E-Strategy

CONTENT PAGE

Section                                                                                                                         Page No.

Introduction                                                                                                                             3

Task 1

1.1: Explain the benefit of having E-strategy in Value store                                                              5

1.2: Evaluate the contribution of an e-strategy to the achievement of Value store’s objectives           7

1.3: Discuss how to align an e-strategy with an overarching value’s store’s strategy                          9

Task 2

2.1: Analyse the business factors that underpin the requirement for an e-strategy in value store’s business.                                                                                                  11

2.2: Discuss the benefits of e-commerce to Value Store                                                                      13

2.3: Develop a plan for an e-strategy that ensures value store to retain its competitive advantage in a global market                                                                                                                                               14

2.4: Specify the technical infrastructure required in an e-strategy plan for Value store                           16

Task 3

3.1 Assess the resource requirements for implementing an e-strategy in Value store                            20

3.2: Develop an implementation schedule for Value store                                                                   21

3.3: Assess how existing business system needs to be adapted to accommodate the requirements of an e-strategy in Value Store                                                                                                                      23

Task 4

4.1: Implement an e-strategy for Value Store                                                                                     26

4.2: Develop process to monitor the implementation of e-strategy in value store                                  29

4.3: Assess how an e-strategy contributes to ensuring value store’s competitive advantage in a global market.                                                                                                                                                31

Conclusion                                                                                                                                       33

Bibliography                                                                                                                                     34      

 

Introduction

E-commerce has become one of the most popular tools to gain competitive advantages over other organizations. It is being used to develop new markets, interact with customers, communicate with trading partners, and primarily to increase sales From a consumer and business aspect, electronic commerce can be classified into two perspectives: business-to-consumer and business-to-business perspective however, for each perspective of e-commerce, the success or failure of its implementation is dependent on some key success factors. It is important for Value Store to consider these critical success factors, which might affect the success or failure of their own implementation of e-commerce. To enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of Value Store, Value Store has use e-commerce to build their business; electronic business has been used to carry out business strategies however the nature of applications is different in terms of characteristics and implementation.

E-commerce Internal Factors

Dominant Factors                                                     Top management support & commitment E-commerce strategic goals Investment appraisal evaluation Employee’s skills & core competence Empowerment & involvement Customer centric approach Cost of implementation

Organisational Factors Value chain process Enterprise IT experience Quality orientation Organisational culture Organisational structure E-commerce implementation strategy

E-commerce Implementation Success

External Factors
Environmental Factors Competition intensity External support Suppler/customer pressure Regulatory issues Corporate governance		Communication Factors Target Media Message Timing	Technological Factors Enterprise integration Compatibility Relative advantage Security

According to the implementers ‘point of view, these critical factors should be identified and clearly understood. Otherwise, achieving success with their implementation will be difficult. Among these important factors, there is a group of common and a group of specific factors that affect the implementation of business-to-consumer electronic business system. To succeed in the implementation of these systems, Value Store should recognize these common and specific factors stated in the graph above so they can deal with their operations.

The main objective of this study is to identify the common and specific success factors and the implementation of e-commerce in Value Store in addition; the study will provide the benefits of having e-commerce, evaluate the contribution, analyse the business factors and discuss the alignment of e-strategy in Value Store.

1.1: Explain the benefit of having E-strategy in Value store

In today fast growing economy more and more companies are looking to have their business online, having an E-commerce is one of the most important business decisions a company could make in today’s fast moving environment. According to investorwords (n.d) E-commerce is The buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers through an electronic medium, without using any paper documents.

There are many different way a company can benefit from having an e-commerce site for their business, some of the way a company could benefit  are listed.

Cost advantage

The online store is available 24/7/365 days of the week, customers can shop at any time that is convenient to them. The direct cost-of-sale for an order taken from a web site is lower than through traditional means, as there is no human interaction during the on-line electronic purchase order process. Also, electronic selling virtually eliminates processing errors, as well as being faster and more convenient for the visitor. One of the most tangible positives of ecommerce is the lowered cost. A part of these lowered costs could be passed on to customers in the form of discounted prices.

