E-commerce at Amazon

E-commerce at Amazon
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Response to Question 1
Selling books and other products online have some advantages, which, as a result, have been able to attract customers from its beginning. A good example in this field is the Amazon’s online stores. Online bookstores including other products over the internet can be accessible 24/7. Books can be ordered at any time whether it is for nighttime or daytime and products can be sold online (Stone, 2007). This eliminates the need for physical space, staffs to operate a physical store or maintenance and rental cost. Only the cost of both web-hosting and maintaining the online website can be incurred.
However, the disadvantage of selling books and other products online include the following. First, the stores do not exist physically; therefore only those who surf over the internet can access the online stores. Secondly, in order to promote awareness of such products, marketing is required to be conducted through online networking forums. Doherty (2007) explains that offline advertisements are also required, which can be promoted through newspaper advertising and other means; these lead to increasing in the cost of marketing. Thirdly, some buyers are still not familiarized with online transaction. This exposed the sellers in an inconvenient situation in online business, and also the sales volume may reduce because buyers may be concerned with security and safety issues involving online transaction.
Response to Question 2
Cases whereby books can be downloaded online might lead to availability of several free resources; consequently, the sales of Amazon might significantly decrease since many people would like reading books from the screen rather than physical books. Availability of free sources might cause a serious problem by obstructing book-selling business. However, i...