Page 117 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

96 3 Retailing in Electronic Commerce: Products and Services

with that of an adjustable rate for the first year. Finally, (b) Amazon.com operates Zappos (zappos.com) as a sep-
compute your total payments if you take the loan for 15 arate entity. Does this make sense? Why or why not?
years at the going rate. Compare it with a 30-year mort- (c) Visit amazon.com and identify at least three specific
gage. Comment on the difference. elements of its personalization and customization
5. Access the Virtual Trader game at virtualtrader.co.uk features. Browse specific books on one particular
and register for the Internet stock game. You will be subject, leave the site, and then go back and revisit the
bankrolled with a virtual £100,000 in a trading account site. What do you see? Are these features likely to
every month. You can play other investment games at encourage you to purchase more books in the future
investopedia.com/simulator or find and create a free from Amazon.com? Check the 1-Click feature and
stock market game at marketwatch.com/game. other shopping aids provided. List the features and
Comment on your experiences. discuss how they may lead to increased sales.
6. Compare the price of a specific Sony digital camera at (d) With what type(s) of companies does Amazon.com
shopping.com, mysimon.com, bizrate.com, and price- have alliances? Why?
grabber.com. Which site locates the best deal? Where (e) Check all the personalization features on Amazon.
do you get the best information? com. List their advantages.
7. Enter vineyardvines.com. Identify all multichannels (f) Find the technology-oriented activities at Amazon.
used in their retail operations. List the benefits to the com (e.g., Mechanical Turk; making e-readers). List
company. the major ones and discuss the logic of such
8. Enter bazaarvoice.com and find how consumers can offerings.
engage in a dialog. Look at its Q&A functionality in (g) Find some recent material on Amazon.com’s market-
both “Conversations” and “Connections.” Write a report ing strategy and discuss your findings.
based on your findings. (h) Examine social networking activities on Amazon.
9. Enter couchsurfing.org and examine how they connect com. What are their purposes?
potential travelers with hosts. Discuss the things that 2. Each team will investigate the services of two online car-
you like and the limitations of this service. Compare selling sites (from the following list or other sites). When
with home swapping sites such as homeexchange.com. the teams have finished, they should bring their research
10. Enter zillow.com/corp/ZillowPortfolio.htm and see together and discuss their findings.
Zillow’s portfolio. Examine their capabilities and the (a) Buying new cars through an intermediary (autobytel.
benefits to consumers. Write a report. com or carsdirect.com).
11. How can LinkedIn and Facebook help job seekers? How (b) Buying used cars (autotrader.com).
can they help employers? Relate your answers to what (c) Buying used cars from auto dealers (manheim.com).
you can find on indeed.com. (d) Automobile rating sites (carsdirect.com and
12. Compare the sites yelp.com and epinions.com. fueleconomy.gov).
13. Visit hayneedle.com. What kind of a mall is this? (e) Car-buying portals (thecarportal.com and cars.
14. Enter layar.com. Find information about Layar Creator com).
and other products that can support B2C shopping. (f) Buying collector cars (classiccars.com and antique-
Write a report. car.com).
15. Enter play.google.com/store. Relate the offerings of 3. Each team (or team member) will review two or three
this site to topics in this chapter. travel-oriented social networks (e.g., world66.com, vir-
tualtourist.com, bootsnall.com, tripadvisor.com,
travel.tripcase.com, Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree travel
TEAM ASSIGNMENTS AND PROJECTS forum lonelyplanet.com/thorntree, wayn.com, and
budgetglobetrotting.com). Compare their functional-
1. Assignment for the Opening Case ities. Then read Carey et al. (2012) and examine the vari-
Read the opening case and answer the following questions. ous issues raised in this paper including the surfing
(a) What are Amazon.com’s critical success factors? Is strategy. Write a report.
its decision to offer a much broader selection of items 4. Each team will represent a broker-based area (e.g., real
a good marketing strategy? With the increased ser- estate, insurance, stocks, employment). Each team will
vices and diversification, do you think the company find a new development that has occurred within the
will be able to concentrate on its core competency of assigned area over the most recent three months. Look for
enhancing the Amazon.com brand? What about their vendor announcements on these sites, and search for new
long-term vs. short-term strategy? happenings in each area. In addition, examine the relevant