Annette Jackson owns a small crafts store in central Missouri. She wants to expa

Question

Annette Jackson owns a small crafts store in central Missouri. She wants to expand her store’s reach outside the region to increase her profits and simultaneously reduce her inventory. Annette’s teenage daughter suggested that she consider selling online to expand her total sales. She asked you to help her estimate how much it might cost in the first year to create a simple store with a catalog of about 100 items. Annette wants you to investigate two CSP offerings and report back to her what you find. Because her store is small, limit your research to basic commerce and mall-style services. Annette would like to consider the following information for the two CSP offerings you examine:

NOTE: Please Choose any 4 item form the following list and discuss them ( DISCUSS ONLY 4)

• Costs: initial setup fee, monthly fee, and transaction fees

• Amount of disk space the CSP would provide for Annette’s 100-item store

• Promotion and marketing opportunities

• Customer communications capabilities, such as automated e-mail confirmation of orders

• Shopping cart or other order entry mechanism

• Storefront-building wizards for creating a new store

• Upload capabilities for product names, descriptions, images, and costs (Can they be uploaded from files or databases, or must the merchant enter each item individually?)

• Existence of an online user manual for the merchant

Use your favorite search engine to find CSPs that might meet Annette’s needs. Produce a report of about 400 words summarizing your findings.

Explanation / Answer

Responses will vary, but should list all of the above. For example, initial setup fee might be $200 with a maintenance fee of $1200. The domain name might run approximately $100. The automated e-mail confirmation will cost Annette $1000, and all payment processing fees should be estimated at 3% of her gross sales. Students should list all fees, understanding that these are approximations.

Four types of plans are developed in CSP:

1.Demand planning and forecasting

oExamination of historic data

2.Distribution planning

oDelivering products to consumers

oWarehousing, delivering, invoicing, and payment collection

3.Production scheduling

oCoordination of activities needed to create the product/service

oOptimization of the use of materials, equipment, and labor

4.Procurement planning

oDevelopment of inventory estimates

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