Reference no: EM132368796

Annette Jackson owns a small crafts store in central Missouri. She wants to expand her store's reach outside the region to increase her profits and simultaneously reduce her inventory. Annette's teenage daughter suggested that she consider selling online to expand her total sales. She asked you to help her estimate how much it might cost in the first year to create a simple store with a catalog of about 100 items. Annette wants you to investigate two CSP offerings and report back to her what you find. Because her store is small, limit your research to basic commerce and mall-style services. Annette would like to consider the following information for the two CSP offerings you examine:

NOTE: Please Choose any 4 item form the following list and discuss them ( DISCUSS ONLY 4)

• Costs: initial setup fee, monthly fee, and transaction fees

• Amount of disk space the CSP would provide for Annette's 100-item store

• Promotion and marketing opportunities

• Customer communications capabilities, such as automated e-mail confirmation of orders

• Shopping cart or other order entry mechanism

• Storefront-building wizards for creating a new store

• Upload capabilities for product names, descriptions, images, and costs (Can they be uploaded from files or databases, or must the merchant enter each item individually?)

• Existence of an online user manual for the merchant

Use your favorite search engine to find CSPs that might meet Annette's needs. Produce a report of about 400 words summarizing your findings.

1. Research and compare the trend of e-commerce versus regular commerce in US since 2010. You need to show this trend graphically using Excel or other tools.

2. Explain the purpose of MIS and give at least three applications where MIS can be used to benefit the business.

3. Identify and discuss ethical issues related to e-commerce. Please elaborate and give some examples.

4. Amazon has been dominating the US eCommerce business and has changed the mindset of millions of people from the old fashion physical shopping to online shopping. Many US businesses who have been around for a long time are losing their market shares to Amazon. Research on the Internet to determine which large US companies are at the highest risk of losing their market share to Amazon during 2018-2020. Justify your answers by solid data.

5. Amazon recently purchased Whole Foods Market. It was their first purchase of a large physical retail. Provide a solid discussion on whether in your opinion Amazon made a good decision by purchasing Whole Foods Market.