Abstract
The omni-channel strategy is one of the main topics in marketing that have been receiving attention in recent years, because smartphones and social media are significantly altering consumer behavior. In general, setting up a large-scale omni-channel requires significant investment. It is thought that only large retailers are able to employ the omni-channel strategies, but in fact, they feature aspects that are especially suitable for small start-ups. This study focuses on the importance of omni-channel strategies for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are trying to become more active in e-commerce (EC). We examine an SME developing a new health food product. According to the nature of the product, the firm tries to employ omni-channel strategy which consists of B2C (business-to-customer) EC and B2B (business-to-business) sales. A probability-based risk simulation is performed to find the optimal weighting between B2C EC and B2B sales. This study demonstrates that making business-weighting decisions in advance by means of simulations is an important exercise for SMEs that do not have abundant capital or labor.
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Fujimura, T., Ishino, Y. (2020). Omni-Channel Challenges Facing Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Balancing Between B2B and B2C. In: Jezic, G., Chen-Burger, J., Kusek, M., Sperka, R., Howlett, R., Jain, L. (eds) Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: Technologies and Applications 2020. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 186. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5764-4_32
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5764-4_32
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