ENTREPRENEURSHIP & DIGITAL COMMERCE

ECB30803

Question 1
Now that many businesses have upgraded to an online platform, are paper catalogs a thing of the
past? Would you rather have an online or a paper catalog? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each?

Personally, I think its very good because there are many benefits of doing business online over
just having a real offline business. When you have an online business billions of people can
easily connect to you or your site, for example, whenever anyone wants to buy a product of any
type he/she comes online to read reviews about that product. The several advantages and
disadvantages of an online which is:
Its not expensive to start an online business.
If you start an offline business, then you need to invest, normally, a lot of money, but when
starting an online business you do not need to make a big investment. It is possible to even start
your online business with absolutely no investment at all! All you need are, hosting and a domain
name, you can get these things for free here.So, you can start your own online business without
spending a single penny. This means that you can have success without dealing with all the
financial hurdles and risks that are often associated with running a business the traditional offline
route.
Marketing is also Free.
This is another important benefit of doing business online. For an offline business, you may have
to pay a lot of money in order to promote your product, placing adverts in the press, etc. You can
promote your online business without any cost, with good search engine optimization, businesses
can quickly be found by customers searching for their products and services. You can also use
social media websites (Facebook, twitter) and other websites in your niche to promote your
products for free.
You can sell while you sleep.
This is perhaps the biggest advantage of doing business online, your website is not only available
24 hours per day, but also available to everyone 365 days a year. When doing business online,
there are no time restraints. A website never closes, you will be getting online orders even when
you are sleeping.
There are no borders to online business.
Selling online allows your business to reach a wider audience. Any person with an internet
connection can access to your website. The globe is your limit.

Online business is also environment-friendly.

You can also prove yourself a nature lover by doing online business. Working online from your
own home means less petrol usage and less paperwork (better for the environment). This is
another benefit of doing business online.
Its easy to track what works and what doesnt.
Unlike traditional publicity campaigns, you can get very accurate reports to see how customers
found you and what pages they look at on your website. You can also collect contact information
that helps you target new business.
Its cheap and easy to keep in touch with customers.
You can use newsletters and email marketing to communicate with your existing customers and
potential new customers who have given you their email address. This is cheaper than traditional
advertising mediums and also, as they know your name your message will be noticed in their
inbox. On your site, you can provide additional forms of communication like live chat, forums or
a question form. This leads to better customer service and also increased efficiency. The social
media channels, like Twitter and Facebook, also provide another way of keeping in contact with
your clients.
Manage your business from anywhere in the world.
You can access to your business from any corner of the world, youre not tied to your office
location to manage your business.
Financial transactions are much easier and faster.
Transferring money can be managed from any mobile device. Services like PayPal can transfer
money to nearly anyone we choose in the world. Using different currencies isnt a problem, these
services can convert different currencies into the currency of your choice.

Disadvantages of an online:
No Trying Before Buying
While there's a plethora of items that can be purchased online without any hesitation, there are
other items, such as clothes, shoes, furniture and electronic gadgets that consumers like to see in
person or try on before making a purchasing decision. In the world of online retail "trying before
buying" is not possible. Online retailers have attempted to offset this by allowing users to review
products and by posting photos and videos of the product in action, but there are still some things
that are better bought or browsed in person.
Competition
Being that online retail is a multi-billion dollar operation with relatively low start-up costs it can
cost as little as $25 a month to operate a website for some people are starting online businesses
with the goal of getting rich quick. More online retailers translates to more competition in the
Internet retail world. While there's something to be said about an online company that's credible,
many consumers search by product and not so much by retailer. This means that retailers with an
unproven track record might be taking away some of your business in the competitive Internet
retail world.
Productivity
If you're operating a physical store, you have hours of operation. You know your business'
schedule and know when you have to work. However, the Internet is a 24/7 operation, meaning
your business is open all the time. And online businesses aren't run out of a physical store
location, but out of your home. This can lead to distractions and a drop in productivity if you're
not careful how you manage the time spent on your business.
Credibility
Because there's so much competition in online retail, there are concerns of credibility among
many of the businesses in operation. That's one advantage of having a physical location it builds a
sense of trust and authority among customers, and it portrays your business in a more
professional light than if you were just a Web-only company. That's not to say that all online-only
businesses lack credibility, but knowing that a company also has physical locations lowers any
red flags from a credibility standpoint.
Customer Service
Many online businesses have instituted Web chatting features to help customers out with
questions as they shop, but customer service is still largely accomplished via email, by phone or
by snail mail. While this can be effective for some items and customer inquiries, it's no match for
the face-to-face communication that you receive from speaking with an in-store associate.

