E-Business Model Evolution and Customer Centricity

This assignment discusses the evolution of e-business models, focusing on the importance of customer centricity. It highlights the characteristics of internal and external customers, including their purchase behavior and decision-making processes. The assignment also touches on communication approaches for these customers, emphasizing the need for formal and informative messaging. Overall, it provides a comprehensive overview of e-business dynamics and customer relationships.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
International Business Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Executive Summary
The purpose of this assignment is to understand the consumer centricity approach of business
organisation that operates in the e-business or e-commerce model. This is a technologically
driven business model and the customers in this model and their preferences are given
precedence and theycan be divided in internal and external segments which are discussed in the
assignment. The approaches of communicating with these customers are also discussed.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Consumer behavior and E-commerce..............................................................................................3
Trends in E-business........................................................................................................................4
Challenges in E-business.................................................................................................................5
E-business and E-marketing strategies............................................................................................5
Characteristics of the internal and external customers....................................................................6
Communication approaches.............................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Reference list:..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
With advancement of technology, business environment has changed drastically. There
hasbeen several opportunities for business organisationsto improve and innovate with the help of
technology. E-business is based completely on technology and the acceptance of technology by
consumers and business organisations. In order to be a part of the business model,hardware
devices and connectivity is pivotal. E-business or E-commerce is the process by which
organisation uses the platform of internet to base their operation (Veit et al. 2014). The
instruments that are used to operate in this business model are based on information and
communication technology. These are usually referred to business software. There are several
industries or markets operating in this business model.There are organisation that operates in the
travel and tourism industry, retail industry, entertainment industry etc. The popularity of the E-
business has increased in the past decade with a number of entrepreneurs recognizing the impact
and the reach of the prospects of this business model. One of the biggest advantages of this
model is that the opportunity of expanding the business is bigger in comparison to physical
organisations. Some of the companies that have set benchmarks in the E-business sector are
Amazon Inc, TripAdvisor etc. In this assignment the focus is going to be on, “Customer
centricity is a strategy to fundamentally align a company’s products and services with the
wants and needs of its most valuable customers”(Fader 2012).
Consumer behavior and E-commerce
Understanding the consumer behavior is one of the major strategic management steps that
are undertaken by the company. This helps the organization in developing products and services
which will cater to the needs and requirements of the people. E-commerce market has taken over

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the internal market where retail owner are developing their e-commerce portals in order to
broaden their horizon and cater to the needs of the consumers in a better way. With innovations
in networking and computer technology,E-commerce is on the rise ata rapid pace. The
organisations that are offering services with e-commerce are focusing on the needs and
requirements of the target market as there is always a credibility issue when it comes to not
seeing the products physically before buying. Amazon and Ebay are the two organisations that
are the first among many e-commerce platforms that are available today (Camarinha-Matos et al.
2013).
Trends in E-business
It has been observed that these websites have changed drastically over the years, making
the process of buying and selecting items easy for the customers setting benchmarking upgrades
in the process. Making the layout of the website user friendly is one of the trends that is
consumer centric and is focused to make the navigation process easy and simple for the
consumers, it not only helps the person to buy the appropriate item, but it also helps them in
discovering items which they may be influenced into buying later (Hall 2017).
The option of setting a wishlist is possible in the e-commerce websites which helps the
back end operations to understand the preference of the customer and provide them with similar
options or discounts. This is one of the strategic marketing processes that are implemented by the
organisations (Hall 2017).
There are several emerging communication and marketing strategies in the e-commerce
sector which helps in developing a valuable customer relationship with the organisation.

