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Case Study

The document discusses the advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce for both businesses and consumers. It outlines how e-commerce allows for lower costs, a global customer base, and increased sales for businesses. However, it also notes weaknesses like a lack of in-person interaction and consumer reluctance to purchase certain items online. The document then provides a SWOT analysis of an e-commerce website, analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
42 views20 pages

Case Study

The document discusses the advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce for both businesses and consumers. It outlines how e-commerce allows for lower costs, a global customer base, and increased sales for businesses. However, it also notes weaknesses like a lack of in-person interaction and consumer reluctance to purchase certain items online. The document then provides a SWOT analysis of an e-commerce website, analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
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Introduction

E-commerce offers numerous advantages to both business owners and customers. From the standpoint
of the consumer, e-commerce allows them to purchase a product from the comfort of their own home.
They can save time by not having to go to the store and pay for the item, which they may spend towards
something else. Betty Shriver is the owner of Betty's Treasures, a small business that sells rare porcelain
figurines as well as greeting cards, plush toys, beautiful crockery, and knitted sweaters made by local
artisans. Many of her items come from estate sales and regional auctions, and she sells her excess
inventory on eBay during the off-season. The business is in Metamora, Indiana, a popular Midwest
weekend vacation destination. Tourist traffic drops dramatically in the early fall, and the town is nearly
deserted in the winter. Betty discovered that she could afford to provide a larger assortment of things in
the business after selling her stock on eBay during the slow months. Betty has also developed contacts
with frequent figurine buyers as well as individuals who own and operate collections shops in various
parts of the country. She wants to find ways to guide site visitors to her actions and construct a Web
store while building global networks. Electronic commerce not only benefits consumers, but it also
benefits businesses. The biggest benefit is that it can boost sales. They are able to market their items to
a wider range of customers from all over the world. E-commerce provides for the use of a variety of
payment methods, allowing individuals from various walks of life to purchase the goods offered in their
online stores.[ CITATION Sch07 \l 1033 ].

Another significant advantage of e-commerce is that it lowers a business's operating costs. Businesses
can use e-commerce to function with a limited amount of financial and human resources. You don't
need to have a physical store if you have a well-established e-commerce firm. This lowers the amount of
money needed to pay for fixed expenses like rent and energy.[ CITATION Sch07 \l 1033 ] E-commerce, as
can be seen, offers numerous benefits to both consumers and business owners. Customers are
encouraged to shop online, and businesses are encouraged to sell their items online, thanks to these
advantages. Another advantage is that the product is readily available. Users can access online stores
from businesses in different countries via the internet, allowing them to purchase things that they would
not have had access to otherwise.

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) assessment is a framework for evaluating
a company's competitive position and establishing strategic goals. A SWOT analysis considers both
various factors, as well as present and future potential. A SWOT analysis is a method for assessing an
agency's, initiative's, or company's weaknesses and strengths in a practical, fact-based, data-driven
manner. The company must follow the study accurate by eliminating predetermined conceptions or gray
areas and focusing instead on actual conditions. Companies should use this as a suggestion rather than a
command. SWOT analysis is a method for evaluating a financial operations, competitiveness, danger,
and opportunity, as well as parts of the business such a line of products or department, sector, or
another organization. The method can guide businesses towards a more effective programs and away
from those who have proven or are expected to become less effective, using both internal and external
data. They can also obtain advise on whether a company, line of products, or sector is high or low from
impartial SWOT experts, shareholders, or rivals. The SWOT analysis for the ecommerce website can be
listed below:

1. Strength
Your company's strengths are the areas it excels at or accomplishes in a way that sets it apart
from the competitors. Evaluate your corporation's advantages over its competition. Just a few
examples include employees’ motivation, accessibility to specific assets, and a broad set of
manufacturing techniques. The strength are as follows:
 Ease of Use and Availability
Thanks to ecommerce platforms, you no anymore need to leave your house to make a
purchase. Ecommerce websites sell practically anything a customer could want, from
food to clothing to technology. These sites also provide users with a variety of payment
choices to make their lives easier.
 Access to the entire world
There had been a period where goods from one area could not be used to acquire goods
from the other. Because of e-commerce, all items are produced globally and shipping
expenses are kept to a minimum.
 Friendly to New Businesses
Companies that are still in the early stages of development prefer to offer their items
online instead of in physical shops. This is largely due to the fact that the latter
necessitates a greater upfront expenditure, which most businesses cannot afford. Using
internet-shopping platforms significantly simplifies and reduces the cost of advertising.
 Discounts
Since ecommerce websites lower operating costs, companies can offer considerable
discounts on their products, attracting greater consumers ’ attention.

2. Weakness
A company's weaknesses keep it from realizing its greatest potential. A terrible reputation,
greater turnover, excessive debt levels, an insufficient supply chain, or a lack of cash are
instances of situations where the business must change in order to stay profitable. The
weakness are listed below:
 Consumer Attitude
People are really not willing to buy anything on ecommerce websites just yet. Although
electronic items can be acquired simply through all these gateways, certain goods, such
as garments, are often prefer to be bought in the conventional manner since size and
correct color can be verified before purchasing. One issue is that people expect small
online stores to react as fast as bigger sizes, and then when they don't, they abandon
them.
 Communication is lacking.
Interaction between both the vendor and the customer has always been a potent
marketing strategy whenever it comes to customer products. Due to the lack of such
discourse on ecommerce platforms, the customer is forced to decide, which usually
leads to the goods not even being bought.
 Cost
While ecommerce portals might give deals to attract people, import fees are frequently
expensive, and sometimes surpass the production price. Consumers may be enticed to
forego online payments in preference of even more older systems.
 The Generational Divide
People in their fifties and sixties still prefer to buy products in person instead of online.
This is primarily due to the lack of technical availability and confidence in online
shopping.

3. Opportunities
Opportunities are external factors that can help a business gain a competitive advantage. A car
company, for instance, can sell its products to a new region if a government cuts barriers,
increasing sales and market share. The opportunities are as follows:
 Market Capacity
Even the tiniest vendor may get into a worldwide price and advertise to more people
thanks to the eCommerce industry. eCommerce would become the single most
important technique to sell things and gain market traction as the global internet
population continues to expand.
 Technological Progress
Particularly in developed countries enjoy simple access to information that influences
product purchases online, while those in developing nations are still discovering how to
utilize it. As buying capacity rises and the cost of smartphones and laptops declines, the
number of people proactively using eCommerce platforms is expected to climb.
 Marketing possibilities
So is using online portals to advertise your items less cheap and easier, but it also offers
you more possibilities about how to sell them. The employment of online influencers,
for example, is one of the most popular ways that apparel and makeup are pushed.
Alternate advertising will aid in the growth and attraction of more clients to the online
shopping platform

4. Threats
Hazards are situations, which have the potential to damage a business. A heatwave, for
instance, poses a threat to a wheat-producing corporation since it has the capacity to ruin or
decrease crop production. Other common challenges include rising production costs, greater
competition, and a labor shortage, to name a few. The following are the list of threats
 Market with a lot of competition
Because it is relatively inexpensive to put up an e commerce portal or to use one that
has already been created, the degree of rivalry on these portal is significantly higher
than those in mature markets. This makes it tough for new vendors to compete with
larger companies in their particular industry in terms of sales. As a result, many minor
vendors prefer to avoid entering such a fiercely competitive industry and stick to their
tried-and-true methods of sales revenue.
 Fraud in the Digital Age
Digital payment systems, while safe, can be readily misused to conduct out suspicious
charges. A client has bought for a product but just never got it in multiple instances.
Consumers are moving out from eCommerce platforms as their faith in payment
services reduces because of such instances. In some nations, there still is a lack of solid
digital payment laws, rendering eCommerce portals hard to be used for both sellers and
buyers.
 Personal Data Protection
To make purchases, consumers are required to reveal a large amount of sensitive
information to eCommerce websites. This data includes your address, banking details,
and so forth. Many people are hesitant to give their personal information to websites
they don't know. As a reason, small eCommerce portals have a harder time gaining
traction than larger, better successful names.
 Government Rules and Regulations
Governmental laws governing internet sales are getting more severe, and there is a
good chance that online transactions may be taxed more heavily in the future. It will
mistakenly raise the price of things on eCommerce sites, driving away customers.
Moreover, data-centric legislation including the GDPR have rendered opening an online
store extremely difficult.

