Managing the Principles of eBusiness

This study material from Desklib provides an overview of the sports industry and JD Sports' efforts in digital transformation. It also offers recommendations for progressing digital transformation efforts, including collecting data, adopting other channels of digital marketing, and improving e-commerce systems.

Managing the Principles
of e-Business

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Digital marketing can be termed as a practice of promoting products or services through
the use of internet connectivity in order to attract or persuade potential buyers and also provide
new information about goods to existing customers. It assists an organisation in reaching
globally to different markets in order to generate brand awareness worldwide. Digital
transformation aids in modifying company's culture and processes through the use of internet in
order to meet dynamic requirements of market. To better understand the process of digital
transformation, JD Sports is taken into consideration. JD Sports is UK based sports fashion
company which is founded in 1981 and has its headquarter in England, United Kingdom.
This project includes overview of sports industry for finer understanding of market trends
in this sector. It also illustrates the efforts of organisation in digitally transforming its activities.
It depicts varied recommendations provided to company for progressing digital transformation
process further as to gain competitive advantage and manage its operations effectively.
MAIN BODY
Industry overview
Sports industry is a commerce sector which involves activities like merchandising,
promoting or producing of various equipments, apparels, etc that majorly focuses on games or
related operations (Aungkulanon and Luangpaiboon, 2019). This industry contributes a
significant portion in UK's economical growth and rising GDP trends. An ever-growing sports
industry is a result of people's awareness about fitness and health. Citizen of UK not only want
their personal well being and mental peace through sports but they also want to look stylish and
cool in their sports wear. It's operations are growing rapidly by advertising the products and
services through virtual media, increase distribution of sports matches to varied TV channels and
OTT platforms. E-sports and differential video games are gaining wide popularity in today's
world. There are certain people who participates in e-sports and wait for their tournaments that
stream on various websites globally. Sustainability is another concept that is closely integrated
with sports industry. Increased awareness of environment protection while doing exercise or
jogging especially along beachside by collecting garbage emerged as new market trend.
Companies starts promoting their products as eco-friendly which are made from recycled plastics
for attracting customers.
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Critical evaluation of the organisation’s digital transformation efforts
Digital transformation is a strategy where a detailed plan is developed and formulated in
order to modify and improve physical aspects of business into virtual one (Calotă , Ristache and
Tănase, 2020). Primary motive of this process is to optimize various business activities in order
to make workings faster and efficient so that paperwork can be reduced and employees gets more
time for their significant jobs. It is beneficial for organisation as it aids in collecting and
optimizing data of customers that provides insights for efficient business operations. Top
management at JD Sports formulated varied strategies to digitally transform its business
operations and compelled its marketing team to execute them in a proper way. In order to
implant its digital transformation strategy effectively, JD Sports took various efforts. Such as: Launch its official website- Through its website, JD Sports modifies its physical stores
into virtual ones. It also collected customer data so as to attract them with newly launched
products. It also helps in providing every minute detail about products to interested
buyers and also assists in uploading pictures of new products for stimulating consumer's
demand as well as preferences. Collect customer feedback virtually- JD Sports took help from various virtual
customized softwares in order to record customer feedback effectively. It hires trurating
which is UK based market research company for collecting data about customer
preferences and market trends virtually. Reliable and relevant consumer data helps in
improving and modifying company's marketing strategies. It also aids in creating and
designing its products which provides a feel of personalization to its customers. Social media marketing- Managers of JD Sports uses twitter, facebook and you tube as
digital channels for doing social media marketing. It regularly posts competition events,
for instance, winning tickets for rugby match and other discounts. It also uploads
promotional videos of its products on you tube. It helps establishment in increase its
brand awareness all over the globe. Through its facebook page, it also posts promotional
activities and various competition to attract consumer to buy its products.
