How Do I Go Online With My Brick-and-Mortar Business?

This talks about how an ecommerce initiative was executed and launched online and the lessons that we can look at and adopt for any brick-and-mortar firm to come online.

Campusfood's recipe for success was a simple one: provide interactive menus to college students, using the power of the Internet to replace and/or facilitate the traditional telephone ordering of meals. Launched at the university of Pennsylvania (Penn), the company is taking thousands of orders each month for local restaurants, bringing pizzas, hoagies, and wings to the Penn community and to dozens of other universities.

Founder micheal Saunders began developing the site(campusfood.com) in 1997 while he was a junior at Penn. With the help of some classmates, Saunders launched the site in 1998. after graduation, he began building the company's customer base. This involved expanding to other universities, attracting students, and generating a list of restaurants from which students could order food for delivery. Currently, some of these activities are outsourced to a marketing firm, enabling the addition of dozens of schools nationwide.

Financed through private investors, friends, and family members, the site was built on an investment of less than $1 million ( for comparison, another company with services also reaching the college-student market invested $100 million.) campusfood.com's revenue is generated through transaction fees - the site takes a 5 percent commission on each order from the sellers (the restaurants). When you visit campusfood.com. you can:

• Navigate through a list of local restaurants, their hours of operation, addresses, phone numbers, and other information.
• Browse an interactive menu. The company takes a restaurant's standard print menu and converts it to an electronic menu that lists every topping, every special, and every drinks offered, along with the latest prices.
• Bypass "busy" telephone signals to place an order online, and in so doing, avoid miscommunications.
• Get access to special foods, promotions, and restaurant giveaways. The company is working to set up meals that are available online exclusively for campusfood.com customers.
• Arrange electronic payment of order.

Questions
1 classify this application by EC transaction type
2 explain the benefita of campusfoo.com for its student customers and for the restaurant it represents.
3 Trace the flow of digitized informstion in this venture.
4 How does the outsscouring of the marketing activities contribute to the business

Stephen A. Essel, an Ecommerce & Ebusiness Lecturer for Regent University College of Science & Technology, Accra, Ghana. Provides consulting services to individuals and SME on how to adopt an ecommerce approach for their business ideas and grow their business.