Question Business Management Q Preliminary Analysis of the Proposed Online Business and E-Commerce Strategy The following report will comment on the suggested e-commerce tactic – An environmental analysis of the suggested e-commerce presence will be conducted, keeping in mind the probability for a worldwide e-business and focus needs to be given on the following – a) Value Propositions – The website will offer various features as value to the users which will complete the value proposition for e-commerce. These characteristics will comprise of – i) Product prices will comprise of the shipping prices, and via the e-commerce portal, free deliveries will be offered. The consumers would capitalize that offer as a monetary advantage and therefore, will choose the fast food outlet over others. ii) Gift cards will be activated on the website that can be utilized by consumers for gifting food items to their family or friends by purchasing a particular gift card amount which will be utilizable on the website, by the receiver. iii) Generation of coupon codes will be performed by the webmaster for various products and the registered users will be provided the coupon details via e-mail so that when a deal is to their liking, they can visit the website to make a purchase. iv) Best-selling products will be displayed to the consumers so that they can have an enhanced confidence regarding the item they have chosen, in case it is a best-selling one. v) A gateway for secure payment will be created and VeriSign security will be shown so that they can build confidence in the consumers by assuring them that their payment is secure and safe. b) Core Competencies – This feature of an e-commerce website will create some core competencies for the business that will assist the company in competing with other players in their domain, in a better manner. Capabilities for online payment will speed up the business and be of greater convenience to the portal consumers. Another core competence which will be created by collecting user data so that their shopping patterns can be analyzed and according to this, the consumers will be offered deals and suggestions when they are viewing the online catalogues. c) Market and Trends Analysis – The portal's e-commerce tactic will comprise of the following features which can be analyzed in comparison to the trends of the market – i) Online Payments – Changing from conventional payment methods to digital payment modes are going on so fast and thus, the organization are coming up with new ways to handle payments. 3rd party payments via the utilization of API, vanilla digital payments, contactless card payments, automatic user-verified payments, and mobile payments are a few of the innovations which are trending in the market. ii) Free Delivery – Free deliveries are trending in various fast food outlets and a huge network of local transportation, which permits fast and cost-effective deliveries have been developed. iii) Analytics – Additional features were the results of the analytics used over the data obtained from users. These comprise of coupon codes, best-selling items, gift cards and displaying similar products on the basis of information like products being frequently brought together with the item being purchased. d) Porter's Competitive Forces Model – In accordance with the porter's competitive forces model, any product or brand faces threats from 5 distinct sources which comprises of new entrants, buyers, suppliers, substitutes, and rivals. The forces' intensity varies and the organization is needed to act on them on the basis of this intensity. For an e-commerce firm, the forces can be shown as follows – i) Competitive Rivalry – From the perspective of both the offline and online players, competition is quite high since there are numerous e-commerce service providers, which are selling both online and offline. ii) Suppliers' Bargaining Power - E-commerce suppliers comprises of search engines which are accountable for online visibility via SEO and shipping suppliers whose policies have an effect on e-commerce sales. Therefore, these two have significant powers of bargaining. iii) Buyers' Bargaining Power – E-commerce competition is generally price-based so that buyers tend to lean towards organizations which offer products at low prices and therefore, the bargaining power of the buyers is quite high and organization need to decide prices which attract buyers. iv) Threat from New Entrants – Entry barriers into the e-commerce market is quite low since gateways for 3rd party payments like PayPal permit various small scale organizations to enter into the e-commerce model. v) Threat from Substitutes – There are various alternatives to e-commerce line the brick-and-mortar, however, these alternatives are losing their power since e-commerce offers significant advantages, however, within the domain of e-commerce, other service providers can bring in various kinds of products as alternatives.