a) What experiences have you had with shopping online?
My experience with online shopping will definitely include eBay as the best. I have personally bought many items on eBay. EBay gives us lots of choices from al over the world and help us decided what exactly we need amongst those products. We can either bid or buy the products for a fixed price, which is very convenient.
b) Describe a good experience.
My experiences with online shopping have always been good. One of the very good examples would be a HDMI cord that I could not find in the local electrical stores, which I found it online from the Unites States. They shipped it to Australia in the next couple of days, which was a really good experience.
c) What did you like about the online store you used?
The things i liked the most about eBay was it let’s us choose what exactly we want and when we want it. We can actually watch the items in a list and wait for the right time to purchase it, which is amazing. The other thing is we can buy stuff for cheaper rates when they come from a different country where they are originally manufacturer, which is really helpful as well.
d) Describe a bad experience.
One bad experience was with a product that I bought online from a different country for a very cheap price. The product was exactly the same as what the description in the site was but the quality of the product was bad. So we actually don't get to physically see the product or try it in person before we buy it.
e) What problems did you have with the online store?
Say if I bidding on a product that was going to end the next day, if the site is down or if the internet is down that particular day then we will miss the product that we wanted. There are also chances where products can be fake or imitation of the original products.
h) Should we expect to see the prices of goods and services rise or fall due to the migration of consumers online?
In my opinion this entirely depends on the country's economy. The prices are likely to go when the economy is down and vice versa.
Question 2
a) The dispersion of prices (that is, the spread between the lowest and highest price for a particular product) will narrow.
The dispersion of price is completely acceptable because most consumers look up for different products mainly for it's quality and price.
b) The importance of brand names will decrease.
This in my opinion will never decrease but will keep increasing. This is mainly due to my personal experiences. I did not know many brands personally before but now I am slowly getting to know many major brands.
c) Price competition will make all products cheaper.
Yes, the prices will definitely get cheaper when newer and advanced products are introduced in the markets. For eg,Computers which were expensive before are now cheaper due to the release of laptops.
d) Digital markets will become dominated by a handful of mega-sites, like Amazon.com.
Yes, digital markets like eBay and Amazon are taking over the world in Ebusiness these days.
e) How do you think the balance of power between buyers and sellers will change?
Following the standard of ethics and sticking to them strictly can only maintain the balance of power between buyers and sellers.
f) Prices are cluster online.
Yes, this might depend on the quality of the product or it might just be cheaper or expensive depending on the availability of the product in that specific country.
g) Online prices are elastic. (I.e. immune to change up and down with demand).
Depending on the demand for that product in that country, the prices are likely to be expensive or cheaper.
h) Online prices are generally transparent (the extent to which prices for a given product or service are known by buyers in the marketplace.).
Yes, online prices are very transparent. This might give the consumers an idea of what the price of the product is in markets or online.
Question 3
a) What types of m-commerce services does your cell phone provider offer?
My mobile provider that is Optus provides such m-commerce as:
· Paying bills online,
· Emailing
· Bluetooth
· Games
· Internet
b) Which of these services do you use?
I use almost all the above.
c) What types of transactions do you perform through your cell phone or other wireless device?
I personally use my phone's wireless to recharge my phone online and for Internet banking
e) What is your opinion of wireless advertising/mobile marketing?
It is one of the most useful ideas to have wireless on the phone which could be accessible no matter which part of the world you are. It feels like you have the world in your hands.
