Reply to the following threads with at least 175 words per reply. Any sources cited must have been published within the last five years. Acceptable sources include the International section of any reputable website that focuses on international business, such as Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, or the Economist.
THREAD 1 (Cole):
For this discussion board I am going to talk about e-commerce. From the text book it tells us that e-commerce is using the internet with a business to sell to the customer or to another business. It says that these transactions are easy and instantaneous, but it will include extra costs to the business. The first article I found about ecommerce explained the basics of what it is. Ecommerce is the buying and selling of goods online and pretty much includes everything. You can find basically everything on the internet in todays world. ecommerce has become so big in our world that almost all businesses have an online presence at this point, and if a business does not then they should. Especially since the pandemic people have become so accustom to ordering things online. People do not even want to leave their house to go to a store anymore because they know that they can look at and order whatever they want right from their couch. It is also beneficial for businesses to sell online because they are able to reach so many more people with eccomerce. If they only have a store then they are only able to reach people in the area. If they are selling things online then they are able to sell to anyone in the country and even the world. Social media also has a huge effect on ecommerce, businesses are able to market in new ways and really expand their customers through influencers and social media pages.
THREAD 2 (Paul):
Market expansion can be anything from expanding you market audience in your same country or moving overseas. Or it can be as simple as running a new winter line of clothes to expanded your market.
In this article (18 Aug 2021) it goes over many different things you need to think about before you go forwards with you market expansion in you company. If you move forwards to quickly you jeopardies you current business as you may not have the capital you need or suppliers lined up to meet you new and increasing demands from customers. This all comes from a lack of planning which takes more time and resources to work out the logistics of your new idea. In your planning you need to go over the risk and make detailed plans like growth calculations, financial resources, and other items. Another risk or disadvantage of market expansion is a loss of control. As you grow you will need to delegate out a lot of the decisions to lower management as well as more automated machines to do task.
Now I know this is no risk of market expansion but there are many advantages to market growth once you get passed the risk and planning in the business. When you expanded you may now have the opportunity to buy more inventory items in bulk and have a greater group of people to sell to whether that is overseas or in country.