Example of dotcom Failure

Boo.com was launched in 1999, with appromimately $ 125 millions investment from Bernard Arnault and Benetton. The launching of Boo.com was delayed for 6 months giving reason technical problem which occurred in forming the company. This contributed to the factor which caused the fall of Boo.com.

Apart from that, $ 6 million was also invested into purchasing of fashion ware but due to delayed launching of the company which later on was put into wasted as those fashion ware purchased was founded to be outdated.

Another factor contributes to the fall of Boo.com are not user-friendly feature in the website. Boo.com implemented virtual sales assistant to aid customer is their shopping experience around Boo.com. Instead of providing customer with pleasant shopping experience it fails terribly , customer do not only felt frustrated but they are greeted with slow browsing and irritating technology. It causes Boo.com reputation to fall dramatically despite huge investment made in progress of launching the biggest fashion website on internet.

On the contrary, its poorly designed webpage and unfriendly usability also contributes to its failure. In the internet world, there is rule employed such as the "3 click" rules which states user can reach their designated webpage in not more than 3 click but Boo. com fail to identify this convenience instead its customer needed to go through 5 different graphic before continuing their shopping or browsing. Moreover, Boo.com also limits each customer to 3 transactions in every 20 minutes, it discourage customer to further shop at its website.

In addition, bad planning and marketing of Boo.com played a role in its downturn. Customer turning into internet shopping as they are attracted by cheaper price they're paying compared to retail shop which is also convenient, better prices and faster process. Boo.com did not fulfill any of the stated benefits instead their premium product was not offer any discount quoting value of product will diminished. Whereas, its management did not foresee long-term objective of improving its system. Investor rush into developing of its website and neglected the risk involved as Boo.com lacked the experience of "Brick & Mortar"

As there is no manager to monitor its expenses of constructing and maintaning the website, money was flowing out of the company more than expected. Example is the expenses of website maintenance alone cost 5000 pound monthly which burden its financial situation. Only after 6 months of operation where Boo.com manage to recruit CFO to manage its company. Besides, there is also question raised in the employees benefits and luxury spending which are said to attract and retain good employees. When Boo.com was at the edge of insolvency, its investor refused to invest more money to bail out Boo.com.

Coller, D 2008,The Most Famous Dot.com Failure
: Why Did Boo.com Fail as an E-tailer? What Lessons are there for Existing and Prospective E-tailers?, Accessed by 18th July 2009, Available from http://www.edigitalretail.com/Most_Famous_Dotcom_Failure.pdf

Further reading on the factor of Boo.com failure. click here

History and Evolution of E-commerce

What is e-commerce?

It is know as the process of conducting financial transaction electronically such as e-payment. For example Public Bank, provides e-payment services in their website. Users who wish to make payment to any individual or business sector may visit the website. Due to the success of e- commerce it is well know for shopping online on the World Wide Web. Users may shop online without visiting the shopping mall. EBay and Amazon.com are examples of online shopping that display many goods such as books, accessories, headphones and many more.

E- Commerce can be for business to business (B to B) or business to consumer (B to C). Besides conducting financial transaction over the internet electronically, e- commerce is also know for selling product and services over the internet. Over the years there has been an increase in e-commerce sales.


E-commerce’s History.

During those days, e-commerce is known as the process that executes commercial transactions electronically using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer. Using these leading technologies has opened the door for users to exchange business information and do electronic transaction. EDI and EFT was developed and introduce in the late 1970’s.

From that point, the internet started to develop and to become popular among the users in 1994. Even though there is an increase in the popularity, it took around four years to develop the security protocol (HTTP and DSL) that allows rapid access and consistent connection to the internet.


Evolution of E-commerce

Through out the years e-commerce industry has grown to be the multi billion industry. Let’s have a look at the table below to have a clearer picture on the evolution of e-commerce.

Year --------- Event

1984----EDI, or also known as electronic data interchange, was standardized using ASC X12. This guaranteed that companies would be able to complete any transactions with one another reliably.EDI is actually a strict formatted message that focuses on document other than monetary instrument. For example,message is sent by buyer to seller. The buyer may sent message to the supplier to request for purchase order, advise on the payment for good and any other related matters.

1992----Online retail products to its customers was introduced by CompuServe. This gives people the first chance to buy things off their computer.For example like books,computer devices any many more. Due to advance in technology, user now may visit CompuServe website to purchase any good or services based on their preference.www.cs.com/

1994----Then a browser called Netscape is introduced.It provides people with a simple browser in order to surf the internet and a safe online transaction technology which is called Secure Sockets Layer. As time goes on, Netscape now has launched Netscape 6,Netscape 7,and Netscape Browser 8. On May 2007 Netscape Navigator will be named Netscape Navigator 9.Users of this browser may visit browser.netscape.com/ whereby it is the official site of the web that provides dowloads and other technical information.

1995----The founding father of e-commerce was launched : Amazon.com and eBay.com. Basicly,this two website has developed over the years and it provides various type of services such as selling books online, club and fitness item, clothing and many more.This allows user to shop online without making the effort to visit the shopping complex or warehouse.

