Good Report About Concept Of E-Commerce

Business

Introduction
The Internet, mobile technologies and social media have changed the way how customers interact with brands and organizations market their services and products (Chaffey and Patron, 2012). The Internet has offered a revolutionary means for companies to interact and communicate with the customers. From small companies to large giants, almost everybody is engaged in building their presence within cyberspace. Apart from having an efficient strategy which integrates digital and traditional media, organizations need to reorganize their marketing approaches to completely capitalize on present day opportunities (Wymbs, 2011). It is quite interesting to scrutinize the advancement of this new business approaches. One among the highly widespread business approach today is e-commerce. The concept of e-commerce can be described as the concept of conducting business online by making use of electronic media like the Internet, wireless media, interactive television and social media (Ryan and Jones, 2009). Nowadays, as more and more individuals utilize the Internet as well as other electronic media, having an efficient digital media approach is more vital than ever before for any company that desires to remain competitive and viable. Further, taking the above discussion into consideration this particular report attempts to highlight the concept of e-commerce along with likely advantages and drawbacks associated with it for Coventry City Books Company.

Over the period of last few years, the concept of e-Business has been gaining constant momentum and importance. With constantly growing dependence on technology, internet has emerged as a fresh economic approach, especially the e-Business marketplace is acknowledged as the key street of the world. The term e-Business, also known as e-Commerce (EC or electronic commerce) could be described as the buying and selling of services and products over the internet (Burnham, 1998). In practice, the conception of e-Business as well as the latest concept i.e. e-Commerce are regularly used interchangeably. The chief reason behind the growing importance of e-Business is the speedy advancement of internet technology and continuously altering business requirements (Subramani and Walden, 2001). Nowadays, e-Business has grown into a huge industry together with customer-directed (B2C) online transactions, which influence the companies and individuals in several segments such as books, sports, health, travel services and customer’s electronics.
Till now, only Amazon and eBay were the top players in the e-Business world but now a significant number of companies are turning towards the concept of e-Business and conducting business over the internet. Further, e-commerce involves two kinds of business i.e. B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Customers). In a Business-to-Consumer e-commerce atmosphere, corporations sell their goods online to customers who are the ultimate customers of their services or products. Normally, B2C web stores hold an open admittance for any user, implying that there exists no requirement for an individual to login for making any item related query. Further, in a Business-to-Business e-commerce atmosphere, corporations sell their goods online to other corporations without being involves in sales to the ultimate consumers. B2B web stores generally contain consumer-particular pricing, consumer-particular assortments and consumer-particular discounts.

Opportunities of E-commerce

The opportunities associated with E-commerce that Coventry City Books Company is likely face include:
Increased Reach
E-commerce outshines rest other business means in context to people it could reach. A website, for instance, is easily reached by a worldwide market. By making use of e-commerce, a business could easily reach a large number of people that to with a click of mouse (Chaffey and Patron, 2012). Networked technologies offer millions of individuals’ immediate access to one another other. While the Internet enables wide dissemination of advertising, rest of the technologies make possible its quick design as well as production.

Interactive mode of communication

Communication could be two-way and thus an organization could immediately respond and reply to a query. This offers a sense of “involvement” to the consumers and goes a long way in developing brand loyalty. Websites are virtual stores or shops that a buyer might visit to get information related to products or company. Nevertheless, the website needs to be good enough to make available the required information resulting in a repeat visit and constructive suggestions.

Speed and Flexibility

E-commerce enables business to react quickly to alterations within the market (Ryan and Jones, 2009). For instance, in case if a competitor produces a product which rapidly becomes popular, the company could change the image of his/her own product or service to more closely look like the competitor's one. Distinct markets could be targeted with differently developed promotions utilizing digital technique, without the expenses related to traditional techniques.

Challenges of E-commerce

The challenges associated with E-commerce that Coventry City Books Company is likely face include:
Technology know-how
Efficient e-commerce requires investments by the companies in procuring adequate technological understanding or getting professionals to put forward a customized explanation to organization’s online business requirement (Gay et. al., 2007).

