Study Of Asos - Aspect Of E-Commerce

INTERNET AND E-
BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Environment for e-business and business transaction types.................................................1
1.2 Advantages and disadvantages of having online business presence.....................................2
1.3 Security and legislative issues faced in Asos due to e-presence...........................................3
1.4 Modes of communication accessible to Asos and their application in its business..............3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Importance of internet technologies and their significance in E-Business...........................4
2.2 Key features of HTML..........................................................................................................4
2.3 Analysis of the role of search engine, browsers and client servers.......................................5
2.4 Application of intranet and extra-net in a business communication.....................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Models of E-Business for significant outcomes in business.................................................6
3.2 Analysis of E-business models for generating revenue........................................................7
3.3 Highlighting the scopes for further development of E-Business Models.............................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
4.1 Key components for designing an effective web page..........................................................8
4.2 Analysis of the role of a good website design on a business................................................9
4.3 Existence of different issues for usability of the website....................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
E-commerce or the electric commerce refers to the communication process undertaken by
a business organisation in which the data and financial resources are transferred through the
online measures. As per the common believe the future of an e-commerce depends on the
financial expense of the company in the e-commerce activities (Da Costa, 2016). This aspect of
e-commerce has been discussed in this study with the help of practical examples from Asos
which is an online fashion shopping site targeted for a specific age group. For this, the researcher
has assumed the role of online business manager for Asos and conducted this particular research.
TASK 1
1.1 Environment for e-business and business transaction types
Factors Influence
Political Based on the government policies the value added taxes increase reducing
profit margin and increasing price of Asos.
The recent government decision of scrapping the student maintenance grant
would reduce Purchasability of Asos, which is the target market of the
company.
Economic The increase in minimum working wage might increase expenses of Asos as it
employs 1475 full-time employees along with 66 part-time employees.
Socio-cultural Since 2015, the rate of online purchase has increased considerably generating
larger sales scope for Asos.
Consumers have become more ethically conscious concerning purchase of
goods requiring sales and marketing processes to be ethically sound (The
Guardian, 2017).
Technological Currently, online shopping has become preferable for the consumers to the
direct shopping, therefore, Asos are expected to acquire larger market in such
market environment.
The organisation might utilise technological advancement to generate a
physical existence in the market other than the virtual one (Asos.com, 2017).
Legal Adherence to Consumer rights acts 2015 while conducting its interaction and
transaction with the customers (Legislation.gov.uk, 2017).
Follow the Data Protection Act 1998 while managing the data regarding its
customers, suppliers, employees and other stakeholders
Environmental Asos for delivery of its productsdepends on the delivery services. Therefore,it
needs to be conscious about the carbon footprint of these delivery service
providers to maintain its positive image in market (Legislation.gov.uk, 2017).
It also needs to find a way of green packaging to replace plastic package.
Table 1: Environment analysis of Asos
(Source: Created by author)
Business transaction types:
1

 Business-to-Consume-Here business organisation directly communicates with customers
and conducts the selling process with customer directly.Observing Asos’s online
transaction activities the researcher has deduced that the organisation’s operations can be
categorised under the B2C transaction.
 Business-to-business -The manufacturer sells the product to anintermediary company,
who further sells the product to the customers (San-Martín and Camarero, 2014). The
retailers that purchase the goods from the wholesaler and sell it to the customer can be
considered as such type of intermediary.
 Customer-to-customer-Here customer sells a product to another customer. Sometimes,
online sites avail some of their customers to sell the product on the same site such
transaction between the customers might be considered as the Customer-to-customer
transaction (Zhu, 2015).
 Customer-to-business-In certain cases, customers possess certain products or services
that the business organisations purchase from them (Mangiaracina et al. 2015). The
recruitment website’s activity of selling CVs to the recruiters might be considered as such
type of transaction.
1.2 Advantages and disadvantages of having online business presence
The online presence has become necessary for the retail organisations, which largely has
catered to the convenience of customers. The following table provides an understanding of the
merits and demerits of e-presence:
Table 1: Advantages and disadvantages of online business presence
Advantages Disadvantage
 Eliminates the geographical barrier and
expands the market
 Avails scope for 24/7 transaction and
business operation
 Organisational websites receive
advertisements from other businesses,
which add to the business revenue
 Multiple customers can be handled
simultaneously through automated
display process. This increases
efficiency level.
 Customers receive quality service as
per their convenience, which
 Issues of data security are still there,
data theft and online forgery might
hamper the business inconsiderable
manner
 This makes customers, to a certain
extent, reluctant towards online
product purchase
 Generally, such online sites avail
information only in one language which
limits business prospects due to
language barrier and Asos is no
exception to this
 It lacks the physical connection with the
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