Clicks & Mortar

Internet sales as a proportion of the overall sales in the economy are rising at an extreme rate, up from under three percent in 2007 to well over 10 percent in 2013. what this means is a switch in focus for many retailers, to capture this new market.

One example of this major industry shift is in groceries, which have great potential online, being one of the most commonly visited stores by most, simply having everything delivered can save the customers hours a week, while saving the super market money.

 

Almost all of the super markets have some form of online delivery service, all of them offering almost every product from their physical store available for delivery. However, some of them offer better services and offers than others, for instance sainbury's website appears to be very out dated, whereas ocado (being an online only super market) has a variety of features not available through sainsbury's store, making it a lot easier to use.

E-Commerce Online Shopping

Purchasing Items online is generally considred to be a simple process, being a lot more convenient than buying the item in person, and while this is true many do. not appreciate the process that goes into signing up to these websites, which although streamlined can ofter be a lengthy process. For instance, here is the process used for signing up for a tesco clubcard online (which is then used to manage online shopping through tesco)

First of all you are greeted by an option to choose between having a club card already, and not. Selecting not will bring you to a signup screen

 Here you enter all of your information, so that they can keep track of all of your informationa nd tie it to the card, as well as fill out a security code to confirm you are human,

 

Then an email will be sent to your inbox, to confirm your email address is correct (and also as another check that you are human)

 

 

 

 

 After all of these steps, you will recieve a confirmation message confirming a card has been sent to you, and will arrive in a few weeks time.

 

 

 

Doing Business on the Web - Growing the Customer Base

Doing business on the internet is quickly becoming one of the key strategies employed by traditional stores, as a way to get customers business without them ever having to leave their own home. As these do not use the stores physical capacity, they have great potential for savings on the part of the supermarket. However, as all the super markets want a piece of the market, the only way to encourage differentiation in the market is with compeititve pricing and offers, creating a highly compeititve online marketplace.

Tackling the Divide on the Ground

There is a big digital divide between the richest countries whose citizens can afford new technology and have access to the internet, and the poorest countries where access to such things is scarce. There are a number of ways of attempting to bridge the gap, such as digital broadcasts. Digital broadcasts are cheap, wireless method of access to the news to people in the rural areas of the digital divide.

These are good because they can be watched on cheap equipment. The downside to this is that western television (which is often shown through this) is something which is not.

Another problem with tackling the digital divide are the governments of these countries. What will often happen is the government will become the sole provider of telecommunications and internet services, then charge monopoly level prices to make additional profit for the government, and introduce legislation to prevent competition. This can be good for the government as it creates profit, but is a serious issue as it widens the digital divide even firther.

Social Networking

Social Networking websites online services which help people to connect which each other over the internet. The sites allow them to keep in contact with people they know, keep up with gossip within their social groups and make and meet new people online.


Sites like facebook and twitter are growing at incredible rates, with facebook being the most visited website in the world, with upwards of a billion users, causing many large internet companies to make their own social networking services, such as google plus.

    However the increase in popularity of these sites also raises some more sinister concerns. Online Bullying, or cyber bullying is become an increasingly big issue, with more and more people using the security of their computers as a platform to launch degrading online attacks on their peers, and these websites are excellent oppertunities for these people.


Overall, although social networking is a great thing with many possibiltiies and positive side effects, such as it's role in the arab spring, allowing attention to be brought to serious issues in countries with oppressive governments. However, social networks neet to watch out for abuse of their service, as cyber bullying becomes a more and more prevelant issue.

Types of Organsation and their Use of ICT

Using ICT, and more specifically the internet is a key part of any successful business plan, and with the slow rise of it's importance, failure of companies to adapt and incorporate it into their business structure are starting to pay the price.Here are two examples of failing businesses and their under use of the internet.

 

 This article show how blockbuster failed to compete in the online market, as they originally made their business model based around video rentals, something which has been made far cheaper, easier and better by the internet, and other services such as netflix or lovefilm. As blockbuster ignored this market for too long, their physical sales declined, until they were forced into administration.

HMV is another great example of a retailer that failed to adapt to online markets, HMV were once the biggest retailer of music, until the early 90's when sales started to decline as the internet started becoming more and more prominent. Year over year, physical sales were on a decline while online sales were on an increase, and HMV's failure to react resulted in their failure.

 

 

Civil Rights

Civil Righs and how they are affected by IT is a serious issue in modern society. as technology becomes more prevelant, technology to monitor people becomes more and more available, such as sattelites and GPS allowing criminals to be tracked, causing the debate of privacy versus security to always be at the forefront of people's minds.

The issue sometimes occurs with your information, and the rights you have to it, as your information is stored by a number of agencies, from the NHS to the DVLA. This has worrying implications, as your rights to that information are not always entirely clear. This issue is made a lot worse with IT, as many websites keep databases of your information, often having worrying things hidden in their terms of service.
As IT evolves and it becomes easier and easier to store and access information, the striuggle of privacy and security becomes ever more prevelant, with no real victors,