Expanded Geographical Reach

Value store can operate without geographical limitation; the business can now reach customers globally by allowing customers to carry out business without the barriers of distance on time. This will convert more customers into consumers, while expending the customer base of the company and building strong brand awareness and customer loyalty globally. This would not be possible with a physical shop at a particular location.

Visibility

Create customer awareness and increase the company visibility in the company targeted market, hence, creating more value for the company.

Processing time

Reduce the delivery time between payments made and time the item take to reach the customers, increase responsiveness to the customers, i.e., strengthening the business relationship between the customers and the shareholders of the business, hence, increasing the company profitability.

Variety

 Having an online shop is a big advantage; the company can put more items on display. This will promote sales and encourage compulsive buying by customers. The customers can get several brands and products without the hassle, the company don’t have stock all the products it sells, the can use fulfilment centres and drop shipping companies. This will reduce the cost have stocking large inventory; hence, the overhead cost will reduce thereby increasing profit and efficiency.

The benefits of having e-strategy, include reducing the strain on the company resources resulting in significant cost saving and increase in the level of productivity and efficiency.

1.2: Evaluate the contribution of an e-strategy to the achievement of Value store’s objectives

Like every business value store objectives and aim is to be the market leader by cornering their target market, thereby, offering the customer’s value for money. A clear Business objectives is necessary with a measurable tool to measure the long and short term business objectives of the company. For example, value store want to achieve sales of £10 million in the UK markets in 2012.

Business Objectives

Objectives give value store is to make £10 million this is aclearly a defined target. Plans can then be made to achieve these targets. It also enables the business to measure the progress towards to its stated aims.

In-order for a business objective to be effective it must meet the following criteria’s:

S – Specific – objectives are aimed at what the business does, e.g. value store might have an objective of selling 60,000 products during October, an objective specific to that business.

M - Measurable – the business can put a value to the objective, e.g. £100,000 in sales in the next half year of trading.

A - Agreed by all those concerned in trying to achieve the objective.

R - Realistic – the objective should be challenging, but it should also be able to be achieved by the resources available.

T- Time specific – they have a time limit of when the objective should be achieved, e.g. by the end of the month or year.

The business objectives of value store are as follow

As companies assess the choice of appropriate measures to evaluate e-commerce initiatives, numerous potential issues arise. Since the choices are different for each company, because the strategies, structures, and systems are different, substantial customization is necessary. Senior managers should consider six initial questions that can lead to the development of appropriate measures for e-commerce operations:

• What measurement systems are currently in place and being utilized within the organization?
• What are the important criteria to the company and its constituencies and stakeholders?
• What does the company desire to accomplish with the e-commerce initiative?
• What is the anticipated timeframe associated with the e-commerce program?
• Who are the parties involved in implementing the e-commerce project, and who will be affected by the results?
• What critical processes are associated with the successful execution of the e-commerce project?

It is important that a company should have the right system in place to monitor, analyze and evaluate the success of having e-commerce in a business. The evaluation is usually financial and none financial.

1.3: Discuss how to align an e-strategy with an overarching value’s store’s strategy

Aligning e-strategy to the business is one of the key components for the success and the survival of the business. In today fast moving economy businesses have to implement the right strategies in order to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors.

Strategic alignment model (Henderson and Venkatraman, 1999: 476)

Internal factors

Internal factors are controlled by the organization, the internal factors include:

·         Co-operate Plans/ Business unit plans

·         Infrastructures refresh and renewal of programmes

·         Preventative/ routine maintenance programmes

External factors

Every business must identify, analyse and document the external factors that is likely to affect the success of the business. The external factors can cause serious financial issues for the organization, these external factors include:

·         Legislation

·         Industry/ professional regulation

·         Economic trends

·         Customer trends

·         Supplier trend and availability of skills.

