Starting a Business Online, Research Paper Example

Starting a business is hard work. It can be frustrating and tiring, but the final outcome can lead to success and long-term employment. When transforming your business to the traditional brick and mortar to the online web takes skill and knowledge on knowing how to successfully navigate in the online market. Engaging in e-commerce has its advantages and disadvantages that will help map out the store owner’s success in the clothing market.

For this section of the paper, I will perform a SWOT analysis that will determine the advantages and disadvantages of taking the New Jersey clothing store online. The Jersey Shore has become a popular tourist vacation spot since the start of the famous boardwalk and made more popular by the creation of the infamous, Jersey Shore reality show. If lucky a small business owner can turn a substantial amount of profit by being located on or near the boardwalk. The type of business is a popular clothing store fashioned around the typical Jersey style and tourist keepsakes. However, when seasons change, so does the number of visitors to the boardwalk and to store. The next vital step to take in increasing profit is to take the small business online. There is a lot of thought going into this plan, so it is best to weigh the pros and cons.

One of the strengths is that the cost of advertising goes down considerably. When putting your business online, the best way to get the business known is to put out banners, ads, and other online marketing methods that drive traffic to the website. When marketing offline, the cost of advertisement is into the thousands, the amount for a billboard located near the boardwalk cost from $1500-$5000, but online 1/3 that amount will get better advertisements on the internet. (BillboardSource, 2013) The second strength is that since the clothing store has been an established on the boardwalk and popular among locals and tourist the move to online will have a good amount of following that will turn into new and returning visitors. A major strength to transitioning to online e-commerce is the most crucial factor, the increase in profits and sales. Online presence will open up the store to a wider consumer base and help generate profit. It will offer popular clothing at a competitive cost since it is an authentic fixture on the New Jersey Shore boardwalk. The store can offer customizable clothing that has become popular among tourists, which include their names or popular sayings from the hit reality show.

However, one of the weaknesses of the business is that amount of competition that the business will face. On the New Jersey boardwalk alone, there are nearly hundreds of vendors and clothing shops that cater to thousands of tourist that come each month. When transitioning online the number grows significantly with the number increasing to millions, locally thousands. Many clothing companies can offer the same options that the small clothing store will offer. Another weakness is that if it has taken this long to get on the internet than the clothing store is not as technical savvy as younger clothing companies. This is a significant disadvantage coming into the online clothing market, many businesses are using the power of social media platforms, and other innovative ways to advertise and market online. The need for expert in not only online marketing, but building an online website that will run efficiently and have a clear interface for customers to peruse and input sensitive information.

The opportunities that are available to the company for getting into e-commerce is that the purpose of getting more customers locally, and nationally can expand further into the niche market. A key opportunity that this transition will create is that it will not only help with sales on the website, but increase foot traffic and sales at the physical location near the boardwalk, with hopes of expanding to other locations throughout New Jersey. This opportunity will help to give back to the locally economy that has left devastated after Hurricane Sandy, and help foster growth and opportunity.

The threats that could arise in the move to e-commerce are several. The threat of security infringement to the website and into customers’ personal information could not only harm the business reparation but lose the trust of customers. Valuable financial information could be stolen if the correct security measures were not implemented, and identity theft or financial theft could be the result. Another threat that could arise is that copycat local clothing stores could offer lower prices on clothing than the company could allow. This threat will drive sales and profits down, and the business online would fold as the result.

As we put our business online, it opens up the doors to the international market. They are several barriers that must be solved in order to engage properly in e-commerce. Businesses that engage in e-commerce must be aware of the different languages that they will come across. A way that the business could preempt those problems is by imputing translations add-on on the website that lets the visitor translates into a language understandable to do business. Google Translate or other add-ons are readily available on the internet. To gain the trust of potential customers, it is necessary to have an open interface with a seal of guarantee, refund policy, and a verified seal from security vendor that implicates that their information will not be given to a third party and their information is safe on the website. Culture is a serious problem with online companies, when trying to market online to recruit customers knowing the correct customs and popular colors or graphics will make international customers comfortable doing business with the company. Ways that the clothing store can do this is by creating special websites for different markets, which will not offend the customer but entice to shop.

Government in terms of legality is important, knowing the correct laws and regulations for e-commerce will keep the company out of court and legal matters. Complying with laws before doing business with other countries saves the clothing store time and headaches. The infrastructure includes the computers and software that the store uses. In foreign countries, most of the infrastructure is government controlled. In order to do business, knowledge in taxation laws, international trade agreements, and certain country customs is essential to know. Having the correct software that is able to identify the barriers in infrastructure is something the clothing company would have to purchase.

Complying with the law is vital in e-commerce. Ways to get around traditional boundaries of business communication are the same as complying with laws in the country physically. Having good knowledge of the culture, government, and infrastructure allows for following the correct regulations. In order for governments to regulate business, contracts will be made with between the company and governments in order to enact jurisdiction and an agreement to comply with local laws. (Business Strategies, n.d) In dealing with e-commerce the clothing store will face threats of online crime that may harm the flow of business. Such crimes include identity theft which is highly prevalent in e-commerce and the threat of viruses that can crash the website. (Business Strategies, n.d) Solutions for the company to combat these problems are implementing the correct virus protection in place, which alerts and wipes out virus and malware. A strategy for identity theft is protection seal from security companies such as Norton, VeriSign, or other highly reputable companies. This not only insures that information will be protected but lets the customer put trust within the company.

Transitioning on the web could be a large task that requires expert knowledge of marketing trends, and advertising campaigns. For the New Jersey clothing company, knowing the correct laws, regulations, competition, and international marketing trends will help to make the transition for the company a lot smoother.

References

Business Strategy B2B. (n.d) Business Strategies for E-Commerce Retrieved from http://liz.petree.tripod.com/test_2/legal.html

Indoor & Outdoor Advertisiments. (2013). BillBoardSource.com Retrieved from http://www.billboardsource.com/products.php

Introduction to E-Commerce. (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/9598_019964Ch1.pdf

Where To Shop (2013) Ocean City Vacation. Retrieved from http://www.oceancityvacation.com/where-to-shop/boardwalk.html