Question

Ubiquity: Explain what ubiquity means in terms of electronic commerce, commenting on the difficulty or ease with which different types of customers (nationality, age, education level, occupation, English proficiency, with kids or grandkids or with tech-savvy friends, and many other factors that YOU the MIS students will think of) ……will adopt to e-commerce as part of their natural behaviours (also including mobile commerce) and….

For buying what types of products or services will they adopt e-commerce more ubiquitously ? Banking or bakery, travel or toothpaste, cars or cosmetics.

What is the best strategy for a firm ? Do you be the first to sell something over the internet (in which case you spend a lot of energy but get all the market to yourself (no competition), or do you prefer someone else to go into the murky crocodile-infested waters before you decide whether to go in or not ?

Answer 1

UBIQUITY:

Ubiquity is the state of being very common.In other words, ubiquity is the fact of presenting everywhere at all points of time.

In terms of e-commerce:

Ubiquity in terms of e-commerce is the availability of an online product that is too easy to buy or reach by the customers in need.

As we all know, every customers have different needs and it can vary according to certain attributes like age,gender,nationality etc.For example, Spices would be used more by the Indian customers, Makeup items would be ordered more by the female category.

After the e-commerce and M-commerce(Mobile commerce)came in to existence, i think, regardless of all the attributes, everyone would love to opt for e-commerce.The reason may be : it is the best convenient and comfortable way to shop sitting at your home. And after the era of mobile phones got started along with the tech savvy people, mobile commerce hiked in the market trend.

According to me , i think the old aged people, tech savvy ones, lazy teens ,busy mothers would all be the category of customers using the e-commerce at the maximum level.

Products people buy using E-commerce:

The customers who uses e-commerce as a medium of shopping buys both the convenient products that are easily available in their nearby supermarket and also those items that are rare in their place.The first category products are usually bought by old aged people who are unable to walk to the supermarket and also the busy and lazy ones who felt like staying home for shopping.The other category products are usually bought by those customers who are really addicted to e-commerce(like tech savvy people) who wishes to get something they want without travelling too much to reach the actual place of availability.Example : Saudi Arabian dates , African coffee bean.So coming to the question, i would go with bakery,toothpaste and cosmetics as others are out of boundary.

One of the best strategy for every firm to follow is the Blue Ocean strategy as we can be our own king with little or no competition for the business we are operating.Hence , i would prefer to be the first to sell something on the internet for the first and be the ruler of that product trend.

Because, in this present era of various established brands and products, following them will make a new business efforts to go void.Instead if we follow a unique trend , then we can create a new way for establishing our name in the market economy as without risk and crocodile-infested waters, no gain can be retrieved.

Hence the answer.