The Internet and E-Business

This document provides an overview of e-business, including the environment of conducting e-business, the benefits and barriers of e-business, security and legislative issues faced by online business organizations, and the modes of communication used in e-business. It also explains the way the internet works and the main features of HTML.

THE INTERNET AND E-BUSINESS

Table of Contents
Introduction 3
LO1 Understanding the scope of E-Business 3
1.1 Describing the environment of conducting E-Business 3
1.2 Explaining the benefits and barriers of E-business 5
1.3 Assessing the security and legislative issues faced by online business organisations 6
1.4 Stating the modes of communication used in E-Business 6
LO2 Understanding the way the internet works 8
2.1 Explaining internet technologies and their importance in E-Business 8
2.2 Explaining the main features of HTML 8
2.3Analysing the functions of client service and Browsers and roles of search engines 9
2.4 Evaluating the use of Internet connection it's within business communication 9
LO3 Using different E-Business models 11
3.1 Illustrating the different e-business models that can be used for generating revenue 11
3.2 Analysing models in terms of capacity to generate revenue 12
3.3 Reporting on future developments in E-Business models 12
LO4 Ability to use good website 14
4.1 Using the key elements of good web designing structure 14
4.2 Evaluating the impact of well-designed business website on revenue of E-Business 14
4.3 Reporting on issues concerned with website usability 14
Conclusion 15
References 16

Introduction
Globalisation has brought about Rapid growth in Information Communication and
Technology. In simple words, Internet has developed from being an army prototype to a public
platform. The shift in the usage of Internet has resulted in the impact on the business activities
that are performed today. E-business or e-commerce is the new trend present in the market where
the exchange your products and services between individuals and businesses are conducted to
have a commercial gain. The current assignment deals with analysing the concepts of e-business
which are applicable to the retail sector of the industry. The correct case study is focused on
boohoo.com to understand the scope of e-business, the functionality of Internet, e-Business
models e-Business models and website designing.
LO1 Understanding the scope of E-Business
1.1 Describing the environment of conducting E-Business
To understand the various environmental factors that affect boohoo.com, the political, economic,
social, technological, legislative and environmental factors need to be identified and analysed.
Political The current government is involved in the
generation of policies that govern the normal
businesses as well as online businesses. The
government actively participate in legislations
pertaining to electronic governance, gaps in
the budget, expenditures and taxes ().
Economic The economic condition in the United
Kingdom in such that the retailer sector has
been able to progress in the last few years.
The government of the United Kingdom have
been identified as a large revenue-generating
sectors of the UK economy ().
Social The society is directly impacted by The E-
Commerce business organisations as this has
changed the consumer buying process. E-

commerce reduces time and money and also
allows the consumers to compare the products
for prices and quality. With advancement in
online security, the payments options are
more secured (Yee-Loong Chong et al. 2014,
p.121).
Technological Technology is the key factor that has brought
about the concept of e-commerce and
business. With the ongoing development in
terms of web designing and technology, the
organisations can effectively use database
servers and another business service in order
to manage the transactions and demands of
the consumers. Development in technology
has allowed The E-Commerce business to be
more reliable and resilient and it has also sped
up the communication process with suppliers
and other parties such as banks (Lu et al.
2014, p.9).
Legislative The E-Commerce business is not bound by
legal constraints and hence it may be quite
impervious to rules and regulations that are
bound to the traditional business process.
Hence, it is necessary to develop a legislative
monitoring and review system in order to
protect the consumers and their privacy
(Whitmore et al. 2015, p.272).
Environmental In order to develop a more sustainable
Business development and management plan,

The E-Commerce businesses need to focus on
the environmentally friendly operation
processes (Malhotra, 2014, p.15).
Table 1: Pestel analysis of e-commerce
(Source: Yang et al. 2014, p.1)
Business to business (B2B) In this type of business transaction, the
business organisation sells the product to
intermediate purchase who intern cancel the
products to customers. This kind of
transaction is mainly employed by
wholesalers who stock the products by buying
in bulk and then selling the same to
customers.
Business to consumer (B2C) In this type of business transaction, the sellers
are directly involved in selling the product to
the customers.
Consumer to consumer (C2C) The customer is entitled to undergo buying
and selling activities Directly with another
customer without having a third party
involved.
Consumer to business (C2B) In this type of transaction, the customers are
paid by the business organisation for the
services and products that are supplied to
them.
Business to government (B2G) The business organisations are entitled to
information by exchanging services with the
government.

