Question 1:
a)
What experiences have
you had with shopping online?
To go to shop for the things I
need requires a handsome amount of time and energy as well but in my busy time
schedule I find it almost impossible to spare 4 to 5 hours of the day to go to
the nearby mall and do hectic exercise of shopping, the facility of online
shopping seems to me like a blessing as it requires very less time to order for
the things and get them delivered on the doorstep. Secondly it is not possible
to visit all the stores and see all possible brands available in the market of
the goods I require but shopping online helps me view enough information about
maximum possible styles and brands available in the market of the things I
require.
b)
Describe a good
experience.
I once planned to shop a t-shirt which I saw my
friend wearing and I was very eager to find the one exactly alike. I went to
shop for that in many physical malls but could not find the one that matched
the t-shirt I desired to buy. Then I tried searching for that t-shirt online
and I was very much glad that I found that t-shirt in one online store and it
added to my happiness when I saw that the store was offering a handsome
discount deal on that t-shirt.it was a very good experience as I saved my time
as well as I had to wear that t-shirt in a function the very next morning I got
that delivered and I had no time to go for shop myself and search for the
physical malls.
c)
What did you like
about the online store you used?
I used an online store to shop
some goods, what I liked about this online store was firstly its appearance and
ease to use this website. I did not have any difficulty in finding out the
catalogue where I can find the things I needed, it was very conveniently and
clearly displayed on the website secondly the information provided about the
things was very comprehensive, all the hidden cost were clearly mentioned which
did not mislead me in evaluating the budget I required for the shopping.
d)
Describe a bad
experience.
I once ordered leather jacket
online and made payment. When I got the delivery I was shocked to see that the quality
delivered was far inferior than the jacket displayed online or what I have
thought of to get, I was helpless as I could not got that replaced as I bought
it from discount corner and it was clearly displayed that it cannot be replaced
or returned. It was very bad experience of my online shopping history. L
e)
What problems did you
have with the online store?
Biggest problem with shopping
from online store is that I cannot physically inspect the quality of the goods
I am shopping, I am at risk about the quality till it gets delivered and I find
the things of the quality I needed, secondly I have to be very cautious about
selecting the online store which is reliable as these days there are a lot of
bogus stores which are present just to steal away our credit card information
or to do fraud.
f)
What features make an
online store more appealing?
Below is the list of features,
which make on online store more appealing than physical stores
Ø Saving
of time, ease of shopping as goods are delivered at your doorstep.
Ø Facility
of Shopping 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
Ø List
and detail of all the things you wish to purchase is in front of you on the
click of a button when buying online.
Further for an online store to
make it more appealing it must make its website presentable, images of the goods
must be clear with zooming option and images with different dimensions must be
displayed, the store must offer secure payment system. Discount deals offered
also attracts more customers to an online store.
g)
What features make an
online store less appealing?
In my opinion an online store
might be less appealing to the people mainly because of the fact that they
cannot physically inspect the quality and features of the products being
bought, secondly most of the online stores are not reliable in making payments
online and they are not trustworthy as people are not sure about whether they
will get the delivery of the goods they offered or not for which they have
already made payment.
Taking other aspect, if website
of the store is not appealing like its view is boring and ambiguous and
visitors are unable to find catalogues and other information easily they would
not be encouraged to buy from such sites, further if it seems that the payment
system of some online store is not secured the people would be reluctant to
make purchases from such online store.
h)
Should we expect to
see the prices of goods and services rise or fall due to the migration of
consumers online?
In my opinion Migration of
customers online would increase competition among online stores, to attract
more and more customers they would offer less prices and different discount
deals. On the other hands as the demand for online shopping would increase the
online sellers might increase prices of their goods and they might charge extra
price for saving of time of the buyers.
Question 2: Discuss the following statements and indicate if you agree with them or
not
a)
The dispersion of
prices (that is, the spread between the lowest and highest price for a
particular product) will narrow.
As online stores are more
efficient and consumers are well informed about the prices it seems that the
price dispersion might be low in online markets than conventional markets but
this is not the situation practically and according to the surveys and studies
conducted by experts price dispersion online is no lower than conventional
stores reason being immaturity of the markets, product heterogeneity and trust
level of retailors. As online shopping saves time of the consumers is
convenient so retailers might charge premium for that and consumers will be
willing to pay the same.
b)
The importance of
brand names will decrease.
I don’t agree with the statement as trust plays important
role and brand conscious people will shop from branded online retailers even if
they don’t offer lower prices.
c)
Price competition will
make all products cheaper.
It is not possible that all products will become
cheaper in response to price competition , some retailers might offer some of
the goods at cheaper rates but prices branded goods will be including premiums
as well.
d)
Digital markets will
become dominated by a handful of mega-sites, like Amazon.com.
