick and motor offices that were requisite in the typical business arrangement (Hamzah, 2015). Businesses today thus attain higher profits due to the low cost of office construction. However, entrepreneurs must comprehend the demands of the online shop to harness from the possibilities it brings to the market. This work explores performance factors surrounding a sample online transactional electronic commerce.

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Business Profile

Tech4learners Inc. is a company that seeks to connect buyers and sellers of both new and second-hand computers, laptops, tablets, and their accessories to the buyers across the globe. The organization welcomes partnership with other like-minded platforms in pursuit of an increase in market size and performance. Tech4learners Inc. is a consumer to consumer business will facilitate linking of sellers of the gadgets to the buyers. The organization operations will rely on an online platform 'www.tech4learners.com'. The company seeks to integrate its operation applications on different computer operating systems including Windows, Android, and Java to capitalize on the market gap viable on even smartphone users.

Tech4learners Inc.'s Vision Statement-To be the company of choice for online buyers and sellers of affordable computers and accessories.

Missions Statement- To provide quality services at competitive rates promptly. The organization commits to providing excellent customer services, the highest level of professionalism, honesty and fairness in its relationships with both sellers and buyers.

Stages Necessary in Creating an E-Commerce Site

Running an online market requires caution. The process of transferring goods from the seller to the buyer bears risks of losing the good along the channel of distribution (Al, 2013). Tech4learners Inc. puts a definition of a suitable title for the company. The company's name forms the more significant part of the website name terms of operation to the sellers and buyers as its first initiative. The price of the product, time of delivery and the charges for shipment of the product are essential information for the seller (Hamzah, 2015). Definitions will contain the conditions of the product before delivery. The two items, the name, and description of terms operation facilitate branding and popularization of the company to potential clients (Jelassi & Enders, 2006). When the two steps are satisfactorily complete, Tech4learners Inc. will design the best approach for invoicing and billing. At this point, the company will have already set an accounting and finance department workforce ready for execution of its services.

HubSpot (n.d.) defines the steps as preliminary measures after which Tech4learners Inc. will initiate the most critical aspect; choosing financial and stocking, and electronic shop soft wares. In procuring for the software, Tech4learners Inc. will consider prevailing regulations and ensure it does its activities within the law. Keeping contact with electronic business regulators indicates the readiness of the organization to comply with the demand of authorities (Hamzah, 2015). The company will then elaborate on the description of its website. Website description is an essential step for the company since it enhances customer's understanding of what they will be interacting with and also polishes the organization employees with the usability of the site. Usability falls as a critical area of any e-commerce (Jelassi & Enders, 2006). It is prudent to sufficiently design unique descriptions of the services available on the website.

Before its official launching, the organization will test the website with friends and actual clients, encouraging the clients to place orders as the technical persons attend to the request to ascertain the functionality of the site. The phase serves to correct all the initial hitches on critical paths of the e-shop, both on the functionality and user experience (Al, 2013).

Market Analysis and Environmental Scanning

Tech4learners Market Segment

Tech4learners main market segment includes school going populations. The company provides for the transfer of second-hand computers and computer accessories to increase its clients base. Despite the move majorly benefiting consumers who would not afford to buy brand products, it also helps avail rare goods and allows. Analyzing the market indicates a higher need by school going populations for desktops, computers, and tablets ("Empirical Approaches to International Trade, n.d.). Al (2013) indicates that fewer instructors in education employ the old system of hardcopy materials including notes tutorials. Despite clearing institutions offering to have computer labs, and other institutions providing laptops to students, there is still a gap between the required number of learners' equipment and the available gadgets (Al, 2013). The deficit and the real difference between the students and the population offering to give them at an affordable rate trigger the formation of Tech4learners Inc.

Jelassi and Enders (2006) highlight the common traits of online consumers. Tech4learners Inc. market segment requires certain conditions from the orders they place. Since the group typically form online customers, it expects a full day service delivery, faster delivery of their orders, forcing the company to plan for more employees always to be available for their service. The group also requires highly effective communication system between them, support staff, and sellers of the product (Jelassi & Enders, 2006). The customers have good knowledge of online business and have an in-depth understanding of the product they purpose to buy or sell. The company must ensure it offers the best experience, improves on its image to make it benefit from brand loyalty ("Empirical Approaches to International Trade, n.d.).

