Applied Business Projects Report: Online Business Models Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of innovative online business models, focusing on Amul, Dell, and Nura as case studies. It begins with an introduction to the evolving landscape of e-commerce and the significance of business models, followed by a literature review that explores business model concepts, including the Business Model Canvas, and various e-commerce models such as B2C, B2B, and C2C. The core of the report comprises detailed case studies of Amul's online presence, Dell's e-commerce strategy, and Nura's unique approach to the headphone market, examining their value propositions, target markets, business activities, and revenue models. A comparative table synthesizes the key elements of each business. The report concludes by summarizing the findings and assessing the innovative aspects of the chosen businesses, providing valuable insights into current trends and strategies in the e-business world. The report is designed to fulfill the requirements of an Applied Business Projects assignment, demonstrating an understanding of business models and their practical application in the e-commerce environment.

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Applied Business Projects
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2
2. Literature Review...................................................................................................................3
2.1. Business Model...............................................................................................................3
2.2. B2C E-Commerce Model................................................................................................5
2.3. B2B E-Commerce Model................................................................................................6
2.4. C2C E-Commerce Model................................................................................................6
3. Case Study..............................................................................................................................7
3.1. Amul Online....................................................................................................................7
3.2. Nura...............................................................................................................................10
3.3. Dell................................................................................................................................12
4. Table of Comparison............................................................................................................14
5. Conclusion............................................................................................................................15
References:...............................................................................................................................17

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1. Introduction
The rise of internet in the last few years have significantly changed the contemporary
trends of the business world (Xiang, Magnini and Fesenmaier 2015). Today’s world has
become a global village or say, a single market place that is located in a single geographical
region. It has become a border less market place and is attracting the businesses and
customers all over the world. It gives the businesses many advantages such as setting up
online businesses, which is comparatively cheaper and is operating 24 hours per day. Such
long working hours are helping the global businesses in gaining high profits and at the same
time, it is also offering them opportunities for trying new marketing strategies and product
line in cost effective manner. It is also to mention that the biggest advantage of the online
businesses is that even the small businesses could compete with the international
organisations as it is near about impossible for the customers to figure out the actual firm
from which they are buying the product online.
This paper is going to elaborate on identifying three online businesses that are
innovative and it would further discuss on their business models. The three chosen online
businesses are that of Amul, Dell and Nura headphones. It would shed light on the various
business activities of these three online businesses including their E-Business model, value
proposition, target market, partners, marketing, and scale of operations, process of transaction
and type of product offerings. It is to mention that the key objective of the report is to shed
light on the business models of these three different online businesses that is helping them in
being innovative in the present business environment.

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2. Literature Review
2.1. Business Model
Business model is a conceptual structure that describes the entire rationale of how a
company creates, captures and delivers value in the social, cultural, and economic and all
other contexts. According to Wirtz et al. (2016), the process of construction of the business
model and their construction altogether is known as the business model innovation and it
forms one of the key parts of any successful and effective business strategy. It is to mention
that a business model is comprised of various different elements and they are- the key
partners of the company, the key activities that a company do, its unique value proposition,
the relationship of the company with its customers, its various different customer segments,
the key resources of the company, its channels of distribution, the cost structure and the
revenue streams. Below mentioned is a clear demonstration of the business model canvas (fig
1).
Figure 1: Business Canvas Model
a) Infrastructure:
The very first element of the business model canvas is that of the key activities. It is to
mention that the key activities refers to the most important activities of the business in the

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process of executing the value proposition of the company (Wieland, Hartmann and Vargo
2017). These are the most important functions that are done in a company. It comprise of
activities starting from the task of Human Resource departments to the procurements. The
next is the Key Resources. The key resources are the resources which are very important for
creating value for the customers. These are usually considered as the assets of the company
which are necessary for sustaining and supporting the businesses. They can be intellectual,
financial or physical. The next is the key partners. They are the strategic alliances that an
organisation hold for its activities. It is to mention that a partner company usually contributes
to the sub-products of the main company.
b) Offering:
The elements under this segment is the value propositions. It is to note that value
propositions refer to the collection of services and products that a business offers for meeting
the customer needs. As per Ojala (2016), the value proposition of the company is something
that distinguished it from its competitors. It provides value by means of different elements
like product customisation, performance, cost reduction etc. According to Dijkman et al.
(2015), value proposition of a company can be of two types- qualitative and quantitative.
c) Customers:
Customer segments, distribution channels and customer relationships fall under this
category. It is very important for a company to identify its customers that it is seeking for
serving. Several sets of customer can be segmented on the basis of their needs in order to
make sure that there is a proper implementation of corporate strategy for meeting the
characteristics of the chosen clients. This include mass market, the niche market, the multi
sided platforms, diversify and segmented one. Customer relationships one the other hand is
very essential for ensuring the success and survival of any business in the present business