Businesses with physical stores are able to be more personable with their clientele. They can
demonstrate how a product works, and they can troubleshoot issues with products while
explaining their actions.

Advantages of paper catalog:

Accessibility
The advantages of print catalogues is their ease of use, level of trust and accessibility. Theyre
portable, aspirational and designed to be picked up repeatedly. While the internet has a role to
play in any retail operation, catalogues offer a complete brand-in-the-hand, with every product
available at a glance. Research in the Nordic countries shows that 38% of consumers look first at
products in catalogues before purchasing the product online.
Information
The catalogue is a lightweight and readily available source of information, with most questions
answered within its pages. Price, look, colour, size, quality, performance, can all be
communicated quickly. Research shows that 34% of consumers say catalogues offer a better
product overview and make it easier to look through different product. Information about
products is now even richer with the use of QR codes and Augmented Reality, which give the
consumer the ability to access online content such as videos or interviews, which adds another
dimension to the catalogue.
Driving traffic
A digital-to-print strategy does not sound like an obvious strategy, however recently more online
shops are starting to use printed catalogues or magalogues. Bringing the brands to a physical
space, in order to make people become more active with the brand is often heard. Catalogues will
bring readers to the physical or online store, vouchers, QR codes or personalization of content
will facilitate this action.
Brand-building
A catalogue offers an opportunity to draw the customer into the brands world, giving them an
experience that goes beyond the shop window. Using striking design techniques and distinctive
paper, this experience allows the reader to be seduced by the product, making purchase or other
action more likely. As you have a significant amount of time with your customer allowing you to
strengthening the brand image. Catalogues are now being produced with editorial content sitting
alongside the products, creating the magalogue a combination of the entertainment, education
and advertising of magazine content with the information held within catalogues.

Targeting opportunities
The catalogue is just one of the many consumer touch points and should be part of the omnichannel strategy for most retailers. Catalogues work best when their distribution is targeted, their
ideal audience defined by a wide range of variables. You can then choose which customers are
likely to spend and distribute your catalogue accordingly. Use catalogues, for example, in areas
with a lower internet penetration or use. Often this is the case in rural areas or among older
people. Database management, targeting, re-targeting and customer tracking is all becoming part
and parcel of how brands try to better direct catalogues to potential consumers.
Paper and pixel integration
Often catalogues are seen as a 'look book', showing what is available in a physical or virtual
store. This type of catalogue will offer inspiration, a more interesting presentation of the various
products, models, color variations or other details or a guide for a store visit. In any case it will
offer the possibility for an online purchase. Retailers have understood that, as part of their
onmichannel strategy, they need to flawlessly integrate the printed catalogue into their strategy.
Effectiveness
A large number of global brands still regard the catalogue as their premier sales tool. Working
with the website, call center and store, its ability to have its success measured quickly and
accurately is a real advantage for the marketing executive. Catalogues combine with the
directness and immediacy of online shopping, increasing the effectiveness of both, while tracking
purchases via codes printed in the catalogue or other consumer tracking details, increases the
sales-per-page figures information that can be used to optimize the layout of future editions.

Disadvantages of paper catalog:

Cost can be prohibitive. The bigger the advert the more the cost. Magazines and
newspapers with a wider audience generally cost more to advertise in and marketing over
time in this manner may be too expensive for some businesses.

Competition in the marketing space may be another disadvantage. You want your advert
to stand out, but unless you can afford to pay for a full page spread you will be competing
with the other businesses scrambling for attention.

Magazines are often released on a monthly basis, meaning it can take longer for your
advert to take hold in a potential customers mind.

