Spelling & Vocabulary Enrichment [ 38 ]

38- ] Spelling & Vocabulary Enrichment .

Business In Use .

The Internet and e-commerce .

A-] The Internet service provider’ [ ISP ] is the organization that provides you with ‘Internet access’ . You ‘register’ and open an ‘account’ , then they give you an email address so that you can communicate by ‘email’ with other users . Some ISPs have their own ‘content’ – news , information and so on – but many do not . After you ‘log on’ by entering your ‘user name’ and ‘password’ , you can ‘surf’ to any ‘site’ on the ‘World Wide Web’ . If you are looking for a site about a particular subject , you can use a ‘search engine’ like ‘Google’ or ‘Yahoo’. When you have finished , remember to ‘log off’ for ‘security’ reasons .

B-] Clicks-and-mortar :

I own a chain of sports shops . Last year , I started an ‘e-commerce’ operation , selling goods over the Internet . We have done well . Visitors do not have trouble finding what they want , adding items to their ‘shopping cart’ and paying for them ‘securely’ by credit card . Last year we had two million ‘unique users’ [ different individual visitors ] who generated 35 million ‘hits’ or ‘page views’ . That means our web pages were viewed a total of 35 million times .

- E-commerce or ‘e-tailing’ has even acted as a form of advertising and increased levels of business in our traditional ‘bricks-and-mortar’ shops . Pure Internet commerce operations are very difficult . To succeed , I think you need a combination of ‘traditional retailing’ and e-commerce : ‘clicks-and-mortar’ . In our case , this has also helped us solve the ‘last mile problem’ , the ‘physical delivery’ of goods to Internet customers : we just deliver from our local stores .

C-] B2B, B2C  and B2G :

- Selling to the public on the Internet is ‘business-to-consumer’ or ‘B2C’ e-commerce . Some experts think that the real future of e-commerce is going to be ‘business-to-business’ or ‘B2B’, with firms ordering from supplies over the Internet . This is ‘e-procurement’ .

- Businesses can also use the Internet to communicate with government departments , apply  for government contracts and pay taxes : ‘business-to-government’ or ‘B2G’ .

Sales and costs .

A-] Sales 1 :

‘Sales’ describes what a business sells and the money it receives for it . The sales manager is having a ‘sales meeting’ with her ‘sales team’ . Their ‘sales figures’ and ‘turnover’ [ money received from sales ] in the last year were good , with ‘revenue’ [ money from sales ] of 14.5 million euros , on ‘volume’ of 49 boats . That was above their ‘target’ of 13 million euros . They estimate their ‘sales growth’ the following year at ten per cent , as the world economy looked good and there would be demand for products , so her ‘sales forecast’ was nearly 16 million euros for the following year .

B-] Sales 2 :

- Here are some more uses of the word ‘sale’ :

- make a sale : sell something .  – be on sale : be available to buy .  – unit sales : the number of things sold . –Sales : a company department . – A sale : a period when a shop is charging less than usual for goods . – The sales : a period when a lot of shops are having a sale .

C-] Costs :

The money that a business spends are its costs :

1-] ‘direct costs’ are directly related to providing the product [ e.g. salaries ] .2-] ‘fixed costs’ do not change when production goes up or down [ e.g. materials ] .3-] ‘variable’ costs change when production goes up or down [ e.g. materials ]. 4-] ‘cost of goods sold’ [ COGs ] : the variable costs in making particular goods [ e.g. materials and salaries ] . 5-] ‘indirect costs’ , ‘overhead costs’ or ‘overheads’ are not directly related to production [ e.g. administration ] .

- Some costs , especially indirect costs are also called ‘expenses’ .

- ‘Costing’ is the activity of calculating costs . Amounts calculated for particular things are ‘costings’ .

D-] Margins and mark-ups :

Here are the calculations of a boat :

1-] selling price = 50.000euros . 2-] direct production costs = 35.000 euros . 3-] selling price minus direct production costs = gross margin = 15, euros . 4-] total costs = 40,000 euros . 5-] selling price minus total costs = ‘net margin’ , ‘profit margin’ or ‘mark-up’ = 10,000euros.

- The net margin or profit margin is usually given as a percentage of the selling price , in this case 20 per cent .

The mark-up is usually given as a percentage of the total costs , in this case 25 per cent .