E-commerce and Business Operations

Description of E-Business Model for TGL

The current nature of business aura that has been reconfigured by massive technological advancement, globalization and competition, requires aspiring organizations to adopt a new form of business operation (Dey & Nath, 2012). The internet has since presented a viable alternative, with many organizations moving towards to adoption of the latest technology in the market to increase their efficiency in product and service delivery. Trendy Garment Ltd., whose vertical and horizontal growths have been remarkable, needs such an undertaking. The application of E-business is a plausible alternative, which could offer a personalized service, improvement management of supply chain, and superior quality customer service (Halim, Musa, Embat, Amin, Muda & Noor, 2012). There are a plethora of e-business models that the company could choose from, which have over time been sufficiently defined by Amazon.com, Yahoo!, eBay, and other online websites.

Among the alternatives available for TGL are the storefront model, shopping-cart technology, online shopping malls, auction model, portal model, dynamic pricing models such as name your price model etc., and bartering model among other new inventions (Sperdea & Enescu, 2011). In lieu of its past history in the business, for instance, the manner in which it interacts with customers to get their specifications and orders, as well as its wide departmental coverage, TGL needs a holistic model that would be able to replace sufficiently its current manual system, and offer a value-based service delivery option. In addition, its departments need to be in a well-coordinated environment, enhanced with sufficient communication and interaction so as to ensure uniformity and synergy in the process of service and product delivery (Milchev & Miltchev, 2012). Thus, the storefront model would be a better alternative than the rest of the models. Due to increase in activities of online shopping, this organization would find this model indispensible in ensuring satisfaction of its local and international customers, suppliers, and wholesalers. It is registered in literature that by the end of the year 1999, well over 55 million people were shopping online.

The storefront model combines transaction security, processing, information storage and online payment in one portal, to enable merchants and organizations across the globe sell their products, interact with customers directly, and deliver services on the web (Sperdea & Enescu, 2011). In order to implement this model, TGL would have to organize a sleek online catalog of all their products, be able to take customer orders through their websites, offer a secure option of online payments, distribute merchandise to customers, and be able to manage and store customer data and profile (Jifeng, Sulin & Han, 2012). This model is being used by some of the most successful businesses worldwide, which employ different approaches to the e-commerce technology. For instance, the shopping cart technology is a conceivable option that is common among businesses. In this system, the customers are able to accumulate commodities as they shop, supported by a product catalog, which is hosted on the server of the merchant. Amazon.com is one of the most widely appreciated e-businesses that employ this technology (Nikabadi & Jafarian, 2012). While planning on how to create and design a portal, TGL would have to consult with numerous website designers who are gurus in the e-business industry. Generally, some of the features that the website would have to contain include a homepage which gives a quick link to various facets of the portal; a search engine that allows one to specify and easily access a desired product; an option that allows one to add an item to a shopping cart; full product catalog for the company; a site that allows customers to create and manage their accounts; and a functionality that provides a page for making orders, among others. Overlay, the portal should be a secure one, offering confidentiality of payment and storage of data (Helgueros, 2012). The adoption of the e-business technology would go a long way in increasing sales and marketability of the company’s products, as customers would be able to transact more conveniently.

Drawbacks of E-Business in TGL

Despite the numerous advantages that accompany the inception of an e-business technology, there are considerable drawbacks that TGL would have to contend with. Among these disadvantages are concerns regarding security and fraud, lack of disclosure of full product cost, privacy, hands-on inception, and laying-off of workers. Firstly, since the inspection of merchandise is virtually impossible before purchase, customers may be more subject to fraud as compared to a face-to-face transaction (Nikabadi & Jafarian, 2012). On the other hand, the company may also suffer from fraudulent customers who make purchases with stolen credit cards, or who fraudulently repudiate these online purchases. Though through Secure Sockets Layer, most encryption problems have been solved, fraudulent employees may still duplicate the credit card information to make their own purchases (Nėmcová & Dvořák, 2011). Furthermore, due to proliferation of cloud computing, hackers find it easy to intercept information stored within a company’s website, and could put this to an unwarranted use. Phishing is another concern for consumers, where they might be fooled into believing that they are dealing with a genuine and reputable retailer, yet they are actually being manipulated by fraudulent online thieves to divulge private information.