Question 2
Does social media have a place in the business world? How would you use
social media to promote your business? If you wouldnt use social media,
what online strategies would you employ?

Yes, social media does have in the business world although a relatively recent phenomenon, is
becoming an increasingly important part of any businesss marketing and client base
development platform. Social media is an inexpensive way to promote business website and to
keep new and existing customers chatting about your business. By using some of the most
popular social networking sites which is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, and
Pinterest to help drive interest and customers to our business:

Facebook
Set up a business page on Facebook and post special offers (at least once a month) to all those
who Like our page. Ask customers to share pictures on our Facebook page that show them using
their favorite product that they bought from your website. Reduce workload while expanding our
marketing efforts on Facebook. Instead of managing both a business page and a personal page,
simply allow subscribers on our personal Facebook page. Subscriptions allow us to send public
updates that our subscribers can view. Subscribers can be customers, vendors, and anyone else
who is interested in seeing your public posts just as they would on a business page.

Twitter
Use Twitter to tweet interesting or unusual facts about business or products and provide a link to
that product page on our site. Send out short tips via Twitter on how to use our services or
products. Follow customers and vendors as well as influential bloggers, journalists, industry
analysts, and others with a large following and significant influence on our business or industry.
Use promoted tweets and Twitter cards as inexpensive ways to advertise our products in Twitter.
Get more visibility by tweeting pictures and videos related to you or your business to your
followers.

YouTube

Create a YouTube channel for your online business, regularly add fun and useful videos, and then
encourage customers to view and share your videos with others. Launch a video contest: Ask
customers to create short videos of how they use your product or service and post them to
YouTube, and then let other customers vote on their favorites. Every week, post a short (two
minutes or less) video of yourself offering tips for your customers, such as demonstrating how to
use a product that you sell. Ask customers to submit video testimonials and post them on your
YouTube channel.

LinkedIn

Create a LinkedIn profile and add links to your website: Update your profile with new links,
product reviews, books or articles that you are reading, or other information so that this
information appears to all the people in your network. Join LinkedIn groups that may be popular
with many of your customers, and frequently post questions or comments related to the products
or services you offer. Ask your customers as well as vendors and other business associates in your
network to provide a recommendation for you or your business in LinkedIn. Add brochures,
PDFs, Slide Share and PowerPoint presentations, and videos to your profile under the Summary
section to provide interesting content that anyone viewing your profile can download or share.

Google+

In your personal Google+ profile, create circles for your customers, vendors, and others
interested in your brand. Post interesting content to your customer and other business-related
circles and encourage feedback or comments. Content might include your blog posts, interesting
articles, product reviews, announcements about special promotions and other exclusive offers, or
news.

Pinterest

Set up a Pinterest profile for your business, creating one or more Pinterest boards with themes or
product interests related to your business. Add the Pin It button to your website pages so that
visitors to your website can pin, or post, product images from your site to Pinterest. When
pinning an image to a board in Pinterest, add a short text description to provide additional
information and interest. Pin videos to your boards. This underused Pinterest opportunity can
generate lots of views and shared pins. Hold a pinning contest on your website by encouraging
customers to pin an image of one of your products to their Pinterest boards. Offer a small prize to
either a random pinner, or the pin that has the most re-pins.

If you wouldnt use social media, what online strategies would you employ?

Distinguish Yourself as a Brand

Youll need to distinguish yourself from other competitors by thinking of a brand name, URL,
tagline, trademark, and logo that suits your business. These should have the power to compel
your online viewing audience to recall your company long after theyve clicked away. A study at
Penn State found that constant reinforcement of your brand can create a brand recall that boosts
sales. While choosing your brand, ensure you keep your targeted audience in mind and gear it
toward them. You should consider demographics like profession, location and age when making
the final decision.

Learn from Your Competitors

If your competitors have already invaded the online world and gone viral, then you can learn a lot
from studying their online marketing strategies. Look over their websites product offerings, then
brainstorm how you can offer more to your targeted audience. Find ways to differentiate yourself
from these other competitors. In essence, think of starting off from where these other companies
have ended their campaigns.

