Introduction to Ballarat Trade Fair Consultancy (BTFC)
Ballarat Trade Fair Consultancy (BTFC) is a small and medium scale enterprise that is based out of Ballarat, Victoria. The company has web-based operations that are carried out to assist the Australian companies in exhibitions at the trade fairs. The company also arranges floor spaces, constructs the exhibition stands for the fair. There are certain value-added services that are also arranged and provided by the company, such as organization of marketing materials, travel & accommodation arrangements, and likewise. Organizing of the tickets is also done by the company and it receives commission in return. There are certain challenges that the company is currently facing in terms of marketing campaigns and activities. Ticket management, supplier relations, and selling of the branded merchandise are some other issues. Ms Holt is the owner of the company and the e-commerce capabilities need to be analysed for the organization.
The e-commerce business models that shall be used and implemented for BTFC are Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business (B2B) models.
B2C is the e-commerce model in which the e-commerce portal will be set up for the customers of the organization, such as the attendees of the trade fairs, buyers of the tickets, and supplier groups. The services will be set up on the e-commerce portal for ensuring that the customers are provided with the streamlined operations. B2B is the model that will be implemented for the entities as Australian companies interacting with BTFC for organizing the trade fair. In the B2B model, the business firms will be allowed to utilize the services (Chong, Tadjouddine, Shafaghi & Tan, 2011).
There will be functionalities implemented on the e-commerce portal that will allow the organization to derive the revenues. Pay-per-click model will be implemented and the company will earn revenues with every user access. The use of B2C and B2B models will allow the customers to purchase tickets from the portal which will enhance the commission earned by the company. The supplier relations of the vendors and suppliers will improve with the implementation of the B2B model which will lead to enhanced business for the company. This in turn will lead to an increase in the profits and revenues. The payment models will be integrated with the e-commerce portal to make sure that the users get to pay using online modes and methods (Pei, Xue, Li & Su, 2016).
There will be applications that will be implemented to meet the e-commerce business goals.
- B2B and B2C Portals: There will be web applications and mobile application that will be developed and implemented for the customers and business groups. The application will allow the company to earn higher profits and revenues to meet the project aims and objectives.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System: There will be CRM system implemented on the e-commerce portal to ensure that the customer relations are improved and maintained. The customer preferences and choices will be analysed and the customer-oriented business decisions and strategies will be made (Haas, 2002).
- Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) System: The supplier relations will be automated and maintained using SRM system. The supplier expectations and communication processes will be met and carried out using the application.
- Cloud-based Database & Data Analytics: There will be cloud-based platforms that will be used for the storage and handling of the e-commerce data and information. Automated data analysis will also be conducted for the efficient decision-making process.
- Social Media Integration: The social media channels will be integrated with the e-commerce portal to enhance the communication practices and mechanisms.
E-Commerce Business Models for BTFC
There will be several security issues that may be associated with the e-commerce portal and application developed and implemented for BTFC. There will be following controls integrated with the e-commerce application to address the issues.
- Anti-Malware & Anti-Denial Tools: There may be security attacks as malware attacks and denial of service attacks that may come up. The e-commerce portal and application will be integrated with the anti-malware and anti-denial tools to keep a track of the security deviations and issues.
- Use of encryption: The data sets on the e-commerce portal and application will be encrypted using the encryption portals. The cryptanalysis attacks will be avoided with the use of encryption with the communication protocols and passwords. The use of encryption protocols will ensure that the attackers do not succeed in accessing and capturing the data sets.
- Multi-fold Authentication & Advanced Access Control: The e-commerce applications and systems will be protected using multi-fold authentication scheme and the access control activities will be enhanced with the use of protocols as role-based and attribute-based access control. The use of Single Sign On and One Time Passwords will be done on the login screen of the applications (Gupta Madan, 2012).
- Network-based Security Controls: There will be use of network scanners, network monitors, network-based intrusion detection systems, network-based intrusion prevention systems, and network analytical tools for avoiding and preventing the network-based security attacks.
There will be e-marketing activities that will be carried out for making sure that the marketing tasks and processes are effectively conducted.
- Social Media Marketing: There shall be a social media marketing team that must be set up for the e-commerce portal and applications to carry out the marketing activities on the channels as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and likewise. The social media channels will be integrated with the e-commerce portal to enhance the communication practices and mechanisms. The announcement of an exhibition or a promotional offer will be shared on the social media channels by posting the information on the social media channels (Atwong, 2015).
- E-Mail Marketing: The use of e-mail marketing will be done by sending the promotional mails and notifications to the Australian companies, customer, and suppliers groups.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): It will be necessary that the customer and supplier groups get to know about the e-commerce portal and the services & activities offered to them on the portal. The number of visits shall be counted and the automated tools shall be used to optimize the applications as per the expectations of the customers.
- Content Marketing: The Company may use different forms of content marketing activities using the press release, posting the content on the social media platforms, and other methods.
The use of these e-marketing activities will allow the company to reach out to increased number of users and customers.
There are a variety of payment systems that shall be used and integrated on the e-commerce portal. These payments systems include the use of credit or debit cards. These cards shall be used to allow the users to pay online for the services that they acquire. The price for the tickets or the commission to the company will be made by the Australian companies and customers using their debit or credit cards.
There are several e-wallets that shall be integrated on the portal and the users shall be provided with the ability to make payments using these wallets. The customers may already have balance in their e-wallets which may be used to make the payments (Ying & Kuanhai, 2011).
