Impact of E-commerce on Traditional Businesses: A Technological Solution

This paper discusses about the impact of e-commerce websites and the support that these websites would provide to the different traditional businesses. The report discusses about the various kinds of business processes that should be followed by the concerned business to shift towards the e-commerce platform. The paper would also put focus on the different kinds of privacy concerns that are in relation to the online platforms. The recommended technology solution is based on mobile and social computing.

Final Paper
Introduction
This paper discusses about the impact of e-commerce websites and the support that these
websites would provide to the different traditional businesses. The report discusses about the
various kinds of business processes that should be followed by the concerned business to shift
towards the e-commerce platform. The paper would also put focus on the different kinds of
privacy concerns that are in relation to the online platforms (Turban et al., 2017). The report also
discusses about the two different kinds of technologies that would be able to support the business
and thus be able to expand the business.
Problem Statement
This report focuses on the problem that is faced by the business owner in choosing a
particular technology during the shift of the brick-and-mortar business to an e-commerce
platform. The primary problem of concern is in relation to the different forms of security and
consumer privacy that should be protected internally. In the present form, the business has a
basic website that has a list of their products and the customers could just be able to purchase
items from their retail store (Hartono et al., 2014). The problem is that the business owner thinks
that they are left behind in the highly competitive market and thus are thinking of a shift to the e-
commerce platform.
Two Technologies
The technologies that would be put together within the present business are Social
Computing and Wireless, Mobile Computing and Mobile Commerce. These technologies would
be able to suffice to the needs of the business and could also serve the customers in an efficient
manner.

Business Requirements
Objectives
The main objective of the brick-and-mortar business is to generate new form of revenue
based on the impacts made by e-commerce platforms. The owner of the business is deciding to
streamline the processes of the business based on integrating the traditional business model with
the new e-commerce platform. The project is based on making use of the latest technologies that
would be able to support the business based on choosing of their e-commerce platform. The
business should also review the privacy and security issues in relation to the e-business platform.
Project Description
The primary purpose of the project is to choose the proper technological platform that
would be able to support the current business model of the business. Based on the final
achievable state of the project, there are certain aspects that should be addressed:
 Based on achieving the objectives of the business, it could be suggested that the business
should make use of the technologies that would be able to suit as per the needs of the
business. These technologies would also serve the purposes of supporting the privacy and
security concerns in relation to the e-business platform of the business.
 The desired results that are expected at the completion of the project is that the different
processes of the business should be streamlined. This would also include the integration
of the business within the online platform, manage the inventory and also facilitate
different other kinds of processes within the business.
 With the latest shifts in technology and consideration of increasing the revenue of the
business, it has been seen by the business owner to shift their business to the new online
platform. This would not only increase the revenue of the business but would also put

forward new areas to showcase their business to other customers. This would help in
gaining a wide customer base unlike their competitors.
Technology Requirements
Based on the requirements of the business, the shift to a technological platform would
need the basic form of technological requirements. These includes a proper web server, server
software, web based tools such as HTML text editors and CMS systems. The e-commerce
platform for the business would also include a database system, networking systems, suitable
browser compatibility, ports and domain names (Nica, 2015).
Competitors and Technology
Technology One – Social Computing
The company selected in this part of the report is Zappos. The company is based on an
online shoe and cloth retailer. It is primarily based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company was
founded by Nick Swinmurn and the original website was launched under the name of the domain
name of Shoesite.com. The company was one of the early adopter of the social media computing
technology. They have made use of different social media platforms such as Twitter and
YouTube in order to attract their customers. Zappos is also making use of social media platforms
in order to collect comments from their employees and customers. Customers mostly tweet their
feedback about their purchases made from the website (Baghdadi, 2013). Zappos disrupts the
process of management by inserting themselves into the minds of the customers. They post the
feedbacks of the customers on their webpage and thus adopts a wide form of transparency for
other customers.
Technology Two – Wireless, mobile computing and mobile commerce

Bluefly is an online shopping website that deals with fashion dress and accessories. The
business offers a wide range of fashion apparels based on the choices of the users. The online
retailer has refurbished their website and mobile application in order to reflect their streamlined
interface. This would include push notifications and would also provide constant updates across
several platforms. The business also provides cloud-based program in which the digital contents
would be updated simultaneously. They also have a consistent content management systems that
would have the capability of instant update on their products. The mobile application have also
been equipped with better form of mobile experience for the users (Rahimi et al., 2014). This
would ensure faster load times, streamlined look and performance of high quality.
Technology Benefit
Based on the technical research on the companies, it could be concluded that both of
these companies are making varied use of technological platforms in order to gain benefits. This
part discusses about the ways in which Bluefly makes varied use of mobile commerce
technology in order to benefit themselves in the highly competitive market. With the innovation
in their website and the redesigning of the mobile applications, it has been seen that the business
has benefitted themselves. There has been a massive growth in the number of download of the
mobile application. This is primarily due to the reason that the mobile application is equipped
with a technology based on faster load time of pages, performance based on high quality and an
easy user interface.
The new business model that has been provided in the case scenario could make use of
the strategy followed by Bluefly based on mobile commerce. With the new kind of design of the
mobile application, the business could bring in an adaptive and responsive form of application
based on increasing the mobile commerce sales of the business.

