Business Strategy Implementation for the Digital World

This research paper delves into the implementation of digital media strategies within business processes, with a specific focus on AO Retail Limited in the United Kingdom. It critically analyzes various digital media platforms and business models, supported by a comprehensive literature review and qualitative data analysis. The analysis includes statistical data and graphical representations illustrating the impact of digital strategies on revenue generation. The report also incorporates models like DeLone and McLean and stakeholder analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of digital marketing channels. It concludes with recommendations for further digital media innovations to drive user engagement, website traffic, and sales growth. The paper also provides a detailed overview of the company's performance, including its stock market performance and its various strategic initiatives.

Running head: BUSINESS STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION FOR THE DIGITAL WORLD
Business strategy implementation for the digital world
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Executive summary
This research paper includes a discussion about the use of the digital media innovative strategies
in the business processes. The chosen country is United Kingdom and the digital media
innovations are with respect to the major sales channels used across the globe. The organization
chosen for this research paper is AO Retail Limited. This paper consists of a critical analysis of
the various digital media platforms and the business models which can support these processes.
The critical analysis is based on the literature review of the digital strategies in business
applications. This mainly provides an idea of the intended strategies that have been used by the
company. In addition, the paper also contains a list of qualitative data analysis which depicts the
statistical usages of the various digital media platforms. The statistics are depicted both in clear
view as well as graphical forms to provide a clear understanding of the solutions. In a contextual
basis, the statistics depicts the involvement of the digital strategies in their business model which
in turn has led to greater revenue generation. This paper concludes by recommending the use of
further digital media innovations. This will be used in addressing further business requirements
and will drive more users and traffic to the company website. This in turn will generate more
sales and tend to the success and growth of the company. The paper also includes various
analyses of the digital media strategies which is evident in chapter 4. These analyses represent
the various percentages by which the adoption has been effective.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction:....................................................................................................................5
Background of the study:.............................................................................................................5
Research aims and objectives:.....................................................................................................5
Research questions:.....................................................................................................................5
Chapter 2 Literature review:............................................................................................................5
Business strategies:......................................................................................................................6
Digital world:...............................................................................................................................6
Digital innovations in business strategies:...................................................................................7
Figure 1: Common organizational structure............................................................................8
Overview of the company:...........................................................................................................8
Introduction:................................................................................................................................9
Data collection process:.............................................................................................................10
Data analysis:.............................................................................................................................10
Chapter 4 Analysis and definitions:...............................................................................................10
Figure 2: Comparison of content engagement.......................................................................11
Figure 3: Blog post of the company......................................................................................12
Figure 4: Comparison of average blog posts over the years..................................................13
Figure 5: Landing page of the company sent via emails.......................................................14

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Figure 6: Comparison of the email opening rates between the year 2010 and 2015.............15
Figure 7: DeLone and McLean Model..................................................................................17
Figure 8: Stakeholder analysis...............................................................................................19
Figure 9: The digital ad spending budget comparison over the year in US dollars...............20
Figure 10: Digital marketing channel comparison................................................................21
Figure 11: Comparison of the stocks of the company due to digital business adoption.......22
Figure 12: Tangibility matrix.................................................................................................23
Chapter 5 Conclusion and Recommendations:..............................................................................23
Recommendations:....................................................................................................................23
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................24
Chapter 6 References:....................................................................................................................25
Appendices....................................................................................................................................28
Appendix 1.................................................................................................................................28
Appendix 2.................................................................................................................................29
Appendix 3.................................................................................................................................30
Table of figures
Figure 1: Common organizational structure....................................................................................7
Figure 2: Comparison of content engagement between the years 2012-13...................................10

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Figure 3: Blog post of the company..............................................................................................11
Figure 4: Comparison of average blog posts over the years..........................................................12
Figure 5: Landing page of the company sent via emails...............................................................13
Figure 6: Comparison of the email opening rates between the year 2010 and 2015.....................14
Figure 7: DeLone and McLean Model..........................................................................................15
Figure 8: Stakeholder analysis.......................................................................................................17
Figure 9: The digital ad spending budget comparison over the year in US dollars.......................17
Figure 10: Digital marketing channel comparison........................................................................18
Figure 11: Comparison of the stocks of the company due to digital business adoption...............19
Figure 12: Tangibility matrix.........................................................................................................20

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Chapter 1 Introduction:
Background of the study:
This research paper discusses about the innovations of the digital age on the recent
market of information and communications. This is mainly due to the rise of the trends in the
mobile and the internet technologies which is responsible for the increased innovative adoptions
of digital media in business models and operations. However, the consensus that must be
followed for the successful implementation of the digital innovations is still incomplete and the
need for a better solution is necessary.
Research aims and objectives:
In this research paper, the main aim includes a clear discussion of the information
security literatures and the digital innovation concepts. In addition, this paper also aims to
identify the main business models that must be followed to get an idea of the required
innovations in the digital media. Furthermore, the objectives of this paper are to critically
analyze the various digital media innovative strategies that are in the market.
Research questions:
The major questions that will be solved by this research paper are depicted in this section:
1. What is the use of the information system in the digital age of the business?
2. What are the proposed guidelines to be followed?
3. What are the main business models that are to be followed?

