Business Skills for e-Commerce: A Comprehensive Guide

This report explores the essential business skills required for success in the e-commerce landscape. Using the example of arngren.net, a website selling electronics and gadgets, we delve into the core business functions, the impact of e-commerce, and the design of effective e-commerce solutions. We analyze the website's strengths and weaknesses, identify potential risks, and propose strategies to enhance its functionality and profitability. This report provides a comprehensive guide for individuals and organizations seeking to navigate the dynamic world of e-commerce.

Business Skills for e-Commerce

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
LO1 Understand the structure and aims of business organizations.................................................3
P1.1 Assess the core business functions of your selected organization....................................3
P1.2 Evaluate your chosen organization’s business aims and show how they relate to their
stakeholders.................................................................................................................................5
LO2 Understand the impact of e-Commerce...................................................................................6
P2.1 Analyse the impact, including the risks, of introducing an e-Commerce system to the
selected organization in task1......................................................................................................6
P2.2 Discuss the global impact of e-Commerce on society in relation to your chosen
organization.................................................................................................................................8
LO3 Be able to design e-Commerce................................................................................................9
P3.1 Using appropriate research methodologies, Investigate market potential for an e-
Commerce opportunity................................................................................................................9
P3.2 Evaluate current e-Commerce systems in use by similar organizations...........................11
P3.3 Discuss the financial implications of e-Commerce solution by considering the factors...13
P3.4 Design an e-commerce solution to enhance the business functions of your chosen
organization...............................................................................................................................15
P3.5 Evaluate the suitability of the e-Commerce solution which you have designed in task 3.4
...................................................................................................................................................22
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................25
List of Figures
Figure 1: Home Page.....................................................................................................................19
Figure 2: Login page......................................................................................................................20
Figure 3: Payment page.................................................................................................................20
Figure 4: Contact Us page.............................................................................................................21
1

Introduction
In this report, the aptitude of e-commerce business through the internet are discussed. For this
task, I have chosen the arngren.net website that’s not using payment gateway this site contains
the different electronic items & gadgets for the user choice. The report is divided into 3 sections
of task in which the first part the arngren.net business and goal is defined by the organization. In
second part the effects and impacts of the chosen site and the associated risk are discussed. In
this the hazards, administration of clients, global market, affect, and also evaluating the
alternatives, conveyance framework & also the assembling of the new items is discussed.
The third part of the report contains the design of solution for the better and secure e-commerce
answers are discussed. Competitors, market possible for the e-commerce, financial implications
of the solution for hardware & software, security, finding sources, maintenance requirement, the
wireframe for the solution to enhance the function of business, and also the suitability for the
design are discussed in this. Electronic commerce is the process of selling and purchasing of
products and item on online website. E-commerce works on many technologies like online
transaction handling, electronic files transaction, mobile commerce, electronic fund transmission
and electronic data and information interchange.
2

LO1 Understand the structure and aims of business organizations
P1.1 Assess the core business functions of your selected organization.
I have selected the Arngren electronics in which the organization is of public type of business
organization that is using the business from customers. They are selling the gadgets, electronics
& the vehicles. They formerly started the sales with the mail orders. The foundations and
investors of the Simon yuen are purchased from the site. Then the mail-order sales are changed
with the internet of sales, then it will be bankrupt in 1 year. The goal of the Arngren is to create a
responsive website for all the mobiles in market, also analysing the sales and to create a good
reputation in the social media market, doing campaign. The Arngren is of B-C (business from
customer). They are not having any customer chatting service the sales are very poor so they are
going to bankrupt in market.
Objective of Arngren:
 The people should feel safe by purchasing the product.
 The person should be contacted directly with the chat box.
 The purchase should be easy & faster.
 In 2 languages it is available in English & Norwegian.
The PEST analysis for the arngren.net are used to analyse the business to run for long-term. It
has 4 major factors that are-
 Political: There are many kinds of risk factor which affect the e-commerce business. The
development of electronic commerce is faced by political factors. Political strength in most
area of the world leads to economic strength. Political subjects can have a major effect on
electronic commerce.
 Economical: Economic features are very important in terms of e-business. Economic features
are directly connected to e-commerce business and this factor directly affects the benefits of
e-commerce business.
 Technological: Technological aspects have a special importance in terms of electronic
commerce business. From sales to consumer service, everything depends upon the
technology.
3

 Social: Social factor has a direct effect on electronic commerce business. The increasing use
of mobile technology has affected electronic commerce business.
4