Zoom-In on Social Media

Most successful online marketing strategies today need to involve social media. Begin by
exploring the different social media options available, such as Google+, Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, and Pinterest. If theres industry-specific forums, you might also want to have your
presence there. Also, dont forget about LinkedIn because this professional social media website
can help you draw in contracts for your business. Make certain you build eye-catching social
media profiles and start participating in the right groups or forums.

Set a Marketing Budget

Social media ventures on platforms like Facebook and Stumble Upon likely wont yield good
results if youre marketing yourself without spending a dime. Unless you share exceptionally
good stuff in your niche industry, you wont have a far enough online reach without investing in
some paid advertisements.

Crank Out Great Content

In todays digital world, you dont just need content. You need great content. Your entry into
cyber-space must begin with crafting website content that explains the services and products
youre offering. However, once youre done with that, dont stop there. Go a step further by
working on a blog. Keep publishing great articles, eBooks, podcasts, and white papers to pique
the interest of readers. Learn about inbound marketing to attract even more customers with your
content creation too.
Stop the Stuffing
Stuffing goes really well with turkeys, but not articles. Too much keyword stuffing within the
content on your website will land you in trouble with Google Panda. For good search engine
rankings, readability is a must. Over-stuffing content with keywords leads to both poor
readability and turning off your potential customers. Search engine algorithms that index
websites today take great pains to exclude and penalize websites that stuff keywords in spam.
Engage and Interact
Having survey questions, free goodies like eBooks or discounts, videos, and questionnaires will
keep visitors on your website longer. With successful engagement, customers are more likely to
remember your brand name and eventually make a purchase. When it comes to content, dont
concentrate merely on the length of the articles. Instead, keep your posts interesting, informative
and interactive. Ask questions and encourage readers to comment or share their views.
Inspire Confidence
If your businesss websites allows customers to pay for products online, then having the right
security certifications is a must. Show your customers that their confidential credit card
information will not be misused through the transaction. You can display the logos of the security
certificates right next to your payment logos for PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, etc.

Make It Mobile-Friendly
Most people today will use their Smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device to make the most of
their Internet browsing. Thats why your website needs to be compatible with all mobile devices
to avoid missing out on a huge potential customer base. Also, a websites mobile friendliness is
now used as a ranking factor for Google. Choose a mobile-friendly design that allows the best
possible viewing experience even on-the-go.

Increase Your Reach on Social Media

Social media is supposed to be fun, so bring an element of fun to your online marketing
strategies. Humor, information, and an element of awe are vital for effectively building a base of
followers who turn into customers on social media. Create online banners that are both fun and
engaging while also sporting the logo for your business. If your banner goes viral, guess whose
bottom line will benefit? Make use of options like hashtags to get your message out.

Always Respond to Customers

Interaction is what social media is all about. If a person queries about your product or a customer
wishes to file a complaint, you must respond immediately. Rather than focus on the negative and
view them as a headache, look at the complaints as a medium for connecting with your
customers. A person who quickly and efficiently gets their problem solved with an apology from
your business is more likely to be satisfied than a person with no complaints.

Keep Using E-mail Marketing

E-mail marketing will never become outdated because it by far gives the best results. That being
said, its best to refrain from sending out junk e-mails that probably will only end up in the spam
box. Send out personalized mass e-mails to your subscribers and social media followers. Tools
like Mail Chimp make it extremely simple to use the name of your customers and add a small
personal-sounding note with every email. These e-mails could invite the audience to a whole
range of online activities youre planning to boost engagement.

Dont Ignore Directories and Reviews

Listing your business in online directories and review sites can expand your presence and draw in
more potential customers, especially the ones scouring the search engines. This will also give
more insight into your business when done properly. For instance, if you are in the food industry,
you might want to consider Yelp. If you have a hotel or resort, you must have a presence on
TripAdvisor. Online Yellow Pages directories are often visited by people looking up phone
numbers, so include your business here too. Targeting a smaller audience through local
directories can also be effective.

Question 3
Name three ways online advertising networks have improved on, or added to,
traditional offline marketing techniques.

