Transcript ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Potential roles of ecommerce
Obstacles to growth
Legal issues
Web site design and
problems
Consumer cyber
behavior
BSAD 113
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Potential Roles of e-commerce
Actual online sales
(e.g., Amazon.com)
Promotion/ advertising
– Banners, crossreferences
– reference in print ads
Customer service--info,
support
Market research
BSAD 113
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Obstacles to Growth of Electronic
Commerce
Limited reach
Technical
– U.S.
– Foreign (per minute access
charges)
Concerns about
– privacy
– security
Reputational issues
Slow entry of firms into actual
order processing
Transshipment across
countries
BSAD 113
– Limitations and “glitches”
– Slow access
Costs
– Efficiency
– Absolute margins
Language
– Non-English
– U.S. vs. British English
Government regulations
Cultural
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Cultural Obstacles
Preference for face-toface transactions
Preference for secrecy
Reluctance to use credit
cards--80% of Chinese
consumers completed
the transaction off-line
BSAD 113
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Web Site Problems
Getting traffic to your
firm (and not to
someone else)
– Ownership of domain
name
– Indexing in search
engines
Incompatibility of browsers
Managing the site
– Updating
– Response (it is much easier
to complain online!)
– Implementing electronic
shopping
• listing of site
• deliberate “false positives”
for competitors
(misleading meta tags)
BSAD 113
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Legal Issues
Jurisdiction--applying local laws to a global
medium
Inter-country sales tax/duty collection
Reach of the Internet: whose laws apply?
– Advertising messages
– Product assortment
Privacy laws--restrictions on data that can be
collected on customers
Tax collection: is the sender or recipient
liable? (High shipment volumes allow only for
random customs searches)
BSAD 113
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Language Issues
Increasing proportion of non-English
speaking Net users
“Drawing” of Asian pictorals--download time
Language variations
– Taiwanese vs. mainland Chinese
– British vs. American English--is the word “color”
an Americanization or misspelling?
Regional variations in word meanings--less
opportunity for tuning advertising to local
meanings
BSAD 113
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
At least pronounciation is not so much
of an issue on the Web!
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Optimal Web Site Design
Speed vs. aesthetics
(may be temporary
problem)
Keeping customers on
your site--beware of links
Cookies--advantages
and disadvantages
BSAD 113
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Consumer Cyber Behavior
Easy comparison
shopping
– Between merchants
– Between countries
Low willingness to pay-especially for information
Premature departure
from site
BSAD 113
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Search Engine Optimization
“Cat and mouse game” between webmasters
and search engines
Some placement strategies
– Paid rankings
– Massive amounts of text
– Reciprocal or paid links
BSAD 113
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Lars Perner, Instructor
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