Understanding the business

Understanding the business is one of the key elements of the alignment process; managers need to consider the following:

·         Economy

·         Sector

·         Corporate

·         Business unit

·         Department

 I/T has become the backbone of every successful organization, I/T is nothing more than capturing, processing and distributing information. Managers have to map out the corporate model by doing so, mangers can determine exactly what the business does and how they do it. The factors that managers need to identify during the mapping and documentation process are:

·         Organisation chart

·         Flow of authority

·         Formal and informal process

·         Market, products, suppliers and share holders.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Acknowledge the culture

According to businesscasestudies (n.d) culture is who we are, what we do, and the way we do things, the business can only perform at its best if the nature of the business is matched with the nature of the system. If this is not done correctly the business is likely to underperform.

The alignment process is not exhausted for this question but in the interest of time and word limitation only culture and understanding the business was looked at, there are other factors that should be taken into consideration during the alignment process which we have not discussed, and these include the following:

·         Know the IT estate, Discover the value chain

·         Interpret the context

·         Determine the change agenda

·         The technology road map, Plan the work programme

·         Populate the delivery frame work, achieve the business benefits

2.1: Analyse the business factors that underpin the requirement for an e-strategy in value store’s business.

Businesses today are competing in a global market; most businesses now have an online presence, reaching customers across the globe. Businesses have to develop and execute a suitable business model for the company; the purpose of the model is to define the way the business will deliver value to the customers. According to (wisegeek, n.d) E-commerce refers to economic activity that occurs online. E-commerce includes all types of business activity, such as retail shopping, banking, investing and rentals.

Previous Studies Related to Success Factors of E-strategy, the successful implementation of e-strategy may involve many factors, these factors can be categories into three phase, these include, but not limited to the following. Only two of the following phase will be look at in this question.

1.      Identify the business opportunity

2.      Select the technology infrastructure

3.      Implement the electronic business solution

Business Trends

Enterprise Collaboration

Being an electronic business means collaboration with Internet-enabled trading partners. To succeed in the digital environment, the electronic business must understand and include changes to its core trade processes and strategy plan.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

In the electronic business world, the customers expect seamless integration between sales and service, demanding customer service before, during, and after the sale, in a consistent and reliable manner. They demand flexible and convenient product and service delivery. To succeed, the electronic business must ensure quality and consistency in all aspects of the customer relationship.

Identifying Return on Investment

Becoming an electronic business represents a huge amount of investment. Measurement and proactive control of the electronic business is important for survival. The measurement of return on investment is vital to understanding its future direction.

Organization Trends

Specialization

Running an electronic business means that the organizations must focus on what they do best. It relies on developing product, brand and market share. To achieve higher profit in a global market, the electronic business must specialize.

Skill Management

The capability of any company to form high-performing teams to deliver results is one of the critical success factors. The Internet enables electronic business to utilize the resources of external organizations and project teams to truly become the virtual enterprise.

Process Visibility

By utilizing information to provide process visibility, customers and employees have access to every stage of the product or service life cycle. When a production process is visible, customers may inspect and interact with all aspects of the product as it moves through the cycle. Aspects include specification information, pricing, and material availability.

The Learning Organization

Electronic business demands a culture of continuous innovation. To sustain growth and quality of service, the organization must drive an environment of continual learning amongst its employees.