Additionally, customers may sometimes face a problem of lack of full cost disclosure. In the event of TGL adopting the e-business technology, one common technique that is used by online retailers is maintaining secrecy as regards the full cost of a product, so as to attract customers (Zilber & de Araújo, 2012). While it may be generally easy to compare the basic price of an item displayed online, the total cost may not be seen upfront. Some additional fees like shipping charges are not usually displayed, which is a general concern for most online shoppers. Moreover, the issue of privacy has also troubled consumers, due to lack of control over personal information (Guo, 2012). While there are numerous legal jurisdictions concerning privacy of customer information, the misuse of stored data in websites still remains a threat to most e-businesses (Karuppasamy & Venkadesh, 2012). In addition, e-businesses do not offer hands-on inception of merchandise by customers, as well as not giving the company a chance to explain sophisticated features of a product to its clients (Galloway, 2009). This curtails the opportunity of customers to fully understand the specifications of the product being offered by the company.

The employees of TGL might also be retrenched as a result of adoption of the e-commerce technology. Employee redundancy is a major concern brought about by technology, since most transactions and service provision are automated. Customers would be able to serve themselves, eliminating the need for many employees. Thus, TGL might have to reduce its current employee capacity of 150 to, say, 100, who would be sufficient to provide quality and effective services to the customers. Above all, TGL would stand greater chances of improving its businesses and profit margin by adopting this strategy, as well as be able to compete fairly with other organizations offering similar products.

List of References

Dey, D, & Nath, A. 2012, ‘A Comprehensive study on E-Commerce Models: Merits, Demerits and Future Scope’, International Journal Of Advanced Computer Research, 2, 6, p. 163.

Galloway, P. 2009, The Little Black Book Of Online Business : 1001 Insider Resources Every Business Owner Needs, n.p.: Wiley, eBook Collection.

Guo, M. 2012, ‘A Comparative Study on Consumer Right to Privacy in E-Commerce’, Modern Economy, 3, 4, pp. 402-407.

Halim, M, Musa, N, Embat, A, Amin, W, Muda, M, & Noor, N. 2012, ‘The Impact of E-commerce Technology Resources and Management Skills On Organization Capabilities In Malaysia’, Interdisciplinary Journal Of Contemporary Research In Business, 3, 10, pp.181-192.

Helgueros, Y. 2012, ‘E-business models as a tool to increase méxico small and medium size enterprises’ sales’, Global Journal Of Business Research (GJBR), 6, 1, pp. 119-126.

Jifeng, L, Sulin, B, & Han, Z. 2012, ‘The effectiveness of online shopping characteristics and well-designed websites on satisfaction’, MIS Quarterly, 36, 4, pp. 1131-A9.

Karuppasamy, R, & Venkadesh, C. 2012, ‘Role of information technology in business’, International Journal Of Research In Computer Application & Management, 2, 1, p. 54.

Milchev, G, & Miltchev, R. 2012, ‘Software Tool for Managing the Effectiveness of the Enterprise e-Business System’, Economics & Business, 22, pp. 125-133

Nėmcová, Z, & Dvořák, J. 2011, ‘The model of e-commerce strategy focused on customers’, Economics & Management, 16, pp. 1292-1297.

Nikabadi, M, & Jafarian, A. 2012, ‘Framework for Selecting an Appropriate E-Business Model in SMEs’, International Journal Of E-Business Development, 2, 3, p. 86.

Sperdea, N, Enescu, M. 2011, ‘Challenges of managing e-commerce’, Economics, Management & Financial Markets, 6, 2, pp. 194-199.

Zilber, S, & de Araújo, J. 2012, ‘Small Companies Innovations in Emerging Countries: E-Business Adoption and its Business Model’, Journal Of Technology Management & Innovation, 7, 2, pp. 102-115.