London School of Commerce - Online Business, Security and Tool Report

This report, prepared for London School of Commerce's CFPBUS006 module, explores the evolving landscape of online business in the wake of COVID-19. It begins by examining the positive and negative aspects of online retail compared to traditional offline models, considering factors like ease of setup, global reach, competition, and customer contact. The report then delves into the challenges and measures related to online security and privacy, including hacking, malware, data breaches, and the importance of strong passwords and privacy settings. Furthermore, it analyzes the impact of the pandemic on business operations, focusing on the adoption of online tools like Zoom and Cisco Webex for video conferencing, comparing their features, applications, and suitability for different business needs. The report concludes by highlighting the key takeaways and implications for businesses navigating the digital age.

Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................................3
Positive and negative aspects of services and products being sold online.............................................3
Discuss the challenges and measures of security and privacy that individuals and businesses take
when they go online...............................................................................................................................5
Due to widespread of COVID-19, many businesses are turning to provide their services online. Select
any two tools, compare and contrast their features, applications, suitability etc. ................................7
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The humankind has undergone a drastic shift in the last few months due to Covid 19. The
needs of companies and demand of work force has changed radically. No one has ever predicted
that the whole world would be voluntarily closed. So to adopt this unwelcoming situation, the
businesses globally are adopting the theory of “work from home”. Many sectors have been
adversely affected by this pandemic, but to keep them going the businesses has smartly started
the use of technology like online session, zoom meetings, online delivery of essential products.
This report covers the optimistic and pessimistic aspect of goods and services being sold online
& offline. Plus the report cover, challenges and measures faced by the individuals and businesses
in working online and different tools used by businesses to deliver their services online.
MAIN BODY
Positive and negative aspects of services and products being sold online
Here’s presenting some plus and minus aspects of online retail-
Pros:-
Quick and Easy: - It is comparatively easier to setup an online website than physical store.
Website is easier to execute these days as one need few technical persons plus there is an
advantage as well that the company already had a pre existing route for sales so they don’t need
to spend money on marketing.
24/7 sales: - Online businesses and web stores can simply trade all day long. The companies
don’t have to manage a store in order to trade. It helps the customer to shop when they are free
and when it is convenient for them and this helps you provide your services for much longer
hours than in physical stores.
Global Reach: - Online web stores give an additional point and access to businesses so that they
can capture a wider pool of customers. So the companies can sell their products and services
locally as well as internationally if they wish for it. This will certainly help the business to grow
at a higher pace as compared to the physical store.
Cons:-

High Competition: - Physical stores are limited in number but when it comes to online business,
no one can constraint the use of internet and thus one can have many competitors. Web stores
like Amazon who sell directly to customers will always have a superior power than your
business. Making yourself distinguishable will take lot of efforts and marketing, which means
higher cost.
No Customer Contact: - Their will no contact with the customers, so it wills difficult to sell
them other items that was much easier when meeting them physically. As it was simpler to catch
their attention and their interest if one has a real conversation with them. In web stores the
customer has to click a button and then they are gone.
Hardware Dependency:- The businesses are dependent on hardware system. That is something
risky because if there is any small problem the website goes under construction and then the
customers can have trust issues. In order to maintain it perfectly the company needs to have fail
over service that requires huge costs and that is not easy for every business to invest.
Positive and negative aspects of services and products being sold offline
Here’s presenting some plus and minus aspects of offline retail-
Pros:-
Checking products instantly: - The major benefit of visiting physical store to but is that one
can right away check the goods personally and there will be no chance of disappointment with
the quality of product (Chawla, 2020)
. As compared to in online shopping the customer check the product on the website and
sometimes it turn into a disaster when one receives the product.
No waiting: - Another advantage of offline purchasing is that one doesn’t need to wait for the
delivery to arrive in 2-3 days and can use the product instantly. In time of emergencies offline
shopping is the best solution one has; just go the shop pick whatever is needed.
Personal Touch: - When a customer regularly visits a store, it helps in maintaining personal
contact the shop owner understand choices and preferences of the customers that is not possible
in online shopping. Lack of personal touch and understanding about the mind set of customer is a
drawback for online shopping or web stores.