2.2: Discuss the benefits of e-commerce to Value Store

Power Point Slide attached

2.3: Develop a plan for an e-strategy that ensures value store to retain its competitive advantage in a global market

In order for business to gain and maintain competitive advantage over their competitors they need to use the right tool or tools that best fit the organization nature of business. The tool that will be looked at in this question is Porters five force theory, according to Porter (1980, 1985) and Porter and Millar (1985), a firm develops its business strategies in order to obtain competitive advantage (i.e., increase profits) over its competitors. It does this by responding to five primary forces:

The threat of new entrants

Rivalry among existing firms within an industry,

The threat of substitute products/services,

The bargaining power of suppliers

The bargaining power of buyers

Value store can use the porters five force to develop and enter the market where there is less competition and where the market is fragile, for example, value store may choose powerful buyers and sell them products that is less vulnerable to substitute. The company position itself to be less vulnerable to competitors while exploiting its competitive advantage, example “Primark” Primark has dominated the market with its low cost products making it hard for other business to compete in the same market.

Companies can also achieve competitive advantage by establishing barriers to deter new entrants from entering in the same market by creating unique capital intensive resources that new companies cannot easily replicate, example, EBay and Amazon.

Companies also increase bargaining power over their customers and suppliers by increasing the customers switching cost and reducing their own cost for switching suppliers. The five force model provides a strong base for developing business strategies that will generate opportunities, reducing cost while maintain a strong competitive market advantage.

According to Porter (2001) reemphasized the importance of analyzing the five competitive forces in developing strategies for competitive advantage: “Although some have argued that today’s rapid pace of technological change makes industry analysis less valuable, the opposite is true. Analyzing the forces illuminates an industry’s fundamental attractiveness, exposes the underlying drivers of average industry profitability, and provides Insight into how profitability will evolve in the future.

Strategies for Competitive Advantage in E- Commerce

Existing Firms	Differentiation (e.g., Bundling) Niche Products or Innovation Customer-Centric Strategy Expansion into a Related Product Line	(e.g., Price Lining and Smart Pricing) Cost Leadership Value-added Products or Services	Promotion Strategy Brand Appeal Based on Experiences and Beliefs Revenue-Sharing Marketing	Strategic Alliances Clicks-and-Mortar Strategy
Threat of Substitutes	Product Differentiation (e.g., Bundling) Niche Products or Innovation Customer-Centric Strategy	Price Discrimination (e.g., Price Lining and Smart Pricing) Cost Leadership Value-added Products or Services		Clicks-and-Mortar Strategy
Bargaining Power of Suppliers		Value-added Products or Services	Revenue-Sharing Marketing	Outsourcing or Strategic Alliances
Bargaining Power of Buyers		Value-added Products or Services	Customer-Centric Promotion Strategy Brand Appeal Based on Experiences and Beliefs Revenue-Sharing	Outsourcing or Strategic Alliances

2.4: Specify the technical infrastructure required in an e-strategy plan for Value store

Every company is online in today’s fast moving economy, and deciding the right ecommerce platform is one of the most important business decisions a company will make. To plan appropriately for an e-commerce site, the company will have to determine what they want to accomplish from the business perspective, identifying the type of content to be placed on the website, and selecting the right hardware and software for the platform.

This question will discuss the technical infrastructure required in an e-strategy plan for Value store.

Value store have to decide what software to use during the development process and whether or not to build the website in-house. If the company choose to build their website in-house this will be a very cost effective approach as it will save them cost of using a management provider. In-order to set up an in-house website the company would have to decide the type of server to use and how the networking system will flow throughout the organization.

A website will require the following infrastructure:

·         Hardware

·         Software

·         Networking

Hardware

The hardware requirements for an e-commerce website depend on a lot of different factors, such as, number of transactions per second; number of hits per second; number of queries per second; number of queries done by RDBMS per second; number of pages served per second involving all of the above parameters. Depending on the size of the company on the nature of the business the company will have to think about having a back-up system. If the number of hit to the website is low and depending on the needs of the business the website can be hosted on a single machine. For a high traffic website like Amazon multiple servers and back severs are needed just in case one server is down.

The following is a list of hardware required to start an online store:

·         Web servers

·         Security servers

·         Application servers

·         Database servers

·         Network connectivity devices

This list is not exhausted.