Competition

What makes all these technological advancements less than perfect is the fact that they are available to everybody (Chaffey and Patron, 2012). In case if just one company had access to such technologies, there would have undoubtedly been a tremendous benefit. In a business world which is saturated with these digital techniques, the result is high end competition. Such competition level could prove to be costly and demanding like new software and machines since employees need to be continuously trained for new practices (Chaffey and Patron, 2012).

Homogenization

As all companies opt for fastest and most effective means of catching public attention, the outcome is a mounting homogenization in both products as well as the way they are marketed. Since digital technologies make duplication so simple, no marketer could have an edge on the rival for very long, as others would duplicate whatever is efficient (Wymbs, 2011).

Customer Behaviours towards E-commerce Approach

With growing advent of internet technologies, the concept of e-commerce has gained high acceptance and recognition among the customers. In the present day, customers prefer making purchases and seek information from online sites. In such a situation consumer preferences could be satisfied by making use of the social media sites. The Coventry City Books Company could ensure good market presence by adopting social media and networking sites. There is no doubt in the fact that the use of social networking sites has increased considerably during the period of last few years since the users have reached out to new acquaintances, friends as well as businesses (Boyd and Ellison, 2007). The use of social media, particularly the social networking sites have exploded throughout the world. The people using these sites range from tech-savvy young individuals to baby boomers and older adults finding ways to connect again with their friends and family. In the present era people have grown up with social networking and video games prefer to remain connected with their family and friends by way of instant messaging, texting, networking sites and mobile phones. One of the popular examples of the social networking sites is Facebook that was established in the year 2004 (Fogg, 2002). Facebook has shown continuous increment in terms of users, popularity and profitability ever since the time of its establishment.
Today a large number of people use Facebook to remain connected with their friends and family, keeping aside time and place factor. It has also been observed that social networking sites like Facebook also influence the customer lifestyle and buying behaviour to great extend. The networking sites have also proved to be a good marketing platform for companies who want to market their products or spread awareness among customers about their existing products, promotions, current offers and newly launched products (Ellison et. al., 2007). Tools like blogs and social networking sites offer two-way communication with the buyers that transforms into value-building and trust through sharing vital information with customers and get feedback. Moving ahead, recognizing the requirement of digital means for a particular organization is the foremost step in implementation. For instance, a small-scale retail outlet catering to a local region might not find digital marketing to be very useful however a big outlet offering home delivery over a huge city might require a strong website for customer servicing. Companies also need to analyze the level to which their clients and rivals are utilizing social technologies (Wymbs, 2011). On assessing these aspects, company could take on one among the below discussed digital marketing solutions on the basis of the outcome is wants to obtain from executing it.
Conclusion

References:

Burnham, B., 1998, How to Invest in E-commerce Stocks, McGraw-Hill, New York
Boyd, D. and Ellison, N., 2007, Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13 (10), pp. 210–230.
Chaffey, D. and Patron, M., 2012, From web analytics to digital marketing optimization: Increasing the commercial value of digital analytics, Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 14, pp. 30–45.
Ellison, N., Steinfield, C. and Lampe, C. A., 2007, The benefits of Facebook "friends:" Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), pp. 1143-1168.
Fogg, B., 2002, Persuasive technology: Using computers to change what we think and do, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco.
Gay, R., Charlesworth, A. and Esen, R., 2007, Online Marketing: A Customer-Led Approach, Oxford: OUP Oxford .
Ryan, D and Jones, C., 2009, Understanding Digital Marketing: Marketing Strategies for Engaging the Digital Generation, London and Philadelphia: Kogan Page.
Subramani, M. and Walden, E., 2001, The impact of e-commerce announcements on the market value of firms, Information Systems Research, 12 (2), pp. 135-154
Wymbs, C., 2011, Digital Marketing: The Time for a New “Academic Major” Has Arrived, Journal of Marketing Education, 33 (1), pp. 93-106.