E-commerce Strategies and Technologies

This document discusses the importance of understanding customer expectations in e-commerce strategies, with a case study of H&M. It also explores the advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce strategies, technologies to develop and deploy e-commerce sites, and the role of database technologies in e-commerce.

E-commerce strategies and
technologies

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
Importance to understand, meet and address customer expectation on basis of e-commerce
strategies......................................................................................................................................3
Case study of H & M, impact of E-commerce on the company profitability..............................4
Advantage and disadvantage of E-commerce strategies..............................................................5
LO2..................................................................................................................................................6
Technologies to develop and deploy e-commerce site................................................................6
Integrated communicate in E-commerce.....................................................................................7
Database technologies in e-commerce.........................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
E-commerce is an online platform which helps the companies and business to promote
there product and services on an online portal and platform. It is referred as the Electronic
commerce, it is a business structure which let firms and other individual. It works in all major
market segment “ business to business”,“business to customer”, “consumer to consumer”,
“consumer to business”. H&M is one of the leading market fashion industry company which are
working in the major fashion trends and are a trendsetter. They started there business was
founded in 1947 and the founder of the company Erling Persson when he open the first shop in
Sweden. In this report will describe the strategies and the technologies to build and work the E-
commerce in the industry and how they can impact on the profitability of the business (Lee, I.
ed., 2016). H&M are using e-commerce from September 16,2010 and is working in a great
structure.
MAIN BODY
LO1
Importance to understand, meet and address customer expectation on basis of e-commerce
strategies
When the e-commerce is being deployed in market by companies, it helped the
companies in finding one of the best result in their firm with rapid changes in sales and service.
IT is important for companies to understand the customer expectation because the business are
running to give the services to customer and satisfy their need which need companies to
understand, address, meet etc. to customer expectation to get the best result out of everything(Le-
Nguyen,2016).
Companies are working to satisfy customer needs and wants, to get the best result it is
important for them to understand that customer is the first priority of companies and if there are
customers than only the company is working. Deploying the e-commerce in retail sector is one of
the biggest task as it require proper planning and ways to give the variety and choices to the
customer as retail is one of the biggest market in market share and customer are very choosy in
this as there are a lot of options. The companies need to look for this thing which customer wants
and needs, if company get to know about the choices of customer and the preference with
addressing them properly can help them in making the best e-commerce company and help in
attracting majority of audience in the market with better goals and objective in market share.

Strategies of e-commerce to help customer needs: -
1. Increase E-commerce search Usability: - The company need to understand the choices
and preferences customer seek and for that they need to increase their usability and
artificial intelligence to understand customer on there previous history.
2. Effective targetting: - Companies need to understand and target there market where they
want to hit the max to get best of result in their goals and helps in satisfying the customer
needs.
3. Consumer centric design: - Try to be more consumer centric as they are the main reason
the work is going on and it requires to have the best of the consumer centric ways for a
company to get better result as it attract more of the audience.
4. Service and support value proposition: - It is one of the most important point for the
customer when they seek something from companies as the services and the way the
company respond and treat to their customer is a major task and fact which they need to
consider when working.
Case study of H & M, impact of E-commerce on the company profitability
H & M is one of leading retail fast fashion company working in fashion industry and
changing the trends worldwide with their trends and fashion sense. The company was founded in
1947 and the founder of the company Erling Persson when he open the first shop in Sweden.
The company listed itself in Stockholm Stock exchange in 1974, Shortly after that they have
opened their first store in London in 1976. After that the company have started exploring the
business worldwide and developed themselves in market with good market share.
After the growth in the fast fashion industry H&M have been in a consistency of good
performance and then suddenly they stuck to a limited market which stopped their market
profitability and decline the profit among the competition. It also affected the company in no
growth. H&M tried a lot of new trends and fashion to change the market which they are lacking
but still they were not able to get more of the audience in market which cause them profitability
& low growth(Hua and et.al.,2019).
ON June 25' 2010 company published article showing that they are starting the e-
commerce of the company to increase the working and providing new services to the customers.
The process of the E-commerce have be allowed and started from 16th of September'2010. The