Software

Several software are available free on the Internet that can be used to build e-commerce site. Some examples are Apache Web Server, Apache-Jserv Servlet Engine, Linux Operating System, mySQL database, postgresql etc. Many of these open source software may not be adequate for high-traffic sites.

The operating system organizes and controls the hardware of any computer. It is the first program runs on a computer it provides “abstract” services to user application.

·         Windows, Linux, Unix (Solaris, BSD, IBM etc), OS/390, VMS, Be, Mac OS, QNX, VxWorks open source.

Web-server

The component of a web server is hardware and software in-order for value store to decide what hardware and software to use the company have to decide what is the expectation of the website. The market is divided into web server and internet servers.

Apache HTTP server

Microsoft internet information server

Netscape enterprise server

The graph below is attempting to illustrate the basic functions of a web server

Networking

Network infrastructure is a group of computer system linked together by various part of telecommunication architecture, infrastructure refers to the computer to routers, cable, wireless access point, switches, network protocols etc.

According to wisegeek (n.d) Infrastructures can be either open or closed, such as the open architecture of the Internet or the closed architecture of a private intranet. They can operate over wired or wireless network connections, or a combination of both.

The graph below will attempt to explain more about how the network architecture works.

3.1 Assess the resource requirements for implementing an e-strategy in Value store

Power Point Slide attached

3.2: Develop an implementation schedule for Value store

The above Gantt chart was created using “smart sheet”, the chart shows the design and implementation process, these process are listed below.

Feasibility studies

According to Investopedia (n.d) Feasibility studies is the ability to complete a project successfully, taking into account legal, economic, technological, scheduling and other factors. This is where value store do their ground work to find out the benefits and drawback of having an e-commerce site.

Planning

Planning is where Value store I/T specialist think and organise the required activities required to reach the company goals and objectives. Planning can be broken down into three stages these are:

(1)   Defining the mission and building of vision

(2)   Defining and setting objectives

(3)   Developing and implementing of the plan process.

Analysis

Analysis is the forecasting benefits and cost of having an e-commerce website, e-commerce offer competitive advantage for the business. The main benefits of having a web base business is, the site is open 24hours for business without the overhead cost that comes with having a physical shop.

Prototype

Prototyping is a prototype of the website, at this stage the testing and final design will be implemented.

Implementation and Audit

According to BusinessDictionary (n.d) defines an audit implementation as "Periodic, independent and documented examination and verification of activities, records, processes and other elements of a quality system to determine their conformity with the requirements of a quality standard.

Site Marketing

Website marketing, also known as internet marketing or e-marketing, is nothing more than the marketing of products and services offered by the company. Marketing will drive traffic to the website and reach customers and potential customers across the globe. Marketing must be done before and after the launching of the website.

Launching

The launching stage involves moving the site from a development server toward live launch. Revisit each of the aforementioned areas again for a final test to confirm that everything works, the brand message is conveyed and the navigation is seamless and properly leads someone to making a purchasing decision.

Management

In today fast moving economy people are conducting more business on the internet; companies are now selling their products and services online. E-commerce management is how the company conduct business online in accordance to best business practise abiding by both international and national laws.

3.3: Assess how existing business system need to be adapted to accommodate the requirements of an e-strategy in Value Store

The internet has contributed to the change in how companies do their business; more people are now turning to the internet for just about everything they need. Traditionally businesses use to trade from a brick shop incurring large overhead cost and they were not able to compete with their competitors effectively.

Organizations operate in industries with different limitations, opportunities and strategies. The structure adopted by any organization should fit the purpose of the organization while accomplishing its intended goals. Businesses have used the traditional business model since the Industrial Revolution. This model systematizes key areas within the business around an organizational design intended to optimize growth.

Strategy before e-commerce

The concept of e-commence has just arrived in Value Store; therefore there is a strong need to understand the concept of e-commerce in its real sense. E-commerce is more than Internet, software and hardware or other technologies. In fact, it is all about the way of conduction of any business with technologies. E-commerce is a true modern business strategy-the web or other technologies has not changed the fundamental of business, but only expanded its scope.

