E-commerce stands for electronic commerce which in itself stands for the selling and buying of goods and services on the internet through a website or internet application. The 21st century is characterized by almost every organization, company, or firm struggling to go online. This is simply because the best market of the 21st century is on the internet and the best way to reach out to that market is by using a platform that can reach them. The car workshop industry is not left behind. Everybody in the world is targeting to own a personal car. Others own a fleet of cars and therefore this automotive needs a lot of repairs or customization. The old way entailed that the owners of cars should go in person to the workshops and make an appointment for their cars to be modified or worked on. But with the dawn of the internet, the fossilized way of doing things in the automotive industry is changing and any business sprouting up should utilize this market.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the regions in the world that has witnessed fast growth in technology and the development of automobiles. Therefore this gives rise to the constant need of people owning personal cars or even company cars to customize them concerning their drive or company motive. This has given rise to the development of workshops all over the region, but still, they seem inconvenient and not equipped enough to satisfy the continually growing demand. This is what has driven me to think of coming up with an e-workshop that will be primarily concerned with the whole process of making appointments and having your car worked on. There are a lot of services that automotive workshops offer to their customers.
This includes repairs, and this is split into two, and that is the insured accident repairs and the personal repairs. The workshops should categorize this so that it is easy for them to file claims. The other service is Panel beating and bodywork, painting; which includes art painting, regular car maintenance, mechanical repair and maintenance, and many more. Each of these services requires different timeframes, and therefore clients have to be aware of these times. My business, in this case, will be aiming to link all the car workshops in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through an online platform that could help clients make appointments for repairs from the comfort of their homes. This is because there are more than enough workshops in the region presently and coming up with another workshop will be expensive, and it will not be possible to have the personnel wanted, and the equipment’s needed at once. Therefore the best shot is by consolidating the existing workshops and linking them to one website.
The website will have some advantages both for the clients and the workshop owners. Through the website, clients will be able to find the nearest workshop in their region that offers the service that he or she needs. For instance, if it is an insurance-covered repair, the client doesn’t have to go to the workshop to get his or her car repaired. All he has to do is log into the website and find the workshop and make a call. In addition to that, not all workshops take the insurance-covered repairs due to the claims procedures involved. It is often an embarrassment for clients to go all the way to the workshop only to find that the service is not offered in that workshop. Therefore coming up with a website that consolidates these workshops will not only make it easier for customers but also help workshops advertise their specific services.
The kind of product and service that will be offered by the e-business will be linking the clients in Saudi Arabia to the automotive workshops in the region. The website will also give the customers a virtual tour of the different workshops they are interested in. This will make it possible for the clients to access the kind of services offered by individual workshops before deciding to take their car to the workshop. In addition to that, customers don’t have to go looking for towing trucks. The website will also link customers to towing truck owners who will either be connected to the workshops or operate independently in the region. This will reduce the total cost of getting your car serviced in the area and also the time used to get the service. Initially, people are used to spending a whole day in the workshop just to get their car repaired or serviced. But with this website, all you have to do is log in to the site and make an appointment, and order a towing service. Your car will be taken from your address, serviced as per your requirement, and delivered back within the agreed timeline.
Business Statement
Apex auto limited provides a unique experience to the customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Our priority is customer satisfaction. We understand that vehicle purchasing, but sometimes the experience of maintaining it is unpleasant. We aim to provide our customers with a centralized, enjoyable, and honest service by satisfying individual customers’ needs.
We also believe that every customer deserves cheap and quality service. We achieve this by ensuring that we have the most qualified personnel and our services are backed up with a thirty-day limit warranty that guarantees that the services we offer to our clients are of high quality. Our company will ensure fair remuneration to the different workshops which will be subscribed to the website and also decent return to its owners. Workshops will get bonuses for quality work thus motivating them to offer quality services to the customers.
Vision
Our vision is to connect the auto world and offer the best services to our clients. To build a place where people can own automobiles without the fear of maintaining it.