company started its e-commerce to change the scenarios of H&M as wherever they were lacking
in the market. The launch was with all new strategies in context to provide a better service and
quality service to improve the market and satisfied the customer needs.
E-commerce have helped the H&M in its process and profitability:-
Overcome Geographical limitation: -
E-commerce have helped the company in reaching more number and more audience
throughout worldwide. It helps the company and its customer to connect from different locations'
ans also to those which were not able to go to the offline stores of the company.
Gain New Customer: -
It helped the company in getting new customer with the help of search engine visibility as
it allowed new people and variety of people to get connected to the H&M and use the services
which company was providing.
Provide comparing shopping: -
It also helped the company in showing the variety and comparing facilities to other
brands and showing the audience on how to get the best of quality product in low cost and
increase their shopping and buying habit.
E-commerce helped the company H&M in increasing there market and it help company
in getting the goals and objective completed. It also helped company in better profitability and
increase the process of working as they are working in the process of offline and online both and
increase their audience to get more of profit in market (Laudon,2018).
Advantage and disadvantage of E-commerce strategies
Advantages of E-commerce
A larger market: - E-commerce allow reaching customer all over the country and around the
globe which helps the company in getting more audience and global market connection.
Customer insights through tracking and analytics: - Artificial intelligence helps in developing
the keywords and track the traffic of customer to give suggestion and gave keywords. It also
gives price strategies, marketing messages etc.
Fast response to the trends and market demand: - It is a quicker way to respond to the
consumer trends and the market demand and also provide quick suggestion to all the audience

coming on the official site with new market trends and promotions to connect and gave
information to the audience in advance.
Lower cost: - The e-commerce helps the customer in getting the product in a lower cost then the
other stores, it is a part of the e-commerce platform technologies. They allow the customer in
getting the product in discount prices.
Selling opportunities: - It helps the company in getting more opportunities to sell the product
and services on a wider context which help them in getting better result.
Disadvantages of E-commerce
Lack of personal touch:- it depends on the person to person and some customer value the
personal touch in their buying behaviours. It helps them to identify the high end products, and
they just don't want to buy the product but also enjoy the process.
Price and product comparison: - It affects the normal merchant as the low price cost of e-
commerce affect their market profitability and it also makes them compete on pricing.
Need of internet: - Online buying and surfing require internet access to every person which
affect few of them who does not have access to the internet.
IT security issues: - people are afraid of hackers and the company are also afraid of the hackers
who can steal the private information of the customer which can affect a lot to the customer.
Credit card fraud: - Customers are afraid of the frauds when they fill there card details and are
afraid to buy things online just because of that(Khan,2018).
H&M is going to use the experience knowledge the company has gained so that there is
going to be right measures and the risks in the company are going to be lesser. It is important for
the company to make sure that there are good operations and functioning which is taking place
and that would make the reputation and value of the company increase. Getting in more
customers with the help of e-commerce is going to make the higher functioning and operations
which are going to be there. The negative impact is going to be less and H&M will be able to get
in higher customer base which is very important for the company to have so that the organization
will get the right investment in changes which are coming in the market.

LO2
Technologies to develop and deploy e-commerce site
There are a lot of technologies to develop the e-commerce site here are some of them: -
Domain name : - The first thing which a person need to do is to register a domain name for there
website, a domain name for there business. The name of the domain should be as close as to the
business name & even also close to the product and services you are providing to the customer
and in market.
Secure (SSL) Certificates : - SSL certificates refer to those certificates which allow for secure
communication from both the parties and between the users browser and the server which is
hosting that website. It is a certificate for a safe browsing and helps in getting the secure work.
Web Hosting : - This refers to hosting the website on the server so that consumer can optimize
and use & also get better experience of surfing the website with high speed, reliability etc. These
are the key aspect to successfully business.
E-commerce platform : - It is important to choose a platform for the website to run on it, it also
includes: -
(SaaS) Software as a service :- it is one of the ways to test the working on small monthly fee.
Which is a good way for small business.
Off-the-shelf software: - it is same as SaaS but is better in customization option, it is a great
choice for those who are more into technical ability.
Bespoke : - it is a platform work same as other but is quite expensive.
Internet Merchant Account (IMA) : - It is a technology which helps in the online transaction
for the business and whatever the transaction take place will be done on this in online process. It
allows to handle all the online transactions.
Payment service provider: - it is a gateway of payment, which provide their own pages of
payment or are the self checkout pages. You can recommend PSP by the bank when opening an
IMA, but its a good idea to do the shop around.
Browser compatibility: - A web browser is an application server on which all the and content
used to locate and receive from as server. It is important to check the compatibility of the website
on the server and how it looks on platform.