Research and Analysis of Competitors

The market already has other e-shops offering seller-buyer linkage services. Tech4learners Inc. most active competitor will be Alibaba UK and eBay. Among the consumer-consumer online business category, the two companies stand as the main competitors due to their long standing in the online market (Khammuang, 2015). Although the organizations do not specifically offer computers and related products, their extensive influence over the online market provides it with an excellent foundation to knock-out new entry business (Hamzah, 2015).

The two companies enjoy a high level of customer loyalty. The loyalty propels it beyond new entry companies. Alibaba organization always grows its devoted client relationship. The administrative division manages to attain high consumer loyalty among both the existing and potential clients. The company also enjoys having reliable suppliers for the products the clients place orders, following the sequence according to the urgency of the purchase order (Khammuang, 2015). This effective procedural execution of activities facilitates empowering the organization to overcome different operational challenges in the network of products supply. Alibaba enjoys having a workforce with exceeding gifts. However, the company still improves their skills through continuous programs for training and learning. The company puts significant assets in their development due to its appreciation of the role of the technical employee in the success of any business.

Alibaba market strategies contribute to its success. A reputation of its ability to coordinate complimentary companies through mergers helps expand its size. The organization effectively incorporates different technological organizations to streamline its activities and to assemble a reliable production network (Khammuang, 2015). eBay also establishes a robust system of sellers. It has created a culture of dealers not only advancing the organization's products but also puts resources to ensure clients extricate the most extreme benefits from the products. Alibaba always exhibits excellent performance in new markets. It has built an ability when pursuing new markets. The growth helps the company in creating a new income stream and expand the monetary cycle risks (Khammuang, 2015).

Competitive Advantage and Business Boundaries

Conserve to the services of Alibaba and eBay, Tech4learners narrow focus will help in improving the sales. The company's early decision of highly technical workers allows the company to improve on the performance of their server and service the electronics to improve on their functioning and durability before the products reach consumers. The move will help to attract more customers to the company (Al, 2013).

Tech4learners stands to succeed in the industry because of its strategic positioning. The shop will stand between computer selling to the consumer, using schools as the marketers for its services. The business website seeks to configure its domain to allow its accessibility from any part of the world. This move will help to eliminate any geographical limitation that other conventional business face. The organization can expand its influence to every part of the world at the disadvantage of other company's running traditional forms of business. The use of search engine allows the store to get and grow the number of customers through the visibility of its search engines (Jelassi & Enders, 2006).

Transactional electronic commerce is cheaper than conventional methods of trading. Due to the elimination of 'brick and motor stores' house offices, resources that a company uses in the construction of the offices goes into the expanding and improving the website for the good of the business. The business saves on rental and house maintenance costs and connects the seller to the nearest buyer.

The transactional electronic business also has its limitations. A good number of customers still prefer to transact with companies with physical shops and office. The refusal to shift originates from individual touch and the contribution of a specific business environment to the client. Also, some customers prefer having the initial experience of good they purpose to purchase before they place an order (Pierce, 2013). One would like to have an initial test of the computer or use of the accessory to ascertain its suitability before allowing its shipment. Transactional e-commerce eliminates the privilege and only depends on the return of faulty products. Returning the products turns expensive regarding time for getting the correct product. The business also faces the dangers of phishing and credit details fraud (Jelassi & Enders, 2006).

Like any other electronic commerce, Tech4learners also faces issues regarding security and fraud of credit card information. Online business exposes the clients to the risk of deceiving identity because it is only the system that captures their details. Face to face interaction of the clients and business representatives would eliminate such risks. The condition will compel Tech4learners to incur additional expenses in verifying and safeguarding the website for the good of the customer. The move helps in winning consumers heart. Customers located in different territories present a challenge of completing an e-commerce transaction due to unclear tax implications. The costs for such operations is also high due to the multiplicity of the taxation imposed when starting an electronic shop.

Revenue Model, Its Advantages and Disadvantages

A look at the proposal setup of Tech4learners Inc. shows a business that will mainly act...