As suggested by Xerox study
that just 5% of the websites online receive nearly 75% of the hits so I agree
with the statement that digital markets will become dominated by handful of
mega sites. These mega sites do extensive advertisements and use strategic
market tools making it difficult for consumers to locate other sites, further
branding and trust of brand conscious people also plays important role here.
e)
How do you think the
balance of power between buyers and sellers will change?
In
my opinion internet has changed balance of power in favor of buyers, Internet
has provided powerful new tools for consumers in their quest to compare competing
retailers and obtain the best possible price, it has also provided a new array
of tools for retailers seeking to market to very small groups of customers.
f)
Prices are clustered
online.
It is true that prices are clustered online, this
is because of the heterogeneity of the products with different retailors,
retailers charging premiums for the extra services being provided by them like
provision of detailed information, and retailers with heavy expenditures on
advertisement will charge high margins from consumers.
g)
Online prices are
elastic. ( i.e. immune to change up and down with demand)
I agree with the statement as retailers change
prices up or down in order to match prices with competitors, in order to
attract more customers they will charge prices down and will offer discount
deals and if demand for goods is reduced they will lower their prices.
h)
Online prices are
generally transparent (the extent to which prices for a given product or
service are known by buyers in the marketplace.).
I agree that prices are generally transparent , as
the search cost is lower it enables consumers to be well informed about the
prices being offered by different retailors.
Question 3
a)
What types of
m-commerce services does your cell phone provider offer?
I use iPhone and it offers below mCommerce
services
ü
Shopping online
ü
Banking transactions
ü
Payment of insurance charges and premiums
ü
Funds transfer
ü
Payment of utility bills
ü
Online tickets booking and buying
ü
Wireless advertising
ü
Location-based services
ü
Games and entertainment
b)
Which of these
services do you use?
I use the services of online shopping, I reserve
online cinema tickets and also purchase airline tickets, I frequently check for
my online bank statement and transfer funds through my bank application. I also
use Google latitude (location based services) and games.
c)
What types of
transactions do you perform through your cell phone or other wireless device?
·
I transfer funds to my siblings
·
I make online payment of utility bills
·
I make payment online for the goods I purchase
·
I purchase online tickets
·
I reserve appointment to my doctor and make
payment of consultation fee
·
I make in app purchases of the games and utility
applications
·
I make online payment of my exams fee
d)
What types of
transactions would you like to perform, but are currently unable to?
I would like to use my cell phone as ATM machine as
sometimes I need cash so urgent that I feel it difficult to go to nearby ATM
and withdraw cash.
e)
What is your opinion
of wireless advertising/mobile marketing?
In my opinion wireless
advertising/mobile marketing is the most effective tool of marketing as mobile
is kind of device with which everyone keeps in touch all the time that is why
it can target a wide range of viewers, but I feel it very much annoying that
while playing games or surfing the net we click on some desired thing and it
takes us to the link of advertisement in which I am not interested at all, some
pop up advertisements are also very annoying sometimes.
Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired Magazine, wrote
a book called ‘The Long Tail’. Anderson’s theory of ‘The Long Tail’ has been
widely acclaimed, but there has also been recent research which questions its
veracity. Conduct your own research about ‘The Long Tail’, and state your
opinion in favor or against the theory. It is also worth reading about Pareto’s
Principle, the 80/20 Rule. How do the two relate to each other?
According
to Chris Anderson,
The theory of the Long Tail is
that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a
relatively small number of "hits" (mainstream products and markets)
at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail.
As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is
now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers.
In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks
of distribution, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically
attractive as mainstream fare.
Opinion in favor or against.
Many researchers have given
researches in favor of and against the tail theory as in support of this theory, recent study by Erik Brynjolfsson, Yu
(Jeffrey) Hu, and Michael D. Smith finds that the long tail has grown longer
over time, with niche books accounting for a larger share of total sales. I
agree with their analysis as according to their analysis by 2008, niche books
accounted for 36.7% of Amazon's sales while the consumer surplus generated by
niche books has increased at least fivefold from 2000 to 2008. Pareto’s
80/20 rule is also the support of long tail theory which I have detailed
lateron.
As contrary to support there are
also criticisms on the Long Tail as a 2008 study by Anita Elberse, professor of business administration at Harvard
Business School, calls the long tail theory into question, citing sales data
which shows that the Web magnifies the importance of blockbuster hits. Elberse
defined head and tail using percentages, while Anderson uses absolute numbers.
Similar results were published by Serguei Netessine and Tom F. Tan, who suggest
that head and tail should be defined by percentages rather than absolute
numbers.
Relevance with 80/20 rule
The principle of 80/20 was suggested
by management thinker Joseph M. Juran. It was named after the Italian economist
Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy was received by 20%
of the Italian population. The assumption is that most of the results in any
situation are determined by a small number of causes.
Relating it with the Tail theory
in my opinion as almost 80 % of the income is held by 20% people, so the unique
and costly goods required by them can be of more profitability for the sellers
as sellers can earn more margins on the prices of these niche goods.
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