Integrated communicate in E-commerce
Communication is one of the most important factor while doing business whether its
online and offline. IMC is an approach used by the organizations to coordinate and brand
communication efforts. It is made to clear the communication gap and to maintain a good
communication with role of disciplines in communication and provide a better clarity and
impact in it.
Communicating effectively pre-sales : - Everything which is reflected on the website is
a communication, It is important to build a confidence in the mind of customer so that they can
feel free and do the process of buying and selling. You want the customer to transfer you the
money on few clicks but for that you need to have the best of communication to the customer so
that they feel confident and do the payment. You have to be sure about communication that it
shows effective, consistent and shows proofs(Guercini,2018).
Communicating effectively post-sales : -at this stage you need to communicate the best
ways to the customer who have already paid you for the product and is waiting for there product
need a good communication from the company. It needs a loyal following with the customer as
you need to maintain the customer for longer period and can rely on you(Wang,2020).
Benefits of IMC : -
One of the major benefit of IMC is that marketer has a clear communication and
effectively communicate their brand story and messaging across several channels of
communication to make awareness about the brand.
The other benefit of the integrated marketing communication is to create a competitive
advantage for firms who are looking for increase in sales and profit. IMC helps customer and
immerse them in communication which help them in moving through a various stagwes in the
buying process. It creates a seamless experience of purchasing that make customers loyal and a
long time customer for the company.
Database technologies in e-commerce
DATABASE : - The basic function of this is to digitally store the data and information which
can be captured, distributed, retrieved later in the time. With the help of database information
such as system oriented or transactions of data can be tracked on the chosen way of setting. It

also gives benefit in analysing the business to track information about the products(Laudon,
2016).
Roles of data base are: -
 It provides structure as it is one of the biggest and most important benefit of using
database in e-commerce as it addition the structure to a vast data. It does not matter how
vast and big the online store is, it requires structure to handle things in a better way.
 It attracts audience as it gives the safety to the audience which can help them in getting
trust and attract towards the company. It helps in getting the information of customer and
make list in future for marketing to create a good targeted list of customer for direct
marketing efforts.
 It helps in tracking data and the data safety which is most important. It provides benefit
for both parties in process and gives a great security and safety.
 It gives a great information about customer which helps the company in getting proper
information about things happening in process.
 Proper database provide the information related to transaction which can help in future in
any concern and is a safe side for both the parties who are involved in transaction.
There are a lot of changes which are coming up in the market therefore it is important for
the company to make sure that there is good database which is going to make the performance
level higher. Right information is required in the company so that there is going to be higher
performance. Right information is going to make the planning and decision-making higher which
is a great factor for the company to have. There has to be gathering of good information which
needs to be present which is going to make the company have higher competitive advantage and
higher profit margins so that there is going to make the company have more investments in the
future.
CONCLUSION
The report concluded that e-commerce is one of the most important part in today's
business life and it is a way to promote and increase the value of the business as it can help in
gaining the profit and complete goals and objective of the company. Further report concluded the
ways in which the website is made and there strategies and technologies to build a website.
(Strategies) shows the method by which the e-commerce can enhance business profitability and

it also gives a wider scope in development of business. H&M have used the e-commerce in an
efficient and proper way which helped them in getting the profitability they wanted from a
longer period .

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Guercini, S., Bernal, P.M. and Prentice, C., 2018. New marketing in fashion e-
commerce. Journal of global fashion marketing. 9(1). pp.1-8.
Hua and et.al., 2019. The power of e-commerce. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management.
Kasemsap, K., 2016. Implementing electronic commerce in global marketing. Encyclopedia of e-
commerce development, implementation, and management, pp.591-602.
Khan, H.U. and Uwemi, S., 2018. Possible impact of e-commerce strategies on the utilisation of
e-commerce in Nigeria. International Journal of Business Innovation and
Research. 15(2). pp.231-246.
Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G., 2016. E-commerce: business, technology, society.
Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G., 2018. E-commerce 2017.
Le-Nguyen, K. and Guo, Y., 2016. Choosing e-commerce strategies: a case study of eBay. vn
partnership. Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases. 6(1). pp.1-14.
Lee, I. ed., 2016. Encyclopedia of e-commerce development, implementation, and management.
IGI Global.
Wang, H., Cao, J. and Zhang, Y., 2020. Electronic Commerce Items and Related Technology.
In Access Control Management in Cloud Environments (pp. 25-42). Springer, Cham.
Yablonsky, S., 2016. Intermediaries in e-commerce. In Encyclopedia of E-Commerce
Development, Implementation, and Management (pp. 48-73). IGI Global.
1