Pamela Wield August, 2013 Abstract Commerce or E-business has become a remarkable tool for marketing and selling goods and services over the World Wide Web and Internet. Merchants use the technology of commerce to perform business-to-business (BIB), business-to- customer (BBC), consumer-to-consumer (ICC), peer-to-peer (PAP) and m-commerce transactions, which digitally exchanges information between two parties. The Internet has become the most used electronic interface application in the World
Wide Web. E-commerce technology permits commercial transaction to cross-cultural, regional, and national boundaries far more conveniently and cost-effectively… (Lauded & Tarter, 2013, p. 16), this presents a huge advantage for companies who aspire to do business on a global platform. The World Wide Web allows a company to reach out to over 3 billion possible customers worldwide. However, there are some companies out there that may be able to increase their market share by implementing some or all of the business strategies we will discuss in this paper. I will attempt to provide examples of how, Mr..
Friendly a mobile catering and food truck enterprise can implement the use of the Internet and World Wide Web to enhance and reinvent their business operations while establishing the company’s overall vision and strategy. E-commerce: BBC BIB, ICC, PAP &M-commerce Mr.. Friendly is an up and coming mobile food and catering service, which has been three mobile food trucks, and offer a wide range of catering service options to its customers. The company will cater anything from birthday parties to weddings and any other social event. The company has a good reputation in its local community.
However, the business has failed to implement a reputable website to market their services. According to the article, “Implementing E-commerce Strategies, ” Developing and e-commerce business strategy is extremely important for marketing products and services. With the IT Contribution Model, managers can implement a performance measurement system… Which can lead to dramatic improvements in decision making corporate resource allocations, and performance” (2005, p. 25). Up until now, Mr.. Friendly Catering service has been strictly running on customer-to- customer (ICC) referrals, and most of its business is done on theground in the ruckus.
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The business model that applies specifically to Mr.. Friendly is the business-to- consumer (BBC) concept. The mobile trucks have specific routes that they hit for the early morning breakfast crowd, and then they will re-open for the lunch rush. According to what time of day itis, the trucks return to its home base for restocking. Moreover, if the company had a website up and running, the company would be able to implement some m-commerce strategies and develop a Faceable page, and set-up a Twitter account that will allow it consumers to follow, where and what time of the day the trucks can be located.
Amazon, is the first company to use and implement e- commerce strategies, “believed that pursuing sales was the way to maximize firm value” (Folios, 2004, p. 135) and the use of the Internet was “their main strategy’ (Folios, 2004, p. 135). If Mr.. Friendly had an Internet presence, they could maximize their customer based and improve profits. London & Tarter (2013) asserts that, “the Internet is an open standards system available to all players, and this fact inherently makes it easy for new competitors to enter the marketplace and offer substitute products or channels of delivery’ (p. 91). Mr..
Friendly catering is the perfect example of a company that is in need of restructuring its business strategy by implementing an commerce plan. However, “Managers are often uncertain about the impacts of their competitive strategies… But this problem is exacerbated when firms enter new environments in which managers have little information about demand and other market conditions” (Folios & Williams, 2001, p. 3). Although this is a concern for most large companies, developing an e-commerce plan should not be that difficult for Mr.. Friendly. Online advertising of the services the company offers household be the focus of the campaign.
Implementing an e- commerce marketing strategy to expand the customer base of Mr.. Friendly is the key to success of the company. According to Lauded & Tarter (2012), the objective of Internet marketing-as in all marketing-is to build customer relationships so that the firm can achieve above-average returns… (p. 365). Mr.. Friendly food trucks are bright and appealing to its customers, and the website should be the same. Frisks (2013) asserts, Mimi need to have a professional and attractive-looking website… With colorful photos of your food, a list of your menu items and an explanation of the revives you offer” (Para. ). Worldwide, around 2. 26 billion people are online (Lauded & Tarter, 2012, p. 340). Mr.. Friendly has falling way behind in its efforts to implement a website. More than 72% of Americans have Internet access, and that number is growing. (Frisks, 2013, Para. 1). Developing a website provides a unique opportunity for Mr.. Friendly catering and food truck company to tap into new clientele for its catering service, which will help the company bring in a new revenue stream. M-commerce will be one of the most widely used forms of digital marketing today, and in the future.