To be successful online the Traditional rules of business still apply and should be used within e-commerce, which should be integrated with traditional business processes and must be seen as technology helping to make the business more effective, efficient and easy to use

E-commerce can be more than technology, and if used as a strategic tool; it can provide organizational benefits though gains in productivity, market share or even bottom-line profitability.

Before Value Store can successfully integrate e-strategy in its existing business system, the company need to consider the following question.

·         Can the brand of the business attract customers to the website?

·         What are the savings in transaction cost?

·         What value added service and technologies can be used to encourage productivity

·         What is required relationship between offline and online activities?

·         How to minimize the conflicts with traditional value chain partners?

·         How to establish the appropriate internal incentives for the online businesses to flourish without damaging the existing business system?

 (Slywotzk, 2000), revealed that adoption of e-commerce is necessity for the future business. In fact, it is a change and it is adoptable.

Changes required

·         The coordination of data online

·         Automated system for customers order process

·         Marketing the products online, instead of the traditional way of marketing

·         Method of Payment, payment collected online instead of the traditional way, hence a process company and a merchant bank is required.

Value Store must consider the way how the customers will use the website and the benefits e-commerce will have to the organization. All these factors must be considered before e-commerce can be successfully integrated into Value Store.

4.1: Implement an e-strategy for Value Store

The implementation process of an e-commerce must be clear and concise this can be broken down into three primary factors, these are:

(1)   Planning

(2)   Execution

(3)   Control

The planning phase involved setting down the requirement required for the successful implementation of an e-commerce site. The requirements involves content, search and landing page, planning can be broken down in to three phases, these include the following:

·         Information architecture

·         Design

·         Construction

Architecture

At the architecture stage the I/T team has to think about the navigation and layout of the website. The company have to think about what the customers want and how best they can satisfy the wants of the customers. The website has to be user friendly and the navigation process should be hassle free for the customers, once the company has considered and resolved these issues the site will be able to perform better, therefore more customers will be encouraged to shop on the website, hence, the value and profitability will increase.

Design

Having a well made professionally design website is very important to the success of the company. If the site does not project the style, image and attractiveness the customers may not be please and therefore will be reluctant to shop on the website or even worse not shop at all. A bad looking website will not gain the customers trust but will only make the customers to think the site will not be able to live up to their expectation.

Construction

According to Levy (2009) Construction “nuts and bolts” behind any solid, reliable e-Commerce website, including client and server-side applications (front end and back end programming), quality assurance testing, integration of third party tools and other solutions that will make your e-Commerce website scalable as it continues to grow.

Execution

Execution plan is basically putting the plan into process to achieve the final outcome of the project implementation.

Control

Customers are concern about how their details are handled online, e-commerce technology is becoming more advance and it has changed the way companies of today do business. To gain the customers acceptance and trust value store must achieve and exceed customer’s expectations, while building trust and confidence.

Establishing control in e-commerce requires the value store to expand the traditional view of internal control to encompass the activities of customers, suppliers and other “outside” users of the website. Control can be defined as the mechanism consists of rules, compliance, monitoring and enforcement.

4.2: Develop process to monitor the implementation of e-strategy in value

store

 E-commerce relies on its Internet resources being always available. Every case of downtime means lost visitors, hence, lost customers. To reduce resources downtime, they should be constantly monitored. To operate smoothly, all the e-commerce services must be available 24/7 and must function as expected. What's also important is these services interaction: it should not be broken; otherwise the whole business comes to a halt.

 Value Store, payment processor/billing, customers Helpdesk and so on - all these services must be not only visible to the person monitoring the system; they should also interact with one another without interruptions. E-commerce services are often hosted weather internally or externally. The more services e-commerce business uses, the harder it is to detect the points of failures, the more cryptic are possible errors.

