Starting a Business Online, Part 2 Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Starting a Business Online, Part 2 - Term Paper Example Selling the company’s domain is like selling what you have worked for years to build the business and letting your customer’s trust be put unto other’s hands. What if the new user of the domain will use the name for fraud or malicious intent? What will happen to your business and your credibility? What will happen to your customers? These are just few of the questions to ask on whether the domain should be sold or not. But for me, I value our efforts for years, thus I will not sell our domain. .   Functions of E-commerce Softwares: Catalog Display, Shopping Cart, Transaction Processing It is important to provide a catalog display in e-Commerce software. A catalog includes a display or list of goods and services available in the business. In a small local clothing store, the most common catalog service used is the static catalog (Electronic Software, n.d.). In a static catalog, it uses a HTML format to create a simple list appearing on a web page (Electronic Sof tware, n.d.). This software is very important especially for a small online store because it serves as the frontliner of the business. The only way for the customer to be able to know your offered goods and services is to check your web page. It is the most convenient way to offer your products. The customers need not send you email or contact you for questions regarding your business. Shopping cart software makes it convenient for customers to shop in your online business because it eliminates filling out online forms for the products or services that the customers wanted to purchase in your online store. Today, this software also called shopping bag or shopping basket keeps track of the selected products purchased by the customer wherein they can view their shopping list and they can add or delete items on the list (Electronic Software, n.d.). By simply clicking on the item, all the necessary details such a sthe price, the product code and quantity are stored in the cart. Another important software in electronic commerce is the transaction processing. This occurs when a customer clicks the checkout button, the software performs all the necessary calculations such as discounts, tax and shipping cost (Electronic Software, n.d.). Both the customer and seller’s web server switch into a secure state of communication (Electronic Software, n.d.). This is a very important and complex software where it needs update every now and then especially on taxes and shipping computations. But on the part of the customer, this serves convenience, efficiency and credibility which are very necessary to win online customers. Website Usability It is important that the store has an efficient web presence. Store website generates traffic and can help the business because it can become a large source of company or business profits. However, it is important to make an effective presence on the web because there are cases that even if there are a lot of website visitors, you can still miss out many potential buyers that may have not seen your webpage (Improving, n.d.). In order to have an effective usability, the website must be improved. First, it must be kept professional since it is the face or image of your company or business. This means the website must create a strong image by choosing 2-3 complementary colors as color scheme all over the website (Improving, n.d.). It is also recommended to use the company or business color as the main color of the website. It is therefore important that the

Economy of Switzerland Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Economy of Switzerland - Essay Example The country's political environment too is characterized by a high degree of decentralization with adequate amount of autonomy and authority delegated to the 26 cantons (Datamonitor, 2007). Macroeconomic indicators happen to be good measure of the economic development of a country as these measures keep track of the life-style of the citizens and the problems faced by them while trying to arrange for the living. Sound macroeconomic indicators help in strengthening the base for a lasting growth of a nation. Some of the macroeconomic indicators over the last couple of years can be summarized for the country as follows; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) happens to be the key driver of macroeconomic conditions in a country. It is calculated as1 'the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, equal to total consumer, investment and government spending, plus the value of exports, minus the value of imports'. Switzerland has seen consistent growth in its GDP over the years, but it appears that is not good enough for it to maintain its leading position amongst similarly placed nations. OECD (2007) in its survey, while lauding the high levels of GDP per capita for Switzerland, also expresses concern over the continuous erosion of Switzerland's relative position over the past decade. The report points out that while proper utilization of labor remains high, the productivity levels has dropped down in comparison to other developed economies like Germany, France, Denmark etc. The growth in real GDP for Switzerland over the period of 2001-2006 is as indicated in tabl e-1 Table 1: Switzerland real GDP (Swiss francs billion), 2001-2006 Table-2: GDP per capita growth in Switzerland compared to major Eurozone countries, 2001-2006 and forecast 2007-11 Year GDP (Swiss francs billion) Growth (%) Country CAGR 2001-2006 CAGR 2007-2011 2001 423 1.1 Germany 0.9 1.0 2002 425 0.4 France 1.4 1.5 2003 424 -0.2 Italy 0.6 0.9 2004 434 2.4 Spain 2.9 4.1 2005 444 2.2 Switzerland 1.0 1.4 2006 457 3.0 Source: Datamonitor, U.S Census Bureau International Database, National Statistical Organization- Switzerland CAGR 1.55% Source: Datamonitor, National Statistical Organization- Switzerland Even during the first two quarters of 2007 the GDP growth remained quite encouraging reaching 0.7% in each period, quarter on quarter (OECD, 2007). What is driving the growth is the acceleration in private consumption with an increase in the availability of more job opportunities and labour incomes. In fact in today's market driven economy what makes a big difference in the economic growth is the purchasing power of the workforce which sets a chain reaction in the form of more purchases, more production, and more contribution to the government in the form of taxes, more investments by the industry and expansion of the overall industrial outlook of the nation. Therefore, Switzerland seems to be preparing adequate ground for inviting more investments which obviously helps the government in shelling out more funds for infrastructure and social welfare sectors. For the year 2007 the GDP growth has been estimated around 2.5%, somewhat lower as compared to the 2006 figures but, in view of the global slowdown in economies this percentage appears good enough. The improvement in economic indicators is also on account of