基于互联网的采购与销售【外文翻译】.doc

1、 外文翻译 Retailing and shopping on the Internet Material Source:MCB University Press Author:Jennifer Rowley Introduction There is much hype concerning the Internet and its potential to provide a virtual experience in a wide range of different areas of society.Increasingly, businesses are recognizing th

2、e potential of the Internet and it has been noted that, “the Internet is becoming a hotbed of advertising and commercial activity”.There are fears that the Nets “free-spirited commune will be torn up and replaced by a giant on-line shopping mall”. This may have further significant consequences for t

3、he very nature of retailing, quite apart from the fundamental effect that it might have on the structure of the industry. Open Market, a recently launched electronic commerce company,for instance, believes that “broad band communications, ubiquitous computing power and multimedia applications will a

4、gain change how we shop and where we find our sense of community. The time honoured 4 Ps of marketing product, place, price and promotion seem no longer to apply”. Yet other commentators believe that the Internet shopping mall has a long way to go before it reaches its full potential. Resnick claims

5、 that, “For all the hype about Internet commerce,the reality is that Internet shopping is not yet ready for prime timeDespite all the cybermalls and storefronts popping up on the Web these days very few businesses are making big money selling goods and services on the Internet”. This article examine

6、s the challenges that shopping and other commercial transactions on the Internet pose for the retail industry.After a brief review of some earlier teleshopping ventures, it explores the nature of some of the Internet shopping malls, with particular reference to the types of products that are being r

7、etailed on the Internet. It then reviews some of the barriers to the further development of shopping on the Internet. Finally,taking both the possibilities and the constraints into account, it notes some projections concerning the potential rate of development of the Internet marketplace. Earlier te

8、leshopping Teleshopping is not a new concept. The first information services that were target marketed to the end-user in the home were the viewdata systems, such as, in the UK, Prestel, for example, where some early experiments with teleshopping were carried out in Gateshead and Bradford. In the US

9、A, cable television has supported the establishment of a significant teleshopping market. It is likely that some of the customers of these services will migrate to Internet retailing. Participating retailers have gained from these experiences,but these ventures were not supported by a technology tha

10、t was as powerful as the Internet.As compared with these alternative technologies the Internet offers: international connectivity and access to international markets; a strong North American market, which in many senses could be viewed as the domestic market for most Internet retailers; full multime

11、dia display facilities, which allow retailers to display and demonstrate their products, possibly with the use of audio and video (in some cases, as in the sale of music, for example, such facilities allow the customer to sample the product); more sophisticated electronic ordering and payment facili

12、ties; a much larger installed base of workstations,thus giving access to customers, in both the consumer and business sectors of the marketplace. Resources available via the Internet The resources available via the Internet are constantly changing, so any list is liable to date. Nevertheless, in ord

13、er to indicate the scope of the information available on the Internet, a brief review of some of the types of database will be useful. First, however, it may be useful to summarize the categories of use of the Internet. These are: e-mail allowing users to send messages or files to one another; news

14、to inform users of available information; remote log in allows users to log in to remote sites; ftp (file transfer protocol) allows users to access and retrieve files at remote sites. More specifically, to investigate the type of information available at remote sites, or to consider the nature of in

15、formation resources available on the Internet, it is useful to think in terms of the following six categories: (1) Listservs and discussion groups. There are listservs and discussion groups on a very wide variety of topics. Participants have the opportunity to exchange current information and conduc

16、t a dialogue. (2) Subject databases, particularly from academic institutions. Increasing numbers of institutions, particularly academic and research institutions, are making databases in their subject specialities available.Indiana University has, for example,mounted a number of files in the area of

17、 biology. (3) Community information. Often through their public libraries, communities are providing access, either dial-up or via Internet, to local data such as the catalogue of the public library, a tour of the art gallery, tourist information, weather reports and other demographic information. (

18、4) Government resources. Both national and local governments are providing information.For example, the Indiana State Library has mounted a Gopher server which provides access to the Indiana Code (the state law), and the US Federal Government has opened a Web site. (5) Library catalogues. Increasing

19、 numbers of libraries are making their catalogues available over the Internet. Although the majority of library catalogues available are those of large university libraries, public libraries are also beginning to make their catalogues available. (6) Commercial and business resources. This category i

20、ncludes the services that are described later, in the context of shopping,and also includes commercial online databases Dialog, Lexis/Nexis,Dow Jones News/Retrieval and many others. Tools for searching the Internet With such a vast array of databases and services available via the Internet it has be

