Mini Case
Waking from her surgery, Jeanne felt the dreary prospect of recovery weighing on her 12-year-old mind. Being constrained to her bed for 10 weeks was not a pleasant thought when her friends could run, jump, and play outside. Worst of all, she could not do her favorite activity—riding her horse Pepper. Her mom suggested she try designing some fun graphics and sell them on t-shirts. The challenge of this enterprise might distract her from the tedium of recovery. It could give her purpose … give her power … give her extra money for when she recovered.
Over the next two weeks Jeanne designed 11 different graphics using a copy of Adobe Illustrator her dad bought and installed for her. Some of these designs were of horseback riding. Some were of dogs. Others were of babies. She uploaded these 11 designs to CafePress.com. On CafePress.com she could create a storefront to sell the designs on t-shirts using CafePress’s built-in e-commerce platform. CafePress took the digital designs and printed them on the t-shirts as new orders came in. CafePress also took care of shipping the printed t-shirts to customers.
Jeanne e-mailed a link to this storefront to her friends. Her mom posted a link on Facebook. Her dad sent tweets to his Twitter followers. Her simple yet cute designs were a hit. In the first week she sold 38 t-shirts. By the end of the month, she had earned $561. By the time her recovery was over, she had grossed over $1,200. With her recovery complete, she bought a new saddle for her horse from her earnings and returned to her passion of riding.
Questions:
- 1. How did CafePress make it possible for a 12-year-old to start an e-commerce business?
- 2. Why was entrepreneurship difficult prior to Internet technologies?
- 3. How did Jeanne’s problem-solving and communication help her succeed?
- 1. What is the Internet? Describe the relationship between the Internet and the World Wide Web.
- 2. What is a protocol? Describe how TCP/IP satisfies this definition.
- 3. What is hypertext? How does hypertext make it easier for Internet users? How is Hypertext used in HTML?
- 4. What is e-commerce? How is understanding e-commerce useful to you? How is m-commerce related to e-commerce? How have the changes in mobile technology changed e-commerce? Describe a situation where a person may use mobile technology, social technology, and e-commerce simultaneously.
- 5. Describe a situation where an e-commerce system failed for you. What was the cause of the failure? How might the failure have been avoided?
- 6. What is a debiasing strategy? Why should you incorporate these strategies in your thinking about e-commerce? Explain a situation where using one of the strategies could have helped you make a better decision?
- 7. What are some of the technologies used for online communication? When would it be appropriate to use each of the technologies?
- 1. Search for a create-your-own-t-shirt store, such as CafePress.com or Zazzle.com. Create a simple message or artwork. Step through the process of creating your own product and make it available to sell.
- 2. Research three e-commerce businesses not described in this chapter that failed during the dot-com bubble. Describe the business and key problems that may have led to its failure.
- 3. Draw a diagram that shows how browsers communicate with web servers.
- 4. Research Yahoo!. Write a report on its beginnings and early struggles and where they are now.
- 5. Research the tulip bulb bubble from the early 1600s. Describe how the dot-com bubble was similar to the tulip bulb bubble. What key similarities might help you identify bubbles in other markets?
- 6. Review an e-mail newsletter that you or someone you know subscribe(s) to. Describe the mood of the newsletter and the actions it encourages you to take.