 Multi channel strategy- It is an exercise of integrating various marketing channels to
develop a unified plan in order to attract customers (Cristofaro, 2020). These channels
essentially includes integration of promotional events, digital marketing channels and
many more. JD Sports adopts this strategy at the time of corona pandemic when all its
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stores gets closed due to global lockdown. It encompasses online access of customers to
purchase company products. It helps in generating usual sales even in period of corona
pandemic.
Recommendations for progressing digital transformation efforts
Digital transformation can help a company in many ways. It aids JD Sports in reducing
cost on physical and traditional marketing methods and to meet dynamic business requirements.
This process is gaining much popularity at the time time of global lockdown. As companies
understand the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to make business processes
more efficient. JD Sports also took varied steps to digitally transform its business operations as
to gain competitive advantage. Various recommendations in relevance to JD Sports for
improving its digital transformation process are given below: Collect data- Reliable and relevant data should be collected from varied sources so as to
create differential strategies for performing business functions effectively (Deshmukh,
2020). JD Sports should collect data foe specific purposes so as to create business
strategies and provides direction to employees. Company can take use of varied cloud
technologies in order to collect, protect and monitor its data. It should develop holistic
strategy in order to make digital transformation initiatives effectively. Embrace changes – Digital transformation is not only about introduction of fancy tools
and adoption of complex strategies, it is also concerned with making employees ready to
embrace changes (Häckel, Übelhör and Voit, 2020). This practice is essential not only in
IT department but in organisation as a whole. In order to implement digital
transformation effectively, JD Sports should act in a transparent manner, have open and
clear communication channels, provides technical training. Leadership also come into
light in this situation. Leaders should inspire and motivate their followers to adapt
changes by providing reasonable reasons to them.
 Adopt other channels of digital marketing- Digital transformation can be performed
efficiently by adopting differential virtual marketing channels (Rangone, 2020). JD
Sports can adopt various other digital marketing channels for promoting its products for
persuading potential buyers. Use of more channels can help company in reaching large
customer base and creating brand awareness. Some of the digital marketing channels JD
Sports can adopt are given below:
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Search engine optimization – In order to make company's website rank higher than
others on google, JD Sports can use search engine optimization. It aids in optimizing website in
order to make them findable to buyers easily by modifying its configuration and content.
Company should ask its IT department to design their website in such a way that it can be
findable through easy and usual key phrases.
Pay per click- It also help an organisation in increasing more search traffic (Srai and
Lorentz, 2019).JD Sports can take help of this channel by paying for advertisements. These
advertisements can be seen in web browsing, you tube and mobile application for reaching
potential customers.
Content Marketing- It can be termed as marketing practice which is concerned with
creating reliable and relevant content so as to stimulate consumers to buy company's products
(Trad and Kalpić, 2019). JD Sports can use this strategy by hiring content writers and making
celebrities their brand ambassadors. It helps in promoting brand awareness and persuades
customers to buy what their favourite celebrities are promoting.
E-Mail marketing- It is an strategy that can be used not only for existing consumers but
also used for potential audience (Zhong and Shanthini, 2021). It is an effective way for
organising successful marketing campaigns. JD Sports should use this channel in order to
promote customer interactions on a regular basis. Company can send personalized e-mails to its
existing customers.
Marketing analytics- Virtual marketing can be tracked and measured in a easy and
concise manner. There are varied marketing analytical tools which can track customer
experience on different websites and create personalized advertisements for them. JD Sports
should take help of these marketing analytical tools such as google analytics. It is customized in
measuring the performance of company's website and relevant keywords.
Affiliate marketing- It is an marketing strategy where an organisation pays a sum of
amount to a person or influencer who in return markets company's products and services (Wang,
2019). JD Sports should take help of this strategy by working with social-media influencers.