Monitoring includes but not limited to the following:

Site Functionality

The functionality of the website should be constantly monitored to prevent any down time or page errors, Value Store constantly adding new products and pages to their store, and want those items to sell therefore customers must have the ability to purchase items online 24/7

 Speed/Performance

Similar to functionality, the performance of Value Store website is monumental in keeping customers buying. No online shopper wants to wait 3-5 minutes for their desired item to load so they can add it to their shopping cart. If the online store does not perform, the customer won’t buy. Value Store need monitoring tools that take into account page analytics, so they may be able to add the necessary speed requirements based on past and current traffic to the site.

Reputation

Value Store need to take into account the repercussions of site failures, and monitor the site properly to avoid and quickly address any problems.

Checkout

The checkout process need to be closely monitored even if the speed is adequate, a broken or non-functioning checkout will ruin a sale. In this case, a $500 sale is the same as a $25. A broken checkout will affect both sales the same. Online monitoring is clearly important in this regard.

When it comes on to monitoring there are several areas of an ecommerce site that requires monitoring. Value store need to monitor the site security, risk, functionality, infrastructure, customer behaviour and so on. The monitoring process of an e-commerce site is endless and requires continuous monitoring.

4.3: Assess how an e-strategy contributes to ensuring value store’s competitive advantage in a global market.

What is competitive advantage? According to  Businessdictionary (n.d) A superiority gained by an organization when it can provide the same value as its competitors but at a lower price, or can charge higher prices by providing greater value through differentiation. Competitive advantage results from matching core competencies to the opportunities.

Prior to the internet small and medium business were not able to compete globally, only large companies were able to afford the huge overhead cost associated with operating overseas. Example coca-cola and Pepsi, they were able to afford factories, warehouses and distribution centres, leaving smaller businesses behind.

The development of the internet technology has dramatically reduce the overhead cost associated with operating abroad and change the way how businesses do business, the internet technology has revolutionized the business industry by allowing all size business to compete globally.

To analyse the contribution e-strategy has made to capture and maintain value store competitive advantage in the global market, the 6c’s will be look at.

Capability

Conducting business online has given value store immediate exposure to customers globally. The business will remain opened 24/7 without the cost associated with having a physical shop.

Competitive advantage

The internet has give value store global access; they are able to compete with big organization without the geographical barriers.

Cost

An e-commerce site will no doubt reduce value store overhead while increasing their profit without compromising the company products and services.

Communication

Communication represents one of the biggest expenses in time and dollars for most business operators – but with e-commerce communications allowing companies to work faster and in new ways, without the Hugh over head cost and the extensive paper work.

Control

 E-commerce gives value store greater flexibility, increased productivity and control over y the business.  The company has improved control over inventory and order processing, information can be supplied to customers within seconds, they can quickly update pricing and stock data as things change, and best of all transactions can be processed faster to expedite billing.

Customer service

An e-commerce site spells service improvements for value store customers and that means increased customer satisfaction and for value store e-commerce is the best way to gather, tracking and targeting new customers.

Conclusion

 The internet has become one of the major channels for trading and selling products. The internet is a cost effective way of selling products while gaining worldwide presence, electronic shopping generate new business opportunities for both the business and the customers. Customers are able to compare prices across the internet with just the click of a button; this could not be achieved with a physical shop. The internet makes it possible for customers to shop within their budget and it allow business to build and maintain good business relationship with customers and other businesses.

Website design is very important to companies who have an online presence like “Value Store” having a good design will help promote products while serving and exceeding customer’s expectation. Every website must be design to provide the user with an easy navigation, easy retrieval of data and necessary feedback.

A good shopping cart must be user friendly and convenient for the customers to view contents, adding and removing items as they see fit. This report provide an insight on the design, implementation and the benefits of having an ecommerce site in Value Store

Bibliography

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