P1.2 Evaluate your chosen organization’s business aims and show how they relate to
their stakeholders.
Business aim of the Arngren are:
Aims of business Responsibilities of business
Customer experience A property which progresses the consumer experience.
Services A facility which is helpful for the customer to evaluate the
behaviour.
Tools Monitoring device which informs the customer if something goes
incorrect with the element.
Responsibilities of Arngren are:
Stakeholders Responsibility of stakeholder
General Customer It will provide the enterprises & merchandise that client could not or
they do not want to themselves create.
Aim: To build the trust.
Employees Aim: To support customers in the problem area and make effective
plans.
Researchers They make the more innovative and the smart products for improving
the market growth and the innovations are used.
Sellers The seller should sell the different electronic product for all type of
product and ensure the quality.
Admin The person who maintains the site effectively and efficiently and
manage the site contents and navigation accurately.
Lenders They allow every business to make a shared dream, procedure and
objective
5

LO2 Understand the impact of e-Commerce
P2.1 Analyse the impact, including the risks, of introducing an e-Commerce system
to the selected organization in task1.
In internet based businesses there are severe dangers which are:
1. The sites are fake
2. Issues of privacy and security
3. The dealer is not as per providing the quality of item and sometimes dishonest
4. Some third-party vendors are handling the data in wrong use.
Some vendors or the person are using the internet business in a wrong way in which they are
providing the false detail on the site so with this the client connects easily. Some unapproved and
unauthorized person is doing this.
Some of the positive effects of the internet based business on arngren.net are:
 The toys are sell online this will increase the innovation & profitability in the market.
 In last 2 years, no issue is yet found this can be secure for customers.
Some of the negative aspects of the internet based business of arngren.net are:
 One of the major issues is a tax transportation in collection of the issue.
 In returning the item if the client is doing as many items this is unsafe for the organization.
Risks associated with the arngren.net electronic product site on internet are:
 Availability: This is the major risk in which the user does not find the appropriate choice
which they really want in Arngren. The items are very congested with one another and the
spacing is not there so the user is difficulty in searching and selecting the item.
 Security risk in arngren.net: This is a major risk associated which is associated with the site.
As it does not use the payment gateway so without this the transaction processed on the site
are not safe.
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 The items present inside this website are unorganized & cluttered. Therefore, it makes the
GUI of website less attractive.
 The site is using low-quality images which are directly pasted from the different source and
the link are pasted directly on the site (hkedcity, 2017).
 The purchase bar is not clearly visible so due to this the site is built for what reason are not
clearly mentioned.
 The page is exceptionally out of request and disordered around. There is no concentration
arrange, making it relatively inconceivable for the clients to explore consecutively. The
makers endeavoured to make it operable by giving a rundown of the things on the left, yet
they essentially are in no clear-cut shape and have as much impact as everything else on the
site page.
 The utility is horrendous for this website page. Clients have no clue where to start in scan for
a particular item. Everything is so sorted out and unappealing, clients are relatively unfit to
see the concealed pursuit bar in the highest point of the page. Individuals would not have a
simple time to discover and buy an item.
 At the point when a client returns to a site sooner or later, they ought to have the capacity to
effectively know how to discover what they are searching for. This site makes it relatively
outlandish for clients. They have so much data piled up over each other, making it
inconceivable for clients to set up consistency with the site.
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P2.2 Discuss the global impact of e-Commerce on society in relation to your
chosen organization.
Positive effects of e-commerce on society-
 Time-saving- It provides services to the customers in less time.
 24/7 support- It provides 27/7 support to the customers.
 Convenience- Using e-commerce website user can easily get their products at anywhere,
anytime using internet.
 Greater choice- E-commerce provide greater choice facility to the customer.
 price comparison- E-commerce also provides price comparison facility by which user can
search the good price for the products.
 Information availability- The internet consists much information and by using these search
engines like yahoo, google user almost get all information quickly.
 Global marketplace- Now internet is used by everyone to get the information and user which
access the internet can see what is there on internet. Therefore, if a user’s website is on the
internet than anyone can easily access user’s website.
 Advertising online- The internet spreads across the world and by using internet user can
easily advertise their business online.
 New business- The start-up and business cost for user.
Business by online presence is much less than getting a place for storage of products.
 Global market- E-commerce becomes a fastest growing process for customers to conduct
their business. There are almost 200 million internet consumers currently (Nathan, 2014).
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LO3 Be able to design e-Commerce
P3.1 Using appropriate research methodologies, Investigate market potential for an
e-Commerce opportunity.
Market analysis
Type of market- e-commerce is a part of larger business model that authorized company to
control business over an internet network. E-commerce work in all major market types: business
to customer, customer to business, customer to customer and market to market. Electronic
commerce allows company to set a market presence or improve market position by involving an
inexpensive distribution link for their services.
Some strength of electronic commerce for customers-
 Selection- Electronic commerce provides a better list of the selection of product or item.
 Large market- Electronic commerce allows user to access customer all around the country.
Customer can easily buy a product anywhere and anytime.
 Lower cost and discount- sometimes shopping website provide customers some discount
coupons which allow customers to buy item at a lower price (IIA, 2011).
 High quality of products and services.
 Services and Products are easy to find.
 Faster transaction.
 Convenience- It is very convenient for the customers to buy products from the online
shopping websites, using these websites consumers can buy anything at anytime, anywhere
and it also helps to save the time and money.
Some weakness of electronic commerce for customers-
 No ability to see and touch a product- online shopping website contains images of the
products, but these images don’t tell the real quality of the product.
9

