Introduction
The aim of this project is to investigate the nature and operations of an e-commerce transaction broker website. An e-commerce transaction broker is supposed to function as an online intermediary between consumers and the sellers of goods and services, earning commission for every successfully closed deal. The broker itself does not own the end products sold in these transactions and is therefore not simply selling its own products while using the internet as a sales medium. Neither is it a wholesaler or retailer reselling to consumers the goods and services it purchased from suppliers.
E-Commerce
There are 3 main categories of e-commerce: B2B, B2C and C2C:
B2B (business to business)
A B2B transaction is where business entities do business with each other. The definition of a business entity here would include companies, sole proprietors and various forms of partnerships.
B2C (business to consumer)
A B2C transaction is where business entities sell products and services to the general public.
C2C (consumer to consumer)
A C2C transaction is where individuals buy and sell from each other through a medium such as a forum or message board.
The 3 types of transaction mentioned above have been in practice since time immemorial. The use of the internet and various electronic payment services now widely available has made it much more convenient to carry out the business transactions online.
Trusttutor.com
Trusttutor.com is an online Singapore-based extra-curricular education agency. Unlike tuition centres which hire tutors as staff and recruit students as customers, or martial arts dojos which hire instructors as staff and also recruit trainees as customers, a tuition agency such as this one advertises the services of tutors who are technically not under the agency's employment, while actively recruiting tuition coordinators who in turn actively recruit students at their own expense. The main revenue of these agencies actually come from the tuition coordinators, who are the true primary customers.
As a transaction broker, TrustTutor holds the database of a wide variety of private educators, ranging from piano teachers to swimming instructors to home tutors. Potential students recruited by the tuition coordinators are matched with tutors who best meet the requests of the students. A small fraction of the tuition fees as negotiated by the coordinator then goes to the broker every month. As a value-added service, the broker provides additional study material to the students for every month the tuition carries on. Also, requests to change tutors are put in through the coordinators and replacements are usually found within an hour. Tutors are bound by contract not to solicit students introduced by TrustTutor for a period of 3 months after termination of tuition via TrustTutor. Payments and adjustments are done through the agency monthly, and as a result, the involvement of the broker is not limited to just the introduction between student and tutor and the first transaction, but also every transaction afterwards.
For every transaction, TrustTutor serves as a broker to 3 parties instead of the usual 2. They are the tutors (including coaches, instructors and schools), the students and the coordinators.
The aim of this project is to investigate the nature and operations of an e-commerce transaction broker website. An e-commerce transaction broker is supposed to function as an online intermediary between consumers and the sellers of goods and services, earning commission for every successfully closed deal. The broker itself does not own the end products sold in these transactions and is therefore not simply selling its own products while using the internet as a sales medium. Neither is it a wholesaler or retailer reselling to consumers the goods and services it purchased from suppliers.
E-Commerce
There are 3 main categories of e-commerce: B2B, B2C and C2C:
B2B (business to business)
A B2B transaction is where business entities do business with each other. The definition of a business entity here would include companies, sole proprietors and various forms of partnerships.
B2C (business to consumer)
A B2C transaction is where business entities sell products and services to the general public.
C2C (consumer to consumer)
A C2C transaction is where individuals buy and sell from each other through a medium such as a forum or message board.
The 3 types of transaction mentioned above have been in practice since time immemorial. The use of the internet and various electronic payment services now widely available has made it much more convenient to carry out the business transactions online.
Trusttutor.com
Trusttutor.com is an online Singapore-based extra-curricular education agency. Unlike tuition centres which hire tutors as staff and recruit students as customers, or martial arts dojos which hire instructors as staff and also recruit trainees as customers, a tuition agency such as this one advertises the services of tutors who are technically not under the agency's employment, while actively recruiting tuition coordinators who in turn actively recruit students at their own expense. The main revenue of these agencies actually come from the tuition coordinators, who are the true primary customers.
As a transaction broker, TrustTutor holds the database of a wide variety of private educators, ranging from piano teachers to swimming instructors to home tutors. Potential students recruited by the tuition coordinators are matched with tutors who best meet the requests of the students. A small fraction of the tuition fees as negotiated by the coordinator then goes to the broker every month. As a value-added service, the broker provides additional study material to the students for every month the tuition carries on. Also, requests to change tutors are put in through the coordinators and replacements are usually found within an hour. Tutors are bound by contract not to solicit students introduced by TrustTutor for a period of 3 months after termination of tuition via TrustTutor. Payments and adjustments are done through the agency monthly, and as a result, the involvement of the broker is not limited to just the introduction between student and tutor and the first transaction, but also every transaction afterwards.
For every transaction, TrustTutor serves as a broker to 3 parties instead of the usual 2. They are the tutors (including coaches, instructors and schools), the students and the coordinators.