21、en important to design interfaces that help users search the information sources and services available on the Internet. Retrieval is recognized to be a significant problem on the Internet,with databases in a wide variety of different formats and numerous different search retrieval software packages

22、 mounted on the different computers and providing access via different interfaces to subsets of the databases.Various print-based similes have been used to describe the situation, one of which is that the current state of the Internet can be likened to a library in which everyone in the community ha

23、s donated a book and tossed it into the middle of the library floor. Current tools which support searching include: Gopher,Archie, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server) and various Web clients such as Mosaic,Netscape and LYNX.World Wide Web (WWW or W3) merges the techniques of information retrieval an

24、d hypertext to make a powerful global information system. The WWW world consists of documents and links to other documents,hence the term “Web”. It is WWWs hypermedia capability that is rapidly establishing WWW as a tool. The Web uses the usual client/server model with the two systems (the client an

25、d the server) communicating using a simple protocol called HTTP (Hypertext Transmission Protocol), which allows for the data type to be transmitted. For instance, if a Postscript file is being viewed then the client system automatically runs a Postscript prepreview to view the data file. Similarly f

26、or video,graphical and digital sound information can be accessed.Client programs are called browsers.Mosaic, Netscape and Lynx are World Wide Web clients or browsers; that is, they are software programs which allow users to view information supplied over the World Wide Web. Mosaic is an integrated t

27、ool and, like many other browsers, also provides access to Telnet, ftp, Archie, Gopher and other services.Mosaic and Netscape are graphical user interfaces, providing access to both text and graphics, while Lynx provides access to text only. WebCrawler and WebWorm are recently developed search engin

28、es for locating resources on the World Wide Web. Comparison shopping Most customers expect to be able to compare the available products and their prices from a variety of different outlets. For example, if you were considering the purchase of a new computer or modem, you might scan the advertisement

29、s in a couple of paper-based computer magazines. Performing this type of comparison on the Internet is difficult. There are a number of computer stores on the Internet,but there is no way to browse them all at once,or even to find out where they all are, without spending a lot of time searching. Res

30、nick also reports some reluctance among Internet merchants to compete on price, or even publish prices at all. On the other hand, once the interface is available that does make this type of comparison possible, price comparison, indepth information, comparative evaluation and analysis tools should m

31、ake comparisons relatively easy, and may lead to fiercer competition in some marketplaces. Making money on the Internet without selling It is important for retailers and other companies using the Internet to recognize that the commercial use of the Internet is not restricted to its merchandising opp

32、ortunities. It is possible to achieve a competitive advantage by using the Internet without ever making a sale. Opportunities for such use of the Internet can be grouped into the following categories: Improvements in business communication.Businesses can use the Internet to improve the way in which

33、business processes are conducted. Communication over the Internet can replace the use of the fax machine or express postal delivery services.E-mail is invaluable for day-to-day communication and may reduce the use of the telephone and the regular postal service. Enhancing customer service. Some busi

34、nesses,such as computer hardware and software vendors, have a considerable demand for high quality, easily accessible customer support services. Posting service and engineering information in FAQ (frequently asked questions) files can reduce the labour costs of customer service operations and elimin

35、ate the tedium of providing repetitive verbal answers. Troubleshooting problems and addressing questions can be handled effectively using e-mail and file transfers.Software updates and fixes can also be forwarded via the Net. Sales support. The Internet can provide a highly effective sales support m

36、echanism not previously available to small and moderate-sized companies. Through e-mail,salespeople can obtain up-to-date information quickly by contacting the appropriate people in their organizations to answer customers queries, or alternatively a technical person can use the Internet to contact t

37、he customer. Other applications are reported by Baran in a quote from the Wall Street Journal: the survey reported that the most common uses small companies said they would find for the superhighway would be the ability to take or place orders, conduct video conferencing, check the market prices or

38、availability of raw materials,and analyse cash flows. Other favoured potential uses included creating and sending manufacturing and design specifications to staff,vendors and customers, gaining access to immediate inventory management, making competitive bids, conducting banking and stock market tra

39、nsactions, paying taxes and gaining access to image technology. Replacing the 4 Ps Welz, in quoting Hyojong Kim, a director of IPro, a digital advertising company,stresses that online marketing must be seen in terms of five components: promotion, one-to-one contact, closing, transaction and fulfilme