Government business (G2B) The government uses the business
organisations in order to share information
pertaining to tenders, taxes and auctions.
The business transaction employed by boohoo.com is B2B which will be later discussed in the
assignment. This mode of transaction is employed by the organisation as they are primarily a
cloth retail business and intend directly interact with the customers and help them in their
purchasing and decision-making process.
1.2 Explaining the benefits and barriers of E-business
The E-Commerce business has directly influenced and impacted the retail sector and the
substance of these retailers are based upon their online presence. Hence it is necessary to
understand the benefits and barriers that are involved with an online business module such as the
boohoo.com. The first benefit that needs to be understood is the tangible benefits of e-commerce.
20 online retailers are not any beaten by the physical space and geographical barriers and hence
they are available to the clients and customers 24/7 in order to conduct business.
In words of Prieger and Heil (2014, p.20), as they are not any inhibited by the
international barriers, they can reach a larger customer base in the Global market and this will
enhance their market share. Conducting online business also brings about the opportunity of
advertisements for the websites which allows the business entities to increase their revenue and
as the processes are automated, they tend to be more quick and efficient. As the entire service is
automated the intangible benefits of online commerce is mainly customer satisfaction for quality
services (Lucia-Palacios et al. 2014, p.223). Operating and online business entity like a b c
allows the customer to give the feedback which needs to be taken into consideration by the
organisation in order to improve the customer service and enhance the customer loyalty.
The satisfied customers, in turn, will be able to promote the business by word of mouth
marketing and appropriate sales forecasting, purchase of materials, scheduling production
process helps in decreasing the operational cost. As mentioned by Quandung et al. (2014, p.201),
the largest pitfall of conducting an e-commerce business is data security and privacy. With the
advent of hackers and risk of identity theft, many of the consumers focus primarily on the

security status of the website before they undertake the purchasing process.
One more barrier to E-Commerce businesses is the accessibility issue where the
consumers may be unable to read a language due to the cultural failings. The mode of online
payment even though is growing day by day may not be available to all the customers as the
infrastructure and economy may not be up to date.
1.3 Assessing the security and legislative issues faced by online business organisations
The customers and Consumers are affected by the overall security of the online business
and hence they need to take crucial steps in order to avoid security infringements. In order to
conduct business, it is necessary to develop trust between the customers and the services. Thus,
the lack of privacy can be the demerits that online business organisation face. The customer
required their data and personal information to be secured and hence demand that this
information should not be tampered with or interrupted during the transmission phase.
According to Gilinsky et al. (2015, p.50), in case the organisation service affected by
viruses and malware and software, the personal information is easily accessible by hackers who
can inappropriately use the data. The organisations also need to track the details pertaining to a
transaction in order to fulfil the legislative and business purposes. When these factors are not
successful in made by the online business organisations, the operations of these organisations are
negatively influenced. Security scares such as data loss for hacking leads to a loss in trust
(DaSilva and Trkman, 2014, p.380).
To ensure data security and privacy the organisations are encouraged to undertake data
encryption, process certification and use of digital signatures. Data Encryption encodes the data
which need to be decoded in order to receive the entire message. However, such strategies face
legislative issues which make it difficult in information tracking. Few notable legislation and
policies that have been undertaken by the United Kingdom government are electronic
communication act of 2000 and data Protection Act of 1998. These were implemented by the
government in order to check the authenticity of the digital signatures as well as ensure the safety
and privacy of those whose data are being managed by the organisation (McElheran, 2015,

p.1200).
1.4 Stating the modes of communication used in E-Business
The most common form of communication used in the business organisation is Electronic data
interchange where in the business documents and information are exchanged among the business
partners by using a paperless exchange. This is the most common form of exchange as the cost of
exchanging information is reduced and the process of speed significantly increases. Indus kind of
exchange is also responsible for reducing errors and enhancing the relationships with Business
partners (Nica, 2015, p.25). Along with EDI, the business organisations are involved in
Electronic means of communication in order to maintain customer relationship. As observed by
Ahokangas et al. (2014, p.21), business organisations regularly communicate using emails and
flyers in order to attract and lure the customers. The electronic fund transfer is used in order to
provide a secure, cost-effective and efficient mode of handling the payments.
The most popular communication modes are email, online chat facility and strong social media
presence using relevant social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram etc.

LO2 Understanding the way the internet works
2.1 Explaining internet technologies and their importance in E-Business
Client/server computing It is the association between two systems or
programmes.
Packet switching The ability to manage the network traffic is
termed as packet switching.
TCP/IP It is the information communication language
that is used while switching the packet data.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) The internet protocol that is the standard in
the file transfer by using computers and
programmes.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) This refers the rules and standards that are
used during the file sharing such as audio,
video and text files.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) The uniform address for the different types of
resources present on the internet.
Bandwidth The data transfer rate of a network is termed
as bandwidth.
Table 3: Internet technologies
(Source: Fielt, 2014, p.85)
TCP/IP are the acronym for Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol respectively.
They are the elementary or low level of protocols that are responsible for enabling internet
connectivity.This is mostly used in the non-vendor-specific suite of internet protocol which
means that the organisation can connect to a number of computer networks that are designed by
vendors themselves.
FTP is basically the process by which files can be transferred between two conected devices.

