Positive and Negative Aspects of Online and Offline Business: A Comparative Study

This report compares and contrasts the positive and negative aspects of services being sold online and offline. It also highlights the challenges and measures of privacy and security which individuals and business take when going online. Additionally, it provides a comparison of online tools used by businesses.

BUSINESS REPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Positive and negative aspects of service and products sold online and offline...........................3
Challenges and measures of security and privacy taken by individuals and organisations.........5
Use and comparison of online tools.............................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
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INTRODUCTION
The report is on technology going online for businesses. Online technology means businesses
selling their products online. The positive and negative aspects of services being sold online and
offline have been compared and contrasted. The challenges and measures of privacy and security
which individuals and business take when going online have been emphasised. In pandemic
situation, businesses are providing services online, the online tools for the meetings have been
compared and contrasted which businesses use nowadays.
Positive and negative aspects of service and products sold online and offline
Positive aspects of products and services going online
 The businesses have got an online platform to sell the products which increases customer
segment of youth who are the major group in online users. Earlier, there was limited
range of customers who would come to the store and have access to the products which
changed with online.
 Organisation can showcase its products on different website pages with range of products
being showcased.
 In offline selling, there is less chance of customer coming back to shop for purchase.
There are options which customer would search near own residence to compare and buy a
product. However, in case of online business, customer can come back to the site as per
convenience (Kumar and et.al., 2019).
 Organisations have given customers the facility of shopping from their convenience at
homes rather than visiting stores. This has helped people being secure and also assisting
in pandemic control. There has been a number of products on e-commerce like kitchen
and grocery items, cosmetics, soap and oil etc. People do not have to travel and thus save
time and efforts along with money on transport.
 There are agencies which take up the delivery work of products and thus help in swift
delivery of products as and when the customer orders them. Online and offline payment
options are present at purchase time and when the order is delivered.
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 It has reduced the budget spent on marketing. Online marketing has reduced costs of
making banners, putting them in public view etc. Thus, it saves printing costs.
 It provides start-up costs that are low for business which are offline. Cost of setting an
online business is less expensive compared to starting an offline firm. Money is saved on
salaries and costs such as rent, power and office expenses. It helps the organisation in
compensation for regions where for operating huge money is required. Money is saved on
salaries and other costs like rent, power and office expenses.
 E-websites are useful in determination of products being sold and increase in stock levels.
The products doing well can be classified in order for expansion of range and selling
them online. This enables the organisation to do expansion in terms of customers, profits
and sales. Amazon can be said as one of the examples of expansion of internet business
without barrier of physical locations.
 This is of use for both business and client. Customers can visit any time the website and
decide on whether or not to buy the product, while owners of business may benefit from
bookings done by customers, even after office hours and can be sold to the customer the
next day (Kumar and et.al., 2019).
Negative aspects of products and services going online
 There is only an online interface between the product and the customer. The product
cannot be touched and felt for the authenticity of the material used in making it. Thus,
there has come a lack of credibility which an e-commerce organisation cannot establish.
There is also a connect formed in between the shop owner and customers which is
present in an offline business in which the shop keeper recommends customer the best
product.
 Customer could interact with shop owner when faced problems in product and lodge a
complaint at customer service if it is a mega store. In online, customer does not get the
swiftness of complaint being listened to and being addressed. The problem takes time for
getting resolved after being registered online.
 It happens that the customer orders a product online but gets the product not ordered.
Again, the product has to be returned and customer has to wait for the right product to be
delivered. It involves time and is not pleasant experience for the customer too.
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 There is no customer engagement that established a bond with the offline store ambience,
interaction with sales representatives and these factors having an influence over the
customers to return. In e-commerce only offers can be given to bring customers to their
website (Weldy, T.G., 2018).
 Market saturation: Unlike retailers having competition present in local areas with some
stores selling the same merchandise in nearby vicinity, online business has to compete
with many other websites who are selling the same product type. It brings an increase in
competition and investment is demanded through means of digital techniques of
marketing for getting customer attention.
