E-Business Questions

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1. Throughout the course you learned the importance of Internet and Having online businesses. Based on your understanding do you Think that McDonalds should use the Internet in its selling process? Should Ford Motors? Disney? - And why? Can you provide some related examples?

Mcdonald's can certainly use internet and online medium to market its restaurant but considering the fact that it is difficult to sell such food products online, it can only be used as an aid to the selling process and not a separate selling channel. Internet can only be used to attract more and more customers into its restaurants and aid the selling process by increasing awareness of the company's offerings, but cannot be used to sell the food products such as burgers to the consumers.

However, it may be possible in the future that consumers can order the food directly via internet and the order is routed to the consumer's nearest Mcdonald outlet and is handled at such a rapid pace that it makes no difference that whether such order was received over the phone or the internet. In other words, Mcdonald will really need to make the response system very fast if it wishes to receive orders via internet as well, because it will need to then route the information to its worldwide outlets very fast and deliver customer orders.

Similarly, Ford's business is also in such a category that internet can only be used to market the product and not used to receive sales orders directly. The portal can just aid the sales process by acting as a medium to display product information, receive inquiries for test drives, etc. Consumers will definitely like to see the physical product and not buy directly over the internet.

However, Disney can use the internet to its advantage by opening up a completely new distribution channel to sell its products, such as kid's stuff, toys and other accessories. Internet can be used as an effective channel to reach consumers directly, showcase product as well as gather consumer feedback. It will not only improve Disney's margins as it will eliminate all middleman costs, but will also enhance operating efficiency.

2. What makes an online business a successful e-business? There are many ...