Introduction
In the Business to Consumer model, trade occurs when a client and a certain business are linked through an e-commerce site. This form of trade centers on straight sales and marketing to the final consumer. As espoused by (Chang, 2010) It is more expressed in comparison to business to the business model as it depends on persons doing particular transactions. The profits to be gained are also high in this type of model as clients purchase fewer goods at a time. In this way, the supplier can make a sale at a higher value when one compares this to the wholesale cost.
This type of model is typified by:
- Lower sales volume
- Higher price on the cost each product
In his book (Zenra, 2008) a good illustration of an e-commerce site can be exemplified by sites that include shopping carts. The goods that are vital to the client can be supplemented to the cart. Another characteristic of an e-commerce site would be an additional preference for adding extra goods or removing goods that may have been added and are offered at all the points during the online shopping experience. The client can in the end purchase the contents of the cart from the site.
A Business to customer model is subsequently aimed at clients:
- Grants personalized offers to its clients.
- This model learns about clients’ activities and supports tailored content and adaptive sales methods more willingly than exhibiting a listing of catalogs always.
- Offers protected credit-card agreements and payments.
- Provides computerized client services.
Industry Analysis
Current Business Model
For this project, I selected the DVD e-commerce Business. The current online rental businesses employed by most rental businesses have adopted a technique whereby the
- The client becomes a member of the online rental service and goes ahead to create a catalog of movie titles that they would want to watch.
- Current and latest movies from the catalog are mailed to the client.
- The client views the movies and then returns them through mail or personally to the rental service they have subscribed to.
The majority of the movie rental services will allow clients to keep the movies up to the point they want to return them. They are however restricted to several movies at any time. Usually, once a disc is returned, another movie is sent to the client. Some movie rental services or plans may perhaps have a restriction on the total number of movies borrowed each month. Membership plans are charged monthly and comprise of utilizing postage.
Leaders in the business: The current business leaders in the movie rental businesses are NetFlix followed by Blockbuster. The market leaders NetFlix are using a model whereby subscribers to the service register online and can order the movies they want from the site. One advantage that they have over their competitors is that they do not charge their customers for late returning of movies. They also don’t charge on a per movie basis but rather on the various available packages.
Infrastructure Analysis
There is one important website to be considered by us as a benchmark for improving its online presence. This is because the attributes of this website meet the desired standards of a good website. In essence, a good website can take its users to a new level of experience. Ina study (Movie Rentals, 2010) the website is www.netflix.com, the reason for choosing this website is simply because of the following outlined features that have been greatly exploited.
User experience
There is no better way of enhancing the experience of the user more than the way Netflix has done it. When you are on the home page of this website, you will feel invited by the expertise used to design the website. The website is meant to attract and retain its users. Essential information about the purpose of the site is strategically placed on the home page in a manner that a viewer can easily find. This website has an easy assistance question at the top right corner of the page which guides the visitor by allowing them to feel a simple form on their problems for submission.
The wordings of the website cannot get any better than they are, they are simple and precise coupled with intelligent use of the available space. Some links lead the user to their desired destination of information and back the navigation is simplified, the designer of the website had a clear vision of the audience in mind. The site simply addresses its purpose and enhances the experience of the user. We will benefit a lot by using the features of this website to take the experience of its users to the next level.
Update
The Netflix site is frequently updated and the presence of Newsletters to the users after completing the registration clearly shows the commitment of the website to achieve its medical goals. In his book (Yang, 2003) the Online DVD Business ought to use the level provided by Netflix as a benchmark for service and online advertisement. The major reason why there is a significant real-life experience and the feeling of fresh information from the website is because of the available points of submitting the questions and getting feedback from the representative on the website.
Graphics usage and animation
When opening the home page of Netflix the usage of graphics is well balanced and brings the live experience of medical information that the website is giving to its audience. The graphics used in the website are alive and constantly changing in a manner that gives the user a feeling of the contents of the website. This is one of the major reasons why this website is a perfect benchmark for our analysis.
Survey polls
The Survey poll on the user’s opinions placed at the bottom of the page makes the user feel a contributor to the design of the site which is perfect. This aspect also makes the user feel like a part of the company and hence have a frequent visit. The poll has simple questions that do not waste the visitor’s time when feeling but instead capture the essence of the need.
Keywords
The use of the keywords on the website concerning its purpose makes it more strategic and easily accessible to the users. This is important because the website is easily accessible in the most used search engines like Google.
Registration
The easy registration process also makes the user feel like a part of the company and thereafter receive useful medical information and newsletters that are useful to the user. This is an important aspect for Digi-cares to exploit to get substantial attention to its website.
Model Analysis
Plan of operation
Most rental businesses obtain movies from the movie-making companies thus acting as middlemen for the marketing of their products. In this process, it is hence essential for the movie rental businesses to form a business-to-business relationship with the movie-making companies to constantly get the supply of movies.
In this sense therefore any e-commerce website needs to function and meet the requirements of a good website before launching the website. The plan of operation, in this case, will assess the unforeseeable possibilities and manage how they are going to be addressed. The other consideration, in this case, is the domain name from a web hosting company. The domain name should be simple if possible. After accessing the domain name, it would be imperative to consider the rates of web hosting companies and their reliability. In his study (Baker, 2008) it may be important to use a more expensive but reliable company if you want to be successful in the internet business. Downtimes of a website can chase potential clients.
Financial plan
Since this is an online or internet business, the major cost will go to the web designing process, web hosting company, and the site manager responsible for updating the internet or checking all the ongoing activities on the website. A typical expense table of an internet business structure will be as follows;
Financially online business is the best because there are no costs related to the structure, the cost of location, unlike the physical business.
Product and Market Analysis
Marketing plan
The visitors of the website will include all demographics because of the nature of the goods that will be sold online. In his report (Eric, 2003) the income levels of the people expected to shop in the online business proposed will be expected to be living over $10 per day, this will allow people living in poor countries of the world to access the products of the company.
Competitor analysis
Since many similar businesses are operating online, blockbuster.com is one of the most known and successful in business transactions. Its analysis of the strengths and weaknesses will give an overview of the reality in the ground concerning the market niche and good strategies.
Blockbuster.com strengths
- It is well developed in its online operations
- It has a substantial market niche.
Blockbuster.com weakness
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- Its pricing is high in most cases
- The response of the customer care is slow because of the number of customers.
Conclusion
In fundamental nature, the site is running an implementation service. Every day the service pays other individuals to open received emails, examine and enclose the ordered movies. He also shells out some amount to the postman to transport the movies backward and forward to their clients. At the center of this business is the core principle that the number of DVD handlers the company employs rises and falls in proportion to the business volume.
List Of References
Baker, M. (2008) The E-Commerce Marketing Plan Audit. New York, McGraw-Hill.
Chang, B. (2010) The Common Movie Myth. New York, CRC Publishers.
Eric, S. Siegel & Brian, R. et al. (2003). Netflix. New York, John Wiley, and Sons.
Movie Rentals. (2010). Better DVD Access. Accessed on 23 April 2010 from www.hollywood.com.
Robert, S.(2000) Netflix.com – Get Big Fast: Inside the Revolutionary Business Model That Changed the World. New York, Harper Collins Publishers.
Siklos, R. (2006) Netflix considering downloads. London, Oxford Publishers.
Yang, G. (2003) E-commerce Revolution. London, Oxford Publishers.
Zenra, J, (2008) The Difference between Online Businesses. Chinchester, Olrom Publishers.