Technology Solutions
Technology One
The technology described in the first scenario is based on social computing. This
technology has been seen to bring about a massive form of change within the context of the
business. In the current context, the business has a normal website and customers are able to
purchase items from the retail store. This new technology would help the business to attract
much number of customers and also showcase the various contexts of their business to a larger
platform (Li et al., 2013).
Technology Two
The technology described in the second scenario is based on mobile commerce and
mobile computing. As the current scenario of the business is not much advanced, hence the
mobile computing technology would be able to provide a means of support to bring in changes to
the business platform (Dinh et al., 2013). This technology would enhance the management of the
shopping experience and would also support social content and push notifications.
Recommendations
Technology Solution
The current scenario of the business is based on a simple website. The website does not
provide the option to their customer to purchase items. Based on the technical aspects that are
used by other businesses such as Bluefly and Zappos, it could be recommended that the
concerned business within the case scenario should make use of the latest technologies (Einav et
al., 2014). The business should make use of an integrated form of mobile based computing and
social computing in order to match their business goals with their competitors. The technical
solution suggestible for the business would be based on designing a mobile based application (de

Reuver et al., 2015). This application could help their customers to manage their shopping items,
improve the social content and thus would also include push notifications based on latest
purchase habits.
Overall Benefit
The recommended technology based within the context of the business is based on
mobile computing and social computing. While, mobile computing would be able to provide the
basic definition of a new kind of mobile application for the business, social computing would
help in enhancing the social interactivity of the business platform. Social computing would play
a major role in bring new kinds of innovations within the context of the business (Laroche et al.,
2013). It would be helpful in highlighting the business aspects and would thus also help in
mixing with their customers. The business could leverage their website for e-commerce and thus
be able to supplement the type of processes based on purchasing habits of their customers. The
increasing form of social interactivity would be able to create a kind of technology that would
help the business to sell their products (Niranjanamurthy et al., 2013). This would help the
business in mirroring the ways by which the consumers would evolve their lifestyle patterns.
Basic Security Considerations
Security Features
The security features that should be included within the recommended technology based
on designing the new e-commerce website are:
 PCI Compliance – The new website should meet the PCI Compliance Standards. They
include American Express, MasterCard and Visa Inc. They are meant for developing,

enhancing and maintenance of security standards based on the security of payments (Yeo,
2013).
 SSL Certificate – This certificate would properly ensure that any kind of sensitive
information sent via the internet would remain secure and encrypted. The SSL certificate
would thus ensure that all sensitive information would be encrypted such as credit card
information, passwords and usernames. They would be unreadable to everyone except the
server destination. Hence, they would protect the entire communication based on theft
and eavesdropping.
 Use of HTTPS – This is a protocol based on transferring data via the internet. HTTPS
would encrypt the information. This should be used on such pages that would collect and
store data. This would ensure that the visiting customers would feel secure when they
would feel to be secure during the transmission of information (Durumeric et al., 2017).
Third-Party Vendors
Based on the consideration of security and privacy during seeking third-party vendors for
the proposed technology, it could be recommended that the business should perform a regular
back-up of their data and also perform recoveries (A. Harris & P. Patten, 2014). The business
should also conduct internal form of security audits. A proper form of background check on the
present employees should be conducted as they would have access to the entire data of the
business (Zhu & Furr, 2016). There should also be a proper form of security policy and disaster
recovery plans and these should also be updated on a regular basis.
Internal Safeguards
Based on protecting the internal information related to the business. The proper form of
internal safeguards that should be put in place includes the education of staff based on using the

new kinds of security features within the business. A proper form of background check on the
employees should also be conducted (Yadav, Sharma & Tarhini, 2016). A proper form of
password policy should also be ensured and this password should be changed at regular intervals
such that it would be hard to crack for any unauthorized user.
References
Milestone One
Baghdadi, Y. (2013). From e-commerce to social commerce: a framework to guide enabling
cloud computing. Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research, 8(3),
12-38.
Hartono, E., Holsapple, C. W., Kim, K. Y., Na, K. S., & Simpson, J. T. (2014). Measuring
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Nica, E. (2015). Positive drivers of consumer trust in e-commerce. Journal of Self-Governance
and Management Economics, 3(1), 60-65.
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Turban, E., Outland, J., King, D., Lee, J. K., Liang, T. P., & Turban, D. C. (2017). Electronic
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Milestone Two

de Reuver, M., Verschuur, E., Nikayin, F., Cerpa, N., & Bouwman, H. (2015). Collective action
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Dinh, H. T., Lee, C., Niyato, D., & Wang, P. (2013). A survey of mobile cloud computing:
architecture, applications, and approaches. Wireless communications and mobile
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Einav, L., Levin, J., Popov, I., & Sundaresan, N. (2014). Growth, adoption, and use of mobile E-
commerce. American Economic Review, 104(5), 489-94.
Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R., & Richard, M. O. (2013). To be or not to be in social media: How
brand loyalty is affected by social media?. International Journal of Information
Management, 33(1), 76-82.
Li, Y. M., Wu, C. T., & Lai, C. Y. (2013). A social recommender mechanism for e-commerce:
Combining similarity, trust, and relationship. Decision Support Systems, 55(3), 740-752.
Niranjanamurthy, M., Kavyashree, N., Jagannath, S., & Chahar, D. (2013). Analysis of e-
commerce and m-commerce: advantages, limitations and security issues. International
Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and Communication Engineering, 2(6).
Final
A. Harris, M., & P. Patten, K. (2014). Mobile device security considerations for small-and
medium-sized enterprise business mobility. Information Management & Computer
Security, 22(1), 97-114.

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