Online advertising networks now have the ability to precisely track not
just consumer purchases, but also all browsing behavior on the Web. This can
tell marketers much more about individual consumers than was previously
known. For example, advertising networks can now compile information on all
known interests of a consumer by collecting data on all content the viewer
has accessed and all inclinations the consumer has expressed on preference
forms. Advertising networks can also create the ability to dynamically adjust
what the shopper sees on the screen. For instance, they can serve ads that
conform to the inferences made from the collected data, and they can adjust
the prices to conform to demographic or personal preference data.
Furthermore, advertising networks create the ability to build and continually
refresh these high-resolution data images or behavioral profiles of
consumers. In summary, the scope and intensity of the data collection is
strengthened to such an extent that merchants are now able to manipulate
the shopping environment to their advantage.

Question 4
Discuss how writing an e-business plan differs from writing a traditional
business plan. Discuss the pros and cons of an e-business plan.
E-business plans are more defined in terms of the use of the web as a
competitive advantage than with regular business plans. The e-business plan
writing differs with the traditional business plan writing in that the e-business
will be operated in the internet unlike the traditional business plan which will
be operated manually from the office. With the traditional business plan there
is a given number of employees in the office while in e-business the owner
works from home. While writing an e-business plan, one does not necessarily
focus on physical premises since most of the transaction will take place on
the internet. On the other hand, a traditional business plan is drafted with the
mind of undertaking transaction physically and hence the aspect of premises
is incorporated into it. In both the business plans license is important to
register the business with the relevant authorities.

The advantages of e-business is that the owner does not require a

place to operate it but it can be run from home, it can be accessed by a wide
number of customers from every location. The e-business plan requires
provisions of electronic like the computers and also electricity to operate the
business. The major disadvantage of e-business plan is that it is very
expensive to run it because there is a huge amount of capital required. An ebusiness lacks first-time trust from consumers. In most cases, consumers do
not trust e-business on their first transaction. This is explained by the fact
that there exists online businesses whose trust is wanting and they create a
bad image of e-businesses.

Question 5
List the five potential benefits of B2B e-commerce. Are there any
disadvantages?
The five potential benefits of B2B e-commerce which is creates new sales (purchase)
opportunities. Meanwhile, eliminates paper and reduces administrative costs and expedites
processing and reduces cycle time. Furthermore, lowers search costs and time for buyers to find
products and vendors it also increases productivity of employees dealing with buying or selling.

There are several disadvantages:

Limited Market
Businesses selling to other businesses face a much smaller buying pool than businesses selling to
consumers. The total number of prospective buyers may top out in the low thousands, rather than
the potential millions of customers for consumer products. These limited numbers make every
lead and every existing customer more valuable and the loss of a single, large customer can
devastate the bottom line. For example, if you supply parts to businesses in mature markets,
where only a handful of competitors normally operate, your business might not survive if one of
your buyers closes shop.
Long Purchase Decision Time
The majority of consumer purchase decisions involve one or perhaps two decision makers and
the total time for a purchase decision tends to run on the short side. The B2B sales cycle involves
a complicated set of factors, involving multiple stakeholders and decision-makers, with total
decision times that can stretch out for months. B2B sellers cannot depend on a fast turnaround
with new clients for an influx of working capital and must maintain the financial solvency to
operate with long gaps between sales.
Inverted Power Structure
Within limits, average consumers remain at the mercy of the businesses in terms of what products
they can buy, the available features and at what price points the products sell. In B2B, buyers
wield more power than sellers. A B2B buyer can, also within limits, demand certain

customizations, impose exacting specifications and drive a hard line with pricing because the
seller depends much more heavily on retaining its customers. This requires B2B sellers to retain a
level of flexibility in both product development and production not typically seen in B2C
businesses.

Sales Process
The typical sales process in B2B demands considerable face time, often multiple meetings, and
gets driven by quantifiable factors, rather than the qualitative and emotional factors that drive
sales in B2C. This stems in part from the high costs involved in B2B sales from the purchase of
thousands of units of a product, a small number of very expensive machines or software that
impacts the performance of hundreds to thousands of employees. The sales process often depends
on the salespersons ability to demonstrate what the product does or allows modifications that
solve the very specific problem the buyer faces, and can deliver a solid return on investment.