Impact of IT on Icelandic E-Commerce

This assignment examines the significance of information technology (IT) for an Icelandic e-commerce venture specializing in frozen products. It highlights how digital technologies like digital marketing and AI-powered robotics can enhance customer engagement, reduce costs, and boost productivity. The importance of IT in communication strategies to attract and retain customers is also emphasized.

Report

Table of Contents
Introduction about the organisation Iceland....................................................................................1
Current business Strategies of Iceland.............................................................................................1
Product and services of Iceland.......................................................................................................1
Evaluation of Business Environment of Iceland..............................................................................1
PESTLE analysis of Iceland...................................................................................................2
Porter's Model of Value Chain of Iceland..............................................................................3
Importance of Information Technology in Business.......................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

Introduction about the organisation Iceland
Iceland is the British supermarket chain, with emphasis on the sale of frozen foods,
including prepared meals and vegetables. Other than that they also sell non-frozen grocery items
such as produce, meat, dairy, and dry goods. The company has an approximate 2.2% share of the
UK food market. The organisation was started in the 1970 by Malcolm Walker. It was first
opened in Leg Street, Oswestry, Shropshire, England, with his business partner Peter Hinchcliffe
investing £59 for one month's rent at the store. In the year 1983 they have started purchase 18
stores and in the year 1984 the organisation have become public. They were used to purchasing
the frozen food from south east. In the year 1996, they have purchased another seven stores in
Dublin. Due to some difficulties, the organisation have wind up. Again the venture have re-
opened in the Irish market. In 2009, they have bought 51 stores in the UK. On 25 November
2013, Iceland acquired seven Irish stores which were previously franchised. On 27 November,
Iceland began selling appliances online again in partnership with DRL Limited.
Current business Strategies of Iceland
The organisation is using the price penetration strategies, where they their products and
services at low prices or affordable prices. The organisation is basically known for the frozen
products. In 2011. The organisation have been awarded as the top most frozen product
organisation in the UK. The venture is basically focusing on the growth strategies in order to
develop their market segment. They key aim of the organisation is to attract large number of
customers by implementing the competitive pricing strategies, sales promotion, advertisement,
brand awareness, focus strategy.
Product and services of Iceland
The organisation is currently introducing new product in the UK market which is related
to the non-frozen grocery items such as produce meat, dairy, and dry goods etc. other than that
organisation currently selling frozen products. The organisation mainly sell frozen goods and
Grocery. They also serve food such as Pasta, Pizza, chines etc.
Evaluation of Business Environment of Iceland
Association uses different sources and modern of society. Consumer and social interest is
major responsibility of above organisation. Balance economic environment is a big challenge for
them
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PESTLE analysis of Iceland
Iceland is a supermarket chain which focuses on the sale of frozen foods, prepared meals
and vegetables and there are certain factors which impact the Iceland company and they are as
follows:
Political factors:The certain political factors are there which affecting the cited business and
they are such trade agree mental factors, lower labour standards under developing
countries ,certain regulations and laws which implemented by government and the company
have to identified down the factors firstly and performing their operations accordingly so that
positive outcomes can be come out and operations can be conducted in an efficient manner. The
company considering out the political factors and selling there products and it also has
opportunity to expand its operations which essentially based on the agreements related to free
trade (Theriou, 2015). The cited business has taken down all the steps related to it to provide the
opportunity which essentially based on the political dimensions.
Economic factors:The external factors in form of economic also impacted the entire business
such as employment rate, economic stability, rising labour costs because these are certain
factors which involve and made impact on the business operations and Iceland company have to
consider out all such factors and performing their functions for conduction effective business and
it also provides an opportunity and made contributed in the field economic stability and also
rising employment opportunities for the people under UK and meet out the wants of their
customers in every course (Schwalbe, 2015).
Social factors: The social factors related to lifestyle, age group, wealth are also made an impact
on their business operations and the cited organisation conducting their operations by
considering out all such factors and producing the goods and provided to their customers
according to their requirements and also considering out the demographic changes related to
taste, fashion and preferences that create and impact on them and the cited business emphasises
on all such factors and producing their product and provide it to their customers in every course
and the essential things helps them in raising their growth and development. So, it essentially
produces organic foods and provide it to their customers so they get maximum satisfaction and
organic food is essentially expensive so it generally attracts their potential customers.
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Technological factors:The cited organisation using down latest and advance technology and by
using that they producing the product and updated himself time to time and provide satisfaction
to their user in every course and satisfy their wants. The latest technology helps them in
producing their product and also saving their time, money and efforts and helps them to deal
with their customers.
Environmental impact: There are several factors that are included in the environmental aspects
which have very great impact over the organisation such as pollution, green house gas etc. The
venture have to invest in the different corporate social responsibility from their profit margin.
Thus, they have to keep some amount of profit for the same. Other than that water is also being
polluted by the organisation (Mithas, 2012). Other than that pollution is also being increase so
the venture have to cater the needs and wants of the customers. So they are also polluting the
water. Iceland has 170 CU km of renewable water resources with 6% used for industrial
purposes.
