Importance of Understanding Customer Expectations in E-commerce Strategy

This document discusses the importance of understanding, addressing, and meeting customer expectations when deploying an e-commerce strategy. It analyzes how e-commerce has allowed Sainsbury to improve its business processes and profitability. The document also provides a critical analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of deploying an e-commerce strategy. It explores the technologies required to develop and deploy a secured e-commerce site and evaluates the need for an integrated communication platform in e-commerce solutions.

E-Commerce and
Strategy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Discuss the importance of understanding, addressing and meeting customer expectations
when seeking to deploy e-commerce strategy........................................................................3
Using organisational case study analyse how e-commerce has allowed the organisation to
improve its business processes and profitability....................................................................5
Provide critical analysis of both the advantages and disadvantages of deploying an e-
commerce strategy..................................................................................................................6
Discuss a broad range of technologies that are required to develop and deploy a secured e-
commerce site.........................................................................................................................7
Evaluate and justify the need to have an integrated communication platform when deploying
an e-commerce solution..........................................................................................................8
Critical evaluate the role that database technology currently plays in the provision of an e-
commerce solution..................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
E-commerce which stands for Electronic Commerce is a modern business process or
practice that is related with buying and selling goods and services, transmitting money or funds
through electronic network (Maryati, Purwandari and Solichah, 2018). The major source of
conducting e-commerce activities is internet. This form of business transactions occurs and
supports businesses like B2B, B2C, C2C and C2B. E-commerce is a support provided to
industries and the business world that has made the huge difference in operations and work
systems. E-commerce is a resource that offers businesses higher productivity and profitability as
well as saves costs and other resource like time. Hence, a report is constructed in relation to e-
commerce of Sainsbury.
A supermarket chain which is second largest in UK market founded in 1869 and
headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The company is only serving in UK with both
physical and virtual platforms. The assessment includes the importance of understanding
customer needs and addressing them while using e-commerce strategy and evaluation of benefits
provided by e-commerce to Sainsbury in regards to improvement in its processes. In addition to
it, advantages and disadvantage of e-commerce are presented as well in the assignment (Kremez,
Frazer and Thaichon, 2019). Moving along technologies which are necessary for developing a e-
commerce website and its smooth functioning are identified with understanding the needs to
have integrated communication platforms for managing e-commerce solutions. Lastly, in the
report the role of database technologies is identified which are helpful in providing e-commerce
solutions is determined.
TASK 1
Discuss the importance of understanding, addressing and meeting customer expectations when
seeking to deploy e-commerce strategy.
E-commerce is an act of making business transactions that is buying, selling and
transferring of funds with the help of internet and other related means (Pinasang, Tulung and
Saerang, 2020). E-commerce has majorly four business segments or models in which it deals that
are Business 2 Business (B2B), Business 2 Customers (B2C), Customers 2 Customers (C2C)
and Customers 2 Business (C2B). Customer Expectations are defined as the needs and
preferences of potential buyers of a business organisation who are dealing in market and offering

respective goods and services. One of the major goal or a primal objective of a business house is
to offer what people are asking for and making them satisfied by fulfilling their requirements.
Thus, customer expectations are the key factors which derives change in the operations and
functioning of businesses.
While talking about customer expectations current industry trends are overlooked and
evaluated by organisations to gain an in-depth insight about the needs and requirements that are
flourishing in market and influencing the markets social environment and trends. Hence,
organisations needs to understand, address and meet customers and potential buyers
expectations. Thus, some of the specific factors for the same are presented below in the next
section (Qin, Liu and Tian, 2020).
IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING, ADDRESSING AND MEETING CUSTOMERS
EXPECTATIONS To seek knowledge about the right buyers- E-commerce is a wide option available in
front of organisations and businesses to seek higher market share and as it is increasing
on a very fast pace with huge competition. In order to stay competitive in the industry
and market company needs to known what exactly people need for serving them with the
exact offering before others. Thus, while deploying e-commerce understanding customers
needs renders the entity knowledge about the right market segment they need to target
according to their product or service offering. This advances the addressing stage where
exactly those goods are produced which people want and prefer to buy and enable the
firm in meeting their expectations. Thus, customer needs and preferences renders entity
market knowledge and more specifically knowledge about the market trends. For effective and successful positioning in market- Another importance of
understanding, addressing and meeting customers needs and expectations while
positioning e-commerce strategy is for having a strong and successful deployment of the
strategy in virtual market and world of internet. By knowing what exactly customers
needs company make strategies accordingly which assist them in potential deployment by
effective marketing techniques and methods (Lie, Atmojo and Muljo, 2019).
 For ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty- One more and the most basis
importance of knowing and addressing expectations of people for company is to keep
them satisfied and happy as well as gain their loyalty. A huge and loyal customer base or