 Service quality: Financial services for instance buying of an insurance plan, savings
account opening and loan application being done are decisions done by face-to-face
interaction building a trust between customer and sales representative of the firm where
customer can ask relevant queries. However, customer has only the documents available
for reading before arriving at a decision in online forum. It cannot get the advice of a
wealth manager of which product will be best suitable for the customer after assessment
of the customer financial condition (Lee, K. and Bligh, B., 2019).
 Middle age and above age group are not well-versed with use of internet and paying
systems, thus they find difficult to shop online comparative to offline. This customer
segment has not been much influenced by the craze of online and prefer to go to nearby
stores to check out the products.
 Marketing has been made less expensive but the impact which offline marketing has it
cannot be replaced and offline marketing has a greater outreach as it goes via print media
to all households and people from all age groups see the advertisement for making their
mind on buying products.
Challenges and measures of security and privacy taken by individuals and organisations
The challenges which individuals face in being online and doing online shopping are:
a) There is a risk of data being stolen of customers as and when they do online transactions.
Cyber thefts may occur if caution is not taken.
b) Security concerns are there if numbers of credit and debit cards are entered on websites,
they being confidential information of customers.
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c) People searching online for products enter their mail ids and mobile numbers on websites
for login. These can also be used by cyber hackers to find information about the customer
(Weldy, T.G., 2018).
d) The email ids and number of contact being entered are also taken by other similar
businesses and then, there is a flooding of messages on e-mail and mobile to buy their
products and various offers and discounts available on them.
e) There are fake stores online who pose as regular business site, these may be difficult for
customer identification and pose as a security challenge for the individuals to do online
shopping.
f) Individuals are posed for another challenge in form of apps like the online business but in
actual they are fake. One has to be wary of these as they can misuse the customer
information and cause loss.
g) Data Breach is another concern for customers. The customer has to check whether they
are provided with terms and conditions clause from the website not disclosing their
information.
h) Individuals have to be wary of the Wi-fi they are using, whether they are using secured or
unsecured as through unsecured Wi-fi, there is chance of information leakage of payment
history and number of credit cards being stolen.
The challenges which organisations face while online shopping is done are:
a) The organisation’s website being hacked is a major challenge organisation faces while
going online. It can lead to loss of customer data and loss of reputation for the
organisation.
b) The number and range of products being sold online can be known by other competitor
and there can be a duplicacy done with selling same products at lower price to the
customers which can reduce business of the former organisation (Lee, K. and Bligh, B.,
2019).
c) There is risk of customer data such as mail id and contact number being taken by other
organisation for marketing purposes.
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d) Fake organisations posing as original organisation can cause threat to the business and its
reputation which is a challenge for the organisation.
Measures individuals have to take for privacy of their details
a) Individuals have to be wary of their website usage when they surf for online products.
They have to check the lock icon being present near the website’s hyperlink before doing
transactions, to know the website is secure.
b) There is a security certificate of the website which individuals can check. Nowadays,
there are in-built systems which make a customer beware in advance that the security
certificate of the website has expired. In such cases, customer has to refrain from these
websites.
c) Individuals can check the authenticity of the online business through list of organisations
provided in the business directory. This will take customer away from a fake online
business if present (Dhende, K., 2021).
d) Individuals should give an alternative mail id and mobile number they use very less so
that information even if taken by another business cannot cause concern to them.
e) Individuals also have to use an operating system which is latest and has security features
whenever, they shop online through own laptops and smartphones. Also, measures of a
good anti-virus and malware system have to be installed to check off any unwanted
activities.
f) Individuals take measures of not responding to fake calls and messages in the name of the
company and not disclose their confidential information (Ervural, B.C. and Ervural, B.,
2018).
g) Individuals also have to be wary of phishing mails offering discounts on purchases and
find out the same by hyperlink check and grammatical errors in the mail.
