Modern Issues in E-Commerce - Essay Example

? E-commerce Essay Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 References 10 Bibliography 12 a) The only thing that can be treated as universally constant in the world is change. Change is an irreversible process that takes its own course with the passage of time. The world today has become a highly connected and online place as compared to that of the last decade. The masses all over the world increasingly stay in a wired as well as wireless globalized zone where live communication and direct collaboration happens every hour, every minute, every second and every moment on a regular and daily basis (Solomon and Schrum, 2007, p. 8). In the middle of the 1990s, the Internet, or the World Wide Web as it is commonly referred to, emerged as the most disruptive form of electronic and communication innovation, bringing in a sea change for the kinds of methods and processes used by various business organizations to communicate between their clients, customers, employees and even the suppliers (Petrassi, 2008, p. 1). Web 2.0 can be officially defined as the process of increasing intelligence and values for every one through information sharing and content creation and sharing (Hoegg et al., 2006, p. 13). The web 2.0 is an evolution that has happened over the years since the emergence of the dotcom bubble in the US around the year 2001 (O’reilly, 2005). The word Web 2.0 originates around in 2004. The Web 2.0 essentially represents the group of processes concerning social, design and architectural independence that promotes free and seamless migration of data as well as business processes from one platform to another using the common medium of the Internet. The processes and related patterns increasingly focus on various interaction models that facilitate and promote various levels of communication between individuals and software processes and interfaces (Governor, Hinchcliffe and Nickull, 2009, p. ix). On a simpler note, it can be said that Web 2.0 represents the practice of accessing and sharing online digital content for interpersonal purposes as well as for the purpose of service delivery (ExplainingComputers.com, 2011). Today, the latest version of the web is immensely viewed as a platform that is catering to interaction, innovation and even online delivery of services (Petrassi, 2008, p. 1) There have been a large number of benefits arising out of the huge and major adoption of 2.0 version of the web by individuals and businesses. Increasing in Buyer’s Power The emergence of businesses via the Internet due to the evolution of the Internet has significantly created an imbalance of power in the marketplace. Going by Porter’s five forces model, it can be simply said that the web 2.0 and the emergence of various business on the basis of it has significantly provided a lot of power to the buyers and consumers. Using the Internet, consumers can access feedback for the products that they are willing and interested to buy simply by visiting some websites or product related blogs (Barefoot and Szabo, 2009, p. 6). This has, in return, promoted high levels of diminishing customer loyalty for any particular brand (Governor, Hinchcliffe and Nickull, 2009, p. xi). High levels of Exposure The emergence of web 2.0 provides a great window of opportunity for companies around the globe. The companies can display their products to a global audience while also promoting their products using various extensive Internet applications, thereby increasing their degree of involvement (Roughley, 2007, p. 4) Increasing the Consumer Involvement As of today, companies are making their presence felt on the social networking sites and are increasingly rolling out online marketing campaigns in an attempt to increase the degree of involvement for the consumers, which helps in increasing their marketing potential (Lincoln, 2009, p. 140). The web 2.0 provides the online marketers with the opportunity to create advertisements that are engaging, entertaining, informative and creative at the same time (Tuten, 2008, p. 17). This helps in creating a viral effect for the marketing campaigns of the companies (Borges, 2009, p. 41). Increase in Consumer Interaction The evolution of web 2.0 has provided the business organization with the chance to engage consumers in a direct interaction process. Through the application of various tools and processes, many small, medium and large business organizations have got the chance to develop an increased level of consumer awareness through the process of mutual interaction, which has, in return, contributed to the development of the increased rate of customer and consumer satisfaction (McKinseyQuarterly.com, 2009) Evolution of Content Sharing Practices The evolution of Web 2.0 has provided individuals and businesses all over the world with a unique feature that is highly beneficial to the development and evolution of the human and business processes. The web 2.0 has promoted the opportunity of content sharing and acts as a very efficient and reliable platform for free sharing of online content among individuals and businesses through the rapid usage of various social networking and content sharing sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc (ExplainingComputers.com, 2011). Development of SaaS The web 2.0 is also enabling the concepts of SaaS (Morley and Parker, 2009, p. 234). Software as a Service or SaaS is a concept that is being developed by depending on web 2.0 and also by designing applications on the margins of cloud computing (Kittlaus and Clough, 2009, p. 20). SaaS provides the individuals with the power to access, create and manipulate digitized content through the Internet platform (Golden, 2008, p. 90). It allows businesses of varying dimensions to simply subscribe and connect to services created on the shared mode of infrastructure on the world wide platform (Salesforce.com. 2000). Various online collaboration suites such as the ones that are being developed and designed by Google are increasingly gaining popularity amongst the consumers and users all over the world. SaaS is increasingly getting high levels of popularity with each passing day as highly simple steps lead towards the process of deployment and reduction of the costs of acquiring new customers. Comprehensively, it can be said that the SaaS provides the facilities for various business applications and consumer based applications that help in smooth communication of the human and software interfaces besides promoting smooth data migration facilities across various devices (Shelly and Frydenberg, 2011, p. 