Part 3 Situational Dialogue

Background：Daniel, an American, who is also the CEO of the company are building his team. He hired Aaron as the G.M. ＆ H.R. Now, they are interviewing some applicants in a Freeleader Discussion Way. They all agreed that the new staff should have some background knowledge about E-commerce. Here are some parts of their conversations.

Dialogue 1 Running an Online Business

Daniel: If we don’t have the capital to open up a storefront, any suggestions?

Ken: Consider starting an online business! When our store is online, we can reach millions of customers plus, you don’t have to pay for retail space.

Aaron: Interesting! I want to hear your ideas about how to get our online business off the ground?

Ken: To begin with, de?ne our product or service ?rst, that is, what make our product stand apart from the rest. Secondly, register our business...

Megan: Excuse me for interrupting you. Allow me to say something here. Before you register your business, it can help to have a business plan laid out. Consider your production costs, shipping costs, taxes, and web hosting fees...

Ken: You said it! Then we can set up our shop by registering a domain name, creating a stylish and functional website, getting some e-commerce software and a hosting service.

Katherine: You mean something like shopping cart technology? That can be pricey to start out with. If we choose to run an online shop on a right e-commerce platform like Taobao, they may help us a lot in daily site updates, processing online orders,customer feedback, etc. And all we need to do is to set up a merchant account and add catchy content to our site. Then we may focus on the social media and have a business account on Facebook, Wechat ...

Key expressions:

1. To begin with 首先

同類表達順序的連接詞有：

?rstly, to begin with, above all, at the beginning,

secondly, still, besides, moreover,

thirdly, furthermore, what’s more,

also, and then, next, in addition，

?nally, last but not least...

2. that is即；就是；換句話說

類似表述有in other words.

3. Excuse me for interrupting you. Allow me to say something here.

不好意思打斷一下，我能說兩句嗎？

類似表述有：If you don’t mind, may I say one word here?

4. You said it! 你說得對！

類似的表述有：Couldn’t agree (with you) more. 我完全同意。/ There you go! 這就對了！/You can say that again. 的確如此。

Dialogue 2 What Kind of E-commerce Suits Our Business

Aaron: Where were we? Oh, yes, I think we’ve covered enough for the Internet and related technologies. Now, can you give us an idea about the right business model?

Megan: Business model is a method of doing business by which a company can earn money to sustain itself. And like almost everybody else, I believe that B2C is the most common type of business model and what most people think about when discussing building E-commerce businesses. In this way, we can sell our products directly to the end consumer. If we choose B2B, order sizes and repeat orders are typically larger and more frequent; however, there are fewer businesses than B2C.

Ken: “Well, that depends.” If we use discount strategy as well as Wal-Mart (see Picture 1.7), or we offer selection just like Amazon(see Picture 1.8), we can manage both B2B and B2C!

Picture 1.7 Wal-Mart’s discount strategy

Picture 1.8 Amazon is the leader in selection

Katherine: I’m not entirely convinced of your examples. After all, we are only a start-up in e-commerce, in my opinion, it is more advisable to focus on quality, value-add and service.

Megan: What you just said was somewhat reasonable. As opposed to widely held belief, I believe that O2O has a bright future in the long run.

Katherine: O2O, you mean search online and purchase of?ine or buying online and picking up in-store?

Megan: Yes, but more than that. O2O has evolved into a blended model of online and of?ine commerce which combines online and of?ine terminals like stores, laptops,mobile devices, TV etc.

Katherine: That’s to say we can even use Wechat for O2O commerce?

Ken: Certainly! WeChat offers two kinds of tools to these businesses: public accounts and mobile payment. The former is an account that sends articles to its subscribers.Traditional businesses can use WeChat to manage memberships, interact with frequent or potential customers, and send targeted promotions.

Megan: What’s more, the built-in payment feature then gives consumers the same convenience of online payment: access to e-vouchers, e-coupons and e-tickets and of?ine veri?cation. Customers get the product information via scanning a QR code(Quick Response Code) from an of?ine physical store and paying on-the-spot or via mobile online payment.

Aaron: Can you show us some examples of businesses using WeChat for O2O?

Ken: The hotel chain 7-day Inn connects WeChat public account with its membership management system. In six months, it has attracted 1.35 million members and received more than 5,000 reservations from WeChat.

Katherine: Lenovo uses the app to manage customers and it also allows customers to browse for goods at physical stores and pay later with WeChat.

Key expressions:

1. I think we’ve covered enough for...關于……我們的討論到此為止。

類似結束一個話題（Closing an item）的表達有：

? I think that takes care of the ?rst item.

? Shall we leave that item?

? Why don’t we move on to...

? If nobody has anything else to add, lets ...

2. And like almost everybody else, I believe that... 正如大部分人一樣，我相信……

3. I’m not entirely convinced of ... 我并不完全信服……

類似表示異議（Disagreeing）的表達有：

? Unfortunately, I see it differently.

? Up to a point I agree with you, but...

? (I’m afraid) I can’t agree.

本對話中類似表達自己觀點的句型有：

? In my opinion, it is more advisable to do something than to do something.

在我看來，做……比做……更明智。

? What you just said was somewhat reasonable. 你剛才說的話有些道理。

? As opposed to widely held belief, I believe that ... 與普遍接受的看法不同，我認為……

4. in the long run最終；從長遠看來

5. Can you show us some examples of.... 你們能舉些例子嗎？

類似舉例論證的句式有：

? There are many instances supporting my opinion. 有許多例子可以證明我的觀點。

? Consider the case of... 考慮……的情況。

? As a good case in point, we may take / see... 作為很好的相關例子，我們可以看一下……

? A common example, which is frequently cited, is... 一個被普遍引用的例子是……

? Instances of the same sort might be quoted easily, but this will be suf?cient to show that...

類似的例子不勝枚舉，但這一個就足以說明……

6. QR code (Quick Response Code) 二維碼