1. Imagine that someone has offered you $1,000 to buy your domain name shortly after your started your business online. Explain why or why you would not sell and cite the ethical dilemmas involved.
The primary task in determine to sell the domain at first is an estimation of its value. There are several rather easy and not time consuming ways to determine its value of $1000 or more. One of the sites is Digital Point which claims to be the largest webmaster community in the world. Another such site is Namesalot or a site like Godaddy.com is a full service domain site and probably the largest of the three. these sites will give you the results as to the domain but if you are interested in an appraisal and looking into traffic and other such metrics you might consider a domain evaluator. Free Valuator, estibot.com, and Domainindex.com are some sites that can monetize your traffic into real dollars and cents.
Once I know the value of the domain name, then the next step would be to assess the cost of getting another one. The same sites would be of some help like Godaddy will offer a selection of other domains. And the ability of your host to transfer the domain via DNS will probably render a charge also unless it is not possible.
The selection of a new domain name can be problematic in the business if your customers are depending on the one location because it is a part of your business name or an identifying factor. Since domains are like real estate your clients expect you at one place.
My personal business would not benefit from the $1000 for the domain as it is much more valuable to me than a $1000 would be. The business thrives on the daily online customer trade and a very loyal customer base. The change would be overwhelming from a business point of view. The market always dictates the price of any commodity and a domain is only worth what people are willing to pay. If one person offered a $1,000 perhaps someone else will offer $1,000,000. The ethical dilemma looks a little different when talking millions instead of thousand for then I would help my customers to adjust to the new address.
2. The e-Commerce software you will be using must provide a catalog display, shopping cart capabilities, and transaction processing. The convenience and usability for the customer are benefits of these functions. State how each of these functions could be beneficial to your business.
1. A look book or catalog is the connection between my products and the customer. A catalog should reflect on the style and feel the way that the customer of your business wants to feel. For example a Victoria's Secret catalog uses different colors and visual renderings than Land's End. Besides presenting a good image of the company the catalog must be convenient and not require data redundancy or putting in the data twice. Once a customer chooses a selection, they should not have to enter the selection again into the shopping cart. It should be a smooth process and in today's climate of ecommerce most of them are very sleek.
2. In the Shopping cart the ability to discount certain items in a sale or clearance rack is important to the customer. The shopping cart rules dictate how the items are priced and sales that can be generated. The shopping cart is essential and needs to be guided by the customized rules that the Marketing and sales divisions are offering.
3. The ecommerce store must be equipped to handle credit cards, PayPal and other payment types. The sites that are used to process the transactions have to be vetted to validity their security. Once they are secure such as PayPal then the customer will not have problems in using the transactions and without fear of shopping with you.
3. Your business will have created a presence in the physical world by having a store along the boardwalk. Assess how you will create an effective presence on the Web, meeting the objectives listed in Chapter 3. Be sure to include how you would improve Web presence by increasing Website usability.
A brick and mortar retail space along with an online ecommerce presence is important to add to the authenticity of the business to an online customer. The benefits include the additional sales that the walk in customers will create.
As concerns the web presence, social media helps tremendously to create a customer base. Programs such as sharing, customer loyalty incentives, and discounts are all items that can be offered online to increase the web presence. There are many marketing firms that can help with a total marketing campaign to help to feature a customer acquisition marketing campaign. The usability of the web can be enhanced by blogging, customer videos showing your products, peer reviews, and pictures from the retail site.
4. Develop a Web marketing strategy for your company including the following: identify the market segments you will target, how you will reach that segment, and explain how you will advertise on the Web.
The company is a contemporary women's fashion shop.
Unica is the name of the retail shop and unica.com is the domain name
One of the factors that are the sauce or the thing that makes our company different is the style of clothing being offered. It is contemporary clothing which is trendy and fun. It is not your grandmother's dress shop. These clothes are attractive to the 68% of the women, who are, between the ages of 18-45, working, well educational and mostly childless
The particular niche that this appeals to highly computer literate and has many media sites connected to them. A large media presence is important so all who participate will receive some type of reward in the form of loyalty points or customer discounts. Because they work on computers they like to shop on computers and appreciate the time saving options that online shopping affords them.
Summarize the principle security and privacy issues related to electronic commerce and actions firms can take to address these issues.
Privacy issues concern the security of the Transaction Processing tools and the hosting site for the customer data. Also since customers are asked to upload videos and snapshots of them in the pics the people with they also have to consent to be listed on the site. Simple consent forms that can be electronically delivered cane meet the privacy requirements for this process.
Identify the basic elements of the technology infrastructure used to conduct electronic business.
There are many software packages available for ecommerce and for the online store the choice is Magneto that is used by EBay and other online retailers. A hosting company is needed and some domain servers will offer secure hosting of your domains and selling. Magneto has its preferred provider who will host such as One on One and many others that have experience with magneto. It is worth the time to due diligence in selecting a company by asking for referrals of other companies that they have provided services for.
•Explain the basic communications and network concepts used in electronic commerce and the basic functioning of the Internet and the World Wide Web.
The Internet is a series of networks that link millions of businesses, government offices, schools and individuals. Ecommerce draws on technologies that use the World Wide Web on a variety of transactional levels.
The domain name is important as well as the hosting site and software selections once these three technical processes are introduced the customer acquisition can begin. Social media campaigns will help to secure customers for the online site as well as the retail store. Familiarity with shipping processes will help the warehouse and distribution process run smoothly. A program like constant contact will allow for the email blasts going out to the customers who give their email addresses in the retail store and when they purchase online.
•Use technology and information resources to research issues in fundamentals of e-business.
Over the past decade there has been an upsurge in technology and information resources in the area of business. The challenges of business though are still a problem for many as they do not seem to last past three years
References
Davies, P. B. (2007). eBusiness Maturity and Regional Development. Int. Journal of Business Science and Applied managemnt, [onine] www.business-and-management.org//2_1--9-20,Beynon-Davies.pd. Accessed FEb 2016.
Digital Point Marketplace. (2009, August 9). Retrieved from Digital POint: https://marketplace.digitalpoint.com/domains. Accessed Feb 2016
IBIS. (2016). Industry analysis Apparrel Industry. [online] http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/clothing-boutiques.html. Accessed Feb 2016: IBIS World.
Irving, B. (2016, Feb 16). godaddy. Retrieved from Godaddy: https://aboutus.godaddy.net/about-us/default.aspx. Accesssed Feb 2016
MyBB. (2016, Feb 12). Namesalot. Retrieved from Nameslaot: http://www.nameslot.com/index.php. Accessed FEb 2016
