The Evolution of Social Commerce: The People, Management, Technology, and Information Dimensions

Social commerce is a form of commerce mediated by social media and is converging both online and offline environments. As a relatively new phenomenon, social commerce has evolved quickly in practice, yet has gained little attention in the IS discipline. With its pervasiveness in businesses and people’s lives, social commerce presents ample research opportunities that can have both theoretical and practical significance and implications. This article aims to capture researchers’ attention by describing the characteristics of social commerce and its potential future directions. We trace the evolutionary patterns of social commerce chronologically, based on trade articles and academic publications from 2005 to 2011. A framework that combines people, management, technology, and information dimensions is used to provide a systematic analysis of social commerce development. Our examination shows that since 2005, the year the term social commerce was incepted, assumptions and understanding of people in social commerce move from a simple and general description of human social nature to a rich exploration with different angles from social psychology, social heuristics, national culture, and economic situations. On the management dimension, business strategies and models evolve from the short-tail to long-tail thinking, with invented concepts such as branded social networks/communities, niche social networks/communities, niche brands, co-creating, team-buying, and multichannel social networks. Technologically, IT platforms and capabilities for social commerce evolve from blogs, to social networking sites, to media-sharing sites, and to smartphones. While Facebook becomes a profit-generating platform, creating the notion of f-commerce, Google and Twitter become strong competitors with great potentials. Information in social commerce evolves from peer-generated, to community-generated (crowdsourcing), to consumer and marketer co-created, and to global crowdsourced. Our examination identifies various conceptualizations, terminologies, views, and perspectives about social commerce and its relation to other well-known concepts such as e-commerce. In light of the evolution of social commerce, we provide possible future directions for research and practice

Adopting the omni-channel model: Identifying and recommending methods of adoption to shoe and clothing retailers in the Accra Mall

Undergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, April 2019[NB: No separate abstract available in document. The following is a brief summary] The objective of this study was to recommend methods by which shoe and clothing retailers in the Accra Mall in Ghana, can adopt the omni-channel model to boost sales and strengthen the customer experience, and to understand the barriers that these type of retailers face in integrating their current retail channels and formats.Ashesi Universit

Harnessing the power of the general public for crowdsourced business intelligence: a survey

International audienceCrowdsourced business intelligence (CrowdBI), which leverages the crowdsourced user-generated data to extract useful knowledge about business and create marketing intelligence to excel in the business environment, has become a surging research topic in recent years. Compared with the traditional business intelligence that is based on the firm-owned data and survey data, CrowdBI faces numerous unique issues, such as customer behavior analysis, brand tracking, and product improvement, demand forecasting and trend analysis, competitive intelligence, business popularity analysis and site recommendation, and urban commercial analysis. This paper first characterizes the concept model and unique features and presents a generic framework for CrowdBI. It also investigates novel application areas as well as the key challenges and techniques of CrowdBI. Furthermore, we make discussions about the future research directions of CrowdBI

I-Mart for Mini Mart System for Inventory Management and Buying Pattern Recognition

This paper briefly explained on web application designed to manage inventory and analyze customer buying pattern of a mini mart using APRIORI model. Development process done based on Waterfall Model of System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Web 2.0 technologies for learning: the current landscape – opportunities, challenges and tensions: supplementary materials

These supplementary materials accompany the report ‘Web 2.0 technologies for learning: the current landscape – opportunities, challenges and tensions’, which is the first report from research commissioned by Becta into Web 2.0 technologies for learning at Key Stages 3 and 4. This report describes findings from the commissioned literature review of the then current landscape concerning learner use of Web 2.0 technologies and the implications for teachers, schools, local authorities and policy makers

Online Shoppers’ Priority Attributes in Egypt

E-commerce and online shopping have been among the world\u27s fast-growing trends in the past few years. Each year the number of e-commerce deals grows enormously. Furthermore, the tendency will continue because many people are constricted by work and household duties. Simultaneously, the Internet saves much time and allows having a full shopping experience from the comfort of one\u27s home. With the improvement of technology and the continuous progression in web development, retailers are not only seeking e-commerce to expand their sales, but the trend of full online retailing with no physical existence is becoming widespread. Given the expansion, it is becoming challenging for e-retailers to maintain their customers since consumers can easily compare the platforms and pick to place their orders at the platform that best meets their needs. To prevent this fast customer turnover, it is important to consider the consumers\u27 preferences when online shopping to meet their needs better and locate their investments accordingly. This study holds a new perspective in presenting the service business\u27s packaging by materializing the e-commerce business as an example. The author develops a model that guides in enhancing online platforms\u27 efficiency based on online shoppers\u27 preferences and priority attributes. These attributes are considered the packaging elements that augment the main business aspects summarized in the 7 Ps marketing mix module. In the context of interpreting the marketing orientation theory, the study measures consumers\u27 priority attributes, summarized in the E-SERVPACK Model, in online shopping in four different product categories. Results revealed that the highest and lowest priority attributes are common across all four categories, yet the importance level differs from one category to another. It is advised that e-retailers consider developing their platforms and allocate their budgets based on their target consumers\u27 preferences and the business\u27s product type

Is traditional retail moving to e-commerce in the field of the fashion industry in India?

