Question

1 of 1 E-COMMERCE (ICT 321) ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTION: Answer the following questions, save with your name and index number, and submit on the e-learning portal in PDF format not later than 26 May, 2020, 6:00pm. Answers for each question should not exceed two (2) typed pages. 1. Select an e-commerce company. Visit its Web site and describe its business model based on the information you find there. Identify its customer value proposition, its revenue model, the marketspace it operates in, who its main competitors are any comparative advantages you believe the company possesses, and what its market strategy appears to be. Also try to locate information about the company's management team and organizational structure. 2. Examine the experience of shopping on the Web versus shopping in a traditional environment. Imagine that you have decided to purchase any item of your choosing. First, shop for the item in a traditional manner. Describe how you would do so (for example, how you would gather the necessary information you would need to choose a particular item, what stores you would visit, how long it would take, prices, etc.). Next, shop for the item on the Web. Compare and contrast your experiences. What were the advantages and disadvantages of cach? Which did you prefer and why? N.B. No answers for both questions should be the same for students even if the sources are the same. The penalty for copying will be division of the total mark by the number of students who copied.

Answer 1

1.Ecommerce website flipkart.com

flipkart is one of the largest ecommerce shopping website where one can easily shop for themselves or for their relatives as well. On flipkart.com one can easily find the daily routine products and many more just by clicking mouse from home & its deliver to your home as well.

Flipkart works on a B2C (business to consumer model). It started off with a direct-to-consumer model selling books and some other products, before turning to a marketplace model which connect sellers and buyers and expanding its catalogue. Today, it sells everything from smartphones to clothes to furniture refrigerators to FMCG goods — and yes, books too. Flipkart claims to have lakhs of sellers on board from across India who list their products in over 80 categories. The average consumer might not care who the seller is and has a relationship with Flipkart, whereas the seller who may not have reached the customer at all can now do so thanks to Flipkart’s platform. To facilitate this transaction and fulfil the order, Flipkart charges a varying percentage as a commission fee from the seller.

Flipkart offers five primary value propositions: accessibility, convenience, price, risk reduction, and brand/status.The company increases accessibility by making it possible for merchants who do not have a website to sell their products through its channel. This is particularly essential for many small retailers.The company creates convenience for consumers by offering a wide variety of items in numerous categories from multiple vendors in a centralized channel. It also provides flexibility by enabling buyers to pay using a variety of methods, including credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, and cash on delivery. For merchants, Flipkart offers convenience by guaranteeing payments (deposited directly) within 5-7 business days of processing an order.

The company offers consumers a lower price than they would receive from physical outlets because it has lower operating expenses.

Revenue Model of Flipkart

Flipkart charges commission from the sellers selling stuff on its website. For every sale, Flipkart makes 5% to 20% as commission. Flipkart has also recently introduced private labels such as MarQ and SmartBuy, which sell products in various categories. One of the biggest contributors to Flipkart’s annual revenue is the customer footfall and activity during its big sales with huge discounts around festivals such as The Big Billion Day.

Some Sources Of Income For Flipkart

• Seller Commission: Flipkart charges a commission from the sellers since it provides a platform for sale for them
• Convenience Charge: Flipkart charges a convenience fee to the buyers for faster delivery
• Logistics: E-Kart is Flipkart’s logistics company and facilitates the fulfillment of orders from sellers to buyers through its logistics arm. It charges a fee from the sellers for the same. There is no standard charge levied as it changes according to the geography
• Advertisement: Flipkart sells advertising space to companies on its website. This offers a leverage to the companies buying the advertising space as they are presented first to the millions of customers visiting the Flipkart website daily
• Media Buying: Flipkart releases ads for certain brands in the popular newspapers, radios, televisions, etc, In doing so, Flipkart charges a sum from the brands that it advertises for.

The main Competitors of Flipkart are amazon, ebay, Snapdeal, Alibaba, Myntra, etc.

Flipkart allows their users a buy now pay later scheme where users can buy any product and can pay later in the following month with no interest. Its the most advantage to their users & also flipkart launches the big billion festival where the products are almost upto a great discounts.

2. Experience of shopping on web vs traditional way

Online stores have a versatility and accessibility that you just can't create in stores. An online store allows you the opportunity to browse through a large selection of products. You can visit an unlimited amount of vendors in a day and compare prices and quality of products from different vendors. Products available in online stores generally tend to be cheaper when compared to the physical stores. On the other hand, you are provided with some exciting opportunities to save money as well.

Online stores have a versatility and accessibility that you just can’t create in stores.

Example, if we want to buy the pair of shoes like fila in a traditional way. So, first we need to visit the nearest market where there we can see almost limited shops if we compare to the online.

Visit one of the shop. There are limited stocks available & some ranges may be not in the budget. Also, if we are the good bargainer, it will be beneficial to us as in offline shopping, retailers prices may shock us a bit.

Here, we can see the different products of shoes & also try for them. There may be no issue of sizes as if its did not fits then we can ask for the other as well.

Then somehow, I get the shoe of my choice which is not the brand i was looking but in the range & can buy the shoe for now.

Now, lets just move to online shopping for the same product over flipkart. Just visited the site. Since, I am a registerred user, I logged in to my account using my email id & password. When the homepage is loaded & lots of other things are here to surf & shop, simply search for a keyword in search bar ie. Fila shoes. Since, the filter is applied, only the fila shoes appears & some what shoes are out of my budget. So, here i can also, apply an extra filter for cost price between 1500 bucks. So, i can now see the list of filtered shoes which are almost in my range. By clicking the shoe which i liked the page redirected to the appropriate shoe & down there I can see all the informations related to the shoe & also the retailer to which the shoe belongs to. Just add to the cart & select the option for proceed. Then, we need to fill the address where the products wants us to be deliver & click next to proceed to the payment. Here, theres list of options available as pay by debit card, credit card or cash on delivery, etc. Here one can select any options which they are comfortable. I prefer cash on delivery. And it generally takes 5 to 7 bussiness days to deliver it.

Here, is the short description of buying online as

Visit the site & login using email & password.

search for the appropriate product which you want to buy.

select the product.

Optionally, read its review & the retailer as well. They can help us guide better.

Add the select the product to the cart.

Fill up the address details & select the payment mode.

Finally, place the order.

In traditional shopping, it is time consuming where one has to visit manually to the market. Look for the products & so on. While, in Online Shopping, we just need to visit the website over a phone or the desktop which might convinient.

In traditional shopping, there are limited stocks of products available while, in Online Shopping, there is no boundary & one can look n number of varieties.

In traditional shopping, one can see & feel the products while, in Online Shopping, the products we can only see over the phone or system. ie its intangible.

In traditional shopping, the  prices may be vary for different customers  while, in Online Shopping, the prices are the same for all the users.

The main advantage of Online shopping is it frequently, launches the offers & almost everything is cheaper than the traditional one.

On other hand, advantage of traditional shopping is the products which we want to buy, we can see it as it is tangible. While in Online shopping, the products we can see once, its delivered to us.