Electronic Commerce and Mary Kay Essay

Founded in 1962, bloody shame Kay (marykay. com) has about 1. 8 trillion consultants selling its cosmetics and fragrances in 34 countries. In 2008, the beau monde had about $2. 4 billion in sweeping sales. As a come with that has based its reputation on personal contacts through door-to-door visits and denture gatherings, one might think that Mary Kay would not benefit from EC. Actually, the opposite is true. Currently, more than 95 pct of Mary Kays independent salespeople place orders via the Internet.The Problem The cosmetics market is very competitive, but it is growing quickly, specially in developing countries. Mary Kay is trying to capitalize on this trend. The Mary Kay business model enables rapid growth into new markets. By the early 2000s, consultants found that more and more customers wanted to shop online. With a long and global supply chain and the need to manage almost 2 million consultants, it was glide by that automation was needed, but Mary Kays existing comput er system was old and lacked Web or e-commerce applications.Therefore, a major overhaul of the information systems was needed. Finally, it became clear that the emergence of hearty computing might go forth a golden opportunity for Internet marketing by the company. The Solution Mary Kays IT section is straightaway split into three divisions e-commerce, supply chain, and back-office support. Because of pressure from the consultants, the restructuring focused on e-commerce. The companys goals and objectives were knack based on industry best practices.Goals and objectives determine what, how, and when the company is operated, and these also apply to EC initiatives. Mary Kays EC solution included the creation of an electronic service desk that supports consultants in 30 countries in a standardized way. Mary Kay also introduced a global electronic ordering system, called Atlas, that allows the consultants to communicate with company warehouses. An intelligent data repository that dy namically maintains a logical model of the EC environment give the bounce be accessed by Mary Kay IT staff.Mary Kay and its consultants are also making extensive use of social computing. The following are some representative examples of how Mary Kay uses social computing The company posts job start announcements on several sites, including MySpace Jobs ( classifieds. myspace. com/job). Movies and videotapes are available on YouTube (youtube. com) and on movies. go. com. Several blogs are available, both for and against the company (e. g. , marykayandrews. com/blog). Auctions and fixed-price items are available for sale on eBay. Mary Kay provides a consultant locator on the Internet. either of these developments are supported by an extensive hardware and software infrastructure, including a wireless remote focussing system at the 760,000 square-foot corporate headquarters, an extensive wide area network (WAN, see Chapter 8), and a spectacular data center. Some of the EC systems a re used enterprise wide (e. g. , service desk, ticketing system for consultants tending events, and service requests made by consultants). Others are functional (e. g. , accounting, finance, marketing, and inventory control).The company uses an intranet for internal communications as well as dozens of other EC applications. In addition to providing better support to consultants, the EC initiatives produced other benefits, such as greater efficiency, reduced costs and downtime, and improved service. In terms of serviceman resources, it enabled the company to handle its rapid growth without a substantial increase in staffing. The changes also turn in allowed EC personnel to focus on strategic tasks. Mary Kay found that its engineers and technical people now have time to spend on new innovations.ReferencesBowman, Mary Kay, et al. Intelligent and firm currency conversion. U.S. seeming(a) No. 7,747,475. 29 Jun. 2010.Meuter, Matthew L., et al. The influence of technology anxiety on co nsumer use and experiences with self-service technologies. Journal of demarcation Research 56.11 (2003) 899-906.Dholakia, Ruby Roy, and Nikhilesh Dholakia. Mobility and markets emerging outlines of m-commerce. Journal of Business research 57.12 (2004) 1391-1396.Kay, Jeffrey, et al. Information objects system, method, and computer program organization. U.S. unvarnished No. 6,473,893. 29 Oct. 2002.Finn, Mary Kay, Karen Lahey, and David Redle. Policies Underlying Congressional Approval of Criminal and Civil Immunity for synergetic Computer Service Providers Under Provisions of the Communications Decency Act of 1996-Should E-Buyers Beware. U. Tol. L. Rev. 31 (1999) 347.