Legal factors: There are several laws which is made by the government of country so that
different organisation can not conduct any misbehave with the customers. Iceland has a civil law
legal system and thus Icelandic law is characterized by written law. The Constitutional Act
represents the highest national legal authority. Iceland received its first Constitution in 1874 and
the present-day Constitution of 1944. Except with respect to constitutional issues, legislation
work primacy as a source of law (Karp and Rezai, 2014). With the increasing complexity of
economic and social life, the amount and importance of legislation has even increased.
Porter's Model of Value Chain of Iceland
Value chain is a set of business activities to operates multiple functions of an
organisation. This method was formed by Michael Porter in 1979. This model provide a
systematic path to make deliverables smooth and effective to end customers. Value chain
method helps to demonstrate business process from law level to upper level. It is a study of
forming stages of a product or service (Choudhary and Shankar, 2012). How a raw product and
service become complete by different manufacturing and management process (Choudhary and
Shankar, 2012). Porter divided the business functions in five dimensions which are as under:
Primary activities
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Inbound logistics: When it comes to the Iceland then they have to procure raw material
from the different supplier in order to produce frozen products. This activity indicates towards
the relationship with suppliers and distributors of an organisation. In this activity raw material
requirement, stores management, equipments requirement are considered. These activities are
found in any kind manufacturing and automotive industries. At initial stage these activities helps
to manage the primary work of managing the raw martial and stock management in these type of
industries (Fraser, 2012). Large stores, factories and go-downs are the places where all these
activities are operated and controlled.
Operations : this is the stage where all the activities are operated to transform the raw form of
product in finished form. There are many processes are found in different manufacturing
industries as sampling, rectifying, washing, sorting etc. These operations change the raw
products in multiple joint products. Goods which go through these process remains finished.
This activity is also known as production process of any product. There are several operations
that need to be conducted by the Iceland such as procurement of raw material from different
suppliers, process it to make frozen products and their deliver it to the customers
Outbound logistic : This is the stage where finished goods are managed in systematic to protect
from damages. Outbound logistic is team which operates the functions related to storing the final
product, labelling, finishing and packaging. It manages the transportation system to convey the
product to buyers and customers.
Secondary or Supporting activities
These are the activities which helps and support the primary activities of value chain
method. These activities help in providing proper resources to the organisation and industries to
operate the functions without any barriers and shortage (Yildiz and Ersöz, 2016). There are few
supporting activities are defined as under:
Procurements – it refers inputs and equipments which needs in manufacturing and installation
of plants and machineries. Purchase agreement, contracts, list prices are the main sources of
procurements. Iceland will be need proper human resource, fund, technology, machinery in order
to produce quality frozen products
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Human resource management – Providing eligible and desired manpower to the organisation
is the main objective of Human resource management department of the organisation. This
department manage labour fluctuation and fulfil human resource requirement for organisation.
Iceland need proper human resources and organisation need to train their employees in such a
way that they can produce frozen products (Theriou, 2015).
Technology development – New tactics and advancements helps an organisation to connect
with real environment of business. Technology helps to reduce unwanted efforts and utilising
them in right direction. Iceland need proper technology in order to produce frozen products and
Grocery items.
Infrastructure – physical and basic structure of industry or organisation should be at such place
where resources are approachable to organisation easily. Management, administration are the
basic structure of organisation (Schwalbe, 2015).
Importance of Information Technology in Business
When it comes to the Iceland then the organisation is e-commerce venture, they need to
implement different technologies sob they can able to sell their frozen products. There are
several digital technological and manufacturing technological that need to be adopted by the
venture so that they can attract and retain large customers. Digital marketing and digital
manufacturing is one of the gift of information technology. Iceland is has 70% of work is
operated by robotics and artificial intelligence techniques. It helps them to reduce the time,
money and effort of the organisation. It helps in reducing the idle time of workers and reduce
energy which helped to improve productivity (Mithas, 2012). Other than that it helps in
maximises the level of perfectness and reduce the count of errors in production process.
Estimation of data and figures remains accurate while manufacturing the product.
Other than that communication is one of the important aspect of the organisation, they
need to communicate with the customer so that they can able to attract and retain them.
Communication is one of the important element for conducting task and operation in effective
manner. Any industry is not left behind from using IT tactics in organisation. Operating systems,
e-calling services, customer care services are the best examples of IT sector (Karp and Rezai,
2014).
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Theriou, N. G., 2015. Strategic Management Process and the Importance of Structured
Formality, Financial and Non-Financial Information. European Research Studies. 18(2).
p.3.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Mithas, S. and et. al., 2012. Information technology and firm profitability: mechanisms and
empirical evidence.
Choudhary, D. and Shankar, R., 2012. An STEEP-fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS framework for evaluation
and selection of thermal power plant location: A case study from India. Energy. 42(1).
pp.510-521.
Karp, L. and Rezai, A., 2014. The political economy of environmental policy with overlapping
generations. International Economic Review. 55(3), pp.711-733.
Fraser, B.J., 2012. Classroom environment (Vol. 234). Routledge.
Yildiz, A. and Ersöz, M.A., 2016. The effect of wind speed on the economical optimum
insulation thickness for HVAC duct applications. Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews. 55. pp.1289-1300.
Online
Economical records of car manufacturing, 2015. Availale through
<https://www.smmt.co.uk/industry-topics/economy/>
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