1998----DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line, provides fast, and continous Internet service to subscribers across California. Later DSL started to expand its service through out the world whereby it allows high band width data to be transport. High band width data are like video,pictures and multimedia. This leads people to spend more time, and money, online.

1999----According to Business.com retail spending over the internet reaches $20billion.

2000----Until 2005 the U.S government has extended the moratorium on the Internet

E-commerce model.

Through the internet users are allowed to buy good and services online by comparing the prices and other features that is advertise by a particular company. Besides that, users who wish to purchase online tickets can do so by just visiting the airline website. The users just need to fill up the necessary particulars and purchase their ticket online. Air Asia is one of the airline companies in Malaysia that provide this service in their website. Moreover for those who love reading business magazine, Time.com is selling their magazine through this website. They allow user to purchase the issue by offering four free issues.



References :
http://newmedia.medill.northwestern.edu/courses/nmpspring01/brown/Revstream/models.htm
http://www.ecommerce-land.com/history_ecommerce.html
http://communication.howstuffworks.com/history-e-commerce2.htm

An example of an E-Commerce success and its causes

An example of an E-Commerce success and its causes

Example of Success

One example of the application of e-commerce in Malaysia would be the partnership formed by the Citibank and Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri Malaysia(LHDNM).
Citibank was the first foreign bank in Malaysia who had launched Citi Connection e-Tax, an online payment system for the companies to settle their tax payments through online system.The access is allowable for the customers for 24 hours and 7 days (24/7). It is a total convenient and secured way for users to settle their tax payment to LHDNM. A form could be obtained via online from LHDNM webpage and settle the payment through Citibank, the web-enabled financial services portal.
According to Sanjeev Nanavati, Chief Executive Officer of Citibank Berhad told that these form of partnership is the basic platform for customers to directly pay their tax over 19 different tax payments via CitiConnect. It is also an easier way without hurdles to settle tax payments for the companies mainly.
Besides, Citibank has also considered the employees and therefore supported the employees on the their PCB tax payments. Employees or corporations could upload their PCB submission and initiate payment via a simple user interface. For Citibank,it was not a hard task as it was just the same as EPF-Contribution alliance which is currently available in Malaysia.
Last but not least, through this E-tax payment via online, it also has carved a shape into a leading paths in coordination with Bank Negara Malaysia’s strategy to promote greater adoption of and migration to more competent electronic payment modes. In line with it, in a ceremony, Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Hasmah Binti Abdullah, Chief Executive Officer of LHDNM, said “these partnership works as another level of success in the ever-continuing strategy between public and private sector.”

Causes
The causes of the success could be due to:

• Complete
  Payment through online could be in complete information provided to the customers and as detailed explanation to the customers on making payment through online.
• Simple
  Customers would be happily using it just because of the simplicity with the online payment. Even if it was first time for the user but still they can get used to it. This is mainly because of the simple instructions.
• Creation
  It is very easy to search information on these with the help of search engine friendly pages such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.
• Flexible
  Easier to meet your need on the payment as you do not need to go to the LHDNM department to settle the payment and bring along a huge sum of cash. Besides, u could just make the payment wherever you are.
• Competitive
  Citibank has competitors therefore the formation partnership for e-tax payment could establish itself to others well and increase the number of customers perhaps.
• Acceptance
  Credit cards payment are widely accepted nowadays for the online payment in real time with or without your own merchant account. What you have to do is-just choose any of the 85 integrated payment gateways.
• Attractive
  It is well customized therefore it is attractive that could grab the attention of new users with its convenient and fastest way as solution to pay tax online.

Finally,before I conclude I would like to share my opinion, which is that e-commerce has developed far beyond our expectation.Therefore, more knowledge should be obtained regarding its success which opens a wider way for easier lifestyle.Big companies are mostly welcomed to subscribe the application of e-commerce for their daily business but at the same time it is advisable to also look through the danger site of it as there are many intruders,hackers,etc.

Related Links
http://www.theasianbanker.com/
http://www.thepaypers.com/
http://www.ecommerce-journal.com/

Google is changing everything with a real world case

There are many companies associated with ecommerce nowadays, but that is no one who can take the first place from Google which is primarily for its search engine. Obviously, Google has grown more faster than other ecommerce company and google is changing everything. I am sure you and my life have been changed by using google.

Google is trying to organize the world's information and combine all the information, make it universally. So that, everyone can get the information by fingertips. A good example is google reinvented the spreadsheet as a web based application, which is easily to understand by the users and they can share the data up to 10 users simultaneously. It makes our life easier and all the information are useful.

One of the real world examples is Kaiser Permanente, the largest nonprofit health maintenance organization(HMO) in US. The amount of available medical knowledge has increased doubles by every 7 years, so it is very important by updating the information in order to make sure that, Kaiser Permanente has provides good caregiving.

Because of the doctor's handwriting might be difficult to understand and some of the pharmaceutical product names are jargon. So, when Kaiser Permanente turned to Google Search Appliance, which enables this HMO to index more than 150000 documents across the network. Now, everybody can share the information all around the US and even the World, doctors and nurses are also using google search to get information which help them dignose and specify treatments, and also check for the effects by taking particular medication, they can consult clinical research studies as well.

It is very convenient by using Google Search Appliance, and it changes many people's life.