market share offers the firm a strong competitive edge and platform to win over other
competitors by keeping people happy and satisfied.
Using organisational case study analyse how e-commerce has allowed the organisation to
improve its business processes and profitability.
Sainsbury is a national brand of United Kingdom, where the firm is the second largest in
terms of market share and customer loyalty. The company is fast changing and flexible enough
to adjust and integrate its operations according to regularly changing social environment and
dynamic customer expectations and market trends. Sainsbury has a flexible distribution channel
through offering its products and services through both physical and intangible means by
incorporating online and offline processes.
In simpler words, Sainsbury established itself in retail market by with physical stores and
with changing time and business scenario and increasing e-commerce company moved to online
platforms too for making revenues, earning profits and more importantly addressing and meeting
customers needs (Van Asch and et. al., 2020). Sainsbury today is setting out and aiming at
making shopping more convenient and easy for customers and for which company found a
solution in connecting both of its online and offline stores.
Company is making investment in offering convenient shopping experiences and which
involved e-commerce and offline operations integration and interlinking. Thus, the processes are
evolved in which company planned to offer seamless customer service to people and their
potential buyers where their business strategy includes competitive pricing, new products and
categorisation, improved efficiency and connectedness of all types and form of services offered
such as financial. The scheme is known as newly-digital Nectar Customer Loyalty (What
Sainsbury’s is doing to make shopping with it more convenient, 2019).
The entire project was established by management of Sainsbury for becoming a single
retail business by benefiting the customers and buyer as well as inducing firms profitability. The
expected figure to be saved by the brand in regards to cost in next five years is £500 million.
According to research buyer making purchases with digital channels spend three times more than
those who visit stores and make purchases (Yin and Liu, 2019). Thus, it automatically reflects
upon inducement in profitability of Sainsbury and firms revenues through e-commerce and
making potential use of e-commerce tools and related technologies. The technologies offering

firms a chance to bring its whole e-commerce business in one application for making ease for
shoppers to buy across all its brands and services.
Moreover, company's customers loyalty is gained by huge accessibility of company's
offerings as well as ease while shopping of finding everything at one place by just few clicks.
Also, in figures 10 million people or Sainsbury's customers can access all goods offered online
by just one log-in taking few seconds or minutes. Thus, e-commerce do provide a changed and
improved business processes as well as profitability and revenue generation by keeping
customers loyal and in touch with the brand for longer period of time (Zhou and et. al., 2018).
Provide critical analysis of both the advantages and disadvantages of deploying an e-commerce
strategy.
E-commerce is a tool or a opportunities which offer new possibilities to business for
making higher sales and increasing their earnings by making customers loyal to the brand and by
keeping them in close contact for longer period of time. Sainsbury a retail house make use of e-
commerce in their operations which have increased firms profitability and efficiency of process.
Thus, it is an advantageous or a beneficial process for entities to engage in but like everything e-
commerce do have some disadvantage and some advantages attached to it. Hence, these are
mentioned and explained below in context of Sainsbury and its new strategy of Nectar Customer
Loyalty.
ADVANTAGES OF E-COMMERCE Cost reduction- Sainsbury's strategy was to integrate their online and offline processing
and increasing customer loyalty as well as ease. This offered better cost management to
Sainsbury as firms expected figure to be saved as cost in next five years was of £500
million.
 Faster buying and selling processes- The process of e-commerce is fast and less time
consuming within which Sainsbury aimed at improving its customer experiences by
convenient shopping experiences. Thus, another gain of e-commerce for Sainsbury is
induction in its sales which offered higher revenue units to the brand (Zhao, Zhou and
Deng, 2020).
DISADVANTAGES OF E-COMMERCE Lack of data protection and system security- With some benefits problems do come and
for Sainsbury's concern is data protection. Company have to upload huge data online over

for making their plans happen and prominent implementation of e-commerce. This is a
threat too for the firm as data can be stolen and misused due to lack of security or even
due to security breaches.
 Regular changes- The technology and e-commerce industry is presently in its
revolutionary and evolution stage which means new technologies and software are
regularly being introduced in market. This can result in lacking competitiveness of
Sainsbury in term of technology and service systems as other rivals can implement better
and updated technologies resulting in Sainsbury losing power over them.
Discuss a broad range of technologies that are required to develop and deploy a secured e-
commerce site.
In current time e-commerce has changed habits of people in buying and selling. Internet
is offering a quick solution to people in order to meet their buying and selling needs. In current
transforming era e-businesses are gaining growth in rapid manner as with the help of this
customer can reach to anywhere within the global periphery. In order to develop and deploy
secured e-commerce sites there are some technologies which are used and same are elaborated as
under: Web server: Web server is the platform on which e-commerce website is hosted. This is
basically a storage network on which Html, JavaScript, PHP files and databases are
stored. This is the platform which provide security to customer transactions as e-
commerce providers are equipped with authentic SSL certificates that is assisting
customers to safeguard their data during any transaction. On the other web servers are
securing websites from any attack of viruses and hackers. This platform is helping
Sainsbury's in securing transaction of their customer in prominent manner and provide
ease to their customer in shopping. Web tools: This is an authorised tool which is used in order to create frontier of an e-
commerce website. These are associated with HTML text to other complex graphic
authority tools. E commerce website is required to have real time bot detection so as to
avoid any price scrapping and this is possible with the help of web tools. In the context of
Sainsbury's the in order to prove their online identity the company is making high use of
web tools so as to secure transactions which are made by their customers and to make
their site high secured.

