INTRODUCTION
There are several advantages of doing an analysis of a business before taking the business online. The first and foremost is to verify that the business is one that is suitable for online sales. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity, Threats) analysis will give a good indication of the fit for the products in that market environment.
Advantages versus disadvantages
A SWOT analysis takes time and money to perform. Some entrepreneurs are not capable of doing the analysis on their own so they have to pay for a consultant. If the owner is familiar and does not have the time to dedicate the SWOT runs the risk of not being accurate which could lead to false concepts in the business venture.
Other than being rushed and doing it incorrectly, the SWOT will help a business owner in the process of going from a brick and mortar store to one with an online presence. In the process the owner will get a chance to view the competitors and what they are offering in terms of products and site design. Sometimes this can give the owner a view of what they like for their products and what they do not like before making the selection of site design and run the risk of duplication.
International Business Issues
Global business is very common place in today's economy so many of the issues that had been considered obstacles earlier are not any longer. One of the issues of grave importance is the protection of customer's privacy. It is important to understand the obligations of a business under the Federal Trade Commission regulations as they are the governing body in the United States on the collection of consumers. personal information .
Sales taxes will be due to the State of New Jersey due to the Nexus law which states that ecommerce site have to pay taxes if the business has a significant business presences in a state. Since the new ecommerce site is part of a brick and mortar store on the Jersey Shore, taxes will be due to New Jersey.
Language of the business site is not an issue because most website providers or Google and safari all offer translation capabilities. The translations are sufficient for any language to be able to purchase from the site.
Culture is an important consideration in the design and wording of the site. Some cultures find explicit photos or wording offensive and might cause a loss in sales so it is an important consideration as to whether the photos show an item but do not sell sex and other offensive practices.
Government refers to the business entity that is set up and this would be taken care of since the owner already has a corporate or business entity from the State of New Jersey. If the online store is to be a different business entity, then new paperwork will need to be filed with the State of New Jersey .
Ecommerce business infrastructure is very often controlled by software and there are many fine software systems to handle a clothing ecommerce site. Some have consultants and webmasters that can help in the set up of the products and the inventory and financial paper reporting. Magento is a very good product and a little on the expensive side so the price that you can afford is an important consideration.
Business Operations on the Web
One of the reasons for offering an ecommerce site is to increase the visibility of the products to tap into customers who do not walk by or live in the vicinity of the store. The web will naturally draw customers from other places as the marketing and sharing services will encourage growth among the customers. This can create added stress on a business to increase the size of inventory and employees to handle the additional business.
Foreign currency will be used to pay for items purchased from your store. A good ecommerce site will handle current currency values and fairly compare the prices. Using a site such as PayPal to collect the payments is expensive but they take care of any risks or problems that might develop from exchanges made in foreign currency .
Speed and Efficiency of Business Communications
Business communications via the web need to consider the world clock and time zone change. These changes will affect any communication that is time sensitive. In the clothing store the majority of the communications will be able to be handled in a 24 hour time frame so this most likely will not be critical. Most of the communication is done via email so that there is a record of the communication in the master email list. Administrators have access to the ecommerce site Support section in which customers can ask questions. The legal issues are in keeping the customer information that contains any personal information secure. It is illegal to share this information without the permission and knowledge of the owner of the information.
Law Enforcement
Cybercrime is a serious issue in ecommerce and although the laws are finally catching up somewhat to the technology it always seems as though cybercriminals are ahead of the stores. Some people create problems for online business by writing computer programs that replicate themselves. These programs attach to the website and can attach to any emails that come and go from the site. This in turn infects all your customers' emails also. The Information support system for your site has to be able to feign off such attacks. The malware subscription services are a good option because they attempt to stay on top of the current viruses.
Online credit card fraud is a problem also. Using a site such as PayPal lessens the risk but accepting fraudulent credit cards can be very damaging to any business. Since the New Jersey store has a physical presence they may choose to use the banking and merchant services that is already familiar with the company's transactions. Adding to the merchant services an online component may be the best solution to process the credit card and check payments through the merchant services division of the bank. Merchandise will not be shipped until a processed payment comes from the merchant services division.
E-fraud can include spoofing and phishing. This means that when a customer goes to the store website another site shows up. This redirect is usually to a site that the customer does not wish to go to. Phishing can take a triple x site and the customer has a poor experience and probably will not visit your true site ever again.
Conclusion
There are many considerations when entering the ecommerce space. The clothing industry is reporting successful sales figures from online sales and some are higher than the brick and mortar store. Choosing the proper payment services and the software that works well with the skill level of the administrator will help to ease some of the transition pains. The growth of online sites can be exponential as satisfied customers share positive experiences so that funds and employees have to be expanded to handle the additional sales.
References
Christie, C. (2016, January 30). State of New Jersey Business POrtal. Retrieved from State of New Jersey Business POrtal: [online] http://www.nj.gov/njbusiness/registration/. Accessed January 2016
Kosta, P. (2015). Ecommerce and Attached E-Risk wthe Cybercrime. ReserachGate, [online] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265202079_E-Commerce_and_Attached_E-Risk_with_Cyber_crime. Accessed January 2016.
PayPal. (2016, January 30). We take care if Payments. Retrieved from PayPal USA: [online] https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/merchant. Accessed January 2016
SBA. (2015, January 29). Starting and Managing. Retrieved from Small business Administration: [online] https://www.sba.gov/content/online-business-law. Accessed January 2016
