Alibaba

Alibaba.com is an e-commerce or e-auction company which is specializing in global trading. It was founded in 1999 by Ma Yun（Jack Ma）. In 2008, alibaba.com has attracted at least 23 million visitors of which 65 percent were from China.The alibaba.com is specializes in Business to business trades, especially for international buyers that trying to contact with sellers. It is an e-commerce ecosystem that allows consumers and businesses to do all aspects of business online. Manufacturer can publish their company profile at the Alibaba.com for free, so it can attract lot of low-cost manufacturer joining to their website and company who looking to partner with a low-cost manufacturer can easily search from Alibaba.com to find the suppliers of everything they need. It can help the new business to save some advertisement cost and easier for them to run their business

 Sub-companies of Alibaba :

1. Alipay
2. Alisoft
3. Alimama

Alibaba -open sesame

When asked the people about alibaba, they all will answer that Alibaba--open sesame. The word 'Alibaba' is easy to spell, and globally known. So it can attract more people to search for the website as it is a simple word and easy to remember.Alibaba also can said as the opens sesame for small- to medium-sized companies

www.alibaba.com

Travelocity.com

Travel Industry has gained great success in the online market lately. Customers can find their travel itinerary and tickets faster and at lower prices than the ones you can get directly from a travel agency .
Travelocity.com offers travel arrangements that include flights booking, car rentals, accommodation, and holiday packages without the intervention of an agent.

Travelocity works with Shopping-bot technology, which means the software looks for the best  price option for the specific item to purchase; so in this case, Travelocity will find a match  between the airline rates and the data base, displaying a list of flights that will match with the requirement submitted by the customer.

Volume 3, page 92, e-Business Model
http://software.ucv.ro/~cbadica/didactic/ce/documente/ModeleEBusiness.pdf

The Computer Language Company. 2012. The Free Dictionary. [ONLINE] Available at: http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/shopping+bot. [Accessed 27 May 12].

Success of My Shopping.com.au

Success of  My Shopping .com.au

If you have a long drown out URL few people will remember it and they will more than likely visit a more memorable site. You will also need some type of shopping cart so that customers can select items and continue shopping on your site as well as get an idea of how much they are spending. Another thing Internet retailers may need is a service that allows them to accept credit card for instance PayPal or other merchant account companies. It's very hard to run a business online if your only accepted method of payment is checks and money orders more people are using credit cards to pay for purchases online or electronic checks or virtual cash like E-gold. 






Some benefits of running an online store are that it can be started with a smaller amount of capital than a traditional brick and mortar business. Instead of paying rent each month for a building or property taxes, utility bills and so on. The business can be run from the comfort of your own home, and could even offer you some tax benefits or deductions at the end of the year.

Amazon

Amazon which is a global leader of e business and started in 1995 by Jeff  bozos from Seattle, Washington. He started his business from books and now its continuing to everything such as electronics, sports stuff, Jewellery, heath beauty and home essentials. Amazon is operating his sites in Canada, Italy, china, Fran Germany and so more.

Recently, they held a meeting of shareholders on 24 may, 2012. in which they had talked about By 17, February 2012 they had 451,592,229 shares of common stock outstanding. To elect the ten directors named in the Proxy Statement to serve until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their respective successors are elected and qualified.To approve the material terms of the performance goals, as amended, pursuant to Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) in our 1997 Stock Incentive Plan (the “1997 Plan)”

Apple strikes back at government e- book lawsuit ( 25 may 2012)
 http://www.amazon.com/

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A few days ago, Apple filed a response to the antitrust lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice in April against it and several book publishers.

