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, define our product or service first, 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
同类表达顺序的连接词有：
firstly, to begin with, above all, at the beginning,
secondly, still, besides, moreover,
thirdly, furthermore, what’s more,
also, and then, next, in addition，
finally, last but not least...
2. that is即；就是；换句话说
类似表述有in other words.
3. Excuse me for interrupting you. Allow me to say something here.
不好意思打断一下，我能说两句吗？
类似表述有：If you don’t mind, may I say one word here?
4. You said it! 你说得对！
类似的表述有：Couldn’t agree (with you) more. 我完全同意。/ There you go! 这就对了！/You can say that again. 的确如此。
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 offline or buying online and picking up in-store?
Megan: Yes, but more than that. O2O has evolved into a blended model of online and offline commerce which combines online and offline 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 offline verification. Customers get the product information via scanning a QR code(Quick Response Code) from an offline 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...关于……我们的讨论到此为止。
类似结束一个话题（Closing an item）的表达有：
• I think that takes care of the first 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... 正如大部分人一样，我相信……
3. I’m not entirely convinced of ... 我并不完全信服……
类似表示异议（Disagreeing）的表达有：
• Unfortunately, I see it differently.
• Up to a point I agree with you, but...
• (I’m afraid) I can’t agree.
本对话中类似表达自己观点的句型有：
• In my opinion, it is more advisable to do something than to do something.
在我看来，做……比做……更明智。
• What you just said was somewhat reasonable. 你刚才说的话有些道理。
• As opposed to widely held belief, I believe that ... 与普遍接受的看法不同，我认为……
4. in the long run最终；从长远看来
5. Can you show us some examples of.... 你们能举些例子吗？
类似举例论证的句式有：
• There are many instances supporting my opinion. 有许多例子可以证明我的观点。
• Consider the case of... 考虑……的情况。
• As a good case in point, we may take / see... 作为很好的相关例子，我们可以看一下……
• A common example, which is frequently cited, is... 一个被普遍引用的例子是……
• Instances of the same sort might be quoted easily, but this will be sufficient to show that...
类似的例子不胜枚举，但这一个就足以说明……
6. QR code (Quick Response Code) 二维码