E-Commerce

E-commerce is specifically defined as a particular industry type where products and services are sold over the Internet. The name, electronic commerce usually consists of many different technologies including Internet marketing and supply chain management to name a few. It can be said that all electronic commerce transactions utilize the Internet at some point during the overall transaction, and that the transaction's life cycle extends into other technologies such as email or through the usage of mobile devices such as cellular phones. E-commerce has become a major and notable way in which companies and corporations have been able to tap into a growing online consumer base and a shift away from in store purchases to online.

There are advantages and disadvantages for e-commerce that run the gamut of both the public and private sectors. Within the phenomenon and spectacle that is e-commerce, there are benefits for both the consumer and the party that has the product, also called the company or trader. For the consumer, the products are available anytime they want them; there is access to a wide variety of products and consumers do not have to travel to a place to purchase the products because the product is available online. Globalization has provided new depth to the mechanism known as e-commerce in terms of access to products from various countries that can be purchased at a cheap price and products that are unavailable in the United States. The disadvantages to buyers are the lack of human contact that initially provided an appeal to in store purchasing; the potential of information being sold to third parties and the security of the transaction (Liliana, n.d.). There are also advantages and disadvantages to the companies that sell the products as well. 

The advantages to the companies that sell the products is that they can haggle and hedge bets on the total amount of products that they are going to sell through the usage of forecasting tools and supply chain management technology tools. With the advent of e-commerce taking the demand concept by storm, companies and corporations can inevitably capitalize on the number of products that they sell that way they can exceed buyer expectations and also engender profits well above what they initially though. This is the sole advantage in both the public and private sectors - the revenue associated with their product. The disadvantages associated with companies, corporations and e-commerce is the potential for fraud, for security issues and undermining activity-based costs through enormous launching costs (Harreld and Jones, 2001; Liliana, n.d.). Despite the many different technologies on the market today, companies and corporations are often at the mercy of the Internet with e-commerce hence the three aforementioned disadvantages. This makes the quality of the product all the more important. Customers rely on quality product and businesses need to be aware of that when opting to do e-commerce transactions.

Lazboy-Neosho 

It stands to reason that as President of LA-Z-Boy Neosho, Missouri that there would need to be a dividing up of both the waterborne finish and the traditional lacquers to accommodate the consumer client base. According to the JIT Manufacturing Perspective, "quality and conformance are most important to a business" (Canel et.al, 2000). It is obvious that a certain sector of the LA-Z-Boy Neosho consumer base is not happy with the changes that were implemented irrespective of the waterborne finish being more ecological friendly and in accordance with EPA legislation. Given that the state of California (per the example) is the only state that has opted for that switch, other states can maintain the traditional lacquer option. There must be a maintaining of the current posture of quality and the change is governed under quality. Hence, as President, the company is about sustaining long term relationships with its suppliers/vendors as well as its consumers and this change must be implemented to reduce the complaints received as of late.

References

Canel, C., Rosen, D., & Anderson, E. A. (2000). Just-in-time is not just for manufacturing: a service perspective. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 100(2), 51-60. doi:10.1108/02635570010286104

Harreld, H., & Jones, J. (2001, December 19). Supply-chain Collaboration. InfoWorld, (52/53), Retrieved from http://www.infoworld.com/

Liliana, N. (n.d.). Advantages and Disadvantages of The Electronic Commerce[Information Document]. Ovidius University of Constanta website: http://steconomice.uoradea.ro/anale/volume/2006/economie-si-administrarea-afacerilor/42.pdf