Company can collaborate with them in order to make its message reach to optimal audience. Support of top management- Effective digital transformation is implemented by proper
support of mangers at top level (Misheva, 2021). This transformation can only be
achieved by developing business strategy in a broader sense. This is not the job of IT
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department alone. Mangers of JD Sports should help their subordinates by removing
hindrances and inspiring everyone to make their contributions. Improve E-commerce system- For effective implementation of digital transformation
strategy in organisation, e-commerce system should be properly secured from external
threats such as hackers. It is a need of time to go for digital transformation but it also
calls for the need of its security. Data which is collected is to be gathered from reliable
sources and should be used for specified business function. JD Sports should ensure that
relevant data is kept securely. To ensure this, responsible employee for this purpose
should change passwords on a regular basis. They should also ensure that e-mail accounts
are protected with two-factor authentication. Form research and development team- JD Sports can make a committee to research
about implementation of digital transformation process in organisation. In order to readily
accept changes in business processes, research and development team should look into
the matter. Specified team should study about competition in market so as to gain
competitive advantage. Identification of objectives- Before implementing digital transformation, an organisation
should set its goals and objectives. It should know about business processes in which it
wants to adopt digitalisation. Managers at JD Sports should understand its objectives and
goals. It should have flexible workings sand functions in order to apply digital
transformation effectively in its processes.
 Monitor the processes effectively- Executing digital transformation process is not enough
to attain stated objectives and goals. Its monitoring is equally important for gaining
competitive advantage. JD Sports should follow up the process of digital transformation
in effective way as it helps in finding any discrepancies in its implementation and timely
actions can be taken.
CONCLUSION
From the above, it has been concluded that digital transformation is an activity where
modern technological channels integrates with different departments of organisation. It changes
the fundamental workings in business operations of an organisation. It provides an opportunity to
companies to thrive in most difficult time. As changes are not accepted by employees easily, it is
a toughest job for managers to make personnel ready to embrace changes. If implemented
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successfully it can help organisations in number of ways such as increased productivity,
customer engagement and gaining competitive advantage. Companies made huge efforts in being
successfully implement digital transformation strategy in business processes. Various tools and
techniques can be used in digitalisation of business. Company uses search engine optimization as
it helps in optimizing company's website to rank it higher than competitors. Organisation can use
this digital transformation in collecting information and data about customers in order to make
business strategies effectively.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Aungkulanon, P. and Luangpaiboon, P. 2019, January. Relationship management of customer
demand and production planning on e-business of Thai natural cosmetics.
In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on E-Education, E-Business, E-
Management and E-Learning (pp. 287-291).
Calotă T. O., Ristache M. and Tănase, A. E. 2020. Tax Advice: An Essential Element in the
Success of an E-Business. In Improving Business Performance Through Innovation in
the Digital Economy (pp. 28-38). IGI Global.
Cristofaro M. 2020. E-business evolution: an analysis of mobile applications’ business
models. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 32(1), pp.88-103.
Deshmukh, S. U., 2020. Impact of E-Business on Business Association. International Journal of
Engineering and Management Research, 9.
Häckel, B., Übelhör, J. and Voit, C., 2020. Creating competitive advantage in e-business value
chains by using excess capacity via IT-enabled marketplaces. ACM SIGMIS Database:
the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems, 51(3), pp.97-118.
Misheva, M., 2021. State and development of electronic business in tourism. Leadership, Society,
Strategic Visions, pp.427-428.
Rangone, A., 2020. Innovation and technology: The age of the digital enterprise. In Managing
Corporate Innovation (pp. 49-68). Springer, Cham.
Srai, J.S. and Lorentz, H., 2019. Developing design principles for the digitalisation of purchasing
and supply management. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 25(1), pp.78-
98.
Trad, A. and Kalpić, D., 2019. The Business Transformation Framework and its Business
Engineering Law support for (e) transactions. In Advanced Methodologies and
Technologies in Business Operations and Management (pp. 230-246). IGI Global.
Wang, Y., 2019. Design of port e-business marketing management information system based on
cloud computing. Journal of Coastal Research, 98(SI), pp.75-79.
Zhong, X., Si, M. and Shanthini, A., 2021. E-business Transformation for Organizational
Management and Its Impact in the Online Market. Journal of Multiple-Valued Logic &
Soft Computing, 36.
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