Business objective
Our objectives will be:
- • Increase the profit margin
- • Increase efficiency
- • Provide better customer service
- • Capture a bigger market share
- • Reduce carbon emissions to the environment
My e-commerce business is primarily an online platform that is aimed at providing automotive services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is based on the fact that almost 60% of people own cars in the region and there are a lot of automotive workshops in the region. But customers end up spending a lot of time waiting for their cars to be serviced or repaired. In other instances, people opt to abandon their cars because of the procedures involved in filing claims if an insurance firm covers him or them. But with this e-commerce business, the workshops will be able to set out appointments for different clients thus avoiding jams in the workshops and disappointments of customers due to unavailable parts or services not offered by the workshop.
Customers will just access the Apex Motors limited website and take a virtual tour of the different workshops. Depending on what service the customer is interested in, he or she will select the workshop that best suits him and the one that is closest to his or her place. He will then contact the workshop through the contact button and set an appointment in that specific workshop of choice. To avoid unnecessary inconveniences, the workshop will also plan for the appointment, and therefore all the parts required for the service will be available, and also the personnel needed will be set for the job. This will reduce the time spent and thus maximum profits for the workshop and little time wastage for the client.
In the case where the customer is not willing to drive the car to the workshop, the workshop can provide towing service or driver at a relatively cheaper cost as compared to hiring a towing truck that is privately owned. Another aspect of my e-business is the case where the kind of service is insurance-covered repair. This means that the owner of the car is not the one paying for the costs but a third-party insurance company. The business will set a platform for this kind of repair and therefore help facilitate the filing of claims and thus make it easier for the workshops. In addition to that, the website will help the workshops that have already been established in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia be able to specialize in specific services when it comes to automotive services. For instance, if a workshop is dedicated to bodywork, then it is all bodywork. This will ensure that the services offered by the workshop are of high quality. This will be the same for the artwork.
S.W.O.T Analysis.
The S.W.O.T analysis is a useful technique that is used by organizations to help understand the company’s strengths, and weaknesses and also identification of opportunities open to the organization and also the threats the company may face.
Strengths of my e-commerce business
My e-business is targeting the online community. The 21st century is characterized by everyone going online. Therefore utilizing the internet gives the company the opportunity to access its target market and that is the Saudi auto owners. In addition to that, there is no such organization in the region, therefore, giving the company a competition-free market. This will reduce the marketing costs that the company will suffer. But most importantly, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is characterized by wealthy people, and thus almost everybody owns a car. In addition to that, the Saudi people don’t like spending so much time in workshops since they have a lot of other jobs to manage for instance managing family businesses (Awais and Tanzila 571). Therefore giving them an online platform that will give them automotive repair services without necessarily going to the workshop will sell perfectly.
The company’s primary goal is to offer high-quality services to its clients. The specialization of the different workshops will ensure that the services provided there are of high quality. The 30-day warranty also guarantees the customers high-quality services offered by the company.
To access what people say about the company, we will have to see it on the social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Starting a conversation on such platforms will give you what people feel about the company. This can also be done through an online survey that will be aimed at getting the public view regarding the services offered by the company.
Weaknesses.
The main weakness of the company is managing the workshops that are owned by different people or organizations. This means that every time a decision has to be made all the workshop owners must come into agreement first. In addition to that, there are a lot of players in the system thus making the whole process challenging
Opportunities
The e-commerce industry is expanding, and therefore this gives the company more future opportunities for success.
The Saudi Arabia community is an online community and therefore going online will ensure access to the market. This means success for the company and also for the workshops.
Adoption of such a technology will be a slow and tedious process. This ensures that it will take time for competitors to gain market entry into our target market thus ensuring maximum profits.
Threats
The development of technology may change the market beyond our ability to adapt.
Large competitors from other countries may infiltrate our market, and it might wipe our market out completely.
Building the e-commerce Website
The world we are living in today is characterized by an increased advancement in technology and a consumer who is increasingly going online in the global economy. The most important thing when it comes to online business is the security of both the customer and the company itself. In addition to that, an e-commerce business needs an advanced level of marketing since the old fossilized methods cannot work when it comes to online business. Therefore this guide will give an outline of what the e-commerce business website will look like.
The Domain Name and Hosting
This includes the name of the company. The first thing to do in this case is to register for a domain name. This costs around $10 for a .com extension. The domain name of our company will be apexmotorsltd.com. After getting the domain name, we will find a hosting company that has good servers that will be able to run our extensive online business. Our choice is to use PHP since the language is open source and is supported by most environments (Krahn, Bernhard, and Steven 230).
