Brawny Luggage Inc Benefit From The Website example essay topic

Brawny Luggage Inc. began as a single store in a small city in the Atlanta region. They provided their customers with low-priced luggage and with a staff that would guide them in selecting a bag. Today they store has grown regionally due to their efforts to provide their customers with good service. Brawny Luggage now is looking to enter the Internet by establishing a website to expand their market and provide better services to their regional customers. 1.

What Internet business model would be appropriate for Brawny Luggage Inc. to follow in creating a website The Brawny Luggage Inc. website would follow the Virtual Storefront business model. Brawny would sell physical goods online aside from selling them in a physical storefront and or retail outlet. The goods would be purchased with a credit card or online check (other methods of payments will have to be evaluated.) After the transaction is approved the product would be shipped directly to the customer. The Brawny Luggage Inc. website will provide customers with a notice of purchase through e-mail as well as physically attaching this notice to the product they purchase.

This method is one of the most common online transaction systems. Many small business around the United States are developing this type of websites and soon a transactional website will me not be an advantage but a requirement. 2. In what ways can Brawny Luggage Inc. benefit from the website? What function should the website perform for the company?

(Marketing, sales, customer support internal communication etc. )? Brawny Luggage will receive numerous benefits from establishing a transactional website. The most beneficial aspect of having a website is the ability to have global connectivity. The Internet's global connectivity, ease of use, low cost, and multimedia capabilities can be used to create interactive applications, and to provide services and products. A website that is well-implement and applied correctly can reduce communication and transaction costs, enhance coordination and collaboration, and accelerate the distribution of knowledge The value of having a well-placed website in the Internet is its ability to easily and inexpensively connect many people from many places all over the globe.

This allows the Brawny Luggage expansion to be technically unlimited (if well advertised around the web.) A website also reduces communication cost. Instead of the taking hundreds of phone calls a day, Brawny Luggage could develop a customer support area in their site. This would allow customers to ask questions about products, warranties etc. Those questions would then be forwarded to the right person who would provide the customer with an answer as soon as possible The website would also lower transaction cost. Businesses have found that conducting transactions electronically can be done at a fraction of the cost of paper-based processes.

Using Internet technology reduces these transactions costs even further. A website would also decreases agency costs. A successful website climates the expenses normally incurred in opening physical stores in different regions. This not only includes the cost of the physical building space, but also management cost, and employees and inventory cost. A great thing about having a website is that it has interactivity, flexibility and customization. A website can interact with the user, unlike printed media.

Well-developed graphic design can attract users to an area of the site that the company wants to promote (one must be careful, as this could irritate the user.) A website is also flexible. It can be changed completely without affecting the backend system and it can also be customized to what customers want. 3. In what other ways might Brawny Luggage Inc. use the Internet for its own benefit? There are many ways that Brawny Luggage could benefit from the Internet. The Internet would not only provide them with a better way of selling to customers, but also a better way of purchasing from suppliers.

It would also provide them with better, cheaper and faster communication with their suppliers. The Internet could also provide them with access to their accounts. Brawny could manage customers and view their business from anywhere in the world. The CEO could be on vacation is Aruba and could see the number of sales the company had in the last 8 hours by simply using his cell phone or PDA. All of the transactions made by the company would be automatically input in a database. This database then could be administered and reviewed 24 hours a day.

Brawny could also develop an Extranet. The Extranet would only be available to employees. There they could check inside company information such as sales statistics, due dates, news, projects and even company e-mail (This would required cost-analysis before implementation.) 4. Prepare functional specifications for the company's use of the Web and the Internet.

Include links to and from other sites in your design. Brawny Luggage can access millions of sites that contain useful information by using the Internet. Brawny Luggage is a luggage company so it should evaluate other luggage companies and see how its competitors are taking advantage of the Internet. The Luggage Factory Outlet has developed a site that provides customers with different brands of luggage of all sizes and occasion. Brawny Luggage can evaluate the Luggage Factory Outlet site and base its functional specifications on that site.

Brawny Luggage could develop a small site that would provide the customer with general information about the company, show their products and allow customers to purchase them. Brawny Luggage could also develop a page that would allow the customer to contact them if any problems occurred or if they had any general questions. Other pages could be created that would have content about guarantees, security and order status. The site could be linked to other non-luggage sites such as travel websites, insurance sites etc.

Linking to luggage suppliers might take away business from Brawny Luggage. This is how the basic site would be laid out: 5. Prepare a cost-benefit analysis of a proposal to implement Brawny Luggage Inc.'s use of the Internet. Before developing its Internet-based projects, Brawny Luggage should do a cost-benefit analysis to be more confident in completing a successful project. When dealing with a cost-benefit analysis, the company must look at its cost in relation to both tangible and intangible benefits.

A tangible benefit is a benefit that can be quantify and assigned monetary value. These may include lower operational costs and increased cash flow. Intangible benefits are benefits that are not easily quantified. This may include more efficient customer service and enhanced decision-making. So, what are the costs when dealing with the Internet? First, be able to access the Internet a computer would generally be needed; therefore, hardware would have to be purchased.

Another cost would be a required Internet Service Provider (ISP). This would be needed if accessing the Internet via modem or network. Also, there might be software cost, depending on the function of the use of the Internet. Software such as Dream Weaver or FrontPage would be needed for the design or / and maintenance of the site (If site being developed / maintained internally.) Also, software such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro would be needed for graphic design. Technical maintenance costs may be incurred. This would cover troubleshooting, etc.

Personnel also may have to be added. People to do Internet research or maintenance may be needed to increase the Internets productivity. The tangible benefits that the company would obtain from the Internet might include an increase in productivity, lower operation costs, a reduction of work force, lower supplier costs and reduction of facilities. The Internet can increase productivity because it enables the company to complete tasks is less time. Lower operation costs can be available when a website is implemented, decrease paper usage, advertisement and printing costs. If a website is developed, it can also reduce the general work force.

The site would be available 24 hrs a day, no matter the customer's location (Unless there is not Internet available.) Lowering outside vendor cost may save the company a great deal of money. By having Internet access the company could find online suppliers that might give them better prices or even better products. If a well-developed site is created, the company could also reduce its facility cost. The intangible benefits that could be achieved by Internet implementation include more timely information, better corporate image, higher client satisfaction, improved operations, improved decision making, better market segmentation and even the ability to develop as technology continually develops and changes and to stay abreast of the latest technology trends.