Measures organisations have to take for securing their website’s privacy
a) For organisations to make their websites secure, firewall system which is latest has to be
used to wade off threats related to online business. Also, the IT department of the firm
has to do surveillance of the website and system to note any suspicious activity.
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b) Organisations can secure the customer passwords of logging in by showing them in a dot
structure whether it is their account or OTP to be put in while making transaction. This
shall assist in keeping the people away who want to gain the information.
c) Organisation sends message through mails and messages on phone that they will never
call for any confidential information of the customer and they should be wary of hoax
calls and messages.
d) Organisations can also send information to customers to identify phishing mails by
locating their source by the hyperlink and also checking for grammatical errors which do
come in these type of mails.
e) Organisations can keep a check on other businesses trying to gain information from their
website of products by disclosing the price tab only to identified customers as they log in.
Details verification done of the customers will ensure nobody is trying to gain unfair
advantage from their business (Dhende, K., 2021).
f) Organisations implement GDPR and CCPA for help in protection of personal data and
which also stipulate that sites have to gain customer consent before sharing data with
third parties. This improves the organisation’s reliability.
g) It should be ensured that sites of organisations store only limited relevant data and rest is
deleted. This shall ensure no theft is there of the organisation’s data.
h) Organisations install a help and support service for customers in case they receive any
suspicious mail or message and check its authentication from the company. The IT cell
can take the feedback and guide the customers accordingly.
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Use and comparison of online tools
Ways through which these tools have helped organisations survive the pandemic
This is the first time when people are doing work from home at a stretch and organisations are
facing difficulties in adjustment of their strategies. There are tools of communication and
channels available online with implications and use through which organisations are surviving.
Organisations are able to manage activities which were earlier done in office like trainings,
holding meetings etc. and thus they are also saving costs of office. The tools have been also used
for promotional measures through holding webinars and inviting people to join the forum by
providing meeting ids and passwords. Here, company experts talk of the products of the
company and people at home can watch it with their family and make buying decisions.
Company can also promote their concept using mediums like yoga and exercise through which
they encourage a healthy lifestyle and combinations of their dietary products as
recommendations for health improvement (Ervural, B.C. and Ervural, B., 2018).
There has been an increase in businesses going online as customer demand is there of it. In this
view, there are online tools which organisations are using to facilitate meetings and conduct
operations of the company. Below are examples of the apps which company use:
a) Zoom: It is a convenient app for holding meetings and has grown famous recently and
for connecting with people. It has been prohibitive of costs which allows video
conferencing. Employees can schedule their meetings with clients to know their feedback
of the online products. Customers can get one to one with employees and speak of their
problems. It is a video face to face interaction in which the customer can give feedback to
the company. The customer gets experience intuitive and employees experiment with
new features, Zoom can be used as troubleshooting tool and not only a communication
tool. This is a tool that has helped many businesses in management of their daily tasks.
The cloud-based service helps in providing video conferencing, online chat meetings and
collaboration of mobile (Bheemanathini, S.N., 2019). It provides company high-quality
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video and audio with call recording for future review. Zoom has the following features
for organisation’s benefit:
Zoom Free: This assists in creating and joining meetings for free. However, this is for a
short duration of time.
Zoom pro: One will be able to schedule repetitive meetings in easy way because of
creation of personal Ids. Also, it offers the possibility of recording and saving the meeting
on cloud storage.
Zoom business: The plan has many features which are advanced which includes personal
branding for organisation and URLs. The subscription has features mentioned above,
with speech transcription and customer support that is special. This feature is suitable for
organisations and company can hold a minimum of 10 meetings per month (Driscoll, T.
and Koch, R., 2020).
Zoom Enterprise: The plan is for big organisations and organisation can hold a minimum
of 10 meetings which has more than 1000 employees.