However, the process has been not updated since a long time, yet due to its simplicity, it is one of
the most commonly used process by the organisation. However, with advancement in technlogy
the FTP has become much more cumbersome as well as inconvenient for modern business
practices.
Bandwidth is actual rate of data transfer. This is the parameter which determines the the agility
of how quick the web pages can loaded. Developing a web platform needs serious consideration
to bandwidth. The content that is to be displayed by the web platform influences the selection of
suitable bandwidth.
2.2 Explaining the main features of HTML
As mentioned by Fielt (2014), HTML is the best designing language that is used to create
web pages for the world-wide web. Super agents have two main sections namely the head and
the body. The header section consists of data all the information about the way while the body
contain the data that needs to be published. HTML tag which is used to create content such as
paragraph, and table. Packages are available in order to develop the HTML language such as
Adobe Dreamweaver, Microsoft Expression studio and Microsoft frontpage. Some of the name
tags that are commonly used in web designing are:
<html> Beginning of the web page.
<body> The data to be displayed in the web page
starts here.
<h1>content</h1> Add header to the web content
<p></p> Adds paragraph to the web content
<img src="URL" alt="some_text"> Adds images to the web content
</body> Ends the body segment of the page
</html> End the HTML page

Table 4: Tags of HTML
(Source: Bartens et al. 2014, p.4357)
2.3Analysing the functions of client service and Browsers and roles of search engines
The world wide web service maintains the database is pertaining to the services that are
required to provide information which is centrally located and can be remotely at accessed using
the Internet. The web server shares the information and services over the various clients all over
the world simultaneously (Mavimbela and Dube, 2016, p.121). This information can be only
accessed by using the web browser such as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Apple Safari
to name a few. The web browsers are the clients and accept web page URLs that are required
from the user. The concept behind the client server system is for economising the bandwidth as
well as performance. The client requests for a specific set of demands which needs to be fulfilled
by the server. It also helps in developing softwares that can be accessed from a large number of
hardwares. The entire internet gaming fraternity survives on client and server system
Figure 1: Client and Server

(Source: Sila, 2015, p.262)
The client's analyses the URL and helps in searching for the hostname by building a
connection within the world wide web service. The HTTP servers access the information on the
basis of the request that is passed by the client and the connection terminated after the exchange
of information is complete. According to Gibson and Jetter (2014, p.1238), the worldwide web is
a vast commodity and contains information of every kind and hence in order to allow users to
search for a specific topic, the web browsers are equipped with search engines which identify the
keywords that are fed by the user as input into the web browser. The search engines use
complicated algorithms such as spider are indexed in order to retrieve the required information.
2.4 Evaluating the use of Internet connection it's within business communication
The E-Commerce business is basically based on networking and hence it is important to
understand the use of intranet and extranet in business context of communication. When business
organisations use the Internet, they are able to implement or more efficient communication
network within the organisation. The extranet is used by Business organisations in order to
maintain relations and provide the exchange of information among the external factors of the
companies such as stakeholders, customers and business partners (Chatzogolu and Chatzodes,
2016, p.331). Both these networking systems are developed on the Internet and can be accessed
by using the same. Hence it is quite a dress came to reveal the important information pertaining
to the business organisation on the Internet with the customers having an access to it. The
various security risks such as hacking, viruses and malware can directly affect the business
organisation. Intranet is a communication channel that can be strictly utilized or accessed by the
staff members of the organisation. This means that a chunk of organisational information is
available to the staff which are beyond the grasps of the public. Intranet is the alternative way
that is used in order to serve as the digital communication channel of the organisation.

LO3 Using different E-Business models
3.1 Illustrating the different e-business models that can be used for generating revenue
Once the analysis of the external factors has been conducted it is necessary to understand the
various business transaction types that can be observed in most of the e-commerce businesses.
The transaction types are namely: - Provide some examples
Business to business (B2B) In this type of business transaction, the
business organisation sells the product to
intermediate purchase who intern cancel the
products to customers. This kind of
transaction is mainly employed by
wholesalers who stock the products by buying
in bulk and then selling the same to
customers. – Alibaba.com
Business to consumer (B2C) In this type of business transaction, the sellers
are directly involved in selling the product to
the customers. – Amazon, Boohoo
Consumer to consumer (C2C) The customer is entitled to undergo buying
and selling activities Directly with another
customer without having a third party
involved.
Consumer to business (C2B) In this type of transaction, the customers are
paid by the business organisation for the
services and products that are supplied to
them.
Business to government (B2G) The business organisations are entitled to
information by exchanging services with the
government.