 Database system: Database is known as the integral aspect of E-commerce website as
this used for storage of information regarding product and services. This is the most
significant technology which is required to be established so as to run business in smooth
manner and to successfully proceeding orders which are placed by customers. In the
context of Sainsbury's being a retail organisation this is significant for them to organise
proper database system so that to create a secure website.
 Networking: Networking is defined as sharing and exchanging of information in order to
meet general objectives of personnel. For a e-commerce website this is imperative that a
secured networking system is used by them so that to safeguard data of customers and
customers transactions in effective way. There are various applications and proxy
firewalls which can be installed by e-commerce websites so as to secure transactions and
to mitigate solution. On the other hand networking is helpful for e-commerce sites to
manage proper networking so that to attract attention of customers and to purge customer
data.
Evaluate and justify the need to have an integrated communication platform when deploying an
e-commerce solution.
Integrated communication platform is a platform which instigate the organisation to
associate real time communication capacities so as to build meaningful interaction with
customer. In the current time the prominent objective of any organisation is to attain customer
satisfaction and to enhance quality of their services and products as according to needs of
customers. For supermarket like Sainsbury's as the company is willing to build prominent E-
commerce solution for their customers and to establish online identity so integrated
communication platform is an access which allows the company to achieve their goals and reach
out to their final destination as well (Wang, Yu and Jin, 2019). For Sainsbury's integrated
communication plan is having certain significance which are elaborated as under: Provide enhanced user experience: Integrated communication platform is having high
need for attaining better user experience. Integrated communication platform allows the
customer to access real time data without wasting time on buffering and loading which
enables customer to enhance their experience of visiting website and their shopping from
the same. In the context of Sainsbury's as the company is dealing in retail store so they
are highly dependent on customer satisfaction and their experience as well. Integrated

communication platform helps Sainsbury's to understand needs of their customer in
prompt manner and satisfy the same by minimising booting time. Easier for maintenance: Integrated communication platform is easier to manage and
handle as there is no need for huge development team which is dealing with quick
changes. So this is helpful for the company in managing their funds in efficient manner
and modify website gateway as well. In the context of Sainsbury's the company is
managing their business in retail industry which enlarges their product portfolio and
capture as well. So under this context integrated communication platform is helping the
company in managing their funds along with maximising customer perception and
expectations (Wang and Li, 2018).
 Introduction of innovative services: With the help of integrated communication platform
customer interaction can be customised and high convenience can be given to them for
accessing any kind of information in real time without reaching to any complexities.
Integrated communication platform enables customers to use innovative services such as
chatbox, AI and many more. In the background of Sainsbury's these platforms are
offering affordable and prominent security by which they are able to enhance overall
workflow. On the other hand by introducing innovative services more customers can be
inhaled by Sainsbury's which intensifies their identity and removes gap within their
customers (Gamayanto and Christian, 2018).
Integrated communication platform is having prominent significance for e-commerce
sites as they are dedicated towards customer needs and by taking help of these platforms needs
and expectations of customers can be reached out in order to attain high customer satisfaction
and to build a secure e-commerce network.
Critical evaluate the role that database technology currently plays in the provision of an e-
commerce solution.
Database Technology or Technologies are those tools and digital instruments which
offers a system to store, organize and process or data provided and also, enable user to access it
anytime all the required details in a sorted and organized manner. Data technology is basically a
offering which keeps the data stored, secured and easily accessible by the authentic user or the
accessors (Janjevic, Winkenbach and Merchán, 2019). These technologies plays a huge and most
important role in providing e-commerce solutions to brands and large or all types of businesses

using it. The major concern of e-commerce is security, data storage and security which is solved
by database technologies.
These comes in all shapes and sizes with different level of ease and complexities which
keeps unauthorised users away for the sensitive information of the organisation and its
customers. For instance, in Sainsbury these database technologies offers a storing and sorting
place and manage the information potentially in a way when the management or authorised user
needs it they can access it properly. As well as this help in keeping data protected and stop all
unauthorised breaches to take place by securing it with the help of unique passwords and a strict
security system or processes involved. Thus, a huge support is provided by these technologies in
business and in all the related transactions taking place or going to take place.
CONCLUSION
The discussion and evaluation conducted in the report above in regards to e-commerce
and related aspects concludes the potentials attached for businesses and organisation with the
modern tools provided by e-commerce and technologies. E-commerce is same as the normal
business transactions and systems but it is present in the virtual rather than being physical. The
characteristics of e-commerce and technologies offers a competitive edge to organisation and
enable in developing a unique platform of working and running operations smoothly. E-
commerce is a potentials source of conducting business which brings in several opportunities for
organisations and offers the higher value with addressing customers needs in the same or even
better manner as expected by them and their wishes. Customers prefers are the reasons which
gives a company purpose of operating in the respective field and accomplishing their
expectations and needs results in higher profitability and success of e-commerce operations of
the firm.

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