 Limited consumer services- e-commerce provides limited consumer services. Like, if you
want to order something online so you are not able to ask which product is best or not.
 No immediate satisfaction- when you order something from online shopping website then
User has to wait for the product.
 Cost comparison- by using online shopping website customer can compare item and search
the lowest price. This comparison reduces the profit margin of the company.
 Need for internet access- proper internet connection is required for the accessing of e-
commerce websites because some e-commerce website requires a high-speed internet
connection.
 No guarantee of product and service quality.
 IT security issues- sometimes e-commerce
Distribution channels- The quality of the service depends upon the speed of the product delivery
to the customer. It is necessary to utilize direct distribution chain. Direct distribution chain
provides a superior understanding of consumers through proper contact.
Customer strength- The customer confirmation is related to the customer’s age, it means
consumer of age 12 and above, are able to buy a product through online websites. E-commerce
provides home delivery facility to the customer.
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P3.2 Evaluate current e-Commerce systems in use by similar organizations.
The application of electronic commerce industry is:
 Remote managing an account: This kind of administrations is utilized as a part of the
business. For managing the banks and the business accounts this technique is used where the
user can access the required information. It may increase the dynamic usage.
 Movie on request: This provides the facility to the user that they can watch any movie or
video by just requesting the providers.
 Home shopping: In this, the clients can request or shop merchandise from their home by
utilizing the PCs, television stations, and indexes.
 Online showcasing an ad: It is the type of the publicizing and web-based promoting is
utilized for the web to disperse reputation publicizing message to the client
 Auctions: In this type, the users are waiting for the products. Any of the user having the
unique and highest bid they can get the service or product.
Information sharing and communication- e-commerce websites use a tracking system to track the
location of the customers or the delivery boy which deliver product to the customer. When the
products are ready for the delivery, the employee will send a text message or e-mail to the
consumer.
Service or product distribution - Service or product distribution is managed by in-house device,
where staff is answerable for the delivery of products and services either by moped or on foot
which depends upon the distance.
Promotion and marketing- social websites such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are helpful
for the promotion and marketing of the e-commerce websites. Customer can easily find e-
commerce website online through a search engine. google is a very famous search engine, it is
very suitable to invest in it for advertising.
Payments- for the Payment of the products the payment gateway has to keep gateway providers
like sage pay or PayPal. Paypal payment system is most useful payment system because it is
very helpful to fulfil all the need for e-commerce websites. It provides a smooth integration of
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the system or it has no monthly fees only charges for transaction. Paypal also provides
transaction of the product without the customer’s need to have an account.
Order processing- the consumer is able to directly purchase products from the manufacture of the
products and services. After the selection of the product, there are 2 fateful factors, payment
process and delivery time. The consumer can place an advance order.
Service for customer- cause of the specific products and items consumer will not be able to recoil
goods, return will only be issued if the product is not considered good. But some e-commerce
websites allow users to contact the customer helpline which solves all the issues and problems of
the customers.
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P3.3 Discuss the financial implications of e-Commerce solution by considering the
factors.
Equipment costs- electronic commerce provides moped facility to the delivery boy by which
they can easily deliver product to the customers. This provision allows driver sixteen years old
and aged to use the mopeds which potentially viable to protect on struggle work.
Intermediary services- PayPal payment system is a more suitable payment system for e-
commerce because it doesn’t take extra monthly or setup fees from the customers. It only takes
transaction fees, which verify cost effective.
Web development cost- for simple behaviour of electronic commerce services, it is important to
employ designer of web which creates an object for the online shopping websites.
Marketing promotion- if any e-commerce is a new business than it is important to promote the
business and advertise at the beginning. Google is a very popular search engine which takes
charges for promotion and advertising.
Cost of services and product- cost of the products are same as the shop price list, but e-
commerce website takes extra charges for the delivery of the items and products.
Cost-
Web-hosting-
 Geo Trust SSL certificate
 Domain name registration
Equipment-
 Safety tools
 Petrol
 MOT
 Moped
 Moped insurance
13