Government business (G2B) The government uses the business
organisations in order to share information
pertaining to tenders, taxes and auctions.
Table 2: Types of business transaction
(Source: Spieth et al. 2014, p.247)
3.2 Analysing models in terms of capacity to generate revenue
The two Business models that can be effectively used to generate revenue in The E-Commerce
business are B2B and B2C models. The e-distributor model of B2B states that the organisations
who are involved in a business can directly deliver the product by undertaking orders on digital
forms. The procurement model allows individual organisations and other businesses to directly
place an order for a lot of goods at a reasonable discount price. The auction model is also helpful
as the organisations can engage in strategies that use generation of revenue using brokerage (Shi
and Liao, 2015, p.950).
The transaction model is implemented by an organisation who wish to exchange Services in
return for concessions or accomplishments. The website of boohoo.com can serve as search
engines for the customers by effectively combining the content and service packages that the
consumers need. Online retailers offer services that are similar to the traditional retailers for
supporting the buying process of the consumer. In the B2C model, the online retailers
extensively used infographics and charts in order to create content for the websites that attract
the customers. The content providers use subscription models in order to generate revenue.
The case study of Amazon can be of very helpful in understanidng how the models have
practical significance. Amazon earns revenue using retail model in order to cater to the needs of
the customers but they also utilise subscription model so as to provide the interested users with
prime content.
3.3 Reporting on future developments in E-Business models
Over the last few years, E-Commerce businesses have been able to become one of the
most demanded services due to their availability and quality of services. The business
organisations involved in conducting e-commerce business can effectively use the concept of
personalised search and results in order to attract customers. In words of Georgiadis et al. (2013,
p.185), quality customer services and customer care enables the retailers to improve the loyalty
of the customers towards the brand and hence the company developed and can attain a sizable

share in the market.
With the development of cellular devices such as tablets and Smartphones and enhanced
feasibility helps customers to attain services which were restricted due to timing values. Most of
the customers prefer personal assistance while wish shopping process and hence, E-Commerce
organisations need to develop a suitable support system by using the Internet and employing
attractive activities such as live chats. With the increase in social media activity and development
of social media platforms such as Facebook, the advertising and promotional activities of the
organisation can reach even new zeniths. By using social media platforms as a promotional tool,
The E-Commerce organisations can directly interact with the customers around the globe and
hence can be able to manage the demand of the customers and also use the same for revenue
generation in the future (Trang et al. 2016, p.125).

LO4 Ability to use good website
4.1 Using the key elements of good web designing structure
The customers are directly affected by the web page structure and design. The E-
Commerce business which completely dependent upon the online footfall must understand that
customers are website visitors prefer how well organised where the content can be easily
downloadable. To do so, the light and dark colours need to be balanced perfectly in order to
attract the customers. Websites which manageable large data volume, use of light colour can
enable the users to download the required brochures and information quite easily. With larger
content, it is necessary to maintain a recognisable pattern which will be efficient in helping the
customers.
Varying web page styles makes it difficult for the customer to pay attention and this can
lead to a loss of interest (Hartono et al. 2014, p.20). By introducing social proofs such as
customer testimonials, the web pages can efficiently enhance the feeling of reliability and trust
among the customers pertaining to the website. By Linking with social media sites businesses
can also improve customer attraction. Promoting the security aspect of the web pages along with
the achievements can be helpful in attracting the customers. Hence it is necessary to strike the
balance between attractiveness and ease of access.
4.2 Evaluating the impact of well-designed business website on revenue of E-Business
Use of rich keywords, graphically attractive websites having a strong web structure is
responsible for attracting new visitors to the website daily. By improving on the organisation
search engine, the websites will be able to effectively understand the customer demand. Use of
web content and meta tags can help in organising the website which is necessary because these
organised websites are not favoured by customers. As observed by Li et al. (2015, p.245), the
ease of navigation and strong architectural design of the website encourages normal customers to
become repeat customers. Everything is about aesthetics and functionality nowadays. For e-
business ventures it is necessary for the companies to keep in mind that more simpler their
platform is, more are the chances of it attracting the customers.
4.3 Reporting on issues concerned with website usability
The website usability can be defined as the ease of access that the customers or visitors
feel while accessing the website and hence it is important for organisations to understand the

requirements of the customers while designing the websites. The presentation of data needs to be
much more clear in order for the visitors to concentrate and understand the same. It is also
necessary to publish the complete and relevant information regarding a product to the customers
in order to gain their confidence and loyalty (Sila, 2015, p.260). Usability issues are generally
reproted by report option that is present in the web based platform. Options are also available for
directly getting in touch wuth the customer service in order to resolve the issues quicker.
Conclusion
The current assignment of Internet and e-commerce clarifies the various underlying concepts that
are necessary to take into account while designing and promoting an online business. The case
study of boohoo.com is appropriate as it helps in understanding how the commerce businesses
operate and sustain in the cutthroat market.

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