Cons:-
Not many Choices: - The biggest downside of offline shopping is there is not variety of
products available as there are limited spaces in the physical store, as compared to online
shopping as there are unlimited products waiting for the customers. So online marketing has an
upper hand on offline shopping (Chawla, 2020).
Fewer Discounts: - As compared to online shopping sites there are fewer discounts. Web stores
keep running cash backs and discounts and most of the time the cost of the item is more on
physical store as compare to online websites. Therefore if the customer is one of them who like
have great discounts so online sites are best for you.
Time Consuming: - Offline shopping is more time consuming as one has to visit store and
sometimes multiple stores, but in online shopping one has to invest few minutes and can select
their choice of products. This simply saves times and even gets the product to the customer’s
doorstep.
Discuss the challenges and measures of security and privacy that individuals and businesses take
when they go online.
There are various challenges which is faced by business. They are as follows:
hacking – it is a common challenge which is faced by business when they are online. The
hackers hack confidential data and info of customer’s.
Malware- it is a virus or spyware which is sent into the network or system. This is done to
obtain or steal data of customers.
Securing and protecting data online
this is also a major challenge for business as they are not able to protect data. Due to the huge
amount of the data generation ,most of the firms are unable to maintain regular check as it is
profitable to perform security checks as well as observation within real time.
Measures taken are
Validation as well as filtration of End to End points inputs
Data stored within a storage medium for example transaction logs as well as other information
that are sensitive have varying level but all of them are not enough. Size of the Data

continuously enhanced availability over the data is being moved hence the new challenges are
being posted to the big storage as it does not keep track of location of the data.
Nowadays internet cans be a dangerous place as malicious software apps that contains some
kinds of viruses as well as phishing scams that are growing day by day. Data breaching are also
becomes common nowadays.
There are several ways through which individuals as well as business can protect their privacy as
well as personal information online.
Nowadays everyone aware of their privacy concerns.
Stay Updated
There should be always computer’s operating system ,security software as well as browser up to
date and also turn the automatic updates regularly. Think before while responding the special
offer demands as they can easily asks personal information (Cho, Ippolito. and Yu,, 2020).
Blocking cookies
Another Good way to maintain privacy is that blocking third party cookies while online.
Blocking cookies makes harder time for tracking the last time visited. Such as whats the
username and where a person sign in .In some cases the blocking of the cookies might be
difficult within some cases ,as here the increase within the privacy is worth.
Unauthorized access – Various websites are now providing the options to link their accounts for
example Google It enables an individual to link their various Gmail accounts within a browser.
Various sites are now giving the options to access their sites.
Secure connections, Antivirus Services, firewall (Cho, Ippolito. and Yu, , 2020).
If somebody doesn’t have the strong password on home wifi or office wifi to create . Use
firewall ,protecting the computer from the network traffic is crucial.
Stronger Passwords
An individual username as well as password that combines remain critically crucial for
the maintaining security online. The problems is that each and every websites needed a password
as people nowadays are becomes lazy through creating simple passwords again and again on
several websites (Hong. and Pittman, 2020)

