Question

1. Explain part of the shopping process of B2C EC and problems (including registration, authentication, transaction, order processing, communication, distribution, payment, Trust, etc.
2. To conduct SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, Threat) to B2C EC taking jd.com or other B2C company as an example, pointing out its competitive strategy and core strengths.

Answer 1

1. B2C EC is the online shopping where a customer buys a product or service through the online platform from direct websites of companies, online apps or other such online platforms. The number of interactions between a customer and website can be more in a B2C. The workflow in e-commercing can be fully automated with access to monitoring and manual handling if required. Once the customer selects the items he wants to purchase, a cart is created on the website which is saved and can be viewed and accessed until a time even if the purchase is not made. After checking out from the shopping page the customer is directed to the registration page, where he fills his personal details to get himself registered on the site and process the shopping further.

The registration process will be authenticated by filling the email id and mobile number through which an OTP (one-time password) will be matched with the customer. The customer also fills the delivery and billing address for getting the purchase delivered to them in the tentative number of days mentioned by the website. After this, the payment page comes where the customer selects a mode of payment and makes the payments after the shipping fee, offers and discounts and taxes are added or deducted. Once the payment is done the purchase order is created. An order number is given to the customer to help them track the order until it reaches them. The order is processed after this in which the product is checked in the warehouse and shipment is made after proper packaging.

Once the shipment is done until the delivery of the product, the status is intimated to the customer at every stage. On the delivery confirmation of the same is taken from the customer through an online or personal sign which allows the transaction to close. There are facilities and margins of exchange and return of the product by the customer which follows a reverse process from the customer to the company. The customer also gives reviews on these websites about their experience with shopping and the product.

The problems and challenges faced in a B2C EC can be:

- many customers prefer payment on delivery instead of online payment due to which companies have to make bulk sales without getting their payments on time.

- The authenticity of the customer is through the id he provides hence the verification cannot be very genuine and risk is involved.

- The demand and preferences of the customer can vary based on several factors hence the inventory analysis is difficult to make

- Online business requires more skills and knowledge of technology to prevent errors and hence does not attract customers of all segments.

- With the vast variety and options available online brand loyalty and retaining customers is a challenge for companies.

- the order processing and shipment requires more steps from the company once the customer confirms the order hence it requires more skilled resources at every level.