In Mai’s blog, she talks about the secret of Walmart’s success is E-commerce. Due to the changes in consumer behaviour, it also changes the business strategy for Walmart. It is undeniable that online market is playing an important role in people’s lives. Most people prefer to go shopping online rather than to go shopping outside since online market provides consumers with the following benefits: time saving, money saving and free shipping. Mai’s blog reminds me of China’s Alibaba which has set up an online shopping festival on November 11 since 2009.

Starting from a humble beginning in 2009, Alibaba managed to grow its sales on 11.11 by publicizing this new concept and using celebrity sponsorships. This strategy was a huge success. Consequently, the Singles Day holiday has become a massive part of the Chinese e-commerce market.

 China’s Single’s Day is approaching. Recently, friends around me begin to talk about their shopping plans on Taobao, which is one of the biggest e-commerce markets in China. The company raked in $5 billion during the first 90 minutes of the sale, totaling $14.3 billion in just 24 hours largely through its online shopping platforms, Taobao.com and Tmall.com. Alibaba’s Single’s Day sale is operating a “win-win-win” mode. It not only benefits buyers and sellers, but also brings tremendous benefits to itself. On November 11, sellers make a big sale and buyers get a great discount. However, the biggest winner must belong to Alibaba itself. It is able to gather a large amount of capital on that day. When money paid by the consumers goes into the payment system, these amount of money will not be directly distributed to sellers at once, they will be kept by Alibaba. As we know, more days the money is kept by Alibaba, the more profit the company will make.

With the development of network, China’s e-commerce has developed dramatically during the recent years. People can buy goods online at any time. I still remember my first time to go shopping online. What I required to do was adding the products I wanted into my shopping charts, afterwards making a payment by entering password of my card. It allows me to complete shopping in a few seconds. Although few years ago, the deals were not so many, the payment system was still straightforward and easy to use. What’s more, it took only few days, the delivery guy just showed up in front of my house’s door.

Today, China’s economy is expanding dramatically and online market has become an indispensable part.

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Sources:

Morishima, Mai. “The Secret of Walmart’s Success: Accelerating E-commerce | Mai Morishima’s Blog.” Mai Morishimas Blog. N.P., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.

N.P. “China’s Alibaba Records ‘singles Day’ Sales of $8bn in 10 Hours.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 11 Nov. 2015. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.Berke, Jeremy.

“How Alibaba Turned an Obscure, Made-up Chinese Holiday into a $14.3 Billion Shopping Extravaganza That’s Bigger than Black Friday.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 14 Nov. 2015. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.

Kevin Park introduces us the cause of the explosion of Samsung Galaxy Note7 and the follow-up actions took by Samsung company in his blog article “MASS RECALL FOR A LESSER FALL”

As we know, the cause of the explosion is due to battery malfunctions. Rather than chasing for short-term profit from the Note7, Samsung prefer to take the responsibility of the explosion and solve them as soon as possible by recalling 2,5 million devices from worldwide. However, recently it’s official, folks. Samsung has announced it has permanently discontinued production of the Galaxy Note 7. In the official filing with South Korean regulators, Samsung said:

Taking our customer’s safety as our highest priority, we have decided to halt sales and production of the Galaxy Note 7.

According to the articles, it state that the Samsung company is going to take up to a $17 billion loss in sales revenue due to the permanent discontinuation of the Galaxy Note7. In my opinion, it is fairly hard for the official Samsung to make this decision by urging customers to stop using their products any more at. This time, it shows that Samsung has attached great importance to explosion, they disregard their own interests, but put customers’ life security in the first place which is quite commendable in the commercial field.

However, this explosion of Samsung Galaxy Note7 not only exposed the technological problems exist in Samsung, but also improves people’s awareness of the safety of the electronic devices. In today’s society, with the dramatic development of technology, electronic devices are becoming one of the most significant parts of people’s lives. Most people rely on them and the convenience that the electronic devices bring to people result in a misunderstanding that all of the devices are perfect. In my opinion, although this explosion just happened in Samsung, I believe that this is not the only problem exist in Samsung. This event warns every company in the electronic industry to improve technology of their products. Otherwise the same tragedy will be restaged.

Sources:

Park, Kevin. “Kevin Park’s Blog.” Kevin Parks Blog. N.P., 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/kevinpark/>.

Petrovan, @bogdan247. “Galaxy Note 7 Recall: What You Need to Know (Note 7 Officially Discontinued).” Android Authority. N.P., 11 Oct. 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016. <http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-note-7-recall-714419/>

Carlon, @kris. “Samsung Permanently Discontinues the Galaxy Note 7, $17 Billion in Sales Lost.” Android Authority. N.P., 11 Oct. 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016. <http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-note-7-permanently-discontinued-721283/>.

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Bayerische Motoren Werke AG usually is known as BMW. It is one of the best-selling luxury automakers in the world. However, it was reported that this company surfaced a very serious problem with Takata airbags which forced BMW to recall over 4000 SUVs in the U.S and Canada.

According to the report this airbag problem was caused by the improper welds at a factory in Mexico. The drivers’ front air bag inflator can separate from a plat which can shoot out metal and other debris, it will definitely cause injury or death to vehicle occupants. It reported that there has already 10 people in the U.S have been killed by exploding Takata inflators and more than 100 have been hurt.

From the point of my view, I think BMW should take the responsibility for this serious problem and solve them as quick as possible. The emission of metal and other harmful chemicals is like a potential risk which threats drivers’ lives. The BMW company not only will lose customers’ trust, but also will worsen its brand and reputation around the whole world.

In oder to solve this problem, the dealers decided to replace the drivers’ air bag at no cost. From the view of business principles, the BMW company still obeys the business ethics since they didn’t hide and ignore this problem to the public. They still would like to commit their fault and correct them. Moreover, this problem also indicates that BMW still has weak management and lack of supervision of the products in the company. As a result, I strongly recommend the BMW company strengthen their management and operation for every factory around the world to ensure the quality and security of their cars.

Resources:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bmw-recall-suv-airbag-1.3786206

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