Impact of Magento 2 on ecommerce business

This study examines the impact of Magento 2 on the ecommerce business, highlighting future market opportunities and the contribution of Magento to ecommerce services.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Proposal
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
1.1 Background of the research..............................................................................................3
1.2 Research problem.............................................................................................................4
1.3 Research objectives..........................................................................................................4
1.4 Research question.............................................................................................................5
1.5 Research Hypothesis........................................................................................................5
2.0 Literature review..................................................................................................................5
3.0 Research Methodology.........................................................................................................7
3.1 Research Philosophy........................................................................................................8
3.2 Research Approach..........................................................................................................8
3.3 Research Design...............................................................................................................8
3.4 Data collection and analysis.............................................................................................9
3.5 Sampling..........................................................................................................................9
3.6 Reliability and Validity..................................................................................................10
3.7 Ethical consideration......................................................................................................10
4.0 Work Plan...........................................................................................................................11
5.0 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................13
References................................................................................................................................14

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Topic: Impact of Magento 2 on ecommerce business-“A changing landscape of B2B
business.”
1.0 Introduction
This study will examine the impact of Magento 2 on the ecommerce business in the
current market. It will also highlight the future market opportunities and the contribution of
tools like Magento on ecommerce business. Magento is one of the online tools that have
become quite popularthe last few years where a large number of ecommerce companies are
using this open source platform to improve their ecommerce services to their consumers.
1.1 Background of the research
Commerce has rapidly shifted from offline to online, for not only business to
consumer segments but also for the business-to-business segments. Studies reveal that B2B
consumers prefer to use the online platform to make a purchase and establish trade relations.
This can be understood by the hyper growth of the industry in the majority of the countries
[1]. This is also visible from the investment made from major B2C companies such as
Google, Amazon and eBay and the business-to-business buyers’ fall with the populous of the
B2C consumers. Consumers both B2B and B2C expect high quality online experience
because they are receiving the highest quality of service in the B2C segment, which increases
their level of expectation from the B2B segment[2]. Therefore, a large number of buyers are
looking for the best solutions to their requirement by conducting a global search on the online
platform instead of directly engaging with sales, customer service and marketing
representatives.
Magenta is one of the open source ecommerce platforms developed by Varien Inc.
The company is based in the United States, and the platform is written in PHP. Magenta 2.0
was released in the year 2015, which consist of features that would heighten the engagement

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of the users, make the navigation experience smoother and increase in conversion rates [3]. It
fine-tunes every aspect of the shopping experience for consumers. There are other
ecommerce platforms but Magento is one of the widely used platforms for small, medium
and large-scale enterprises.
1.2 Research problem
Globalisation has increased the market opportunities in all sectors and with the
evolution of the web technology,andthe introduction of Web 2.0 has made it easier for
companies to reach consumers to such an extent which was never possible before. New
companies in the ecommerce industry have emerged and challenging industry giants due to
the increase in infrastructure. In the majority of the cases, new companies are falling short
especially for the B2B companies and have not been able to capitalise fully on the market
opportunities. The implementation of the Ecommerce platform is time-consuming and
complex, and the cost of management outweighs the revenue gains for most new companies.
It is possible to avoid the common mistakes made by the B2B companies by developing
suitable platforms that provide site structure and reduces the overall cost of ownership. The
study will evaluate this issue faced by most of the companies and the way Magento has
contributed to providing practical solutions for the companies in the current and future
scenario. The challenges faced by most of the B2B companies will be contrasted with the
benefits of using Magento. The study will also describe whether the PHP platform has been
useful in solving the issues faced by the companies and whether it is the future of Ecommerce
in decades to come.
1.3 Research objectives
The research aims to examine the contribution of the open sourced ecommerce platform
for various companies in providing effective services to consumers critically. The research

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will also seek to evaluate the importance of developing an effective Ecommerce platform for
the sustainability of future online business. The objectives of the study are as follows:
 To examine the impact of Magento for providing online services to consumers
 To evaluate the significance of Magento in the current and future business scenario
 To recommend suitable strategies and services required for success in the future
ecommerce business
1.4 Research question
 What is the impact of Magento for providing online services to consumers?
 What is the significance of Magento in the current and future business scenario?
1.5 Research Hypothesis
H0: Magento does not have any significant impact on the consumer experience
H1: Magento enhances the consumer experience for companies using the mentioned platform
2.0 Literature review
As stated by Sari et al. [4], internet has changed significantly and has affected all
facets of daily life due to the incorporation of cutting-edge technology. Internet has connected
people globally and has significantly influenced the way; companies operate their business in
both local and global market. The volumes of trade on the online have increased
tremendously and ecommerce market has expanded to trillions. In the most of the developing
and developing countries, ecommerce contributes effectively to the economy and consists of
more than one third of the overall market.
According to Chen [5], B2B can be stated as the interaction between two firms, which
will comprise of distributors, suppliers, consumers and agencies. These are network
organization working in complex environment. The companies in this sector have been trying

