Question:
Select a new (developed/implemented from 2012/onwards) E-Business Technology/Application. Discuss the key advantageous features of the technology/application when compared with the alternatives available. As well as the key advantages, identify and discuss key limitations of the technology as well as the risks associated with its implementation.
The report manly focuses on the modern technologies and applications that has been implemented in the ecommerce business for the ease of the customers as well as organizations. This report has focused on the advantages and disadvantages of each of the technology such as ContentTECH, X-Cart 4.6.6 and Oracle Cloud Marketplace extensively.
With the increase in penetration of internet and availability online shopping sites, the E- Business is flourishing day by day and is adopting new technologies for the welfare of the customers and the companies. The adaptations of new technologies help in making the companies more presentable and tech savvy for competiting with the modern world (Du, 2013). Due to the vast availability of internet and usage of Smartphone’s the rush of using online shopping sites have it has increased to a considerable rate. In order to stay in competition, the companies are working hard to implement modern applications and technology for the benefit of the customers (Polgar & Adamson, 2013).
This report will be dealing with the implementation or development of some modern technology or application in the areas such as E-Marketing, Online shopping Carts and Mobile Communication. The advantages, disadvantages and key limitations of the technologies along with comparism with the alternative technologies will also be done.
With the introduction of Content marketing technique, evolution of ContentTECH technology has taken place that helped E-marketing in reaching a new era of modernization. This is because; according to Guo (2012) this is a technique that helps in providing relevant, valuable and upgraded content for attracting the well defined customers with an intention to make profit from customers. It is basically an ability of communication with the customers without selling anything and is a non interrupting marketing process. Through this process, only information of the products and services are given to the customers making them intelligent and wise to make a wise decision. Companies such as Microsoft, Cisco Systems etc. have adopted Content marketing as an upgraded technology for their business (Shen, 2013).
ContentTECH helps in making money- This is because; it is widely used among technology marketers and is a non interrupting technology. Vasileiadis (2014) commented on the fact that it only provides information about the products and services to the customer thereby asking them to decide wisely for purchase. The customers after getting all the information becomes emotionally attached to the organization and hence ends up buying products and services from it. So, according to Blasco-Arcas, Hernandez-Ortega & Jimenez-Martinez (2013) this technology helps in getting emotionally bonded to the customers that motivates the customers to buy products and services from the organizations. This ultimately helps in gaining profits from the customers and also helps in increasing customer database.
Helps in pulling up unexpected new customers- Through application of this technology, it helps in attracting a huge customer database consisting of old customers as well as new unexpected customers. Saldanha & Krishnan (2012) had a view that through this technique the organization needs to keep itself active in the blogging section and social media sites where updates regarding the hot offers and discounts can be displayed.
Cheaper compared to other alternative marketing forms and no force marketing- According to Smythe (2012) usage of this technique makes shopping easier and cheaper in compared to other forms of marketing. The customers come to know about the market prices of the product, get authentic information regarding the products and services and can later buy it. The customers only need to invest some of their precious time, patience and effort for a better return. In addition to this, Kauffman & Tallon (2014) using this technology, the organization never forces the customers for the products and services rather than giving information. This gives the customers a relaxation to from getting forced and thereby feels pleased which leads to buying products from those e-commerce organizations.
Helps in building relationship with the customers- Since, this technology is quite clear and transparent and enriches the customers with knowledge and experience, it easily makes a good and a reliable relationship with the customers. Zhong (2013) had commented on the fact that this relationship helps the company in gaining profit and customers and thereby makes the company competitive in nature.
Risk of duplicity- When a company uses content marketing technique there is always a fear of getting the content duplicated by the other sites (Xu, 2013). Maybe the other sites are using the same content but the search engine fails to recognize the actual source of the content.
Inconsistent- Another major disadvantage is that the marketing output doesn’t always reflect the requirements and identification of the company (Burinskiene & Burinskas, 2012). This inconsistency can lead to the failure of content marketing.
