1. E-commerce Unit 4.8

2. What is E-commerce? Using the internet to conduct business activity. Buy and Sell Inform and Promote Medium of Delivery

3. E-markets Business to Business Business to Consumer

4. Advantages Increased revenue Increased distribution options Competitive opportunities Reduced packaging/delivery costs Reduced overhead Increased consumer choices Simplifies and reduces transaction time

5. Disadvantages Increased set-up and running costs Increased credit card service charges Increased risk of fraud Negative impact of spam and similar marketing tactics Cannot replace consumer desire to see/feel/touch product in person Information overload Limited availability of technology in some markets Hackers, breakdowns, technical malfunctions Threat of job loss

6. E-commerce and Price Price transparency advantage to consumer Reduce costs by eliminating intermediaries Simply and quickly update price Increased competition, reduces threat of monopoly Not all customers make purchasing decisions on price alone!

7. E-commerce and Place Larger consumer base Shorter channels of distribution Improves consumer convenience Internet as a medium of delivery for e-goods and services Reduce cost of brick/mortar facility Globalization

8. E-commerce and Product Display product, product info, product availability Opportunity for customization Packaging is less important for goods sold online Manuals and other large documents can be published online instead of printed Quickly update details about the product, also enables consumers to add details about the product

9. E-commerce and Promotion Quickly update and upload promotions inexpensively Easier to create a global brand strategy Greater value placed on consumer word of mouth New promotional strategies available only online Unethical promotional tactics threatens even firms behaving appropriately

10. Be sure to read: E-commerce and Business Strategy page 608 - 609

11. E-commerce and Market Research www.alexa.com