The SWOT analysis of the eCommerce industry presented above provides a clear picture of the sector's
development as well as its future performance. While it is obvious that more people are joining the
league on a daily basis, there are also serious challenges that are keeping them away. Such impacts are
bound to be resolved in the coming years, rendering the internet shopping process much more user-
friendly.

Marketing strategies

A marketing strategy is a corporation's overarching goal for looking for potential customers and turning
them into paying customers. A marketing plan outlines the corporation's business model, brand's core
messaging, information on target customer demography, as well as other low components. Marketing
strategy assists in the identification of areas impacted by company objectives and, as a consequence, in
the creation of an action structure to satisfy consumer expectations. Due to market research data, it
assists in identifying the optimal price for an institution's products and services. The following are the
marketing strategies for target market

1. Make your search engine better.


Search engine optimization (SEO) is still a crucial type of business, and you should ensure that
your original system, along with all of your individual product pages, are customized for the
precise phrases that your intended audience is searching for. Here's when keyword research
comes in handy. A detailed guide to successfully conducting relevant keywords may be found
here.

2. Marketing that isn't differentiated


It's conceivable that customer attributes haven't changed significantly. However, the cost of
developing a unique marketing strategy for each industry may consider the possible advantages
of better fulfilling customer needs. A company may choose to build a single marketing strategy
for the overall market in this circumstance. There's not any sort of categorization here. When a
corporation uses an unrelated diversification approach, they are effectively adopting a mass-
market mindset. It sees the marketplace as a whole, with no distinct segments. For the whole
market, the corporation employs a single marketing strategy. Individual clients are assumed to
have comparable wants that can be satisfied by a similar marketing strategy, according to the
corporation.
3. Multi-segment targeting or differentiated marketing:
Whenever market segmentation reveals a number of successful targeted markets, distinct
marketing mixes can be created to appeal to all or portion of them. A differentiated marketing
plan capitalizes on the differences between target markets by developing a separate marketing
strategy in each. A corporation that uses a multi-segment target approach caters to two or more
well-defined categories, each with its own marketing mix. To cater to every one of the
categories, different trademarks have been created.
4. Concentrated or focused targeting:
Even if numerous segments are identified, a company would not be able to serve all of them.
Some of them may be undesirable or inconsistent with the firm's fundamental skills. A company
can only target one market with a particular marketing strategy. It evaluates the client’s
expectations and motivations and produces a personalized marketing strategy for them. Firms
have recognized that focusing efforts and satisfying the interests of a certain niche market is
more lucrative than distributing resources from multiple sectors. Starbucks was able to achieve
success by focusing solely on clients who wanted good coffee.
5. Marketing that is tailored to you
In certain marketplaces, actual consumer needs are unique, and their buying power is able to
prove creating a separate marketing strategy for each customer. Advertising firms, market
research groups, designers, and lawyers are just a few examples of service providers who
personalize their service to each specific client. Since the maximum level of a purchase warrants
considerable sales and marketing efforts being concentrated on every purchaser, customized
marketing is linked with intimate ties between both the provider and the buyer. Personalized
advertising is common in institutional markets due to the high cost of orders and the particular
needs of customers.