The main aim of this dissertation is to discover whether consumers feel that e-commerce provides superior performance and technology facilities than traditional retail from the perspective of Indian consumers, and to assess the importance of Omni-channel concepts and operations in the fashion industry. The fashion industry is one of the foremost business segments in India. Currently, the fashion industry is overcoming with new technology and innovation in their business. In the 1990s e-commerce was introduced saw the potential possibilities of innovation, and the new concepts which made the consumer base attractive towards e-commerce. Online retailers are growing faster than traditional retailers due to high pressure from online retailer’s offers and strategies. This research is identifies the issues in the fashion retail business in India. What are the challenges faced by traditional retail? What are the environmental causes disturbing the fashion retail industry which are argued with more detail in PEST analysis and Porter’s five forces of modern retailing and communication? Traditional fashion retailers understand how to solve difficulties and challenges in the supply chain. Discussed many technologies for fashion retail markets to improve their strategy and customer satisfaction. Researching the hypotheses are collecting behaviourism, functionalism, and experimental ideas what should traditional retailers do in their retail shop and which channel should they adopt for their business? Hypotheses are used to conduct a quick market analysis to understand the Indian demographic attitudes towards technologies, client interest, and Omni-channel. We need to understand which approaches we can use to gain knowledge in theoretical perspective. Multiple techniques are involved in the analysis and validation of hypotheses. I used SPSS tool for data analysis with cross-tabulation function. In this research I found that traditional retail and e-commerce are independent of each other but gradually merging, a most important factor for future fashion industry trends. They are systematically embracing Omni-channel strategy to provide good consumer service

Online shopping behavior in offline retail stores : strategic value for companies?

In a world where e-tailing and traditional in-store shopping live together and complement each other in several shopping activities (Chu, et. al, 2010), little is known about the possibility of an emerging reality in which online and offline shopping merge into one single phenomenon. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore whether consumers are willing to engage in a shopping behavior inside retail stores in a way that is similar to the one they have when shopping online. Additionally, it sheds light on the strategic value the online-offline shopping holds. To accomplish these objectives, a smartphone shopping scenario is designed to represent a situation that enables consumers to perform in-store shopping tasks in a digital manner, mixing and enhancing the features and benefits of e-tailing with traditional retail store experience. Moreover, a research model, that includes preliminary assumptions and eleven hypotheses to be tested, is designed to fundament the research methodology used. Based on this research model and the smartphone shopping scenario, a survey is conducted in order to collect empirical data on customer’s appraisal of the online-offline shopping process as well as their availability to permit recording their shopping data obtained after performing shopping tasks via smartphone. Furthermore, to access the strategic value of the online-offline shopping process, Resource-based View theory is used in order to identify the existence of possible sources of sustainable competitive advantage. The findings from the research show that respondents value the characteristics of the online-offline shopping process as well as they are willing to permit recording their own shopping data so that they are able to benefit from a contextual personalized shopping experience while shopping in traditional retail stores. The dissertation concludes that because customers value the characteristics of the online-offline shopping process they have a strong motivation to engage in an online-offline shopping behavior. Moreover, since they are willing to trade their shopping privacy for a contextual personalized shopping experience, it is plausible to admit that a strategy based on contextual personalization has potential to be strategic for retail companies. In fact, to generate such a strategy, the customer knowledge generated in the process is argued to be a firm resource that, combined with dynamic capabilities to leverage its utility in providing a contextual personalization experience, is considered to be a source of sustainable competitive advantage meaning the online-offline process has potential to be strategic to retail firms

SMEs e-business behaviour: a demographics and strategic analysis

The aim of this research was to understand the strategic uses of e-business systems and technologies by classifying companies and particularly small and medium businesses according to demographics as well as e-business behavior variables.The study was based on data from a large quantitative survey of European E-business W@tch for the period 2007 using questionnaire interviews (N=409). We employed two-step cluster analysis, multinomial logistic regression and stepwise descriminant analysis as the most appropriate methods for our analysis. The findings revealed six clusters associated to e-business adoption. The six groups differ in terms of demographic characteristics as well as e-business applications they use. We found that the following clusters exist: (a) Leaders: large companies that extensively use ebusiness in a strategic manner (b) innovators: use e-business in an way that allows them to innovate and differentiate from other companies (c Beginners: small and medium companies across all sectors that only recently start to use e-business (d) Unready Adopters: micro and small companies that lag behind (e) Late Adopters: small-size companies but larger that the Unready Adopters, that appear not to be interest in the advances of ICTs and (f) Laggards: micro companies with little use of e-business.The results of our survey can positively contribute to managers aiming to take advantage of technological advances in electronic business as well as to any researcher who study e-business management and applications

Swift guanxi data analysis and its application to e-commerce retail strategies improvement

E-commerce has changed retail, offering an opportunity to sell products online. Before retailers can take advantage from e-commerce however, they need to understand the factors driving consumers' intentions to purchase online as well as the factors motivating product re-purchase. To date, a number of studies have been commissioned with an aim to support e-retailers in those efforts. These studies show the key role of trust in consumers' initial and continuous use of e-commerce sites. E-retailers however find online trust difficult to establish due to buyer-seller social and temporal separation online. Recent studies argue that this limitation of online channels can be overcome by computer-mediated communication technologies, which enable 'swift guanxi' that facilitates online trust. This study extends this stream of research by analyzing data generated through swift guanxi in order to help retailers establish online trust and improve their online strategies