231). b) The retail industry is a sector which comprises individuals and business organizations that sell finished products to end users including customers or consumers directly. As per the latest statistics that are available from the US Commerce Department, total sales in the retail segment were around $4.7 trillion, thereby representing a strong 8% increase of retail sales in 2010 (Farfan, 2011). The retail sector is a sector which promises a lot of opportunities for new startup businesses that are thrust forward by highly motivated business ventures, and as a result, comprises the sector which has a massive opportunity for the growth and sustenance for small and medium enterprises. It can be said that the emergence of web 2.0 has provided a great deal of opportunities for various small and medium enterprises that are catering to the retail sector. A very efficient example from an emerging market can be the case of Fabindia.com, which is an India-based online retail company that provides retail products to its customers. Another example that can be drawn from the established market is the case of Bidz.com, which is a US-based online retail website offering various kinds of jewellery products. Both these online retail companies can gain a significant level of competitive advantage by deriving the most out of the benefits provided by web 2.0. Global Exposure Since both companies are online based, they can gain a significant amount of advantage by displaying their products to a global audience, thereby having a significantly greater customer reach, without any hindrance of geographical barriers. High Customer Engagement The online retail companies can, in both cases, leverage the gains promised by social networking sites. After identifying the target market, the companies can go for making a presence on the social networking sites by the process of developing a page for their businesses and significantly rolling out online campaigns dedicated to the target audience. Since in today’s world, many people are connected to their social networking sites from their mobile phones or tablet PCs, the rolling out of advertising and promotion campaigns for their products on the social networking platform helps in a great extent to increase the time spent for studying the product or a particular brand. So, naturally this will help the companies to engage their intended customers and have a high degree of involvement for the products from their desired target audience Facilitating Customer Interaction The web 2.0 can bring a huge change in the communication process of the companies with their respective consumers (Reynolds, 2009, p. 196). Facilitating customer interaction by these online companies that are catering to the retail product of the customers can be a great way to engage the customers with the company and significantly provide a lot of advantages to the company. Through the process of facilitating direct interaction, the company’s representatives can attend to customer needs and queries and can provide more updated and detailed information related to the products and apparels demanded by the customers. Apart from that, having the customer interaction option will enable the company to directly track and keep record of customer complaints and various kinds of other demands made by the customers in terms of new products or existing product lines. This will be a huge plus point for the online retail companies and will be a very important factor that will be contributing to the case of increasing customer satisfaction for these companies. Apart from this, another unique benefit that the companies can achieve through the process of facilitating customer interaction on their website, which is built on the architecture of Web 2.0, is the process of direct customer feedback for the products and services offered by the companies. Though this can be a tricky and risky option, as negative customer feedback regarding the product will damage their reputation in the market, yet a strong customer feedback will help to build reputation and confidence amongst the new customers who are willing to try out a particular or a new product. This will provide free word of mouth marketing on the customers’ part and will be a highly effective and powerful tool for building up confidence in the minds of new customers. References Barefoot, D. and Szabo, J., 2009. Friends with benefits: a social media marketing handbook. San Francisco: No Starch Press, Inc. Borges, B., 2009. Marketing 2.0. USA: Wheatmark, Inc. ExplainingComputers.com, 2011. The rise of Web services [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 Aug 2012]. Farfan, B., 2011. Retail industry information: overview of facts, research, data & trivia 2011. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 Aug 2012]. Golden, B., 2008. Virtualization for dummies. USA: Wiley Publishing, Inc. Governor, J., Hinchcliffe, D. and Nickull, D., 2009. Web 2.0 architectures. United States of America: O’reilly Media Inc. Hoegg, R. et al., 2006. Overview of business models for Web 2.0 communities. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 Aug 2012]. Kittlaus, H. B. and Clough, P.N., 2009. Software product management and pricing. Germany: Springer. Lincoln, S. R., 2009. Mastering Web 2.0. United Kingdom: Kogan Page Publishers. McKinseyQuarterly.com, 2009. How companies are benefiting from Web 2.0: McKinsey Global Survey results. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 Aug 2012]. Morley, D. and Parker, C.S., 2009. Understanding computers: today and tomorrow.12th ed. USA: Cengage Learning. O’Reilly, T., 2005. What Is Web 2.0. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 Aug 2012]. Petrassi, J., 2008. Web 2.0 – potential impact on business. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 Aug 2012]. Reynolds, G., 2009. Information technology for managers. USA: Cengage Learning. Roughley, I., 2008. Practical Apache Struts 2 Web 2.0 Projects. USA: Dreamtech Press. Salesforce.com, 2000. Benefits of SaaS. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 Aug 2012]. Shelly, G. B. and Frydenberg, M., 2011. Web 2.0: concepts and applications. USA: Cengage Learning. Solomon, G. and Schrum, L., 2007. Web 2.0: new tools, new schools. United States of America: International Society for Technology in Education. Tuten, T. L., 2008. Advertising 2.0: social media marketing in a Web 2.0 world. United States of America: Greenwood Publishing Group. Bibliography Kidd, T.T. and Chen, I. L., 2009. Wired for learning: an educator's guide to Web 2.0. USA: Information Age Publishing, Inc. Read More