TrustTutor makes itself known to educators in Singapore by advertising on various online classifieds, forums and word of mouth. Since registering with TrustTutor is a simple matter of supplying basic personal particulars online and listing all the subjects and activities and the various levels one is competent to teach along with a submission of the relevant qualification documents, the database of available tutors/instructors/coaches/schools of a wide spectrum of activities is ever expanding. In Singapore, there is a constant supply of tertiary students and working professionals who are willing to avail themselves as part-time private home tutors of academic subjects for additional personal income. Those with the qualifications to be instructors of non-academic subjects such as music, sports and other art forms can also register here. They are then given a platform to advertise themselves and are supplied with an agency which would aid them in student recruitment. However, it is not only individuals who register. TrustTutor also avails its services to tuition centres and other schools as well. Whether it is an individual educator or an education centre, they are the business entities in the B2C transaction. These business entities receive payment for their services through TrustTutor by pre-arranged methods, with electronic bank transfer being the most common. The use of services provided by the coordinator is paid for by a 50% commission from the first 4 weeks' tuitions fees.
Students recruited by the coordinators are the consumers in the B2C transaction. Their particulars are submitted by the coordinators who would then find the available tutors/coaches/instructors/schools that best fit the students' requests before making the arrangements for them to meet. Once the match is made, the students would pay tuition fees directly to TrustTutor by pre-arranged methods, with GIRO payments (regular automatic bank deductions) being the most common. A small fraction of the monthly tuition fees goes to TrustTutor as commission, while additional study materials, in the form of online exercises, textbooks and assessment papers, are supplied to students.
The 3rd party involved with each transaction is the coordinator. In a B2C transaction, the coordinator serves as a member of the transaction broker. However, the tuition coordinators are actually self-employed individuals not in the payroll of TrustTutor. They are people recruited by the agency for the sole purpose of recruiting students. They have multiple relationships with the agency and effectively play multiple roles in multiple transactions. In the above-mentioned B2C transaction, they are the real intermediaries between the business entities and consumers. TrustTutor merely provides the database of tutors/coaches/instructors/schools for them to work with. Payment for their services comes from 50% of the first 4 weeks' fees of each successfully matched student-teacher class, through the agency by pre-arranged methods, with electronic bank transfer being the most common. TrustTutor actually charges a subscription fee to the coordinators for online usage of the tutor database, thus making the coordinators direct consumers of its services. There is no minimum quota or ceiling regarding the the number matches for a coordinator to meet. Once subscribed, the coordinator's access to the tutor database is his right. The relationship between the agency and the coordinator here is strictly seller and buyer respectively.
However, from another perspective, one in which the very same transaction is seen as B2B, the tutor/coach/instructor/school and the coordinator can then be seen as 2 business entities brokered by TrustTutor. The subscription of the tutor database being a separate issue, the coordinator is actually using the TrustTutor database to find educators in order to introduce customers to them. Therefore, while a business to consumer transaction is being brokered, a business to business transaction is also taking place simultaneously.
Additionally, TrustTutor offers more than tutors, coaches, instructors and schools in its database. It also offers to recommend accommodations to foreign students in Singapore. Liased with several real estate agents, TrustTutor also brokers the transactions between these agents and students who are potential tenants. These are B2C transactions as well, with the agents as the business entities, TrustTutor and the tuition coordinators as brokers, and the students/tenants as consumers.
The tuition coordinators play the role of consumers as well in several separate B2C transactions. As the coordinators have to make many phone calls for each potential deal, due to the need to contact multiple tutors/coaches/instructors/schools in order to find an educator that would best match the student's request, and also due to the need to maintain privacy, a separate phone number is usually required for each coordinator. Here, TrustTutor plays the transaction broker between its coordinators (consumers) and Starhub (business entity) , a local mobile phone network service provider. By registering for certain Starhub mobile phone subscription plans through TrustTutor, discounts are granted, making the plan seem more attractive to the coordinators while at the same time allowing the agency to earn commissions from them. This is similarly true with the special package deals offered to the coordinators by printing companies which manufacture pamphlets and namecards.
Students recruited by the coordinators are the consumers in the B2C transaction. Their particulars are submitted by the coordinators who would then find the available tutors/coaches/instructors/schools that best fit the students' requests before making the arrangements for them to meet. Once the match is made, the students would pay tuition fees directly to TrustTutor by pre-arranged methods, with GIRO payments (regular automatic bank deductions) being the most common. A small fraction of the monthly tuition fees goes to TrustTutor as commission, while additional study materials, in the form of online exercises, textbooks and assessment papers, are supplied to students.
The 3rd party involved with each transaction is the coordinator. In a B2C transaction, the coordinator serves as a member of the transaction broker. However, the tuition coordinators are actually self-employed individuals not in the payroll of TrustTutor. They are people recruited by the agency for the sole purpose of recruiting students. They have multiple relationships with the agency and effectively play multiple roles in multiple transactions. In the above-mentioned B2C transaction, they are the real intermediaries between the business entities and consumers. TrustTutor merely provides the database of tutors/coaches/instructors/schools for them to work with. Payment for their services comes from 50% of the first 4 weeks' fees of each successfully matched student-teacher class, through the agency by pre-arranged methods, with electronic bank transfer being the most common. TrustTutor actually charges a subscription fee to the coordinators for online usage of the tutor database, thus making the coordinators direct consumers of its services. There is no minimum quota or ceiling regarding the the number matches for a coordinator to meet. Once subscribed, the coordinator's access to the tutor database is his right. The relationship between the agency and the coordinator here is strictly seller and buyer respectively.