Zoom rooms: The plan is optional and organisation can see the possibility of monthly
free subscription if deciding on continuing the subscription. It costs extra if organisation
wants to increase Zoom plan.
b) WebEx: This tool helps organisation in being able for conducting and arranging
conference and large online meetings. The most used online meeting tool is WebEx, as it
allows not only joining meetings of say, an online company meeting to join members
working in different branches, sharing screens and documents with each other. In
presentation, every member can pass on control of presentation and writing on virtual
white boards (Bheemanathini, S.N., 2019). There are online companies who are offering
work from home option and use the tool for collaborations with employees, sharing of
employees’ reports of work done, holding webinars, customer support forums where
customer can talk of their grievances and also share screen to make their point as
necessary, training is also provided on this platform seeing the present condition of
pandemic through the tools help, thus saving the company office expenditure cost of
holding the training. Webinars with different clients has made business possible in the
time of pandemic and also do promotion online. One can discuss an idea online and do
promotion for the company. WebEx has the following features listed below:
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a) HD video conferencing: It provides video conferencing for up to six participants at
one time. Each participant has own video feed which is navigable easily in personal
meeting room. It helps in contributing to the discussion by participants regardless of
the operating system or hardware they use.
b) Data protection and platform compatibility: The WebEx helps in enabling easy cross
platform and device operation that is universal. There is secure and unparalleled data
encryption with password protection for conference and security protocol for network
(Driscoll, T. and Koch, R., 2020).
c) Communication which is integrated: It makes easy for some one to join conference
without special video capabilities. Teleconferencing is the added benefits of software
which provides participants ability to request for callback and through these features
employees from remote areas can also join the meeting. It also provides sharing of
desktop and documents feature.
CONCLUSION
It can be summarised that online business has brought changes in the way of business done
traditionally and has advanced business prospects. The report discussed the merits and
drawbacks of online business. It emphasised on the challenges and measures taken by individuals
and organisation for securing their data privacy. It discussed and compared the online tools and
their use in business world.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Kumar, P., Kumar, A., Palvia, S. and Verma, S., 2019. Online business education research:
Systematic analysis and a conceptual model. The International Journal of Management
Education, 17(1), pp.26-35.
Weldy, T.G., 2018. Traditional, blended, or online: Business student preferences and experience
with different course formats. E-Journal of Business Education and Scholarship of
Teaching, 12(2), pp.55-62.
Lee, K. and Bligh, B., 2019. Four narratives about online international students: A critical
literature review. Distance Education, 40(2), pp.153-169.
Dhende, K., 2021. Review of e-Commerce Security Challenges. Turkish Journal of Computer
and Mathematics Education (TURCOMAT), 12(12), pp.3593-3598.
Ervural, B.C. and Ervural, B., 2018. Overview of cyber security in the industry 4.0 era.
In Industry 4.0: managing the digital transformation (pp. 267-284). Springer, Cham.
Jausmin, K.J., Fathima, M.S., Ulaganathan, P., Shalini, S. and Divya, S., 2021. Security
Measures, Challenges and Energy Consumptions of Blockchain Technology, Its
Applications. Journal of Green Engineering, 11, pp.547-559.
Bheemanathini, S.N., 2019. A Systematic Review of Blockchain Technology: Privacy Concerns,
Security Challenges, and Solutions (Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati).
Pise, G.S. and Babar, S.D., 2021. Data Acquisition and Knowledge Management in IoT: Security
Issues, Challenges, and Road Map Ahead. Security Issues and Privacy Threats in Smart
Ubiquitous Computing, 341, p.83.
Lieux, M., Sabottke, C., Schachner, E.R., Pirtle, C., Danrad, R. and Spieler, B., 2021. Online
conferencing software in radiology: Recent trends and utility. Clinical Imaging.
Driscoll, T. and Koch, R., 2020. CHOOSING YOUR ZOOM ROOM. Strategic Finance, 102(2),
pp.68-69.
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