40、nt.These five components might be substituted for the 4 Ps. (1) Promotion includes advertising and creating product awareness. The Internet allows a marketer to post information on a server where it can be seen by many users. Nevertheless, to succeed in promotion,a marketer must understand the demog

41、raphics of the audience, which is not the same as the audience that would be reached in print or electronic media.Information must be presented in a way that will hold the users interests. (2) One-to-one contact unlike a real store, the Net does not offer marketers opportunities of synchronous one-t

42、o-one contact with customers. The Net does, however,allow for asynchronous contact via e-mail,and this can be used to develop a relationship with a customer. A salesperson to respond to e-mail enquiries as they arrive is valuable, and electronic mailing lists can be used to e-mail reminders to custo

43、mers. (3) Closing involves setting the price and closing the deal. While this can be achieved through a collection of e-mail messages, Net buying is more like ordering from a catalogue. On the other hand,there is an electronic record of the sale and the deal struck. (4) Transaction payment for goods

44、 is typically made in cash, or by credit card. Until recently, such transactions were difficult over the Net. Increasing numbers of companies are introducing systems to enable secure credit card transactions on the Net. Digital forms of currency are also being developed by companies like DigiCash, C

45、yberCash and NetCash. (5) Fulfilment involves the delivery of goods.Delivery online is restricted to digital products such as electronic books and software. Fulfilment includes not only shipping, but also effective electronic order processing. This can be achieved much more efficiently than in syste

46、ms where people are required to take and enter orders, because data entered by the customer go directly to all relevant parties.EDI is particularly useful for checking inventory in real time, to alleviate back-order problems and enhance customer service. 译文 基于互联网的采购与销售 资料来源 : MCB 大学出版社 作者： Jennifer

47、Rowley 引言 有许多炒作有关互联网，及其在社会各领域潜在的提供广泛的虚拟体验。越来越多的企业开始认识到互联网的潜力，并已经注意到“互联网正在成为广告和商业活动的温床”。有担忧指出网络的“自由精神组织将被一个巨大的网上购物商城撕碎和替代”。这可能对零售业的非常性质有进一步意义重大的结果，撇开它可能对行业结构的基本作用。开放的市场，一个新近创办的电子商务公司，比如认为 “宽带通信，无处不在的计算能力和多媒体应用将再次改变我们的店，以及我们在哪里找到我们的共有意识。 4 个 P 的时间荣幸营销 产品、地点、价格和促销 似乎已经不再适用”。还有一些评论家认为网上购物商城在达到其全部潜力之前还有很

48、长的路要走。雷斯尼克声称：“对于所有有关互联网商业的炒作，其现实是网上购物的黄金时间还尚未准备好 .这些日子，尽管所有的网络商城和店面突然出现在网络上，但极少数是在互联网上销售商品和注册服务赚大钱”。 本文考察了在互联网上购物和其他商业交易所构成的零售业的挑战。经过一些早期的电视购物企业 的简要回顾，探讨了其网上购物商城的一些性质，并特别提到正在互联网上零售的产品。然后回顾了在互联网上购物的进一步发展的一些障碍。最后，考虑到双方的可能性和限制，它注意到某些预测有关互联网市场发展的潜在增长率。 早期的电视购物 电视购物不再是一个新的概念。第一个信息服务目标是将可视数据系统销售给在家中的最终用户，

49、如在英国、普雷斯特，例如早期的一些电视购物实验在盖茨黑德和布拉德福进行。在美国，有线电视支持了一个重要的电视购物市场的建立。这很可能是这些服务的部分客户将迁移到互联网零售。参与计划的零售商们获得这些经验 ，但随着互联网的越来越强大，这些企业并不是由一种技术支持。与这些互联网提供的替代技术相比较： 国际连接和进入国际市场； 强大的北美市场，这在许多意义上可作为大多数网络零售商的国内市场看； 全面的多媒体显示功能，允许零售商显示和展示他们的产品，可与音频和视频一起使用（在某些情况下，如在销售音乐，例如这些设施允许客户从产品中抽样）； 更先进的电子订货和付款设施； 更大的工作站安装基础，从而在市场上获得无论是消费者和商业部门的客户。 通过互联网提供的资源 这些资源通过因特网的提供不断变化，因此任何名单可 被更新。尽管如此，为了在互联网上表示提供信息的范围，即对某些类型的数据库的简要回顾将会是有用的。然而，首先它可能是有效的总结了使用互联网的类别。这些是： 电子邮件 允许用户发送信息或文件到达另一方； 新闻 告知用户可用的信息； 远程日志