Privacy settings
It is a good start to protect yourself by updating the privacy settings on websites as well as
services. Since various sites default information being shared publicly and at the same time it
will also aids to makes sure about personal information that can be seen only by some people.
Ideally an individual choose to share his or her information. An individual username as well as
password that combines remain critically crucial for the maintaining security online
Due to widespread of COVID-19, many businesses are turning to provide their services online.
Select any two tools, compare and contrast their features, applications, suitability etc.
Due to Covid 19 global gatherings are shutting down and the demand for the video conferencing
is increased day by day. These firms are using this panic condition as an opportunity to connect
their consumers easily on a more deeper level and also attracting the new features and many
more (Cho, Ippolito. and Yu, , 2020)
Zoom and Cisco webex are both of them the most popular web conferencing platforms within
the market right now. Both of them are specialize within the web conferences but at the same
time are the parts of the larger suites of tools that can enables users to manage their web
confining Webinar, VoIP as well as other communication software by only one system.
Features
On the surface of Webex Meeting and Zoom both are very similar products but at the same time
they do have difference within their features that are vital when choosing between the two
Webex meeting might be good for the larger firms as well as enterprises that are helpful to hosts
the meeting that are in huge number (Li, Chen. and Zhang, 2020 )
. It is noted that the Webex meetings are also easily utilized alongside of the various other
CIisco’s Webex communication tool (Hong. and Pittman, 2020)
. It is good choice for the buyers who are looking to merge their web conferencing , tools of the
clod based phone system.
Zoom is also consider good for the firms of all the sizes. It is also designed within such way
that can fulfill the requirements of the business needs. It also gives the flexibility within the
merging of the conferencing software with their team chat software and VoIP software.

Limitations
Both the Webex meeting as well as Zoom meeting has limitations .such as given below
The accessing as well as learning how to use Webex more advanced features can proven as
difficult. People also complaint that as compare to the other web conferencing tools. On the other
hand Zoom is sparse at times. Zoom is also not a good choice for those people who required
simple setup s it is does not have a browser based clients and also it does not have the same
features as similar to the desktop versions (Gray, Wong-Wyli., Rempel,2020).
Weber Pricing Vs Zoom pricing
Both of them have the comparable pricing plans as both of them offer plans that are free as well
as similar capabilities. Only difference between both of these plans is that WebEx allows free
plans to its user to host any kind of meeting of any length while Zoom caps meeting such as 40
minutes per meeting. WebEx meeting design for small teams as well as mid-sized teams are less
expensive at $ 13.50 per month per host for the small meeting as well as $19.99 per month for
the midsized teams (Li, Chen. and Zhang, 2020 ). These offerings also expand to utilsing the
other communication s such as VOIP, Webinar and many more.
When its comes to the Zoom it also becomes cheaper options as it has around $19.99 per host as
compared to the meeting of the Webex , also webex meeting also enables up to 200 participants
while Zoom increases up to 500 members and also it allows the benfits from room systems and
webinar system solutions (Gray, Wong-Wyli., Rempel,2020).
Suitability
Webex and Zoom meeting both are fairly comparable pricing ,thus if somebody on a budget
WebEx meeting will be more beneficial; as well as cost effective ,also Webex meeting are
mostly used within midsized businesses but at the same time Zoom is also Popular for the small
businesses.
CONCLUSION
From the report it can be concluded that although usage of technology was at boom but
during this pandemic (Covid 19) technology has helped and supported many businesses in
achieving their goals. Online shopping has become trendy and has helped the public in getting

essential products with one click at their doorsteps. Though online and offline shopping have
their own pros and cons, but in this situation online shopping has made it much easier for the
businesses to earn profits and for individuals to get the services. There have been various
challenges that individuals have to face while using online websites like security and privacy.
Same with businesses their trades have become clearer to the public.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cho, H., Ippolito, D. and Yu, Y.W., 2020. Contact tracing mobile apps for COVID-19: Privacy
considerations and related trade-offs. arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.11511.
Gray, L.M., Wong-Wylie, G., Rempel, G.R.,2020. Expanding Qualitative Research Interviewing
Strategies: Zoom Video Communications. The Qualitative Report, 25(5), pp.1292-1301.
Chawla, A., 2020. Coronavirus (COVID-19)–‘Zoom’Application Boon or Bane. Available at
SSRN 3606716.
Li, K., Chen, Y. and Zhang, L., 2020. Exploring the influence of online reviews and motivating
factors on sales: A meta-analytic study and the moderating role of product category. Journal of
Retailing and Consumer Services, 55, p.102107.
Hong, S. and Pittman, M., 2020. eWOM anatomy of online product reviews: interaction effects
of review number, valence, and star ratings on perceived credibility. International Journal of
Advertising, pp.1-29.1
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