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environment (Bryson 2018). Companies are required to identify their relationship type that
they seek for creating with their customer segments. The different forms of customer
relationships are self-service, personal assistance, communities, dedicated personal assistance
etc. Moreover, distribution channels are the channels by means of which companies deliver
their value propositions to their targeted customers. Companies could reach their customers
by means of their own channels or their partner channels or sometimes both.
d) Finances:
Under Finances falls the cost structure and the revenue streams. The cost structures
describes the most crucial monetary outcomes during the business operation under diverse
business models. Using key activities and resources, the values are delivered to the
customers. Furthermore, revenue streams are the way by means of which the companies
make income from their customer segments. There are different ways of generating revenues
and they could be by advertising, licensing, using fees, asset saling, renting or lending or by
brokerage fees.
2.2. B2C E-Commerce Model
B2C stands for Business-to-customer. The B2C business models is based on the
transactions in between a company that sells its services and products as well as the
individual customers who are the end users of those products (Reim, Parida and Ortqvist
2015). However, it is also to mention that the B2C ecommerce model (fig. 2) refers to the
commerce transactions that are done by the websites of the company that are featured with
the online catalogue.

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Fig 2. B2C e-commerce model
2.3. B2B E-Commerce Model
B2B stands for Business to Business. It is to note that B2B in the field of ecommerce
refers to the online business models that are with flexible enterprise software as a ground
solution for the purpose of promoting, selling and purchasing the products, services and
information (fig. 3). In the B2B e-commerce, the ecommerce technology could become an
important factor to take into consideration.
Fig 3. B2B e-commerce model
2.4. C2C E-Commerce Model
C2C stands for Customer to Customer. It greatly different from the other two e-
commerce models mentioned above. In this type of e-commerce, the customers are interacted
directly with one another. Notwithstanding this fact, it is to mention that the businesses does

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operate the online platform on which the C2C transaction takes place and also, the buyers can
shop for free. However, often, the sellers need to pay a fee to list their services and products.
Fig 3. C2C e-commerce model
3. Case Study
3.1. Amul Online
Amul is the largest food brand in India. It is managed by the GCMMF (Gujarat Co-
operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. It was founded by Tribhuvan das K. Patel in the
year 1948. It is based in Anand, Gujarat of India (Srivastava and Agarwal 2017). The name
of the brand has its origin in a Sanskrit term “Amoolya”. The main reason behind the success
of the company is its business model. The main objective of Amul’s business model is to
deliver equitable and profitable returns to a huge number of farmers for long duration. With
the same, it seeks for developing the supplier through social change. It is to mention that the
main focus of Amul is on the trade between different diary businesses. It seeks to cater to the
suppliers who sell their services and products in bulk at wholesale rates to the medium and
the small sized business globally. The smaller businesses then resale the products for gaining
profits in the national or domestic markets.

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It is also to note that the transactions of Amul is on the basis of advance demand draft.
It follows the strategy of Just-in-time inventory and this helps in improving the return of its
dealers on the investment. (ROI). The common brands for most of the product categories that
are produced by different unions are the milk powders, ice-cream, cheese, liquid milk,
condensed milk, sweets and butter. There is a great opportunity for the union members for
cooperating in the process of development of the products. It also makes use of third party
service providers. The core activity of the Unions are processing of mil and the production of
the dairy products. GCMMF looks after the brand development and marketing efforts. While
the third parties look after the distribution of the dairy products, the logistics of collection of
milk, the veterinary services, the provision of the animal feed and the after the retail stores.
Key Partners
Online retailers
GCMMF
Media.
Value
Proposition
Reliable online
electronic
payment
system
Wide range of
dairy products
Create new
markets for
buyers and
sellers
Quality of
service
Lowest price
Customer
segments
Wholesaler
Importers
Exporters
Digital buyer
Activities
customer
service,
payment
processes
Resources
E-commerce
platforms
Shopping
technologies
Customer
Relationship
Online/
Community
forum
Feedback and
rating systems
Customer
service
Channels
Online
Applications
Websites
Online Retail
stores
Cost structure
Taxes
Marketing
Employees
Production
Revenue model
Commissions on resellers sales
Union members

