Unit 45 - E-Commerce & Strategy

Unit 45 – E-Commerce
and Strategy
(Assessment 2)

INTRODUCTION
E-commerce and its strategies are referred to and relates to the buying and selling of
goods by using virtual means and tools. That means e-commerce is a business activity which is
conducted online on virtual platforms with minimal physical interactions with external parties or
even customers (Riku and Setyohadi, 2017). The e-commerce strategy is a useful and effective
for organisations as it helps in increasing revenues of the entity and enable them to attract,
engage and retain wider range of consumers or buyers. The chosen small book shop which is
chosen for the assignment with one outlet is London Review Bookshop. The shop was founded
and inaugurated in 2003 a thriving bookshop which was intended to reflect the ethos of the
literary publication. The report will be covering different aspects of e-commerce and the focus
will be placed on developing an designing a strong and effective e-commerce strategy for the
chosen organisation. Moreover, the present report will be placing huge focus on the
implementation of the develop plans and solutions by using technology and virtual means.
MAIN BODY
Discuss the strategies for an E-commerce solution that would satisfy the company.
E-commerce is a plan or a process of conducting business transactions and activities by
suing virtual platforms and means. By using e-commerce strategies and processes entities can
ensure and enjoy the increasing employee engagement, higher revenues and most importantly
increasing efficiency and effectively of overall performances. Some of the e-commerce solutions
which are applicable to London Review Bookshop and to its processes are as follows: Defining of sales cycle- A crucial and critical aspect relates to an organisation and its
processes is of determining and identification of its sales cycle. A company's sales cycle
involves engagement of effective marketing for e-commerce and other business
transactions. Hence, in regards to London Review Bookshop it is considered to be a
strong and essential factor to determine its sales cycle and develop potential as well as
significant types of e-commerce strategies which leads the shop towards successful
results (Tran and et. al, 2016). Checkout process- The website or the virtual platform through which the entity engages
in sales and purchasing transactions with their customers needs to have a strong value
adding checkout processes. It is the responsibility of the firm to have a proper checkout

process on their websites offering unique curated experiences to customers using e-
commerce to facilitate the business transactions. For London Review Bookshop, the
requirement is to help the readers and buyers with creating an integrated experience. This
can be achieved by a significant checkout process and system as the customers will be
experiencing a good services and support from the start then they will be able to make
their purchases easily. It is also helpful in inducing sales and profits of the company as
the buyers are retained and sustained for longer (Lee and Hageman, 2018). Display of shipping costs- Online business and sales involves certain amount of shipping
cost which have to be paid by the customers on their orders for making deliveries. Hence,
the strategy of showcasing the shipping cost on the total purchase is a strong policy to
implement. By using the process London Review Bookshop will be able to ensure
transparency of the company with the customers and enabling them to know the total cost
they will be incurring on their purchase. Further, another feature can be added where the
packing and the manner in the books is going to be shipped to the end buyer can be
displayed to the customers. Displaying forms of payments accepted- The payment options and form which are
available to the customers is another strategy which has to be placed at higher concerning
level. The entity is required to showcase the manner in which buyers can pay for their
purchase and if they will be comfortable in making payments through prescribed
platforms (MOHAMAD and et. al , 2018). In context with London Review Bookshop it
is important and suggested to the shop that the payment options which has been accepted
should be displayed. This would be very helpful to know that the customer gets to know
more about the various payment types and are fully informed as well as pure transparency
is maintained where the buyer can make decisions according to their comfort zone and
which will be resulting in better effectiveness and efficiency.
 Updating the website- Website and the platform used for conducting e-commerce needs
to be regularly updated. This phenomena plays a significant role in e-commerce strategy
of an organisation where new information, offers, prices, list of new books and many
other related data needs to be updated. London Review Bookshop is highly recommended
to do so and update their website quite continuously and made more communicable
which will be beneficial to attract the customers and make them willing to purchase more