The gist of the 31-page filing is the same as Apple’s previous comments on the case: the company denies that it conspired with book publishers to raise e-book prices in a bid to give Apple’s new iPad a boost and to thwart the low e-book pricing of Amazon. But Apple put its objections to the case in somewhat sharper terms in the new filing, accusing the government of siding with “monopoly, rather than competition,” a reference to Amazon, the leader in e-book retailing.“The government starts from the false premise that an e-books ‘market’ was characterized by ‘robust price competition’ prior to Apple’s entry,” Apple said in its filing. “This ignores a simple and incontrovertible fact: before 2010, there was no real competition, there was only Amazon.”

One noteworthy part of Apple’s response is a denial of one of the more juicy accusations in the government’s suit: namely, that in 2009 Apple “contemplated illegally dividing the digital content world with Amazon, allowing each to ‘own the category’ of its choice — audio/video to Apple and e-books to Amazon.” The government did not say in its filing exactly what evidence it had to prove that accusation.

Apple, for its part, said it never acted on or even contemplated any such plan to divide up the digital content market with Amazon.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/apple-strikes-back-at-government-e-book-lawsuit/?ref=amazoninc

Multimillion-dollar E- ntertainment business: Moshi Monsters!

Moshi Monsters is one of the most popular online game in the UK .  Created by Michael Acton Smith, the 37-year-old founder of Shoreditch, England-based entertainment company Mind Candy.
"Started in 2008, Moshi Monsters is a children's game with a social networking element that allows users to adopt and care for their own pet monsters in a virtual world. Users pay a $6 monthly fee to play the game.
By February 2011, the site had amassed 35 million users worldwide. That number jumped to 50 million users last June".

The company counts today with over  100 employees and a product line that combines Moshi-branded toys, a magazine and a TV channel called Moshi TV.  Mind Candy' s purpose is massive.  The company  claims to have  generated more than $100 million in gross sales on all Moshi Monsters-related products last year.

Jason Fell. 2012. Entrepreneur. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/222773. [Accessed 20 May 12]

E-business strategies:  -Social Media-

Today's e-business are in constant need to grow and be successful. Risking your company's success in the virtual world by not applying the right changes and link up with them may not be the best idea. In order to stay up to date and succeed with an e-business some strategies can be applied and one of them is the use of Social Media.

The applicability of Twitter , facebook or blogs as strategies for business growth are some of the benefits today's business owners can get to open markets and increase customers.
Blogs are useful to attract readers and inform them about the products/services the company offers, where as Twitter for instance, notifies on the spot about this new information in just one click.  "Social Media is best used as a passive source for generating sales".

Kate McFarlin, Demand Media. 2012. chron.com. [ONLINE] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-ebusiness-strategy-11453.html. [Accessed 19 May 12].

Ebay



Everybody in the business to business world looks at eBay as the progenitor of the whole model.The ebay company began as a small business in the home of Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and now, he is a leader in Internet revenue. This company began as something like an online garage sale and has enjoyed steady growth over the years and years.

The ebay is working as a online wholesale where people can find everything from a little hairband to cars and boats. They give option to people either bid on the item or they buy it right now.As well as it is effective for the sellers. They just don't have only established brands, their business models pairing buyers and sellers through dynamic pricing which fits well with the concept of matching businesses and suppliers as well.

There is another website half.com similar to ebay which allow its users to sell and buy things on cheaper price but without the auction feature.

Ebay has got millions of customer because of paypal. Its is a best way to make payments which allow customers send money via cheque, credit card, debit card and a bill paying option. 

Ebay is a sucessful e business company who has got more than thirty five million customers over the world and still continuing growth through their many countries. Also people are running their own buinesses through ebay by selling things. 

Apple's e-store satisfaction

''Apple's online store scored the highest satisfaction rating of any computer-related company, and handily beat rival Microsoft, a consumer pollster said today''.

The customer satisfaction with Apple's Online outlet in the U.S. showed 5 points increase in relation with the previous year, this is 85 for 2012 according to Michigan-based Forsee.
Amazon's is the only company that beats apple's records with a score of 89.

"Apple also beat a number of online retailers that do not manufacture computers or other technology, but simply sell what's made by others. Newegg, the nearest rival in that group, scored 82, while others, such as BestBuy (80), TigerDirect (79) and PC Connection (74), were further behind".

