Running Head: MILESTONE ONE 1
MILESTONE ONE 2
MILESTONE ONE
Ryan Green
Southern New Hampshire University
Introduction
In a bid to adopt an e-commerce business model that would supplement the brick and mortar business and propel the business to acquire a new customer base, a click and mortar type of business model was proposed (Lian & Yen, 2017). This was a solution that was proposed to aim at mitigating the problem that arose where the business could not satisfy the customers’ needs for the availability of the designer clothing and accessories over the business’ website. The business hopes that by adopting the click and mortar business model, it will not only establish an online presence but also shift to a customer-oriented focus.
Wireless, mobile computing, and mobile commerce is one technology that the business will focus on. This technology provides unlimited access to the designer products and accessories that the business hopes to sell through its e-commerce platform. It is one technology that would substantially elevate the accessibility of the range of designer products to its clients by availing the different commerce services to the clients’ personal devices. Another elegant technology that fits the desired click and mortar business model is the business analytics and business intelligence solutions. This technology provides a remedy to the challenges of streamlining business transactions by linking the wireless, mobile computing, and mobile commerce technology to the business processes and procedures. It also supports management in decision making by managing customer information. A combination of these two technologies provides the basis of the business system analysis which the business should research to compete fairly against the other competitors who have migrated their business models to the e-business platform.
Business requirements
The project aims at promoting the growth of the business by propelling the earned revenue to greater heights and streamlining the business activities that are associated with a click and mortar type of business. The business owner sees potential in a significant increase in the ratings of the business by incorporating an e-commerce platform to the brick and mortar business model and perceives the project as the ultimate solution without overlooking the privacy and security challenges that come with the transformation.
To satisfy the need of controlling revenue when expanding the customer base, it needs to adopt an e-commerce model that provides transparency and is reliable in managing customer information so that the business best accounts for its earnings. This e-commerce model should be flexible and resilient enough to tackle the different operational needs of the business, such as working efficiently during peak seasons without a decline in the processing speed and it should display its ability to handle concurrency issues. An increase in the ratings of the business regards adopting an e-commerce model that adapts well to the brick and mortar business processes and its business environment while portraying robust privacy and security standards. The selected e-commerce model should fit perfectly alongside the brick and mortar business environment so that it complements the latter in achieving a click and mortar business model. This simply means that the e-commerce platform should not limit the operations conducted as per the initial brick and mortar business but only strive to improve its efficiency towards achieving the business goals.
At the end of the project, it is forecasted that the transformation will lead to better handling of customer information and an increase in the earned revenue since the e-commerce platform’s primary function is to promote the growth of the business. Better handling of customer information is oriented towards accountability and best practice on matters concerning privacy and security. The increase in revenue is attributed to better accessibility to the range of designer products by the customers so that they do not have to walk to the store to acquire a product.
It is important that the business owner considers implementing the technology that supports the e-commerce platform since it serves as an upgrade of whatever architecture the business owns. A wide set of advantages is to be enjoyed by purchasing new technology in the sense that it increases the efficiency of business operations and promotes professionalism other than increasing the value of the business assets. To incorporate new architecture, a compatibility assessment has to be made. This may require replacing some architecture that is rendered unproductive by obsolescence and the result is a dedicated system that works perfectly according to current standards and trends in technology.
One technological requirement of the new technology is that it should facilitate online shopping where customers can look up various designer products offered by the business and make orders. The net technology should facilitate interpersonal relationships between various stakeholders such as customers and staff, a technological requirement that can be made possible through ratings and feedback functions. The new technology should facilitate reporting and manage customer information, which is a requirement that helps meet the business analysis and decision-making role of the management. The new technology needs to meet the technical requirement of supporting the sets of activities that were initially provided in the brick and mortar business model.
Competitors and technology
The Zappos company implements business analytics and business intelligence technology to identify the customers that are legible for discounts by using SheerID. In this way, it helps profile its customers by exploring the information they can acquire on them. An example is where SheerID is used to identify students who are liable to a discount of ten percent on orders they make on the Zappos website through verification.
The Lyst company implements mobile computing and mobile commerce by providing google based authentication so that a client can access the same products over different devices for the same customer profile and follow up on orders. The customer can also create a Wishlist which includes a variety off products for which he can pay via credit card or bank transaction. An example where this technology is used is when a customer gets an alert that a product he purchased is available for pickup.
Through mobile commerce and mobile computing, the Lyst company is able to reach a diversity of customers beyond what a physical store would provide. This enlarges its customer base and simultaneously leads to higher revenue.
References
Lian, J. W., & Yen, D. C. (2017). Understanding the relationships between online entrepreneurs’ personal innovativeness, risk-taking, and satisfaction: Comparison of pure-play and click-and-mortar. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 27(2), 135-151.