E-Commerce Impact on Final Delivery

This assignment delves into the influence of e-commerce on final delivery processes, specifically focusing on alternative parcel delivery services operating in France and Germany. It requires students to analyze academic research, investigate industry trends, and potentially gather data through surveys or secondary sources to understand the evolving landscape of last-mile delivery in the context of burgeoning online shopping.

Running head: OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
Opportunities & Problems of Social E-Commerce
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Note

1OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
Executive Summary
E-commerce is playing a major role regarding the customer’s purchase behaviour. The e-
commerce industry is rapidly growing because of the high internet penetration as well as
sophisticated electronic devices. On the other hand, there are also certain major problems as well
as challenges that are to be faced by an online business enterprise. Issues such as safety as well
as security of online transaction of money are considered being one of the biggest challenges that
is hindering the smooth extension of the online industry.

2OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Project Objective.............................................................................................................................4
Project Scope...................................................................................................................................5
Literature Review............................................................................................................................5
Research Questions..........................................................................................................................7
Primary Question.........................................................................................................................7
Secondary Question.....................................................................................................................7
Research Design and Methodology.................................................................................................8
Qualitative research.....................................................................................................................8
Quantitative research...................................................................................................................8
Research Limitations.......................................................................................................................9
Time Schedule (Research Plan).....................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................12
Appendix........................................................................................................................................14

3OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
Introduction
Electronic commerce or e-commerce is considered to be term in respect of any kind of
business that is having the involvement of transferring information across the internet. It is
covering a range of various kinds of businesses, ranging from retail sites that are customer based
to sites for business exchanges that do the trading in product and services amongst organizations.
At present, it is considered being one of the most significant aspects regarding the internet that is
emerging. E-commerce is allowing the customers in the exchanging of products and services
electronically without having any barriers regarding time or distance. There has been a rapid
expansion of e-commerce over the past 5 years and will be continuing at this rate, or even
accelerate as well.
Business-to-business or B2B is referring to electronic commerce amongst businesses
rather than amongst a business and a customer. B2B businesses are mostly dealing with huge
number of different businesses, either as suppliers or consumers. To carry out the transactions in
an electronic manner will be providing enormous competitive advantages in comparison to
traditional processes. When proper implementation is done, e-commerce is considered being
faster as well as cheaper and having more convenience in comparison to the traditional processes
of bartering products as well as services (Sharma 2014). Moreover, e-commerce have also led to
the aspect of developing the electronic marketplaces in which probable customers as well as
suppliers are brought together for conducting trade that is mutually advantageous.
In the current world of digital marketing, e-commerce is playing a major role regarding
the customer’s purchase behaviour. The e-commerce industry is rapidly growing because of the
high internet penetration as well as sophisticated electronic devices. On the other hand, there are

4OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
also certain major problems as well as challenges that are to be faced by an online business
enterprise. Issues such as safety as well as security of online transaction of money is considered
being one of the biggest challenges that is hindering the smooth extension of the online industry
(Jannsen 2014).
Amazon has been the biggest success story in the field of e-commerce post 5 years of
incurring losses and more than 1 billion USD in losses, it finally became profitable. Many e-
commerce service providers in Australia are having the desire of becoming giants within the
sector of e-commerce in Australia. Within the country, these providers are faced with some very
tough challenging aspects that rose because of various concerns like poor infrastructure, unclear
tax structure, lack of internet accessibility regarding a majority of population as well as absence
of awareness related to these organizations. There are various factors that are contributing
towards the incurring of heavy losses by the e-commerce companies. However, these companies
are still in business as because, there is huge potentiality in this sector (Sousa 2014). As a result,
various e-commerce companies did the development of their individual creative ways for
attracting the Australian customers that includes the options such as EMI, Cash on Delivery and
so on.
Therefore, this study will assist in finding out the challenges that are being faced by the
e-commerce organizations within Australia and determining the measures that are employed in
meeting them (Klapper 2014).
Project Objective

5OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
The objective of the research is associated with the aspect of acknowledging the major
challenges that the e-commerce companies within Australia is facing as well as determining the
measures that are employed in meeting them.
Project Scope
The scope of the project is associated with the aspect to do the identification of the
opportunities as well as challenges that will have positive influence on the performance of the
organizations that fall under the category of e-commerce.
Literature Review
There has occurred the analysis of the influence of e-commerce on customers, business as
well as education. There has been the examination of major issues that are being posed by e-
commerce in respect of international trade, which is used as a starting point of the World Trade
Organization agreement as well as General Agreement on Trade in Services that is having
relevance to e-commerce. E-commerce will be offering unique scope for both developing as well
as developed countries (Da Costa 2016).
In an apparent way, increasing number of online users in Australia is having the
willingness for making purchases via the internet. The overall e-commerce industry is on the
edge of experiencing a high development in the next few years. E-tailing as well as digital
downloads are having the expectation for growing at an increased rate, whereas online travel will
be continuing to do the ruling of the major fraction of the share of market (Wang 2015). Because
of the growing initiatives regarding e-commerce as well as brand awareness, e-Tailing did the
experiencing of decent development.

6OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
Moreover, e-business has changed the methods within as well as between organizations.
With the proper implementation, the technologies of e-commerce will be resulting in the aspect
of improving the business processes as well as increasing the effectiveness. The growth that the
internet as well as other global online networks is experiencing has, therefore, created
completely new sets of international as well as national trading associations. This as a result,
gave rise to the insight that e-banking as well as e-commerce are at present considered being an
unavoidable aspect of financial services (Wamba 2014). It assists in enabling multiple purchasers
as well as sellers in coming together on a common platform as well as conducting business
without making any compromises regarding individual needs as well as relationships between
the participants in a very quick manner (Yu 2014). E-commerce is doing the creation of new
scopes for the global economy and at present, e-commerce industries are increasingly becoming
an essential element of business strategic aspect as well as strong medium in respect of economic
development.
There advantages of e-commerce in respect of the customers comprises of the aspects
that include convenience, time-saving, easy comparison, coupons and deals and so on, whereas
in case of the businesses, it will be including the growth in the consumer base, growth n sales,
expansion of the business reach, more easier recurring payments options, transactions that are
occurring instantly and so on (Chiu 2014).
The challenges of e-commerce in respect of the customers comprises of the aspects that
includes privacy as well as security, quality, costs that are hidden, delaying the receiving of
products, absence of personal communication, requirement of internet accessibility and so on,
whereas in case of the business, it will be including the concerns relating to security, issues

7OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
regarding credit cards, requirement of additional cost as well as proficiency in respect of e-
commerce infrastructure, requirement of adequate internet services, and so on (Fan 2015).
The major advantages of e-commerce from the seller’s viewpoint are to increase the
revenue as well as to reduce the operation and maintenance costs via internet. These will be
including the aspects towards,
 Increasing the revenue
 Reducing the operation and maintenance costs
 Reducing the purchase and procurement costs
 Raising the loyalty and retention of the customers
 Reducing the costs of transportation
 Developing the relationships between customer as well as supplier
 Improving the process speed regarding selling
 Improving the internal and external communication
 Developing the organizational image as well as brand image (Morganti 2014).
Research Questions
Primary Question
What are the challenges that are faced by the e-commerce industry and the opportunities that are
required in solving them?
Secondary Question
1. What are issues as well as research gaps that are faced by the e-commerce industry?
2. What need to be recommended for overcoming challenges faced by the e-commerce industry?

8OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
Research Design and Methodology
Qualitative research
The qualitative research have been proposed for revealing the range of behaviour as well
as the perceptions of the target audience that will be driving it in respect of particular topics or
concerns. It is using in-depth analysis of small groups of individuals for guiding as well as
supporting the aspect of constructing the hypothesis. The outcomes of the qualitative research are
considered being descriptive (Daniel 2015).
In respect of the sample size, 5 managers of the e-commerce organization will get
considered. The data collection method will be considered to be the interview method and in this
respect, there will be 5 open-ended questions for each of the 5 managers. The responses that are
received from the respondents will be having a descriptive analysis.
Quantitative research
The quantitative research is considered being a formal, objective as well as methodical
process where there occurs the use of numerical data for obtaining information about the e-
commerce organization.
In this regard, a survey will get conducted by providing the respondents with
questionnaires. There will occur the collection of empirical data and it will be used for achieving
the research objectives. The sampling technique that will be taken into consideration is the
random sampling technique and the sample size will be 100 employees of the e-commerce
organization. The research approach that will get considered is the deductive research approach.
There will occur survey and questionnaire design. The quantitative data analysis process will be

9OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
considered being the statistical data analysis method (Bannister 2015). For the reliability and
validity of data Anova test, co-relation as well as regression will be considered.
Research Limitations
There can occur certain limitations of the research that are mentioned as under,
 Budget deficit – The survey that will get conducted regarding a company might be faced
with the limitation of budget deficit regarding the research. There might occur the
possibility that sufficient budget for conducting the research is not there, which will
therefore, hinder the research process (Standing 2014).
 Biased attitude of the respondents – The respondents of a company might not provide the
correct answer of all the questions that will be there in the questionnaire due to their
biased attitude regarding certain aspects. This might not be able to do the portrayal of the
exact scenario of the company and therefore, the outcome of the survey cannot be
considered to be correct (Wamba 2015).
 Shortage of time – This is considered being another limitation in respect of the research
process. When there will occur a shortage of time, then the survey might be conducted in
a hurried manner and many important part might get skipped, which will result in
receiving an incomplete feedback from the respondents (Sharma 2014).
 Sample size – While taking into consideration the sample size, it might occur that certain
respondents are left out who would have considered being the most suitable respondents
for certain questions in the questionnaire. Since, they were not chosen while randomly
picking the respondents, the answers for all the questions in the questionnaire might not
get correctly received (Zhou 2013).

10OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
Time Schedule (Research Plan)
Activity Week 1 Week 4 Week 8 Week 12 Week 14 Week 16
Selection of the topic
Reviewing the
literature
Collecting the data
(Survey &
Secondary Data)
Reviewing the data
Analysis of the data
Recommendation
Final Submission
Conclusion
The e-commerce industry will be gaining huge popularity in the electronic business world
in the coming years. It has provided a strong impact on the traditional system of business and to
change the life of individuals by making it easier. While it is providing certain beneficial aspects
for the customers as well as sellers, e-commerce is giving challenges to traditional business in
respect of competitive position. Convenience is considered being one of the beneficial aspects
that customers are receiving from e-commerce and as a result, developing the satisfaction of the
customers. In this context, it can be stated that the customers are having the ability of placing a

11OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
purchase order from any place if they have an internet connection. It is recommended for the e-
commerce business providers that they should provide significance regarding every customer by
providing smooth service and different payment options. They are also required providing more
functions that should be available online. Other beneficial aspects include increased product
offerings as well as increased geographic reach, although the business of e-commerce is faced
with a lot of challenges for expanding their business.

12OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
Reference
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problem?. Government Information Quarterly, 32(1), pp.1-11.
Chiu, C.M., Liang, T.P. and Turban, E., 2014. What can crowdsourcing do for decision
support?. Decision Support Systems, 65, pp.40-49.
Da Costa, E., 2016. Global e-commerce strategies for small businesses. Mit Press.
Daniel, B., 2015. Big data and analytics in higher education: Opportunities and
challenges. British journal of educational technology, 46(5), pp.904-920.
Fan, S., Lau, R.Y. and Zhao, J.L., 2015. Demystifying big data analytics for business intelligence
through the lens of marketing mix. Big Data Research, 2(1), pp.28-32.
Janssen, M. and Zuiderwijk, A., 2014. Infomediary business models for connecting open data
providers and users. Social Science Computer Review, 32(5), pp.694-711.
Klapper, L. and Singer, D., 2014. The opportunities of digitizing payments.
Morganti, E., Seidel, S., Blanquart, C., Dablanc, L. and Lenz, B., 2014. The impact of e-
commerce on final deliveries: alternative parcel delivery services in France and
Germany. Transportation Research Procedia, 4, pp.178-190.
Müller, J.P. and Fischer, K., 2014. Application impact of multi-agent systems and technologies:
A survey. In Agent-oriented software engineering (pp. 27-53). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

13OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
Sharma, S. and Crossler, R.E., 2014. Disclosing too much? Situational factors affecting
information disclosure in social commerce environment. Electronic Commerce Research and
Applications, 13(5), pp.305-319.
Sousa, K. and Oz, E., 2014. Management information systems. Nelson Education.
Standing, C., Tang-Taye, J.P. and Boyer, M., 2014. The impact of the Internet in travel and
tourism: A research review 2001–2010. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 31(1), pp.82-
113.
Wamba, S.F., Akter, S., Edwards, A., Chopin, G. and Gnanzou, D., 2015. How ‘big data’can
make big impact: Findings from a systematic review and a longitudinal case study. International
Journal of Production Economics, 165, pp.234-246.
Wang, G., Musau, F., Guo, S. and Abdullahi, M.B., 2015. Neighbor similarity trust against sybil
attack in P2P e-commerce. IEEE transactions on parallel and distributed systems, 26(3), pp.824-
833.
Yu, W., Yan, C., Ding, Z., Jiang, C. and Zhou, M., 2014. Modeling and validating e-commerce
business process based on Petri nets. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics:
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Zhou, L., Zhang, P. and Zimmermann, H.D., 2013. Social commerce research: An integrated
view. Electronic commerce research and applications, 12(2), pp.61-68.

14OPPORTUNITIES & PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL E-COMMERCE
Appendix
Time Schedule
Activity Week 1 Week 4 Week 8 Week 12 Week 14 Week 16
Selection of the topic
Reviewing the
literature
Collecting the data
(Survey &
Secondary Data)
Reviewing the data
Analysis of the data
Recommendation
Final Submission