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Chapter 2 Literature review:
This section of the report discusses about the main concepts of the topic.
Business strategies:
Due to the recent trends and adoption techniques in the market in the information and
communication sectors, the concept of the business model has been implemented in various
organizations (Aitamurto and Lewis 2013). In comparison to the traditional model of business
operations which was supposed to be complex and static, the modern ways of digital business
strategies are supposed to be dynamic and easy (Storsul and Krumsvik 2013). For example, the
traditional ways of business development involved a large amount of investment for covering
various aspects in operations. The most effective way to get more business revenue is to involve
the possibility of new business trends. The company AO Retail Limited has adopted the digital
marketing business prospective to utilize the growth in that area. It can be seen from their
analytical report in chapter 4, the growth due to such activities is much high as compared to the
traditional ways of business.
Digital world:
The digital world refers to the utilization of the digital media which basically consists of
the internet (Brynjolfsson and McAfee 2012). This is mainly used to transfer the businesses
among the whole global populations (Fichman, Dos Santos and Zheng 2014). The traditional
way of business involved selling products among the local population which was associated to
following various steps like marketing for brand awareness, hiring of retail stores and then
successful sales driving (Günzel and Holm 2013). The digital implementation removed the need
for marketing campaigns and gave an opportunity to AO Retail Limited to reach the various
consumers across the globe with minimal investments. The major digital innovation strategies

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adopted by the company is depicted in the chapter 4 of this research paper which will bring light
into the main processes adopted and the success made.
Digital innovations in business strategies:
The digital innovations have led to the development of new types of business models.
The first model is the business strategy to business model and the next is the business model to
business process model. These proposed business solutions must be done to respond to four
different solutions. They are:
1. Presence of a general and comprehensive definitions
2. Presence of components to suffice the model
3. Presence of a single definition for one organization
4. The definition must present the views as presented from the earlier research point of view
A business model is basically used to define the organizational view which denotes the
whole underlying architecture (Simmons, Palmer and Truong 2013). This involves the addition
of all conceptual, graphical and textual components which in total drives the organizations
towards a common goal and objective. The main business processes adopted by the company
uses the e-commerce model of reaching the customers where they are given a 2-day order
completion guarantee making them more focused on their customer engagement requirements.

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Figure 1: Common organizational structure
(Source: Simmons, Palmer and Truong 2013, pp 750)
Overview of the company:
The company AO Retail Limited is considered to be an online retail store which
specializes in selling electric goods and kitchen products. The company is also listed in the
London Stock Exchange. The whole area of the company office occupies 50,000 sq ft which is
situated in Bolton (Ao.com 2017). In the year 2011, the company made a heavy investment of
750,000£ for the production of video reviews for their products which can be used to showcase
in their main websites along with the product page. In the same year, the company also invested
in renting out an office space measuring 15,000 sq ft comprising of 100 employees. In the year

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2013, the company was re-established as AO.com and started selling small appliances with their
products.
The company is looking for customer-centric approach and innovative use of video based
approach for product reviews. The AO have acquired a small firm in 2009 for accelerating this
growth in the digital world based on expert logistics. The launch of new UK distribution system
for customer service by digital media has helped in maintaining growth in the market. Following
the company’s rebranding as AO.com in 2013, in February 2014 the company floated on the
London Stock Exchange, raising £60 million to further fund its growth. Due to their great
achievements, the company gained more followers in facebook reaching up to a million
followers. This also made them to win a retail award from PayPal as a reward for recognition. In
the following year of 2014, the achievements of the company made them list in the London
Stock Exchanges as the AO World (Ao.com 2017). This also made the company a profit of
£86million because the founder decided to sell 10 percent of the company to the public. In the
same year, their branches were opened in Germany and in the year 2017, the company got an
award of Retail Week Employer of the Year.
Chapter 3 Research Methodologies:
Introduction:
This chapter of the research paper includes the possible sources which are to be used for
making an analysis. In addition, the data used in this section is collected from various journals
and e-books.

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Data collection process:
This paper contains an analysis of the various digital solutions that have been applied in
the business processes of an organization (Saunders and Lewis 2012). The data for the analysis
process is collected mainly from online journal, articles, reports and organizational databases.
Data analysis:
The paper has used the qualitative method of data analysis (Saunders and Lewis 2012).
This implies that this paper uses the secondary data for analysis which is found through online
journal, articles, reports and organizational databases. In addition, the stakeholder analysis and
the DeLone & McLean model are to be used in the process.
Chapter 4 Analysis and definitions:
As commented by Aral, Dellarocas and Godes (2013), 70% of the business to business
marketing plans are associated with the creation of more content engagement for the year 2017
as compared to the year 2016. This is mainly due to the increase in content engagement that has
led to the audience relying on these actions. This increases the click through rate and thus drives
more sales for the companies or concerned organization. This is the reason for the business to
increase more content on their posts so that they can get more engagement. In the data collected
which can be seen from the chart below, 25% of business organizations or companies all over the
world have kept to the same amount of digital strategies due to their continued effectiveness. In
addition, 2% of them have shifted from such adoptions and remaining 3% are unsure of this
innovation. This is mainly due to the fact that the use of the digital media needs to be
comprehended in the business solutions successfully.

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Figure 2: Comparison of content engagement
(Source: Aral, Dellarocas and Godes 2013, pp 10)
Blog post conversions:
A typical blog post is increasing in the recent years to get more engagement out from the
audiences. In the year 2014, a blog post usually consisted of an average of 808 words which
grew to 887 words average at the year 2015. In 2016, the blog post averages included a 1054
words post (Mezger 2014). This is mainly done to increase the engagement rates so that the
audiences will stay in the blog website for a longer amount of time thereby increasing the brand