Now days the trend of selling products and services over the internet became a major part of e-commerce. According to Yu & Liu (2014) in order to keep a pace with the changing technology based competitive business, new technologies regarding online shopping carts has emerged. It is believed that good and innovative shopping cart software can attract the customers and can help in making half the business for a company. A new version of the technology of online shopping cart named X-Cart 4.6.6 has emerged for improving the old online shopping cart and has a lot many features for attracting the customers (Du, 2013).
Affordable rates- This technology has helped the users in reaching a new technology based era of online shopping. Guo (2012) had commented that the prices are quiet competitive and affordable to the users in comparism to Oscommerce MS2.2 which takes both money and time for installation of the add-ons. This makes the shopping much easier and comfortable. In addition this, the maintenance cost is also low which is also an added flavor to the users. Moreover, according to Vasileiadis (2014) there are awesome design templates that have been added to the new version where the users can choose the template from a wide range and can start customizing it. This low price of this technology in this competitive world makes it easily attractive to the customers.
Highest security and fast process- The technology is quite secure and reliable to the users. The software is quite fast and can run on any server which is in contrast to Magneto which runs quite slow. Moreover Polgar & Adamson (2013) had a view that the latest version of X-Cart 4.6.6 runs nearly 5 times more than the previous versions. It is so designed that it is commercially supported and maintains a high level of security of the user data. This maintenance of data integrity makes it more consumable and reliable to the users. In addition to this, presence of number of payment gateways like Google Checkout PayPal etc helps in secure shopping (Shen, 2013). So, in this tech savvy world, where data security has become a main issue, there this software gives a huge priority to the data integration which helps it to make a position among the customers.
Attractive user-interface and easy to understand- X-Cart is very simple to use and has no complexity at all in comparism to other shopping carts such as Magento which is an overly engineered complex system. According to Saldanha & Krishnan (2012) the users having no idea of programming can easily set up the store according to the necessities. This is because, no changes in coding is necessary rather than selecting the skin that suits best in the admin. In addition to this using the modern tools of the software, the user can easily modify the shopping cart. These features help in increasing the customer database of this technology.
Easy Customization- X-Cart can be easily customized and the options of customizations are unlimited but that doesn’t expect to have technical knowledge of the users to use it to the fullest. Smythe (2012) commented on the fact that this is an added advantage compare to other online shopping carts such as 3D Cart where users can’t access the source code which limits their customization options. Moreover, the updated version has an additional application that supports global languages and easily converts the currency of different countries thereby helping the business in getting global (Smythe 2012). These lucrative features made the software hold a prestigious position in the e-business.
Figure 1: Customer Preference
(Source: Burinskiene & Burinskas, 2012, pp. 48)
Licensing fees for the system- The main limitation of this shopping cart is that it will get technical support but it is paid. In addition to this, according to Smythe (2012) the licensing fees are quite high along with the high installation charges. The upgrading of the software makes it more vulnerable to hack and the upgrading path becomes harder.
In this modern era of technology, mobiles play a pivotal role in e-business. This is because, it is the easiest and less time consuming method adopted by the companies to get connected to the customers. Yu & Liu (2014) commented on the fact that with the introduction of cloud computing, the business technologies have reached a new era of modernization. Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a technology that is introduced by Oracle has a lot of business application that can be used through android based mobile phones, tablets and iPhones. By using this application, the Oracle partners can easily reach their Oracle customers.
Easy to use and secure- This technology is quite easy to use since it is a technology in the global market where the partners can easily publish applications. The customers can browse through it and get new solutions that will be best fitted to their business. In addition to this, according to Hwang, Fox & Dongarra (2012) the Oracle Cloud marketplace helps the customers in finding, evaluating and buying new and innovative applications. The application can be used for growing the business to a prestigious level and also enables the users to get access, develop and publish as well as monetize the applications. In addition to this, Smythe (2012) had commented that Oracle Cloud marketing secures the data of the customers and helps in maintaining data integrity which is also an added advantage of this technology. This helps in attracting a lot of customers to utilize this technology and increases it customer database.