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a) Key partners- The key partners of Amul are online retailers, the GCMMF and the
media.
b) Key activities- Inside the business Amul have key activities like the customer service,
and payment processes.
c) Value proposition- Amul try to add value that segments wide range of products at
lowest priced and it provides high quality services to its customers. It also creates new
markets for the buyers are the sellers. It also provides some reliable electronic
payment system to its customer in order to make it easier for the company to business
anywhere.
d) Customer relationship- Amul take care of its customer relationship. It ensure that its
relationship with all its customers is healthy enough to ensure long term profitability.
In order to do so, the company provides effective customer service, opened up the
system of ratings and feedback systems as well as opened up online or community
forums.
e) Customer segments- The different customer segments of Amul are the Wholesalers,
the digital buyers, the importers and the exporters of the products and services.
f) Key resources- The Key resources of the company are the new and advanced
shopping technologies and the e-commerce platforms.
g) Distribution channels- While doing its business operation, Amul use its online
websites and applications.
h) Cost structure- The cost of the Amul comes from the employees, marketing, taxes,
software and technologies and production.

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i) Revenue streams- The Company get revenue from its commissions on reseller sales
and union members
3.2. Nura
Nura is one of the consumer electronics companies of Melbourne. It was founded in
the year 2015 by Dr. Luke Campbell, Dr. Dragan Petrovic and Kyle Slater (Shintani,
Candelore and Nejat 2018). The head quarter is based in Brunswick, Melbourne and it serves
the customers worldwide through its online stores. One of the largest manufacturer of
nuraphones and it provides personalised or customised products to its customers. It designs
and manufactures the headphones with some personalised sound technologies. It is to
mention that Nura follows B2C business model. It is based on the transactions in between a
company that sells its services and products as well as the individual customers who are the
end users of those products. The main objective of the company is to provide the products to
a group of citizens or each and every citizen of the country.
Business model of Nura headphones:
Key Partners
Shipping
partner
Media
Value
Proposition
Personalised
sound
technology
Customised
products
Quality
products
Customer
segments
Digital buyer
Logistics
Manufacturing
Activities
Personalised
headphones
Customer
services
Transaction
Resources
Employees
Private label
IT
Customer
Relationship
Online/
Community
forum
Ratings
Helpline
E-mail
Channels
Websites
Phone booking
In-house sales
team
Cost structure
Cost of merchandise
Expenses
Employees
Revenue model
Product sale

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a) Key partners- The Key partners of Nura are the media and the shipping partners.
b) Key activities- The Key activities of Nura are that they make customised headphones
with personalised sound technology and customer services. The other include
Transaction systems.
c) Value proposition- Nura try to add value to its products by providing the feature of
Personalised sound technology in its products along with Customised headphones and
high Quality materials.
d) Customer relationship- In order to build and deveop better relationship with its
customers, Nura has opened by Online/Community forums and rating systems in
order to collect the customer perception. With the same, it has helpline numbers
through which the customers can keep a touch with the company. It also accepts e-
mail messages.
e) Customer segments- Nura provides services for customer based on different industries
including manufacturing and logistics. With the same, it also has digital and online
buyers.
f) Key resources- Nura considers IT and private label properties as the centre of its key
resources. It ensures to maintain a skilled and good partnerships as well as some
quality supply chain.
g) Distribution channels- The main distribution channels of Nura are the Websites,
Phone booking and the In-house sales team
h) Cost structure- The cost of the Nura comes from the employees, cost of merchandise
and expenses.
i) Revenue streams- The Company get revenue from the sale of it products.