Big Data Analytics in Ecommerce Business

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS.
Name of the student:
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2CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
Abstract
This report will highlight importance of big data analytics in ecommerce business and cover its
different aspects such as the advantages, disadvantages as well as the cost factors. Big data
analytics play an important role in the organizational tasks and the business decisions that are
being taken by the leaders and the managers within the organizations. By the end of this study,
the reader will be able to understand the different requirements and considerations associated to
the implementation of big data analytics within the ecommerce business organizations.

3CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction........................................................................................................7
1.1 Background............................................................................................................7
1.2 Problem Statement.................................................................................................8
Aim, Objectives and Research questions.........................................................................9
Research Structure.........................................................................................................10
Chapter 2: Literature Review.............................................................................................12
2.1 Concept of big data analytics...................................................................................12
2.2 Concept of e-commerce business............................................................................13
2.3 Relationship between big data analytics and ecommerce business.........................13
2.4 Business Intelligence for E-commerce using Big Data Analytics...........................15
2.5 Gap in literature:......................................................................................................15
Chapter 3: Research Methodology....................................................................................17
3.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................17
3.2 Method Outline........................................................................................................17
3.3 Research Philosophy................................................................................................18
3.3.1 Justification for selection of the chosen Philosophy.........................................18
3.4.1 Justification for selection of the chosen Approach...........................................19
3.5 Research Design......................................................................................................19
3.5.1 Justification for selection of the chosen Design...............................................19

4CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
3.6 Data Collection Method...........................................................................................20
3.6.1 Data Sources.....................................................................................................20
3.6.2 Data Techniques...............................................................................................20
3.7 Population and Sample............................................................................................21
3.7.1 Sampling Technique.........................................................................................21
3.7.2 Sample Size......................................................................................................21
3.8 Ethical Considerations.............................................................................................21
3.9 Research Limitations...............................................................................................22
3.10 Time Horizons.......................................................................................................22
3.11 Expected outcome..................................................................................................23
Chapter 4 – Data Analysis.................................................................................................25
4.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................25
4.2.1 Qualitative Analysis: For Users............................................................................26
Q.2 Where is your company/ organization in the process of implementing big data
initiatives?..................................................................................................................................27
Quantitative Analysis: For Amazon Employees............................................................33
Impact on e-commerce business intelligence............................................................33
Opportunities in e-commerce using big data.............................................................34
Skills required to work with big data.........................................................................34
Summary........................................................................................................................35

5CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations..................................................................36
5.1 Conclusion...............................................................................................................36
5.2 Linking with the objectives.....................................................................................36
5.3 Recommendations....................................................................................................38
5.4 Limitations of the study...........................................................................................39
5.5 Further scope of the study........................................................................................39
References..........................................................................................................................40

6CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background
There has been increase in use of internet by individuals all over the world. People are
focusing towards online shopping rather than traditional offline shopping. The e-commerce
market has been capitalizing the retail market all over the world (Laudon and Traver 2016).
There have been various websites and companiesestablished in the market including Amazon
and Walmart which are providing online e-commerce business over the internet. These large e-
commerce companies have been using various tools and strategies in their business. Big data has
been a new concept that has been helping in managing and analyzing data volume. There has
been increase in the sources of data and information in e-commerce industry. These sources
include customers and over the internet sources (Akter and Wamba 2016). Therefore, there have
been issues faced by companies regarding management and storage of data and information.The
increase in focus on the concept of the Big Data and its possibilities of achievement of
controlling most of the sectors of the IT industries, gives it a corner to be viewed as the latest
solution for the organizations to adopt. Although, most of the organizations and generally the
small scaled organizations fails to favorably implement the analytical and technological
framework to implement some of the functionality of the Big Data.
This research has focused on understanding different aspects of big data and its
implementation in e-commerce companies. This research has focused on current market trends,
behavior of customers and strategies of decision making strategies. There has not been much
research done in different aspects of big data.

7CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
1.2 Problem Statement
The major problem focused in this research has been related to the management and
analyzing of data and information in the e-commerce industry. Various companies have not
been able tomanage huge volume of data and information of customers and products. Manual
entry of data has been creating a lot of human errors and increases complexity for management
of data. Therefore, implementation of big data technology has been helping in managing data and
information of companies (Ryżko et al. 2016). The Big Data is not only applied for the
businesses with high budget, it can be applied to small businesses too. The small enterprises can
also gain the benefits of the large set of data of the offline and online information, they can
utilize the data-driven outcomes for the growth of the organization. Even though many of the Big
Data outcomes concerns the enterprises which have all resources that are helpful to hire the
research firms and data scientists. There are many ways which the small firms can use to
analyze, gather and make sense of the data that they already acquire.
Aim, Objectives and Research questions
This research aims at analyzing the impact of big data in e-commerce organizations in the
market. This research focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of big data in e-commerce
industry.
Following are the objectives of the research:
1. To identify the most important advantages of big data analytics in the field of ecommerce
business in today’s world.
2. To identify the ways in which the big data advantages of the ecommerce business can be
positively channelized in way to achieve better business results as well as improved
employee productivity within the organizations.

8CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
3. To identify the possible threats or other options that have the capability to replace big
data operations in the future within the organizations especially in the ecommerce
segment of business.
Following are the research questions:
1. To identify the most important advantages of big data analytics in the field of ecommerce
business in today’s world.
2. To identify the ways in which the big data advantages of the ecommerce business can be
positively channelized in way to achieve better business results as well as improved
employee productivity within the organizations.
3. To identify the possible threats or other options that have the capability to replace big
data operations in the future within the organizations especially in the ecommerce
segment of business.
Research Structure
There are five chapters discussed in the research study including Introduction, Literature
Review, Research Methodology, Data findings and analysis, conclusion and recommendation.
The first chapter of the research is selected as the introduction that will consist of the aim,
research topic and the objective of the research. The aim of the research will analyze the Big
Data technology for the calculation of the technological power that is required to meet its usage.
For achieving the objective of the research, three question are derived. The main objective of the
research will be analysed with the help of the research question that helps to find the main path
of the project work. It also helps to find the challenges in the research project.
The second chapter of the research will provide the literature review that is focused on
the Big Data application in the small organizations. The theoretical framework is also given that

9CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
helps to evaluate the Big Data concept and small organization. The literature review of the
research is differentiated with the platform of the Big Data Analytics with the applications for
explaining the feature of this technology. It also helps in determiningimpact of implementation
of the Big Data Analytics on the small organizations.
The third chapter of the research will summarize the research methodology which will
analyse the domain of the research of the thesis project. This provides the background to the
process of the survey and also the analysis of the result. The organizations that are selected are
the sources of the information. Online survey is done for the primary data analysis to take the
feedback from the employees that have some experience of using the Big Data Analysis
application into the small organization. The data which is collected through the questionnaire,
the data is analysed. The result of the data which is analysed defines the path that would led to
the development of the main objective of the research.
Depending on the data collection, the researcher is chosen for the analysis of the sources
of data in such a way that the result are on the basis of the research topic that is selected. The
advantages of the Big Data analytics in the small organizations are analysed that guides the
researcher to get the information about the topic. The data is analysed utilizing various methods
and techniques for analysing the response of the participants. This part of the research will
discuss about the objective of the research and the case analysis of the Big Data along with the
analysis of the small organizations. The aim of the research is to perform the detailed analysis of
the results for the evaluation of the responses collected from the survey and pointing out the
impact of the implementation of the Big Data in small organizations.
The last part of the research will provide the research objectives along with the
drawbacks of the research. The future cope of the research is also summarized in this part. The

10CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
research will help to evaluate the role of the technology to the business model of the small
organizations and also provide the recommendations for the adoption of the Big Data Analytics
into the small organizations.

11CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.1 Concept of big data analytics
Big data analytics has been playing an important role in working culture of various
organizations. The ability of organizations of marketing strategies have been properlyanalyzed
using the concept of big data (Stucke and Grunes 2016). The use of big data has been helping in
maintaining a keen approach in the dependency of proper authentic data and information in the
organization. There have been various aspects of big data analytics. The level of satisfaction of
customers have been increased with the help of big data analytics. Another aspects of big data
analytics has been related to risk portfolios can be evaluated and unnecessary data and
information can be deleted form the data base. The use of the big data analytics have been
helping in making a proper recommendation in the development of the company (Yu et al.
2017). The risks analysis using data analysis has been helpful in identifying various risks and
issues in the organization models. The cultural aspects of the organization can be maintained by
the use of big data analytics. It helps in providing technological aspect of using different system
together. The management of information system in an organization can be maintained by the
use of big data analytics. A proper storage service system can be maintained with the help of big
data analytics. As argued by Yin and Kaynak (2015), big data has been compromising with
several limitations including security issues. The big data provides a centralized database system
that create issue related to security of data and information stored in the database. The risk
analysis model used in the big data analytics have been maintained by the use of Hadoop. The
architecture of Hadoop has been similar to that of big data. As commented by Yu et al. (2016),
big data technologies helps in providing a leadership culture in the working environment of the
organization.

12CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
2.2 Concept of e-commerce business
E-commerce business has been one of the largest business all over the world in the 21st
century. It has been the fastest growing industry due to increase in the number of internet users
all over the world. It has provided a new face of shopping to the customers. Online shopping has
helped in providing doorstep delivery of purchased product over the internet. Therefore,
customers do not have to travel to offline shop for purchasing goods and other products.
Therefore, e-commerce has helped in making shopping easy for customers. The payment of the
good and products have been dine using online payment gateway (Gordini and Veglio 2017).
Customers have opt out for using their credit card, debit card, net banking or pay on delivery
options. These options have helped in providing paying method for customers. E-commerce
business have been helping in maintaining a keen approach to the development of business in the
market. E-commerce business has provided various choices of products at same range for the
customers to make their selection. This option is not present in case of offline shopping. As
argued by Singh and Singh (2015), there have been various issues with the ecommerce business
including misplace of products as orders. There are various cases reported where there have been
misplaced of products during delivery. There have been delay in deliver due to various reasons
an factors. These issues have been common in the e-commerce business. However, companies
are looking for minimizing these issues during delivery of products. Companies have been
implementing big data analytics that has helped in live tracking of the delivery goods and
products to the doorstep of customers. The small scale enterprises are also coming up with
channel to utilize this type of data for the growth of their organization. To bring this important
change in the growth of the business the utilization of the Big Data concept is the most important
step. In today’s world, most of the organizations despite of their size, big or small, wants to have

13CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
accurate and valuable information in the process of decision-making. The big data influences
various issues such as the appropriate executing framework for the purpose of storing the data,
privacy and security issues, and producing functional and processing information from the data.
Big data and virtual reality offer the devices required for organizations to all the more
productively present their image, promote and offer a developing shopping background for
clients directly from solace of their homes.
2.3 Relationship between big data analytics and ecommerce business
Traditional shopping system has been based on physical appearance of the customer to
shop. It means that customers have to reach to shop for purchasing goods and products.
Innovation in technology has helped purchasing of goods easier. Innovation in online shopping
has raised the e-commerce business in the market. Now a days, customers used to purchase their
goods and products online over the internet (Gunasekaran et al. 2017). This has helped in
minimizing the time complexity of the customers in buying any product. In today’s time the data
is stated as one of the most valued resource and the volume of the data is expanding at an
exponential rate in day to day life. The large amount of data is referred to as Big Data. The Big
Data can be classified as the 3Vs: the large Variety of the type of data, the Velocity that is
required to process the data and the large Volume of the data. All the organization in all around
the world starting from the multinational companies to the small scale enterprises. The small
scale enterprises are also coming up with channel to utilize this type of data for the growth of
their organization (Pan et al. 2016). To bring this important change in the growth of the business
the utilization of the Big Data concept is the most important step. In today’s world, most of the
organizations despite of their size, big or small, wants to have accurate and valuable information
in the process of decision-making. The Big Data can guide the small scale organizations to

14CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
prepare for their targeted customer and public preference and the requirements. In simple words,
it is urgently necessary for the small scale organizations to take the important decision of
adopting the Big Data (Kshetri et al. 2017). This study of the Big Data focuses in the small scale
organizations as they are considered to be the backbone of the economy of any country and have
the flexibility and ability to grasp the adaptions to the variations toward the production of the
organization. The big data influences various issues involving such as the appropriate executing
framework for the purpose of storing the data, privacy and security issues, and producing
functional and processing information from the data. The main aim of this study is to study the
main threats and potential to the implementation of the Big Data and to practice the Big Data
usage in the small scale organizations for the improvement of their process of business. The
integration of big data has helped in making purchasing easier for the customer with proper
transaction and payment of products.
Ecommerce marketing can be done through online advertisements as customer get to see
over the internet. These online advertisements have been effective in raising funds for the
company when a customer clicks ion the advertisement (Zhang et al. 2018). This also help in
understanding the behavior of customer based on the number of clicks on these advertisements
that customers do over the internet. Companies get to know about the interest of customer and
analyze the number of clicks in a particular advertisement. These functions have helped in
collecting data about customer feedback and interest over products.
2.4 Business Intelligence for E-commerce using Big Data Analytics
As commented by Lee (2017), Business Intelligence has been a technology driven
process for analyzing data and presenting executable process for executive managers and
corporate end users. It helps in increasing decision making, increased profit and efficiency

15CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
market and reduced cost. BI helps in defining proper decision makers having valuable
information by including different sources of data and information. As stated by Singh and Singh
(2015), BI is a process that helps in collecting data and information and auto generate the value
from the e-commerce website. The use of BI has helped in enhancing the technological aspect of
the business strategies. IT has been helpful for the big data analytics as it help in making proper
and instant decision for the development of the company in the market. The architecture of the
BI in an organization has been done for predicting market trends and competitor for [performing
customer targeted market.
2.5 Gap in literature:
It has been found that a lot of research has already been carried out on big data
analytics and its applications in the different industries. A lot of research has also been done for
the ecommerce giant Amazon Inc. However, the research results that has been derived from the
researched done on Amazon cannot always be applied to all ecommerce companies since the
working principles of all ecommerce companies is not same as that of amazon (Sharma and
Lijuan 2014). Therefore this is the most important gap in literature since the past researches have
been found out mainly on Amazon which has failed to provide a general conclusion as well as
recommendation that can be applied to all ecommerce companies in general(Lausev 2014). This
research will aim to provide a much more generalized derivation of conclusions that can be
applied to the entire ecommerce sector of business. This will not only help the ecommerce
industry but can also be an inspiration factor for the preexisting retail stores to open their online
portals so facilitate the customer to have a better shopping experience (Camarinhaet al. 2013).
The researches that has been done in the past are not up to the mark and do not provide complete
details about the implementation of big data analytics in the ecommerce industry and has to be

16CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
further researched. Since there are different, other companies, which also have different kinds of
issues in the market, and not much of research has been done on these companies in the past, it
calls for a need for research to be done about them now. Earlier, the utilization of the collection
of large volume and variety of data that has most of the time been inside a large association.
Many of the big organizations has initiated the launch to complement the analytical proficiency
of their organization, although as the technologies get old, and the more companies start to
utilize the concept of analytics for data handling, and gain knowledge about this latest analytics
technique, the small enterprises will be find it easier to gain some of the advantages. This part of
the research will provide the research objectives along with the drawbacks of the research. The
future cope of the research is also summarized in this part. The research will help to evaluate the
role of the technology to the business model of the small organizations and also provide the
recommendations for the adoption of the Big Data Analytics into the small organizations. The
companies such as Jabong, myntra, alibaba.com, EBay etc. have not been studied much in details
in the past and only Amazon has been studied. The researches that has been done in the past does
not have the required information for all the ecommerce companies’ example jabong, myntra,
alibaba etc. Earlier researches has been done mostly on the ecommerce giant Amazon. This
research aim’s to fill the gap in literature from the earlier researches to give a more generalized
view on the ecommerce industry and how the big data analytics play an important role in the
working of the business.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
3.1 Introduction
Research methodology is the chapter that assists in defining the most accurate approach
required to be adopted in order to attain detailed results of the research process. According to

17CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
Flick(2015), the concepts and ideas adopted in the research methodology is helpful in gaining
deeper insights and better analysis of the research topic. According to Glesne(2015), the detailed
research methodology needs to be followed in order to understand the procedure and process
adopted in analysing the impact of RFID technology on mobile B2B e-commerce. For fulfilling
this purpose, it is necessary to understand the impact on the retail industry of the United
Kingdom. Apart from that, the study also involves a detailed process in order to better analyse
the influence of RFID technology for improving the supply chain performances in retail
management.
3.2 Method Outline
In this chapter, the detailed research techniques are applied to assess the impact of RFID
implementation with respect to the supply chain performance of the retail industry. The
positivism research philosophy is selected in gain better insight and gather useful information
based on appropriate logic and evaluation. Furthermore, the deductive research approach is
effective in conducting the study by relying on certain helpful secondary sources, which in turn
helps in analyzing the role and application of RFID in business to business e-commerce. In
addition to that, the selection of descriptive design further helps in studying the impacts and
aspects through applied concepts. Moreover, the application of primary and secondary sources
will help to outline the details of the research topic and bring out a high quality analysis and
outcome. The sample size for the research topic will involve 200 consumers for quantitative
technique. The expected outcome is to obtain benefits of Big Data in business. This might also
provide expected procedure by which big data might help in meeting up all business objectives
and gals in the market.

18CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
3.3 Research Philosophy
The research philosophy is chosen in order to determine the appropriate way to gain
adequate details and information on the research topic. According to Hair Jret al. (2015),
choosing a research philosophy is important to explain the assumption process undertaken for
conducting the study. The common forms of epistemology or the concept of research philosophy
are categorized as realism, positivism and interpretivism.
Positivism helps the researcher in understanding and applying the logic with an aim to
identify the hidden facts in a scientific manner. Utilizing a scientific method, positivism ignores
metaphysics in order to enable knowledge and detail observation. On the other hand,
interpretivism is associated with business and management activities. Ledford and Gast(2018)
described interpretative study as defining concepts of natural law while discarding the scientific
concepts. Whereas, a mixture of both positivism and interpretativism constitutes the realism
approach that involves characteristics of both the philosophies.
3.3.1 Justification for selection of the chosen Philosophy
Positivism is chosen as the research philosophy for conducting the study in order to
analyse the hidden facts and carry out the research according to the nature of the study. In
addition to that, the study is time-constrained and hence, it is not possible to choose
interpretative and realism as research philosophies. Furthermore, the positivism philosophy helps
in evaluating the data that in turn aids in reducing data errors as well.
3.4 Research Approach
The research approach is required for conducting the study and unveiling the particular
research topic. The research approach can either be deductive or inductive. The inductive

19CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
approach is useful when adequate data is not available. On the other hand, the deductive
approach is used as a process for describing practical application of the theories to gain access.
3.4.1 Justification for selection of the chosen Approach
In the present study, the selected research approach investigates the associated theories
and ideas and helps to understand the impact of RFID on mobile B2B e-commerce. In this case,
the deductive approach is appropriate for analysing the study and results in much clear and
precise manner.
3.5 Research Design
The research design helps researcher to explain research framework based on selected
research topic. It helps to select the best collection and analysis methods. The researcher applied
specific approaches to describe the research design. There are three types of research design
methods such as exploratory, explanatory and descriptive. Exploratory research design helps the
researcher to acknowledge different kinds of ideas required to complete this paper (Lewis 2015).
Explanatory is described occurrence of events and effects of its happenings. Descriptive research
is aimed to gain details to happenings of events with detailed and description of research topic.
3.5.1 Justification for selection of the chosen Design
Explanatory application is eliminated in the study as it supports concepts of the
longitudinal study which was not related to the selected title. In this study, descriptive design
was selected to define a detailed processes involved with analysing the advantage of big data in
ecommerce business.

20CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
3.6 Data Collection Method
The data collection is the information which helps the researcher to perform study related
to the research topic. The data collection helps to get proper results in addition to facilitate
benchmark format of work.
3.6.1 Data Sources
The data sources help the researcher to analyze the research topic and help to extract
information using two sources such as primary and secondary. The primary data is used to
collect raw data based on research requirements using sources such as survey, questionnaire and
others. Secondary sources are utilized to widen the research topic which enables study involved
data description. In this study, both data sources are used to complete in-depth analysis of the big
data analytics (Mackeyand Gass 2015). The primary data source is used by interview which is
conducted with employees of Amazon and surveying the users of the big data analytics.
Secondary data sources is used which comprised of articles and journals.
3.6.2 Data Techniques
In current research paper, there are two types of data techniques such as qualitative and
quantitative data techniques. Qualitative data is helpful to record form of data which is adding
value to collected raw data. Quantitative data is used by applying the statistical data helpful to
record data of larger sample of population using graphs as well as pictorial explanations
(Silverman 2016). In this study, mixed method is used where the collected data are analyzed in
statistical form. The quantitative data is analyzed by numerical values and qualitative data is
analyzed based on the results of the interview for the Amazon employees. Interview and survey
method helps to understand real time situations and issues faced by the ecommerce business
organizations.

21CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
3.7 Population and Sample
Smith (2015) stated that population is the total number of people those are involved in the
study both directly and indirectly. In the present study, the employees and users of Amazon
Company are selected where big data analytics is used as a benefit to the ecommerce business
are considered as the population.
3.7.1 Sampling Technique
The sample is considered for critical analyzing the big data in the Amaozn business
organizations. The samples of the users are selected using random sampling method where no
particular criteria are taken into considerations. By means of online questionnaire, the users are
taken for participation where the survey is performed.
3.7.2 Sample Size
In order to perform quantitative research techniques, 2000 users of Amazon Company are
taken with help of online questionnaire forms. The users are selected from online shopping sites
like Amazon, EBay, Jabong and others. It is not practical and also feasible to get responses from
2000 users, therefore 1300 users are participated in the survey and interested to participate. The
interview is conducted with 20 employees of the organization. Therefore, the total sample size of
this research study is 1320.
3.8 Ethical Considerations
While conducting research in the study, it is found that the customer’s personal data such
as phone number, physical address and other data are resold in the secondary market. It causes
ethical issues of tax frauds and data theft. Amazon faces issues when the web servers are being
hacked by hackers. When the hacker hacked the customer information from Amazon databases,
then it provides huge impact on brand image of Amazon. The ethical dilemmas are occurred

22CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
when employee vandalism is existed in the company if the employees have revengeful attitudes
towards the business organization.
3.9 Research Limitations
The time is a limitation as understanding the concepts of big data takes longer time about
implementation in ecommerce business. It required a time of 9 months to understand concepts of
the big data analytics and understand role in ecommerce business. Other limitation is sample size
as 2000 sample population are taken for the survey, while 1300 users are participated in the
survey with the numerical figures and results obtained from the survey is critical to analyze and
manipulate. This research study is time consuming.
3.10 Time Horizons
Activities(For
the future research to
be conducted)
W
eek 1
-3
W
eek 4
– 10
W
eek 11
- 13
W
eek
1
4 - 17
W
eek 18
- 21
W
eek
2
2 - 23
W
eek
24
Topic
Identification

Secondary
source data
collection
 
Creation of
layout


23CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
Complete
research literature
review.
  
Collected data
analysis and
interpretation.
  
Findings from
the data collected.
 
Conclusion 
Formation of
draft
 
Submission of
the task

3.11Expected outcome
The outcome of this research study is to perform an in-depth analysis of implementation
of big data analytics into the e-commerce business organization. The results of data analysis are
manipulated from various sources and the conclusion of this study is focused on various aspects
which are kept in considerations. By end of this study, ecommerce business leaders are
identifying aspects to implement big data operations. Mitigation techniques overcome with the
threats as well as risks for using big data operations.

24CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
Chapter 4 – Data Analysis
4.1 Introduction
Big data has been recently playing a significant role in the modern business operations.
Big data is highly being utilized in understanding the ability of organizations in applying smart
marketing strategies. The application of big data is helpful in maintaining a keen approach in
ensuring proper authentic information in the organization. The data collected from the
questionnaire survey as part of the primary data sources gathering and analysis is being critically
evaluated in order to understand the level of impact of big data analytics on the business e-
commerce and working culture of the organizations. The study has been skillfully carried out in
order to identify the most crucial advantages of big data analytics in the field of e-commerce in
the modern corporate scenario. In addition to that, the questionnaire survey has additionally
focused on unveiling and investigating the ways in which the benefits of big data on e-commerce
can be effectively channelized to gain the highest profit in the business.
For this purpose, the survey conducted with the users has helped in collecting quantitative
data and the results are depicted through pictorial representations such as graphs and charts. In
the primary data collection process, the collected data has been gathered for further analysis and
discussion. The format will be altered according to the requirements. Qualitative data analysis
will be conducted through initiating interview of a selected group of Amazon employees through
various different behavioral patterns. According to (), the different kinds of statistical methods
available for executing the research has been considered. The different conclusions and views on
big data analytics that will be shared by the Amazon employee will be considered for the
qualitative analysis of the obtained data. Incidences occurring inthe natural setting will be
considered to derive the conclusions of the research.

25CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
4.2.1 Qualitative Analysis: For Users
In the present section, the employees of Amazon will be considered for conducting the
qualitative analysis so that researcher can understand impact of big data analysis on e-commerce.
Question 1: Please specify your gender
Options Responses Responses% Total
respondents
Male 244 61 % 400
Female 156 39 % 400
Analysis: As mentioned in graph and table, 61% of the participants are male and 39% of
the participants are female. Therefore, this can be analyzed that the companies have been
providing employment to male employees than female employees.
Question 2: What is your age?
Options Responses Responses% Total
respondents

26CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
Below 20
years
52 13 % 400
21-30 years 116 29 % 400
31-40 years 104 26 % 400
41-50 years 88 22 % 400
Above 51
years
40 10 % 400
Analysis: As per table and chart, 29% of the participants have been ageing between 21-
30 years. 26% of the participants have age between 31-40 years. Therefore, it can be analysed
that most of the employees are of young ages between 21 years to 40 years. Therefore,
companies have been hiring new employees in their workforce.
Question 3: For how many years you are working in the company?
Options Responses Responses% Total
respondents
0-2 years 64 16 % 400

27CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
3-5 years 104 26 % 400
6-8 years 88 22 % 400
9-11 years 108 27 % 400
Above 12
years
36 9 % 400
Analysis: According to graphs and charts, 26% of the participants have been working for
3-5 years in the company. 22% of the participants have been working for 6-8 years. Therefore,
companies have been including experienced employees in the workforce.
Q.4 Does your organization work with big data analytics?
According to the responses, it is evident that the organization has started to work with big
data analytics and organizes training on statistics. There are significant amount of experimental
works taking place with the modern e-commerce business. The users in terms of big data enabled
adequately understand the benefits of using e-commerce services provided to the company’s
business.
Answer
options
Response
percentage
Response
count
Total
responses
Yes 55% 250 400

28CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
No 12% 20 400
Planned in
near future
33% 130 400
Yes No Planned in near future
0%
5000%
10000%
15000%
20000%
25000%
30000%
35000%
40000%
45000%
Response percentage Response count Total responses
Q.5 Where is your company/organization in the process of implementing big data
initiatives?
The review paper has helped in distinguishing different uses of enormous information
into online business, which thus has empowered a comprehension of the significance of huge
information. It improves comprehension of the usage of prescient enormous information
investigation and its segments. The examination likewise helps in talking about the issues of
enormous information application made on the issues identified with E-Commerce if huge

29CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
information is not identified with that, so scientists can deal with the issues identified with huge
information and broaden their work on that.
Answer
options
Response
percentage
Response
count
Total
responses
High 53% 250 400
Medium 29% 107 400
Low 18% 43 400
High Medium Low
0%
5000%
10000%
15000%
20000%
25000%
30000%
35000%
40000%
45000%
Response percentage Response count Total responses
Q.6 When shopping from Amazon, how often do you come across product displays
that you are genuinely interested in?
Answer
options
Response
percentage
Response
count
Total
responses
Very often 53% 250 400

30CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
Quite
frequently
29% 107 400
Seldom 18% 43 400
Very often Quite frequently Seldom
0%
5000%
10000%
15000%
20000%
25000%
30000%
35000%
40000%
45000%
Response percentage Response count Total responses
The majority of respondents said that the Amazon website provides effective product
displays that are genuinely interesting. This big data focuses in the small scale organizations as
they are considered to be the backbone of the economy of any country and have the flexibility
and ability to grasp the adaptions to the variations toward the production of the organization.
There are various cases reported where there have been misplaced of products during delivery.
There have been delay in deliver due to various reasons an factors. These issues have been
common in the e-commerce business. However, companies are looking for minimizing these

31CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
issues during delivery of products. Companies have been implementing big data analytics that
has helped in live tracking of the delivery goods and products to the doorstep of customers.The
big data influences various issues involving such as the appropriate executing framework for the
purpose of storing the data, privacy and security issues, and producing functional and processing
information from the data.
Q.7 How will you rate the customer relationship management capabilities of the
companies implementing big data in their e-commerce?
Answer
options
Response
percentage
Response
count
Total
responses
High 53% 250 400
Medium 29% 107 400
Low 18% 43 400

32CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
High Medium Low
0%
5000%
10000%
15000%
20000%
25000%
30000%
35000%
40000%
45000%
Response percentage Response count Total responses
According to the majority of the respondents, the customer relationship management of the e-
commerce companies is highly effective in case of those employing the big data techniques. The
users are mostly satisfied with the customer service they get from those e-commerce businesses
through the big data analytics techniques. These techniques help in the collection of relevant and
useful information, which are then analyzed using the predictive method. As a result, it helps the
businesses in providing their customers with interesting and updated emails and knowledge
about the products and services they are interested in.
Q.8 How often do you get interesting notifications and personalized updates from
the e-commerce sites you use?
Answer
options
Response
percentage
Response
count
Total
responses
Very often 53% 250 400
Quite 29% 107 400

33CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
frequently
Seldom 18% 43 400
Very often Quite frequently Seldom
0%
5000%
10000%
15000%
20000%
25000%
30000%
35000%
40000%
45000%
Response percentage Response count Total responses
According to the responses collected from the questionnaire survey, it is clear that one of the
major advantages of big data analytics is the application of predictive measures in order to get
personalized and customized notifications and emails. Therefore, companies are extensively
utilizing the benefits of big data in order to gather relevant and useful information about users or
customers who are using their e-commerce websites. In this way, information about them is
being collected and analysed and predictive method is applied in order to provide the customers
with interesting updates and news about products and services.
Q.9 How will you rate the updates, news and notifications received from the e-
commerce sites you use?
Answer Response Response Total

34CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
options percentage count responses
High 53% 250 400
Medium 28% 100 400
Low 17% 54 400
High Medium Low
0%
5000%
10000%
15000%
20000%
25000%
30000%
35000%
40000%
45000%
Response percentage Response count Total responses
According to the respondents, it is evident that most of the e-commerce businesses extensively
deploy big data analytics in order to build a smart and effective customer service management
and as a result, holds a good customer satisfaction level. In other words, it is important to
understand the difference of opinion of the users in this case. According to the outcomes of the
survey, big data plays a critical function in terms of eliminating the different obstacles from the
system and employ a smooth running e-commerce system. In addition to that, it is clearly evident
that one of the major benefits of big data in e-commerce is it extensively helps in making better
strategic decisions as well as improves control of operational processes. E-commerce business

35CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
has provided various choices of products at same range for the customers to make their selection.
This option is not present in case of offline shopping. There have been various issues with the
ecommerce business including misplace of products as orders. There are various cases reported
where there have been misplaced of products during delivery. Furthermore, big data enables
better understanding of customers and that is the reason why the companies are able to gather
data about these users and apply predictive analysis techniques to send relevant and interesting
updates, notifications and news. The big data influences various issues involving such as the
appropriate executing framework for the purpose of storing the data, privacy and security issues,
and producing functional and processing information from the data.
Question 10: What is your working position in your company?
Options Responses Responses% Total
respondents
Manager 40 10 % 400
Analytics
Manager
124 31 % 400
E-commerce
manager
80 20 % 400
SEO manager 116 29 % 400
CRM
manager
40 10 % 400

36CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
Analysis: As per the graph and chart, 31% of the participants have been working as
analytics manager. 29% of the participants have been working as SEO manager. In the figuring
stage Artificial Intelligence holds a noteworthy spot as the essential goal of AI is to create
advance machines whose work depends on the human knowledge. The essential goal of this
creation is to grow such machined who thinks just as acts as indicated by the people. So as to
convey such development innovation it is basic for the machines to learn and think the human
exercises.
Quantitative Analysis: For Amazon Employees
This section of data analysis consists of qualitative description of the responses received
from the Amazon employees. The qualitative approach is undertaken by involving 20 employees
from Amazon in order to investigate the role of big data analytics in the field of e-commerce.
Impact on e-commerce business intelligence
The use of BI has helped in enhancing the technological aspect of the business strategies.
IT has been helpful for the big data analytics as it help in making proper and instant decision for
the development of the company in the market. The architecture of the BI in an organization has
been done for predicting market trends and competitor for performing customer-targeted market.
According to the majority of the employees, the online buyers and sellers are making use of big

37CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
data analytics for selling and buying products as well as building good customer relationship.
Furthermore, according to the outcome of the interview further helps in understanding that the
application of big data analytics helps in yielding better customer satisfaction by means of
improving the service provisioned. Few of the employees described how big data could be
utilized in e-commerce to build a better customer relationship. In addition to that, predictive
analytics helps in predicting the customer’s choice of personalization.
Opportunities in e-commerce using big data
The e-commerce business extensively deals with online and offline big data considered as
the source of data gathering. Traditional shopping system has been based on physical appearance
of the customer to shop. It means that customers have to reach to shop for purchasing goods and
products. Innovation in technology has helped purchasing of goods easier. Innovation in online
shopping has raised the e-commerce business in the market. Now a day, customers used to
purchase their goods and products online over the internet.
Skills required to work with big data
The respondents were asked to comment about the basic skills that are required in order
to work with big data analytics in their organization. According to the analysis, the most
important skills the employees need to have are Java, Hadoop, Python, SQL, Ruby and
Qlikview. In addition to that, it is highly crucial to understand the importance of applying
creative problem solving capabilities, teamwork and communication as well as data governance.
E-commerce business have been helping in maintaining a keen approach to the development of
business in the market. E-commerce business has provided various choices of products at same
range for the customers to make their selection. Furthermore, improved customer service is
highly important as the application of big data analytics. There are various cases reported where

38CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
there have been misplaced of products during delivery. There have been delay in deliver due to
various reasons an factors. These issues have been common in the e-commerce business.
Customers have opt out for using their credit card, debit card, net banking or pay on delivery
options. These options have helped in providing paying method for customers.
Interpretations of secondary data
The management of information system in an organization can be maintained by the use
of big data analytics. A proper storage service system can be maintained with the help of big data
analytics. As argued by Yin and Kaynak (2015), big data has been compromising with several
limitations including security issues. The big data provides a centralized database system that
creates issue related to security of data and information stored in the database. It has been the
fastest growing industry due to increase in the number of internet users all over the world. It has
provided a new face of shopping to the customers. Online shopping has helped in providing
doorstep delivery of purchased product over the internet. Therefore, customers do not have to
travel to offline shop for purchasing goods and other products. Therefore, e-commerce has
helped in making shopping easy for customers. The payment of the good and products have been
done using online payment gateway (Gordini and Veglio 2017). The cultural aspects if the
organization can be maintained by the use of big data analytics. It helps in providing
technological aspect of using different system together. The management of information system
in an organization can be maintained by the use of big data analytics.
Summary
As concluded through the data analysis, it is evident that the research project has been
successfully carried out in order to determine the degree of advantages devised by big data
analytics. E-commerce is capable of enabling big data in order to reach to new heights as well as

39CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
positively channelized for achieving better results as well as improved employee productivity
within the organizations. The respondents have readily recognized the significance of big data
statistics and application within the organization. The use of the big data analytics have been
helping in making a proper recommendation in the development of the company. The risks
analysis using data analysis has been helpful in identifying various risks and issues in the
organization models. The cultural aspects if the organization can be maintained by the use of big
data analytics. It helps in providing technological aspect of using different system together.

40CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations
5.1 Conclusion
It can be concluded that big data is a combined collection of the digital data from
inside as well as outside of the company. The big data is introduced in the ecommerce business
which allowed the business to have access to the larger amounts of data, collective in addition to
package for the investigation. The big data analytics is emerged as new frontier for the business
innovation in wider spectrum of the ecommerce landscape because of the issues and
opportunities which are created by means of information revolution.However, companies are
looking for minimizing these issues during delivery of products. Companies have been
implementing big data analytics that has helped in live tracking of the delivery goods and
products to the doorstep of customers. This particular paper had examined interaction between
big data analytics as well as product attributes along with analysis into the ecommerce business.
Relationship between big data analytics and ecommerce business shows that ecommerce
marketing is done throughout online advertisements. It helps the ecommerce companies for
understanding the shopping behaviour of the customers.
5.2 Linking with the objectives
Based onprocesses of data collection, researcher is required to link between
research objectives and findings from the data analysis. Based on the objectives which are
identified in Introduction section, the researcher linked related data such that credibility as well
as success rate of this study can be developed.
Linking Objective 1: To identify most important advantages of big data analytics in the
field of ecommerce business in today’s world

41CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
From the findings of data analysis, it is found that most of the respondents agreed that big
data analytics has advantage in the field of ecommerce business. Based on the survey, the big
data tracks the business transactions and information from the sensor data. It creates a larger
volume of data and information. Data processing is analyzed streamed data for producing timely
analysis of results in faster ways. The big data analytics is a cost advantages to the ecommerce
business when larger amounts of data are stored. It helps the business to recognize new data
sources which helps the business to make decisions based on business needs.
Linking Objective 2: To identify the ways in which the big data advantages of the
ecommerce business can be positively channelized in way to achieve better business results as
well as improved employee productivity within the organizations
By identifying trends of the customer’s requirements and customer satisfaction
throughout data analytics, it creates products based on the needs of the customers. By analyzing
the big data, the business can better understand the current market conditions such as analyzing
the purchasing behaviors of the customers help the company to find out products those are sold
mostly in the market and produce the products based on the market trends. By this, the
ecommerce business can improve in productivity of the organization.
Linking Objective 3: To identify the possible threats or other options that has the
capability to replace big data operations in the future within the organizations especially in the
ecommerce segment of business
It is found that when items are in the stock then it is not generating the sales. It
losses the money as it takes up space in the warehouse and there is wastage of time of the staffs
those are not accounted for the inventory. The big data is keystone of the demand forecasting
even it is not using advanced analytics of big data. It is analyzed that big data is a larger datasets

42CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
which are stored latest technology for providing insights to business and help in making
decisions related to the business. Online shopping of big data is used to scale up the ecommerce
along with delivered enhanced business services to the clients. The ecommerce analytics is
helpful in the market as it helps to understand impact of analytics in the ecommerce businesses.
5.3 Recommendations
Based on the data analysis results of research study, researcher had listed the
recommendations which help to bring gap among the issues and developed business solutions.
Based on the research study, the researcher is suggested to help the ecommerce business for
adopting big data analytics in the organization.
Price competitively: The ecommerce business should implement pricing strategy
as a key determinants that the customers can choose the website for buying products. The user
can check ecommerce sites for finding best deals which provides competitive prices (Gordini and
Veglio 2017). With the big data analytics, it has ability to check how the competitors are priced
the products and allowed to respond properly.
Turn the visitors into buyers: When it is coming to time as well as effort, there is
required to understand the goal of big data for achieving high conversion rate and turn the
visitors into buyers. Big data should allow to provide clear picture why the visitors are leaving
the site without purchasing any products and they can identify the on-site issues if any in the
business. However, companies are looking for minimizing these issues during delivery of
products (Zhang et al. 2018). Companies have been implementing big data analytics that has
helped in live tracking of the delivery goods and products to the doorstep of customers. It would
help the business to make improvement in decisions and provide proper shipping options.

43CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
Predict the market trends: Each of the online retailers is required to know its next
bestselling products. With using big data analytics, it would help ecommerce business to predict
the market trends which allow them to combine data from various social media posts.
5.4 Limitations of the study
The research was being limited to the small business organizations only that were
considered to determine the advantages and opportunities of big data analytics in ecommerce
business. There was also limitation of time which did not allow using SPSS software for
analyzing collected data. Financial constraints were also considered as restriction of the research
study which limited quality of research study.
5.5 Further scope of the study
With the technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, the big
data is relied technology for future usage. One of the instances of the big data future trends is
emergence of the dark data. The big data future scope predicted that the data sets will come in
light in this year and further transform the technology.

44CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANTAGES OF BIG DATA IN BUSINESS
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