Marketing-
 Local newspapers
 Leaflet advertising
 Google pay per click
Other operating costs
 Labour costs
Intermediate service-
 Paypal fees
 Paypal transaction fees
14

P3.4 Design an e-commerce solution to enhance the business functions of your
chosen organization.
Key activity- key activity is a process which involves software marketing and development. It
represents what is necessary for the development business work model. There are 2 kinds of
activity keys-
1. Software development
2. Supply or delivery chain management
Domain name- domain name is basically the name of your website. Domain name is an address
from where user can easily access your website. This domain name is used to identify website on
the internet. domain name in register in domain name system (Warner, 2014).
Web-hosting- it is a process which provides the facilities and technologies needed for the website
to be shown on the internet. Web hosting is used to provide space over the internet for the
websites.
Parts of web-hosting-
1. Reseller hosting of web
2. Self-service hosting of web
3. Devoted server
4. Shared hosting of web
5. Cloud-based web hosting
6. Colocation web hosting
7. Managed WordPress hosting
8. Real private server
Optimization technique of search engine - search engine is a technique which is used to increase
the degree of caller to a website. There are many kinds of search engines such as: google and
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yahoo. Search engine increase the quality and quantity of traffic to user’s website through search
engine result.
e-commerce testing-
Testing shopping cart
 Increase the no. of products from the cart
 Add product to the cart
 Add any product of different types
 Removes all products from the cart
 Click on the product in the cart
 Add similar types of items
 Remove products from the cart
 Discount coupons
 Add products to the cart, close the browser and reopen same file
Analyse website traffic-
Order processing- order will be send in two days after an order has been accepted and credit
details has been devoted. A confirmation message or email is send to the customers when order
is ready for delivery.
Payment processing- electronic commerce websites provide online transaction facility to the
customer by which customers can easily buy anything from e-commerce websites. E-commerce
website accepts payment through PayPal, MasterCard, and visa. Credit card processing is done
through Shopify secure pay or PayPal.
Delivery processing- after the selection process of the products, the delivery process begins and
ends with the pleased delivery of the product. delivery processing is done by a pull, a push or a
combined strategy.
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Pull strategy- pull strategy reduces the importance of predict demand. The delivery process is
started when a customer shows a requirement for the item. Pull strategy needs a symmetric
supply chain with great communication from end to end. By making a plan directly to the
consumers the item will receive actual feedback. When setting up a new item, this can be
complete with preorder or with an installed item new order pulls another item from the supply
chain. The goal of pull strategy is to minimize everything that does not valuable for the
customers. The objective of pull strategy is to encourage consumers to look for the brand and
product.
Advantages of pull strategy-
 Decreased inventory levels
 High service levels
 Fewer markdowns
 Lower carrying costs
 Limited list
 Improve cash flow
 Customer-centric
Disadvantages of Pull strategy:
 Setting times will vastly affect throughput
 Any problem or error will lead to sad consumers
Push strategy- push strategy is a type of channel strategy. push strategy includes taking the
items or products directly from the customers. Push strategy use marketing channels. Eg: trade
promotions, sales force, money, and showrooms. Push strategy is used to push the company’s
items onto consumers by providing information to them. The objective of push strategy is to
provide information to the customers about the brand and the type of product.
Advantages of Push strategy:
 Producer centric
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 Forecasting demand
 High inventory
Disadvantages of Push strategy:
 Requires maintenance of complex and large database
 Requires industry to maintain functional product flow
Combination strategy- this strategy combines all other strategies such as expansion,
retrenchment, and stability. Combination strategy also called a hybrid or mix strategy (Nathan,
2014).
Advantages-
3. Cost savings
4. Geographic expansion
5. Acquire managerial talent
6. Monetize hidden assets
7. Eliminate the competition
8. Leverage strengths
 Handling costs:
 Shipping speeds:
 Distance from vendor
 Sales volume
 Pickup times and rates
Disadvantages of combination strategy:
 Unethical practices
 Monopoly
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 Lack of customer choice
 Leads to inefficiency
 Economic development affected
 Concentration of political power and economic
I have designed the wireframes of the Arngren website by taking the help of the Balsamiq tool.
Different design of the pages is as follow:
Figure 1: Home Page
19

