I have been hired as an E-commerce consultant by a local established record label. They are keen to exploit the potential of the global market by expanding their customer and client base and capitalizing on the growing trade in downloading music. Definition of E-commerce extracted from “E-commerce is a way of doing real-time business transactions via telecommunications networks, when the customer and the merchant are in different geographical places. Electronic commerce is a broad concept that includes virtual browsing of goods on sale, selection of goods to buy, and payment methods. Electronic commerce operates on a bona fide basis, without prior arrangements between customers and merchants. E-commerce operates via the Internet.”

2. Methodology I will be using the following websites to investigate the questions set in this assignment. Yahoo Google HMV Virgin 3. Findings From my research I found that the ongoing development of technology particularly in the World Wide Web has headed millions of companies to take advantage of setting up an internet website where their products and services can be sold and thus maximize the profits of the company by reaching their target market.

The benefits of E-commerce developed for the music industry are as follows: In order for record labels, musicians, music stores, and individuals who have an interest in generating profits out of selling music, they identified a gap in the market place called E-commerce and penetrated here to maximize their profits By entering into E-commerce, these companies maximize their profits by fighting against piracy. The benefits of consumers are acquiring quality music at a cheaper price and most importantly legally.

The consumers also benefit from peaking up their favorite tracks or the entire album Companies such as HMV entice consumers by offering over one million tracks downloadable over their website. The software that is used to download these tracks is available online or in stores of the company free. It is easy and fast to download music and there is technical support and advice offered to individuals experiencing difficulties in setting up the software.

Another advantage of E-commerce is that companies such as HMV do not require have staff (apart from technical workers) which is very cost effective as it minimizes the costs of the company. Customers can shop 24/7 at their convenience. There is always the product they need and thus their needs are met more efficiently and their perception will not change. Moreover, HMV slightly repositions their market place by differentiating their product range which now includes many products which are needed to listen to digital music in the form of MP3. One of these products are MP3 players and an IPod shown below.