Have lot of applications and helps in marketing- A lot many features of this technology have made it lucrative to the customers. Zhong (2013) commented on the fact that the applications such as lead generation, reporting, channel management, quoting, productivity tools, forecasting, compensation management, sales etc has made this technology in growing their business and reach a competitive edge. Moreover, according to Smythe (2012) this technology also has its application in infrastructure services and social platforms. This ultimately makes the technology gain a prestigious position among the customers and help them in getting full control on E-business.
Costly in nature- Though the technology finds a huge application in the e-commerce business of the organizations, the major disadvantage of it is its high cost of implementation in the business (Zhong, 2013). In addition to this, the cost of maintenance is also high. For this, reason, many of the customers are giving a second thought on installation of this technology.
Along with the innovation of upgraded technologies and applications, the e-business is also getting modernized. The new technologies and applications have helped the e-business of the organizations in reaching a competitive edge. It is seen that the modern technologies have both pros and cons. The organizations dealing with the innovation of these technologies and applications need to put more focus on the data security, duplicity, easy usage and cost of using it. This is because, the customers are leaned towards those technologies which are easy to use, cost effective and keep their data integrated and safe.
Conclusion
Throughout this report it is discussed about the modern technologies and applications that are invented and integrated into the e-commerce business for the ease of the customers. In addition to this, the advantages and disadvantages of each of the technology and application are discussed elaborately and vividly. This helps in showing where the applications and technologies find their utilization the best and which areas they are lagging behind and still need to be improved in order to give a full satisfaction to the e-commerce organizations and the customers.
Reference List
Books
Du, Z. (2013) Intelligence computation and evolutionary computation, Berlin: Springer
Hwang, K., Fox, G., & Dongarra, J. (2012) Distributed and cloud computing, Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann
Kauffman, R. & Tallon, P. (2014) Economics, Information Systems, and Electronic Commerce, Hoboken: Taylor and Francis
Xu, B. (2013) 2012 International Conference on Information Technology and Management Science (ICITMS 2012) proceedings, Berlin: Springer
Zhong, S. (2013) Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Cybernetics and Informatics, New York, NY: Springer
Polgar, J. & Adamson, G. (2013) Web portal design, implementation, integration, and optimization, Hershey, Pa.: IGI Global
Journals
Blasco-Arcas, L., Hernandez-Ortega, B. & Jimenez-Martinez, J. (2013) “Adopting television as a new channel for e-commerce: The influence of interactive technologies on consumer behavior”, Electron Commer Res, 13(4), 457-475
Burinskiene, A. & Burinskas, A. (2012) “Consumer Demand: E-Commerce or Traditional Technologies”, Ecoman, 17(3), pp. 45-63
Guo, M. (2012) “A Comparative Study on Consumer Right to Privacy in E-Commerce”, ME, 03(04), pp. 78-84
Saldanha, T. & Krishnan, M. (2012) “Organizational Adoption of Web 2.0 Technologies: An Empirical Analysis”, Journal of Organizational Computing And Electronic Commerce, 22(4), 301-333
Shen, H. (2013) “An Exploration of Information Push Technologies in E-Commerce”, AMR, pp.756-759
Smythe, R. (2012) “Practical aspects of modern interferometry for optical manufacturing quality control: Part 2”, Advanced Optical Technologies, 1(3), pp. 57-68
Vasileiadis, A. (2014) “Security Concerns and Trust in the Adoption of M-Commerce”, Social Technologies, 4(1), 179-191
Yu, J. & Liu, W. (2014) “New Information and Communication Technologies’ Application Process and Pattern of Commerce”, AMM, 530-531, 743-750
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