Gregg Keizer. 2012. Computerworld. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227005/Apple_s_e_store_satisfaction_score_jumps_thumps_Microsoft_s?taxonomyId=71. [Accessed 16 May 12].

Visa & Master Debit & Credit Card

Visa was originated in 1850's when it launched it's pioneering credit card through Bank of America. After many years being a worldwide leader in a credit card industry, Visa became a public limited company in 2008 when it was recorded as the largest IPO in the US history. Since then, Visa is growing day by day increasing the number of credit card products and the outlets where the credit is being used.

Visa debit card is the most popular choice of Visa card in Australia. Visa debit card works exactly the same way as visa credit card. The only difference is that Visa debit card utilizes the funds directly from the holder's deposit account rather than increasing the credit debt of the holder. This way Visa debit card reduces the risk of interest charged on the holder's account and prevents him from paying extra fee.

By the end of September 2006, it was a breakthrough when the volume of Visa debit card grew 18 percent as compared to the previous year's percentage. The volume of Visa debit card reached at the level of US$2.5trillion unlike Visa credit volume that touched he level of US$2.0trillion

"Visa’s profit for the first quarter of 2012 was up 30 percent from the year before, mainly due to credit card use rising in the United States and overseas. Visa said American consumers charged 12 percent more on their credit cards for the quarter. Debit card use grew by 4 percent, the slowest growth in a year. Banks have eliminated some debit card rewards programs since October, when the government limited the fees banks can charge stores for card transactions. Visa has dominated the market for debit card transactions, which is why the slowdown isn’t good news. There’s also evidence MasterCard is swiping some market share in debit cards: its U.S. debit card transactions grew by 21 percent to $152 million."


(Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2012/05/07/this-week-in-credit-card-news-63/)

7 May 2012: "HOUSTON: It's been 17 years since Tejano music singer Selena was killed, but she is still making history. Selena will become the first Latin American artist to be featured on a prepaid debit visa card.

Visa will make the card available starting May 16.

Selena was killed in 1995. Her family gave Visa permission and said they're exited about the project."

(Source: http://www.click2houston.com/news/Visa-unveils-new-Selena-prepaid-card/-/1735978/13070702/-/k5lbcf/-/index.html)

In many countries the use of debit card has become so extensive and has replaced the cheque and cash dealings. In Australia, MasterCard was first launched by Westpac bank in 2006. Commonwealth Bank of Australia in the only bank to issue Debit MasterCard to any account holder over 16 years of age otherwise, all the other banks have the age limit of 18 years or more to have a Debit MasterCard.

Fashionable Fabrics

Fashionable Fabrics is owned and operated by Leslee Maples who is also a mother and calls herself a Mompreneur. Fashionable Fabrics is targeting the market for women who love to sew but are unable to get good material/fabric for this purpose.

This wonderful platform provided by Leslee not only contains fabric but also contains helpful tips cleaning, sewing and how to use fabric for other purpose.

She did not have enough time to advertise her business as she wanted to start her work asap. Then she came to know about SEO (Search Engine Optimizer) which is an excellent way to advertise your business electronically on one of the most popular search engine: Monster. By using MonsterWebPromotion's SEO service, she was able to advertise her business in the first top ten positions for the search of many keywords. She also created her website using the same MonsterWebDesign that has flowery looks which is always liked by women and attracts their attention.

Leslee also provided the most information and options for her customers to purchase rather than just shop around, Customers can pay online in many ways to make it convenient for them to get the product.

Utilizing e-business, Leslee has had always been staying in touch with her customers by e-mailing them and taking feedback backs from them of the product that the customers have already purchased and also sending them emails about new promotions or any new product-launch in the market. This is merely to keep the customers up-to-date about any new product-launch in the market and also to make every customer feel important to Fashionable Fabrics.