A social media campaign is a set of organizational units with improved results that are aimed at
achieving a certain goal over a specific time period. It might be limited to a single social media platform
or spread across a number of them. You can reach a large number of individuals with information about
your company through social media. Most of these folks might never know about you if it weren't for
social media. You can raise brand recognition, boost the amount of visits to your site, and raise more
income if you know how to use social networks effectively. Being effective on social networks involves
time, energy, and investment. Even though all you do now is get one of your office staff maintain your
social media account, you'll still be spending for their effort. As a result, you must make certain that you
are getting the most results for the right amount of time (called cost effectiveness). Finding a cost-
effective social media plan requires more than experimentation. You should rather conduct a research.
For instance, compare the results of two distinct social media marketing campaigns to see which one
works better. If you utilize the greater ad (and generate additional ads like it) rather than the lesser ad,
you will earn more money.

SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of enhancing the amount and quality of traffic to a
website through natural search results. Whenever anyone searches for a keyword in your sector, a
higher position boosts your brand's website presence. As a result, you'll have more chances to convert
quality leads into clients. SEO success ensures an engagement rate on search engine results pages,
which is an important part of building your business and establishing customer loyalty.   Because SEO
rankings typically reflect confidence from the search engines, SEO traffic performs faster than some
other channels. Companies may utilize a solid SEO strategy to position their website and content highly
in the SERPs for search terms, engaging potential consumers and moving them through the sales
pipeline.

Key Features
While running Betty's Treasures' online business and having an eCommerce website, you must possess a
few characteristics. In this piece, we'll take a glance at the more common ecommerce websites and its
characteristics, as well as a comprehensive number of basic profit sales. The following are the key
features of the site

1. Easy navigation and a branded design.


The layout of a company's brand website must reflect its skills and attributes in order to
compete in the extremely competitive ecommerce industry. High-quality web design is a non-
negotiable unique advantage in ecommerce now more than ever. Companies want an online
service that enables both the basic components for flawless web design as well as the ability to
highlight unique company brand through design touches. Obviously, ease of navigation should
work on all widths and devices. Companies can't afford to maintain a great desktop ecommerce
website that takes longer to load on a smartphone, particularly when mobile phones represent
for 60% of all internet traffic. Companies must guarantee that their online store can adapt their
online stores to any display size or gadget, and mobility really shouldn't be a secondary
consideration; this should be a primary concern.
2. Management of Customers
 Customers
 Customers can be found quickly by searching and sorting by first and last names.
 Customer accounts must be managed.
 View information about the customer and prior orders.
 View product reviews from specific customers.
 Add a customer's private comments
 Customer accounts should be deleted.
 Passwords for customers are reset.
 Customers can be exported to Excel.
3. Promotes Products That Are Related
Similar items are very important when a customer is buying on your website. Because many
shoppers are shopping for certain items, displaying related brands in various styles, color, or
material can help you sell more. People appreciate not having to re-search for a product and
instead being able to look at similar items.
4. Product descriptions that are accurate
There is nothing more frustrating than seeing a product information and then obtaining
something entirely different. It not only damages the customer experiences, but it also
guarantees that they'll never return. Customers' expectations that cannot be met are not
mitigated by providing the incorrect descriptions. Most of the time, if you explain your item
precisely, your consumer will not be puzzled about what they will receive in the mail.
5. Searching Effectively
This should go without saying, yet eCommerce websites frequently struggle with ineffective
search. The website is either so disorganized that consumers can't discover what they're looking
for, or the items aren't precisely recalled when they search with key words. Either scenario is
undesirable. However, unlike with a physical store, where you can ask an employee for
assistance, you cannot do so on an eCommerce website. Even if the client is imprecise about
whatever they want, the website should instinctively recollect things that they really want.
6. Photos and Videos of High Quality
The unsteady photographs and videos on the website are quite alarming. The buyer has no
means of knowing whether or not the products are what they want. It also leads to the buyer
having high expectations of the goods. In this day and age, because even our iPhones can shoot
high-resolution photographs, there is no reason not to be up to the mark with your photo that is
featured on your eCommerce website.
7. Policies that are well-defined
Setting proper rules is important to success, whether that's a physical business or an internet
one. Both the consumer and the business are protected by rules. For instance, a defined refund
policy can prevent you from getting future problems with customers who would like to refund
an item too late. Having a clear return policy, on the other hand, gives the consumer confidence
that the vendor has a reliable shipping system in place. This is all part of instilling in your
customers a sense of trust and dependability. Because many consumers are still wary of just
using their credit card, set direct indicators and laws in place to maintain a secure setting is
helpful to developing a successful company.
Prototype