The use of net banking shall also be allowed and provided as a method of payment. The use of the net banking method will allow the users to make payments for the services and tickets that they use and access from the portal.
There may be various privacy and ethical concerns that may come up for the customers and the organizations. The privacy concerns may be in the form of data breaches, data leakage issues, data manipulation issues, malware attacks, denial of service attacks, eavesdropping attacks, and likewise. The privacy and confidentiality of the data sets will be impacted as a result and it may have ethical implications as well. This is because the users and administrators of the e-commerce portal may pass on the information to the unauthorized entities.
The e-commerce portal and application shall be integrated with the anti-malware and anti-denial tools to keep a track of the privacy deviations and issues. The data sets on the e-commerce portal and application shall be encrypted using the encryption portals. The cryptanalysis attacks will be avoided with the use of encryption with the communication protocols and passwords. The use of encryption protocols will ensure that the attackers do not succeed in accessing and capturing the data sets. The e-commerce applications and systems shall be protected using multi-fold authentication scheme and the access control activities will be enhanced with the use of protocols as role-based and attribute-based access control. The use of Single Sign On and One Time Passwords will be done on the login screen of the applications. There shall be use of network scanners, network monitors, network-based intrusion detection systems, network-based intrusion prevention systems, and network analytical tools for avoiding and preventing the network-based security attacks.
Functionalities on the E-Commerce Portal
There may be various legal issues that may come up on the e-commerce portal. In order to address the legal issues, there shall be use of contracts and contractual processes that must be done. The contractual agreement shall have three primary elements as offer, acceptance, and consideration. Internet-based offers and acceptance shall be used to avoid the occurrence of the legal issues and trouble. Click-wrap and web-wrap acceptance shall be used in the case of customer contracts (Giannikis & Daskalopulu, 2011). The e-commerce portals shall also include warranty statement, disclaimer, and copyright information to avoid the occurrence of any legal issue.
The customer service issues on the e-commerce portal may be in terms of the customer queries and complaints. These issues shall be resolved by implementing customer service and support portal on the e-commerce platforms. There shall be use of customer feedback option that must be integrated on the portal and applications to allow the customers to interact with the executives of BTFC. There shall also be chat facility integrated to allow the customers to chat with the customer care executive and have response on their respective set(s) of queries.
The use of social media may also be done for customer service issues handling. There shall be a social media team that must be set up for the e-commerce portal and applications to carry out the customer support activities on the channels as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and likewise. The social media channels will be integrated with the e-commerce portal to enhance the communication practices and mechanisms.
Main page
Events Page
About Page
The success of the proposed system shall be measured by obtaining the number of application visits and user traffic on the e-commerce portal and application. The customer feedback shall also be analysed to measure the success. The other measures include the tracking of Return on Investment (ROI), profits, and sale of tickets.
Conclusion
BTFC has web-based operations that are carried out to assist the Australian companies in exhibitions at the trade fairs. The company also arranges floor spaces, constructs the exhibition stands for the fair. Marketing, ticket management, supplier relations, and selling of the branded merchandise are some of the issues faced by the company. The use of B2C and B2B models will allow the customers to purchase tickets from the portal which will enhance the commission earned by the company. There will be several security issues that may be associated with the e-commerce portal and application developed and implemented for BTFC. These may be controlled using anti-malware tools, anti-denial tools, network security controls, encryption of the data sets, advanced access control, and multi-fold authentication. There will be e-marketing activities that will be carried out for making sure that the marketing tasks and processes are effectively conducted. These shall include social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, and SEO. There are a variety of payment systems that shall be used and integrated on the e-commerce portal. These payments systems include the use of credit or debit cards, e-wallets, and net banking. These cards shall be used to allow the users to pay online for the services that they acquire. In order to address the legal issues, there shall be use of contracts and contractual processes that must be done.
References
Atwong, C. (2015). A Social Media Practicum: An Action-Learning Approach to Social Media Marketing and Analytics. Marketing Education Review, 25(1), 27-31. doi: 10.1080/10528008.2015.999578
Chong, W., Tadjouddine, E., Shafaghi, M., & Tan, B. (2011). Automated Mechanism Design for B2B e-Commerce Models. International Journal Of Trade, Economics And Finance, 87-92. doi: 10.7763/ijtef.2011.v2.83
Giannikis, G., & Daskalopulu, A. (2011). Normative conflicts in electronic contracts. Electronic Commerce Research And Applications, 10(2), 247-267. doi: 10.1016/j.elerap.2010.09.005
Gupta, A., & Madan, P. (2012). Security Effect on B2B and B2C Operations using 3G M-Commerce. International Journal Of Computer Applications, 43(4), 1-5. doi: 10.5120/6088-8259
Haas, A. (2002). Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Controlling, 14(3), 189-190. doi: 10.15358/0935-0381-2002-3-189
Pei, Y., Xue, W., Li, D., & Su, Y. (2016). Models of Customer Experience for B2C E-Commerce Enterprises. Journal Of Electronic Commerce In Organizations, 14(1), 24-33. doi: 10.4018/jeco.2016010103
Ying, W., & Kuanhai, Z. (2011). Ontological Analysis for Online Payment Systems. Energy Procedia, 13, 9938-9946. doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2011.12.822
Ying, W., & Kuanhai, Z. (2011). Ontological Analysis for Online Payment Systems. Energy Procedia, 13, 9938-9946. doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2011.12.822