TECHNOLOGY - MANAGEMENT

Critical Analysis on Case Study of Kalahari.net

Critical Analysis on Case Study of Kalahari.net

Introduction

This report is based on the critical analysis on case study of an online retail company named “Kalahari.net”. The issues related to e-commerce such as the use of business technologies and methods that are discussed in the case of Kalahari.net are highlighted in this report. Kalahari.net is one of the leading e-business ventures in South Africa. The Kalahari.net website was developed and executed in October 1998. It was a time when there was an extraordinary craze found in e-business activities (Dou et.al, 2010, p.261). This was mainly due to the advantages that were linked to it such as it consumes less time and resources such as money etc. another most important factor that was considered at that time was this that with the help of e-business no physical location of company was required.

Establishing web-based business is not an easy task as it requires extensive support and confidence of the customers, who use internet facility. The decision of launching Kalahari.net as e-business was taken promptly. Due to lack of preparation in launching an online company various issues related to business and technology were faced by it (Kriese et.al, 2011, p.1503). To overcome these issues the website was re-launched in a more thoughtful and professional way. The re-launch of Kalahari.net was more successful than its initial launch and it was beneficial in gaining more market share and preferences of the customers.

The success of the online business is not just dependent on the website presentation and on the use of excellent applications in its making but it is dependent on various other things such as supply chain and value chain of the business along with the products and services that are offered for sale. So, to manage all these issues Kalahari.net have gone through great grind that made it more stable in the market of e-business.

E-Commerce and E-Business

E-business and e-commerce are the two terms that are used synonymously but there is a clear difference among them that needs to be clarified otherwise it can create huge issues in doing business (Kumar et.al, 2009, p.119). An integration of applications related to information and communication technologies that are used in supporting all the activities of the business is commonly known as e-business. It can be the conduct of trade, commerce and industry that is based on computer networks or internet.

On the other hand, e-commerce is a kind of industry that deals in buying and selling or services and products by using electronic systems such as computer networks or internet service. Electronic funds transfer, online transaction processing, supply chain management, online transaction processing, inventory management systems, automated data collection systems, internet marketing and electronic data interchange are the most commonly forms of technologies that are used in e-commerce activities (Li, 2011, p.49). There are large number of companies that are using e-commerce in running their business activities as it helps them in saving huge amount of resources that an organisation ...