A storyboard is the blueprint for a web project. It's a simple, adjustable technique for patterns provides
on a single Web page, such as photographs, advertising, navigation, visual components, and text. A
website storyboard is a graphic that describes your webpage architecture. It illustrates all of the features
on your website and also how they relate. The design and organizing of your site, as well as the existing
operational structure among pages, might be aided by a website storyboard. The way people interact
with a website and navigate to various parts of it is usually determined by its layout. A storyline can
indicate the path of movement across the website by laying out the various buttons and links on each
page. When utilizing a storyboard to evaluate a website, experts look for things like visible links that
don't need the client to scroll down, obvious navigation bar, and a limited number of alternatives so
users don't feel overwhelmed. The website's overall design and architecture, as well as how all of the
sections connect, must be conveyed in the storyline.

1. Login page

Logo navigation bar

FROM

Submit

A login page is indeed a web page or online entrance page that require personal identity verification,
which is typically performed by entering a login details. Logins may grant full access site or only a portion
of it.
2. Register page

Logo navigation bar

Register page

form

Submit

It allows users to self-register and gain access to the system. It's common to have various signup pages
based on the kinds of individuals and organizations you want to register.

3. Home page

Logo navigation bar

Content here Content here

Footer
A home page is the first page that visitors see when they visit a website. This is the first page you see
when you visit a website with only a domain name. The home page of a website can be found inside the
root directory. For the home page, many web servers allow you to choose from a range of filetypes.

4. About us

Logo navigation bar

About us
Image

Footer

The about Us page is an excellent spot to accomplish a number of goals: Tell the tale of your company
and why you began it. Describe your company's clients or the cause it supports.
5. Contact us page

Logo navigation bar

Contact us Address

Email

Phone number
Form

Footer

Anyone should get in touch with them and discuss how they can help their guests with their problems.
Have included an email address and a contact information so that people may get the data they're
looking for quick

6. Shop page

Logo navigation bar

Product Product Product

Product Product Product

Footer
A product page on a website is a site that assists clients in making purchase decisions. It covers a variety
of specifications and features to assist in answering inquiries, providing evaluations, comparing
products, and facilitating the purchasing process.

7. Cart page

Logo navigation bar

Product list

Footer

The cart page on an e-commerce website is an essential component. It's the webpage where customers
may add things from the site to their carrier bag and subsequently pay for them online. Examine a
store's shopping trolley to get a better understanding of what a cart page does.

8. Checkout page

Navigation bar

Billing address
A checkout page is one or even more pages of an ecommerce business that deal with shipping and
payment information. On the payment screen, clients can enter their credit data and manage their
orders.

9. My account page

Navigation

Order

Dashboard

logout

This page will contain the order the user has made, and the dashboard for the user. It will also contain
logout button

10. Buy page

Navigation

Product image
Quantity Price

This page will contain the order you have made on the website. The total order along with its price will
be displayed on the website.
Conclusion

E-commerce has revolutionized the way individuals buy and sell goods. More people are becoming
aware of the advantages of having an e-commerce site to increase product sales and attract clients from
other nations. Before launching an e-commerce site, it's equally important to evaluate the hazards.
Nevertheless, the popularity of e websites has been growing, prompting software companies to develop
e-commerce platforms that are both economical and simple to use. This report contains SWOT analysis
for the business environment, study of SEO and social media campaigns. It also contains marketing
strategies for target market along with the key features of the website that describes what a website
needs. Finally, the report also contains the storyboard of the pages, which is the blueprints of the pages
of the site
Part B

Screenshots

1. Login page

2. Register page
3. Home page

4. Cart page
5. Checkout page

6. MyAccount page
7. Contact page

8. About us
9. Shop page

10. Buy page


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