OPM300 - Intro. to Operations Mgmt. CA - Essay Example

XXXXX Number: XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX of XXXXXXX E-Commerce at Amazon.com Advantages and Disadvantages of Selling Books and Goods on the Internet: There are numerous advantages and disadvantages of selling books and goods over the internet. Firstly dealing with the advantages, this allows the small companies to get a wider range of markets, including the local, national and also international markets. This also helps in including a diverse number of people in the business and helps gain diverse work environment.

Here the restrictions of time and hours on the job are lifted and the online selling is very flexible. This is also an excellent method for smaller companies to reach out to a larger audience. Here in the case of Amazon, the company will gain higher benefits than the brick and mortar stores as this allows Amazon to provide newer offers which other competition cannot provide in the brick and mortar stores. There are however a few disadvantages of the online businesses as well. Companies here have added responsibilities and tasks that need to be considered for instance, the management of updates, website security, avoidance of fraudulent activities, costs of maintain the websites and also online marketing which is a different effort apart from the normal marketing of the business (Beynon-Davies).

Downloadable Books and Amazon Business: Amazon has a wide range of products that the company deals with. One of the main elements here is the sales of books. The company has in addition to selling books online, also created the online eBook reader referred to as Kindle which is an electronic reader and allows customers to download books. Hence if books were to be completely downloadable in the future, the company has already taken the measures and developed the systems required for the same. The online book store of the company can be stopped completely and the online store can continue to sell the rest of the products as usual.

Hence the company has been able to develop a contingency plan which has been paying out even without the need for the contingency. Ecommerce and Retail Stores: Traditional stores have a lot to gain from setting up of eCommerce websites. The eCommerce websites help compliment the retail stores and as discussed earlier, selling using the internet helps companies reach out to a broad range of audiences, as well as sellers (Belew and Elad). The internet is an open book and allows people to discuss and review companies that they like or even dislike.

With the open environment, using an eCommerce website helps companies to move out of their little shell of the local markets and to reach out to a wider range of audiences which can not only help the company improve in terms of the performance and revenues, but this also helps companies to build a brand image and brand recognition to a wider range of audiences. On the whole with the increased brand awareness, the eCommerce websites tend to be a key of success for most traditional businesses. When a company is completely prepared financially, and also in terms of other resources, stepping into the eCommerce approach proves to be very beneficial and in a number of cases helps companies increase their profits to a great extent (Beynon-Davies).

Works Cited Belew, Shannon and Joel Elad. Starting an Online Business All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies. For Dummies, 2009. Beynon-Davies, Paul. E-Business. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.