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to understand the needs of the business consumers by creating additional value for them.
Even though, B2C and B2B have similar characteristics in the market, but there are distinct
differences that needs to be considered while providing solutions to business consumers.
Afzal et al. [5] states that understanding and knowledge of B2B market is essential for
gaining different perspective of the market. The major difference between B2B and B2C
market is that there are less number of players in the B2B market but they are of large scale.
Moreover, the demand of the business buyers are derived from the needs of the consumer
buyers and the demand is inelastic in nature in major markets. states that the demand in the
business markets fluctuate rapidly as the companies constantly use different strategies to gain
competitive advantage in the market. The sellers and buyers work more closely due to the
increase in interdependency in the market.
Botti&Maione [6] states that the change in the cultural environment has affected the
B2B ecommerce and upcoming trends keep on changing business scenarios. The increase in
the availability of the ecommerce options for the companies in the market has increased the
competition. The B2B services need to provide the best possible experience in order to retain
their existing consumers as large number of companies are providing similar services. The
ecommerce infrastructure has changed significantly and now it is quite to develop ecommerce
websites that have great fluidity and can provide enhanced shopping experience [7]. Initially,
there has been increase in the mobility of the online websites and can be accessed from the
mobile devices. The program is also customer friendly, which makes the overall customer
experience better.
Alami, Rodríguez & Jansen S [8] states that from the point of view of the developer,
the use of magento 2 is better as it is open sourced and other technologies can also be
integrated within this system with ease. Maharjan [9] states that Magento has decreased the
overall cost of the organization by developing effective ecommerce services. On the contrary,

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it has been argued that PHP platforms are not required to provide better B2B services and the
companies need to develop better strategies to improve the overall service experience by
using cheaper platforms. The level of security of the platforms are higher when compared to
other platforms due to theflaws of the previous version. Ros&Bjarnason [10] states that
Magento has been the popular choice for majority of the business organizations due to the
reduction in complexity of the open sourced platforms and is suited to the needs of both large
scale and medium scale organizations. The made to measure feature and other have made the
company, one of the market leaders in the organization. Empirical studies conducted shows
that almost 75% of the B2B buyers prefer to make purchase from online websites than from
sales representatives [11]. The literature has been briefly able to provide a picture that
Magento is the leading B2B solution providers but there are still arguments over the fact that
whether other platforms can be instead of Magento. Some argue that ecommerce is not the
only way of conducting business and there are multiple benefits of direct sales and physical
communication.
3.0 Research Methodology
Research methodology defines the overall plan of action of conducting the research.
In this research, Saunders’ research onion has been followed to highlight every aspect of the
methodology. This research will describe the research, philosophy, approach, data collection
and analysis techniques, research design, sampling frame, ethical consideration, reliability
and validity [13]. Thisresearch is descriptive in nature, which will consist of a description of
the phenomenon and understanding the cause and effect relationship between the Magento
and service quality enhancement in the B2B industry.

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3.1 Research Philosophy
The different types of research philosophies used in research are realism, positivism,
interpretivism and pragmatism. This research will use pragmatism as the research philosophy
as it accepts all the theories and concept that have sound proof or supported by action. It also
states that there are different ways in which a particular problem can be interpreted,so
multiple realities exist [14]. Pragmatism focuses only on the research question, as it is the
most critical aspect of the research. In this study, pragmatism will facilitate in choosing the
method accordingly, where both positivist and interpretivist approaches can be used to reduce
the limitation of the research.
3.2 Research Approach
The different research approaches are an inductive, deductive and abductive approach
[15]. The study will choose to use a deductiveapproach in the research, as it will facilitate in
testing the hypothesis developed in the first chapter of the study. A deductive approach will
also facilitate in conducting quantitative analysis where the expected patterns and the
observations. The deductive approach will also be used as it guarantees results and risk of
conducting the research is low due to the abundance of data.
3.3 Research Design
There are generally three types of research design used in the research, and they are
exploratory, explanatory and descriptive. The exploratory analysis aims to explore the overall
data in the study and forms the basis for conducting conclusive research. Conclusive
research can be divided into causal and descriptive research where one establishes the cause
and effect relationship, and the other describes the phenomenon in the research [16].
However, in this study, an innovative mixed analysis will be conducted so the study will use
a sequential explanatory research design. In this design, the study will perform quantitative
data analysis at the initial stage and will be followed by a qualitative analysis of data to

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compare the results. The study will also conduct an empirical analysis of data to compare the
expected and actual outcome to provide a better understanding of the research topic and
answer the research questions.
3.4 Data collection and analysis
The data will be collected by using both primary and secondary method. The
secondary data will be collected from government websites, peer-reviewed journals and
online websites having numerical data on the ecommerce and open source platforms [17].
The primary data will be collected in two parts; the first part will consist of the survey
questionnaire, which will consist of close-ended questions, which will be asked to B2B
consumers through an online survey. The second part of the data will be collected through
personal interviews of managers working in emerging B2B companies.
The quantitative data collected will be analysed using SPSS, which is a statistical
package for social science. The hypothesis will be tested using regression analysis and
correlation analysis to check the nature, degree and direction of a relationship between the
variables used in the research [18]. The qualitative data will be analysed using coding where
the patterns within the acquired data set will be analysed. This will consist of using methods
such as open coding and axial coding to convert the data for comparison. The study will also
conduct empirical analysis on collected secondary data. The outcomes will be compared to
draw relevant conclusions in the research.
3.5 Sampling
Sampling is the method of choosing sample population that will be used as elements
of the research. Sampling will consist of three steps where initially the target population will
be defined, the next step is sampling frame selection and last step is determining the sampling
size [19]. The target population will consist of consumers and emerging companies in United