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Developing corresponding application that can run on IOS and Android platforms in
Smartphones is another significant trend that has emerged in past five years(Lee 2013).
Challenges in E-business
The industry is restricted to a group of customers as there are a number of prerequisites
that are essential to shop from these websites(Lee 2013). For example there must be working
internet connectivity along with a hardware instrument that can channelize the connection. The
lack of knowledge of surfing these websites or application is another issue that becomes a barrier
in the process of operations.
Trust issues: there are many people who are the target market of the industry as they have
all the prerequisites that are required to be able to avail the services. However, they don’t
because they feel that the fact that the product and services cannot be seen physically ortouched
can turn out to be not as it seems in the photographs.
Quality check of the items is another issue that the company faces, because the name of
the organisation is associated with the products that are listed by third party vendors, if the
product is not good then the negative feedbacks will be received by the company.
E-business and E-marketing strategies
As this business model follows a digital platform it is fitting that the companies will use
digital marketing platforms to market and promote the products and services. There is a growing
trend of using social media platforms and e-mails in the marketing of the services of e-business
(Sharma 2015). This is because the focus on customer experience or consumer centricity
hasmade gaining trust with customers, buildingvaluable relationships andworking towards

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catering to the needs and requirements of the people a prime focus. Hence, all the marketing
efforts are aligned to support your teams to connect authentically with audiences and achieve the
goals of the company. The target market of the e-commerce companies are well acquainted with
other platforms in the digital space as well.Hence it makes sense that the companies in the e-
commerce sector will chose the digital platform of marketing than traditional ones. Though
Amazon extensively uses traditional medium to promote and market the products (Sharma
2015).
Characteristics of the internal and external customers
Internal customers can be the third party vendors who pay the e-commerce platform to
list their products online.Some of the unique characteristics of them are that they are the people
who choose the services based on the purpose of their own business prospect. For example, if a
vendor wants to reach out to the customer in India, they will look for a platform that has their
service in India. As these customers are in B2B sector their understanding and purchase behavior
is different from that of the external customers,asthere purchase motive is different (Camarinha-
Matos et al. 2013).
One of the most unique characteristic of the external consumers is that their purchase
behavior is dependent on the socio cultural factors that they are surrounded with. Therefore the
feedback of the review section in the e-business format helps in taking decisions of
purchase(Lim et al. 2014).

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Communication approaches
Internal customer: one of the most important message that has to be communicated to
these customers are the rules and regulations of using the service.They should know the pros and
cons of listing the items in the platform. The approach of the communication system should be
formal and should be knowledgeable. The customer should be aware of the quality checking
process as that is one of the major aspects that cover the business model in the e-business sector.
External customer: The approach of communication with these customers should be
more informative in terms of the information that is published on the site about the products and
services, along with the products the sellers’ description also should be clear and prominent with
authentic information. Content on the website plays an important role in this case as it ensures
that the products that are listed on the website are authentic (Fader 2012).
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discussion that the E-business model is evolving with
the development that is taking place in the information technology and communication sector.
This has allowed the organisations to adapt to customer centricity which has in-turn benefited the
companies in gathering loyal customers.

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Reference list:
Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Afsarmanesh, H. and Rabelo, R.J. eds., 2013. E-business and Virtual
Enterprises: managing business-to-business cooperation (Vol. 56). Springer.
Fader, P., 2012. Customer centricity: Focus on the right customers for strategic advantage.
Wharton digital press.
Hall, J.,2017. 7 E-Commerce Trends To Pay Attention To In 2018. [online] forbes.com.
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhall/2017/11/19/7-e-commerce-trends-to-pay-
attention-to-in-2018/#512e4a7f6e5e [Accessed 22 Mar. 2018].
Lee, I. ed., 2013. Trends in E-business, E-services, and E-commerce: Impact of technology on
goods, services, and business transactions: Impact of technology on goods, services, and
business transactions. IGI Global.
Lim, E.P., Chen, H. and Chen, G., 2013. Business intelligence and analytics: Research
directions. ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems (TMIS), 3(4), p.17.
Sharma, S., 2015. Internet marketing: The backbone of Ecommerce. International Journal of
Emerging Research in Management &Technology, 4(12), pp.200-202.
Veit, D., Clemons, E., Benlian, A., Buxmann, P., Hess, T., Kundisch, D., Leimeister, J.M., Loos,
P. and Spann, M., 2014. Business models. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 6(1),
pp.45-53.