In the post-pandemic era, online purchasing has become increasingly popular. Customers now demand a wide variety of new products and on-time delivery within one to two days. Traditional e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Alibaba are facing fierce competition from fast-growing Chinese tech giants like Pinduoduo (www.temu.com) and Shein (www.shein.com).
The main competitive advantage for these new entrants lies in the “direct connection” between factories and consumers. They also fully utilize the digital capability to provide more informed choices via the list of recommendations and optimizations based on their network. This assignment requires you to conduct research to compare and analyse traditional e- commerce platforms with new business models such as Pinduoduo and Shein. Your report should be guided by the questions below.
(a) Discuss how new e-commerce tech-giants such as Pinduoduo and Shein could surpass established platforms like Amazon and Alibaba, and assess their potential impact on the future of business. (40 marks) .
(b) Review two (2) business processes that would benefit from using advanced prescriptive analytics, such as large-scale computation and optimization. Discuss the benefits of applying prescriptive analytics in these areas, along with the possible challenges in their implementation. (60 marks) .
