EBUSINESS

E-Business



Abstract

The advancement in technology and industry competitiveness have made consumers across the world consumption oriented and convenience oriented. This called for many changes in the way businesses operate moving from a brick and mortar existence to online retail shops. The real business that has been selected for the purpose of this assignment sells high quality clothing to customers in China, India, Kuwait, Ghana and the UK and only operates as an online business. It does not have any physical infrastructure for sales. The selected clothing line maintains records of customer data online. This has important implications for the ethical and legal standards that the company ought to comply with. The laws relating to ebusiness cover all the commercial websites. The department of Industry and Trade in the five countries suggest that ecommerce is not restricted to online buying and selling. The law asks of the online retailers to ask for as minimum information as possible. This information should be directly and permanently available.

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Operating ebusiness in an international environment4

Technology readiness4

Firm size5

Global scope6

Financial resources6

Competition intensity7

Regulatory environment8

Laws relating to e-business8

Legal and ethical issues of operating an online business9

Ethical Issues9

Web tracking9

Privacy10

Online Marketing10

Legal Issues11

Fraud on the Internet11

Copyrights11

Recommendations for the business12

References14

E-Business

Introduction

The advancement in technology and industry competitiveness have made consumers across the world consumption oriented and convenience oriented. This called for many changes in the way businesses operate moving from a brick and mortar existence to online retail shops. There are three types of business models - the brick and mortar, click and mortar or brick and click, and last but not the least, ebusiness or business over the internet. The three business models can be applied for business to business as well as business to consumer purchase and sale of goods and services (Stead, 2001, p. 75).

The real business that has been selected for the purpose of this assignment sells high quality clothing to customers in China, India, Kuwait, Ghana and the UK and only operates as an online business. It does not have any physical infrastructure for sales. This is to say that the business model being used by the company is based purely on ecommerce. The company uses a range of e-business systems to connect to suppliers, partners and consumers and as expected with any business keeps electronic records concerning stock and customer data, the Director is very concerned that the business needs to comply with the Laws in each of these countries relating to e-business, but also that the company operates in an ethical and legal way in terms of its use of data (Beltramini, 2003, p. 393).

The company needs to understand what does it take to operate an ebusiness in an international environment, and shed light on the laws relating to ebusiness in each of the states the company is operational in. There are several legal and ethical issues confronted by the company which are addressed in the form of recommendations for the business.

Operating ebusiness in an international environment

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