Smoothness’s and Tablet computers are the two electronic devises that are most used by professional business people and young people alike. According to Lauded & Tarter (2013) summarizes that, m-commerce involves the use of cellular and wireless networks to connect laptops, notebooks, and smartness such as the phone, Android, and BlackBerry, and tablet computer such as the pad to the Web. Woods (2013) states, “viewing the high opportunity from mobile commerce (or m-commerce), several retailers have adopted semaphore applications as a earns to facilitate sales” (Para. 3). Now that more people are connecting to Web via their mobile devises this again, is good opportunity for Mr.. Friendly to take advantage of this new technology, and develop a strategic Direct e-mail marketing plan to solicit its services and products to potential customers from anywhere in the city. One thing that Mr.. Friendly catering service has to take into consideration is, how and what marketing campaign is going to be utilized to attract new customers. For this all to be successful, the company is going to have to create a credible online mage that will support the services it is offering.
Tiffany & Co. Annual report (2012) says that Neumann Marcus introduced its first Web site with two virtual boutiques… But most customers were turned off because they could not find enough goods for sale, and could not navigate the site (Para. 2). Mr.. Friendly has to develop a Web site that is, according to Table 4. 11 in Lauded & Tarter (2013), functional, informational, easy to use, redundant navigation, easy to purchase, has multi-browser functionality, have simple graphics and legible text (p. 233).
These are all important factors in reading a successful web site e-commerce design (Lauded & Tarter, 2013, p. 233). Some of the benefits that e-commerce offers businesses like Mr.. Friendly is having the ability to showcase products and services prospects all over the globe, but in this case the entire city of San Diego, California. Instead of having to pay the cost of running a store front, putting together an effective and cost efficient e-commerce expensive than running a web site. Once the web site is up and running, Mr..
Friendly management teams needs to figure out what methods will be used to chive payments for the catering services consumer deposits. Some online payment providers have made the (BBC) concept unprocurable to the consumer and businesses alike, by making it hard for customers to pay online. Stephanie Sought of the Boston Globe states, “that eBay’s competitor Papal makes it difficult to people to pay through Papal and has been promoting other payment providers such a la Microsoft and Ballpoint or Checkout as a reputable provider to process customer payments.
EBay official said the intent of Checkpoint was to make things easier for their customers. 2001, Para. 1). So, small businesses that are setting up their e- commerce business have to make sure they protect their (BBC) relationships by using providers that are solid and reliable in their business activities. Evolution (2013 August 06) has written an article about “Evolution Releases Best-in-Class Amazon Integration” that helps businesses expand their online store and services to millions of online shoppers (Para. 1).
According to Evolution, “the Evolution integration concept is designed to help grow a business while streamlining their operations,” and this is he kind of help that Mr.. Friendly can use to Jumpstarted its e-commerce aspirations. Some of the features that Mr.. Friendly can benefit from is, to expand their online presence through Amazon so to, “avoid set-up headaches, save time and effort, the Evolution administration will manage all orders across channels, and will quickly add new products on Amazon’s existing product information” (Evolution, 2013, Para. ). For the catering aspect of the business, Evolution can assist Mr.. Friendly by creating a product list, and a picture catalog showcasing some of the specialty dishes that offered through the catering service. Visuals are a very important aspect of credibility of Web sites. According to Fog, et al (2003), “the top three factors in Website credibility were design look, information design / structure, and information focus”. (p. 475). Evolution strongly contends that, this integration through Amazon provides everything Mr..
Friendly will need to streamline and, “successfully expand its online presence to one of the most important channels in the e-commerce market” (2013, Para. 19). Evolution plans to introduce the first phase of its integration programs offered to all merchants starting next week. (Evolution, 2013, Para. 20). The goal of Amazon and the Evolution concept is to make sure all businesses that use the service are provided the tools, that will be needed in order to be successful and effectively efficient in m-commerce and e-commerce business.
Friendly food truck and catering services is a small business enterprise that has falling behind in its efforts to implement an e-commerce business plan in its mission strategies by using some of the E-commerce provider services that has been discussed in this research paper. In order for an e-commerce campaign to be effective and profitable, the business professional needs to fully understand, what tepees needs to be accomplished so that goals of firm can be executed accordingly to the business plan. The World Wide Web has significantly impacted how consumers shop on the Internet, and how companies distribute goods and services thereof.
Although there are advantages & disadvantages associated with E-commerce, research tells us that, if a company can run an effective and cost efficient marketing campaign, the advantages will outweigh the disadvantages in the long-term. Moreover, today’s business environment requires the use of the Internet to conduct business. The goal for using e-commerce is, to create a sustainable and provide a competitive advantage over the competition; success will depend on how effective the marketing plan is and the overall execution of the firms business plan.See More on Marketing