Figure 2: Login page
Figure 3: Payment page
20

Figure 4: Contact Us page
21

P3.5 Evaluate the suitability of the e-Commerce solution which you have designed in
task 3.4
Feasibility study- Feasibility study is used to measure how practical and beneficial the
development of the system the process which is used to measure the feasibility of the system is
known as feasibility study. A feasibility study is a report that monitors the 5 frames of analysis of
any given project. Frames of analysis are the parametric frame, the frame of definition, the frame
of potentially, the frame of contingency strategies and dominant, the frame of risks. The main
objective of feasibility study is to determine whether the software project should be redesigned
and go ahead. There are 5 phases of feasibility study, such as:
 Procedural feasibility revision
 Legal feasibility revision
 Operational feasibility revision
 Economic feasibility revision
 Scheduling feasibility revision
Schedule feasibility study- schedule feasibility study involves the development of market
analysis and understands the work environment. Planning method involves identifying
responsibilities and roles like the organizational department is answerable for maintaining and
creating the electronic commerce, calculation of the resource supplies about delivery of the
products. Execution phase contains the developing and monitoring of the electronic commerce
websites and designs the subject for the front part of an e-commerce website, buying the
important tools such as moped, hiring a new worker and delivery boxes to support the electronic
commerce website. Execution phase takes one month. Controlling and monitoring includes
measurement of on-going activities of the electronic commerce evaluating calculation of order,
effectiveness of the delivery and counting of registered users and compares it to previse result
(Business resources, 2011).
Financial feasibility- financial feasibility is used to measure cost-effectiveness and the solution
of the project. Financial feasibility includes the cost of buy tools, web hosting expenditure for
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starting six months until the system or project is self-sufficient. Financial feasibility can be
checked by following parameters:
 Total cost of the project
 Project profitability
 Projects repayment terms
 A small increase in cost
 Adverse economic conditions
 Large enhance cost
 Fast reduction of sale
 Current investment by the propulsive.
 Gentle slowing of sales
 Financing of a software project in precondition of its equity ratio and capital structure.
Operational feasibility- operational feasibility is used to measure how the system removes the
problem, and take benefits of the facility identified during region definition and how it fulfils the
requirements of system development. Operational feasibility involves some design dependent
parameters as maintainability, usability, reliability, supportability, sustainability and
productivity,. These parameters are important to think about at every stage of software design if
required operational behaviours are to be realized. A system development and design require
suitable and management attempts to visit design dependent parameters. Operational feasibility
is a delicate phase of system engineering that requires to be a mandatory step of the design phase
(Mappinganalytics, n.d).
Technical feasibility- technical feasibility is a process which used to measure the availability of
resource and technical solution. Technical feasibility is a cheap-cost solution than to buy or
monitor personal server directly. The administration sector handles the development of e-
commerce website index, a variety of the products which provided by the website. Technical
feasibility is based on the requirements of system design, to check whether the organization has
23

the technical experts to handle fulfilment of the software project. Technical feasibility needs to
consider following:
 The economic and human factor
 The solution of the problem
 The step of the business checking out
 A brief description of the business
Method of production-
 Availability of raw materials and input and also check their prices and quality.
 Several efficiency factors
 Utility of markets for production of each method and the required cost for these productions.
Project requirements- when the process of outputs and its methods are determined, technical
expert have to define the requirements of the projects. Project requirements involve:
 Discovery of projects requirements of unskilled and skilled labour.
 Confirmation of projects requirements of formation such as roads, storage, and buildings.
 Determination of minimal storage of contingency cost, inputs, and cash money.
 Determination of equipment and tools which are required for the software project.
 Discovery of the cost of construction, tools, and construction period.
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Conclusion
In the report, arngren.net website is taken into reference and by using this reference website all
the things are discussed with the solution of the website by using the wire framework. In this
report, the task is divided into three sections. The characteristics of each and everything of the
arngren.net are discussed for the website, this report is based on online business and the effect of
the system are discussed. In the report, the competitor of the site is discussed and in which area
the system is enhanced are discussed. This can also explain the risk and the factors affected by
the website which can keep in mind to enhance the business.
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