The next step will be choosing the e-commerce package.
Our company will use Self-hosted solutions to host e-commerce scripts. This is because we need to customize them to meet our customers needs. The most crucial aspect, in this case, is our customer’s security and our company
The next step in building our website is the payment method that our company will utilize. The most important thing in this part is to ensure that both the company and the customers are safe. Therefore the website will include a merchant account that will enable our customers to use their credit cards to pay for the services rendered. But since our business is new, it will be difficult to open a merchant account, and therefore we will use the third-party merchant account providers until our business is old enough to open her accounts (Bower, Matthew and Terence 156). After the creation of a merchant account, we will need a gateway that will securely transfer our customer’s credit data to the merchant account
After doing all that, the website will be ready, and we will be prepared to start operations. The site will be designed to give the different workshops a sign-up button that will provide them with access to the website for them to post their services and samples of their work. This will give customers access to the different workshops and their locations and the various services offered by these workshops./ this sign-up button will require the workshops to add their contacts, location, and a brief explanation of what they offer. This includes pictures or videos uploaded to the website regarding their past jobs. In addition to that, the site will provide the user reviews button for the customers to rate the workshops after completing their tasks. This will ensure that the workshops struggle to offer quality services since that will determine if they will get the next customer.
The functionality of the E-commerce website.
The Apex motors limited will be geared towards simplicity and user-friendly. On the top right corner, it will have the Home button that will be giving an overview of what the company offers. The template will have the continuous play of the different works done by the company for example pictures of body works, spray works, and many more. Next to the home button is the products. This button will give the user access to the products and services offered by the different workshops. This will include the different workshops and the products they offer. For instance, a click on workshop A will give the user access to insurance repairs and car servicing products. On clicking workshop B, the user will get access to accident repairs, car sprays, and auto body repairs. This part will also provide users with the booking button. After selecting the kind of service he or she wants, he will be redirected to a contact page where they will communicate with the workshop using the internal messaging system. They will agree to the terms of service and the cost of the service. After that, the workshop will either approve or reject the customer’s offer for a reason. If the workshop accepts the offer, then they are obligated to complete the task within the agreed timeframe and cost.
After the acceptance of the contract, the customer will either deliver the car or set a pickup point depending on the agreement between him or her and the workshop. The project then will be highlighted as in progress, and it will be given the countdown. This will ensure the workshop observes time and delivers within the deadline agreed upon. Our company comes in when it comes to payments or in case of a conflict between the customer and the workshop. The reason why we control payments is to ensure that the customer is satisfied before the money is released to the workshop. Additionally, the workshop has to be sure that the customer will pay for the services rendered to them before they start working on the project.
Finally at the far end will be the help button that will be equipped with the tools to help the users understand the website in case they land it a problem. This will ensure that customers and the workshops have the tools and resources they need in using the website at their disposal.
But to ensure that our customers can access and inquire about anything at any time, the website will have the contact us button at the bottom end. And since it is an e-commerce business, it will utilize all the social media platforms like Facebook. This is because many of our customers are on the platforms and therefore it makes it easy to contact us using their handles on the platforms. Additionally, the platforms give potential customers a preview of what our company offers from the comments by those who have used our website. The contact button will also have the company email for official use and also the contacts for the different officials who manage our company. This will ensure that customers get the satisfaction they want and also be able to file any complaints regarding the workshops.
Finally, the website will have terms and conditions at the end. This will give the users access to the terms and conditions of the company before going into contract with any workshop. This will ensure that there are no conflicts after the commencement of the task thus ensuring the satisfaction of both parties.
Works Cited
Awais, Muhammad, and Tanzila Samin. “Advanced SWOT Analysis of E-commerce.” International Journal of Computer Science Issues 9.2 (2012): 569-574.
Bower, Mark F., Matthew J. Pauker, and Terence Spies. “Payment card processing system with structure-preserving encryption.” U.S. Patent Application No. 13/155,156.
Krahn, Holger, Bernhard Rumpe, and Steven Völkel. “Roles in software development using domain-specific modeling languages.” arXiv preprint arXiv: 1409.6618 (2014). 201-249
