How Technology Influences Business
A shop used to mean a building on a street. Now a business can sell to the whole world from a laptop. Learn how e-commerce, social media and digital payments are changing business.
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Business at the speed of a click
A shop used to mean a building on a street with set opening hours. Now a small business can sell to the whole country from a laptop, at any time of day. This module is about how technology, from e-commerce to social media, is changing how businesses work.
E-commerce words
Four ideas run through this topic:
What is e-commerce?
What is e-commerce?
- Buying and selling goods and services online
- Only selling from a single physical shop
- Sending orders by handwritten letter
- Refusing to sell anything at all
Before and after
Technology has changed how a business reaches its customers.
Tech and benefit
- E-commerce
- Social media
- Modern payment systems
- Digital communication
- Sells to a wider market, open all hours
- Cheap, fast promotion and feedback
- Quick and easy ways for customers to pay
- Fast contact with customers and staff
Sales, costs and the mix
Technology changes a business in three ways. SALES can rise because it reaches a wider market and can sell all day. Some COSTS fall, such as fewer shops and cheaper adverts, though the technology itself costs money to buy and run. And the MARKETING MIX changes: place now includes online, and promotion now includes social media.
How it helps
Which THREE are ways technology can help a business?
- Reach a wider market
- Promote cheaply on social media
- Take payments quickly and easily
- Guarantee the business never fails
- Remove all competition for ever
Changing the mix
- Selling on a website
- Advertising on social media
- Customers comparing prices online
- Using customer data
- Changes place: the business sells online
- Changes promotion: cheap online adverts
- Affects price: shoppers compare easily
- Helps tailor the product to customers
Take the shop online
Put the steps of moving a shop online in a sensible order.
- Build a website or online shop
- List the products with photos and prices
- Add a secure payment system
- Promote it on social media
- Take orders and deliver them
Complete the idea
Using _____, a business can sell online to a wider market. Posting on _____ media promotes it cheaply and gives fast feedback. Modern _____ systems make paying quick. Technology can raise _____, but the equipment and training also add to _____.
True or not?
Tap the TWO statements that are TRUE.
- E-commerce lets a business sell to customers far beyond its local area.
- Social media can promote a business cheaply and quickly.
- Technology always removes every cost for a business.
- An online shop can only open for one hour a day.
- Modern payment systems make it harder for customers to pay.
What about costs?
How does technology often change the costs of a business?
- Some costs fall, but the technology itself costs money to run
- It removes every cost completely
- It only ever makes costs rise
- It has no effect on costs at all
Grow the shop
A small shop wants to grow using technology. Choose the best step each time.
- To reach customers outside its town, what should it do?
- To promote the shop cheaply, which is best?
- What is one drawback of relying on technology?
Explain it
Explain how technology could help a small shop grow, and give one drawback.
- Explain how e-commerce could increase sales
- Explain how social media could help with promotion
- Explain how technology might change the marketing mix
- Give one drawback of using technology