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Kingdom. The sampling frame of the research will consist of the B2B consumers and
managers in Big Change, an emerging mobile workforce management provider. The sample
size for the quantitative study is 100 and the sample size for the qualitative study is 2. The
study will use stratified sampling to select samples randomly from the overall sample size of
250 and convenience sampling will be used to select managers that will provide significant
insight on the research topic.
3.6 Reliability and Validity
Reliability is the capability of the research instrument to replicate the results using
different sets of data. In this study, reliability of the quantitative data will be evaluated using
Cronbach’s alpha test. This test measures the internal consistency of the data collected and
removes data that does not have significant importance to the study [20]. It is difficult to
measure the reliability of the qualitative data due to the inclusion of human participation.
The study will use test retest reliability to the check the reliability of the qualitative data.
Even though, the study has reliability, validity of the data is more important. The validity of
the data will be analysed using construct validity.
3.7 Ethical consideration
The research will abide the laws of data protection 1998 and will maintain the
anonymity of the participants in the research [21]. This will be done to protect the privacy
and security of the participants. The participants will be provided with consent forms, which
will consist of all information regarding the research and its goal. The respondents will not be
forced to take part in the research and they can leave the survey at any given point. The study
will not abusive and discriminatory language that may be offensive to the respondents.
Plagiarism, falsification and fabrication are the three cardinal sins, and this research will sure
that all the authors will be credited for and none of the data is falsified or fabricated.

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4.0 Work Plan
Task Name Duration Start Finish
Research plan 73 days Thu 03-01-19 Mon 15-04-19
Topic Selection 5 days Thu 03-01-19 Wed 09-01-19
Identify suitable project topics 3 days Thu 03-01-19 Mon 07-01-19
Discussion with lecturer 1 day Tue 08-01-19 Tue 08-01-19
topic finalization 1 day Wed 09-01-19 Wed 09-01-19
Milestone 1: Topic Chosen 0 days Wed 09-01-19 Wed 09-01-19
Secondary data collection 12 days Thu 10-01-19 Fri 25-01-19
Search for articles, peer reviewed
journals and web articles
5 days Thu 10-01-19 Wed 16-01-19
choose the sources that are relevant 4 days Thu 17-01-19 Tue 22-01-19
research layout designing 3 days Wed 23-01-19 Fri 25-01-19
Milestone 2: Secondary data
collected
0 days Fri 25-01-19 Fri 25-01-19
Literature review 12 days Mon 28-01-19 Tue 12-02-19
Critical examination of data
collected
4 days Mon 28-01-19 Thu 31-01-19
annotated bibliography preparation 5 days Fri 01-02-19 Thu 07-02-19
preliminary literature review
development
3 days Fri 08-02-19 Tue 12-02-19
Milestone 3: Literature review
completed
0 days Tue 12-02-19 Tue 12-02-19
Research methodology and 5 days Wed 13-02-19 Tue 19-02-19

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Analysis
Selection of the Appropriate
Research Techniques
3 days Wed 13-02-19 Fri 15-02-19
Validate the methods 1 day Mon 18-02-19 Mon 18-02-19
Check for reliability 1 day Tue 19-02-19 Tue 19-02-19
Milestone 4: Research methods
selected
0 days Tue 19-02-19 Tue 19-02-19
Data collection from primary and
secondary sources
23 days Wed 20-02-19 Fri 22-03-19
Identify data set 4 days Wed 20-02-19 Mon 25-02-19
Sampling to select data 1 day Tue 26-02-19 Tue 26-02-19
Data analysis using SPSS 12 days Wed 27-02-19 Thu 14-03-19
Use coding to analyse qualitative
data
4 days Fri 15-03-19 Wed 20-03-19
Use empirical analysis for secondary
data
2 days Thu 21-03-19 Fri 22-03-19
Milestone 5: Primary and Secondary
data collected and analysed
0 days Fri 22-03-19 Fri 22-03-19
Conclusion of the Study 16 days Mon 25-03-19 Mon 15-04-19
Formation of Rough Draft 8 days Mon 25-03-19 Wed 03-04-19
Discuss with the lecturer 5 days Thu 04-04-19 Wed 10-04-19
Submission of Final Work 3 days Thu 11-04-19 Mon 15-04-19
Milestone 5: Project concluded 0 days Mon 15-04-19 Mon 15-04-19
Table 1: Work plan

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(Source: As created by author)
5.0 Conclusion
It is expected that the study would establish the role Magento 2 in the ecommerce
business by using the proposed tools in the research. The value of F statistics is expected to
be less than 0.05 and two tailed hypothesis tests should be able to reject the null hypothesis.
However, the study needs to follow the proposed research methods to reach the desired result.

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