However, from another perspective, one in which the very same transaction is seen as B2B, the tutor/coach/instructor/school and the coordinator can then be seen as 2 business entities brokered by TrustTutor. The subscription of the tutor database being a separate issue, the coordinator is actually using the TrustTutor database to find educators in order to introduce customers to them. Therefore, while a business to consumer transaction is being brokered, a business to business transaction is also taking place simultaneously.
Additionally, TrustTutor offers more than tutors, coaches, instructors and schools in its database. It also offers to recommend accommodations to foreign students in Singapore. Liased with several real estate agents, TrustTutor also brokers the transactions between these agents and students who are potential tenants. These are B2C transactions as well, with the agents as the business entities, TrustTutor and the tuition coordinators as brokers, and the students/tenants as consumers.
The tuition coordinators play the role of consumers as well in several separate B2C transactions. As the coordinators have to make many phone calls for each potential deal, due to the need to contact multiple tutors/coaches/instructors/schools in order to find an educator that would best match the student's request, and also due to the need to maintain privacy, a separate phone number is usually required for each coordinator. Here, TrustTutor plays the transaction broker between its coordinators (consumers) and Starhub (business entity) , a local mobile phone network service provider. By registering for certain Starhub mobile phone subscription plans through TrustTutor, discounts are granted, making the plan seem more attractive to the coordinators while at the same time allowing the agency to earn commissions from them. This is similarly true with the special package deals offered to the coordinators by printing companies which manufacture pamphlets and namecards.
Strengths
Registering with TrustTutor is fairly easy. This allows the easy compilation of a very large database for the broker to work with. Even for registrants who are not IT savvy, it is not a problem, since most students are recruited by coordinators. They can simply inform the coordinator of their particulars and requests and make all relevant arrangements through non-electronic means.
The variety of academic subjects, information technology skills, sports, music and art classes range far and wide, allowing a registering tutor/coach/instructor/school to fully advertise his/her/its services on a single profile page.
The layout of the profile page of each tutor/coach/instructor/school is very neat, with subjects and skill types and teaching levels very neatly arranged into rows and columns, and offers the coordinators a clear view of available lesson times and venues.
With such a neat layout of information, a new student registered with a coordinator can usually be matched with a tutor/coach/instructor/school which meets his or her choice within an hour of registration. For the same reason, should a tutor/coach/instructor/school or student decide to discontinue classes, a replacement can usually be found for the student within an hour.
Payment and collection of fees are hassle-free, since most of the people involved with the various transactions usually request for automated electronic bank transfers.
Weaknesses
The people who log on to trusttutor.com most regularly are actually the tuition coordinators, with the tutors/coaches/instructors/schools/real estate agents a distant second. This is because only the coordinators have complete access to the tutor database. Students only have limited access to the profiles of their individual tutors/coaches/instructors/schools. As a result, their options of available tutors are always limited by the coordinators' judgment.
In the case of private home tuition, it is usually parents who register their (often reluctant) children for tuition classes. If these parents are not computer literate, the value-added service of providing additional online study materials to these students would be wasted as the students can simply refuse to download the additional homework.
Conclusion
The proliferation of the internet as the new media has obviously been put to good use here. With new possibilities brought about by the application of this technology, value has been created for the middlemen of previously unrelated fields.
The variety of academic subjects, information technology skills, sports, music and art classes range far and wide, allowing a registering tutor/coach/instructor/school to fully advertise his/her/its services on a single profile page.
The layout of the profile page of each tutor/coach/instructor/school is very neat, with subjects and skill types and teaching levels very neatly arranged into rows and columns, and offers the coordinators a clear view of available lesson times and venues.
With such a neat layout of information, a new student registered with a coordinator can usually be matched with a tutor/coach/instructor/school which meets his or her choice within an hour of registration. For the same reason, should a tutor/coach/instructor/school or student decide to discontinue classes, a replacement can usually be found for the student within an hour.
Payment and collection of fees are hassle-free, since most of the people involved with the various transactions usually request for automated electronic bank transfers.
Weaknesses
The people who log on to trusttutor.com most regularly are actually the tuition coordinators, with the tutors/coaches/instructors/schools/real estate agents a distant second. This is because only the coordinators have complete access to the tutor database. Students only have limited access to the profiles of their individual tutors/coaches/instructors/schools. As a result, their options of available tutors are always limited by the coordinators' judgment.
In the case of private home tuition, it is usually parents who register their (often reluctant) children for tuition classes. If these parents are not computer literate, the value-added service of providing additional online study materials to these students would be wasted as the students can simply refuse to download the additional homework.
Conclusion
The proliferation of the internet as the new media has obviously been put to good use here. With new possibilities brought about by the application of this technology, value has been created for the middlemen of previously unrelated fields.
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