Digital Business: Evaluating Trends, Models, and E-commerce Use

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of digital business, focusing on key trends, emerging models, and e-commerce applications, using eBay as a case study. It examines the advantages of digital technology, including edge computing, 5G, cyber security, IoT, and conversational marketing, and their implications for managing virtual businesses. The report critically evaluates various digital business models like freemium, on-demand, marketplace, digital ecosystem, experience, and hidden revenue, in the context of cyber security and ethical considerations. It also assesses the impact of collaborative relationships and strategic alliances, such as eBay's partnership with Yahoo, and discusses how e-commerce principles can be effectively used by eBay to enhance its business operations and profitability.

Digital Business
Individual report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Provide an overview of key trends and advantages of digital technology and implications for
managing virtual business in the global environment by drawing on your chosen business. 3
Critically evaluate new and emerging digital business models in the context of key businesses
issue such as cyber security and ethics that your chosen business uses or may use..............5
Evaluate the impact of new collaborative relationships and strategic alliance through digital
technology for your chosen business......................................................................................7
Discuss how e-commerce principles could be used by your chosen business.......................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Digital business is defined as process of adopting digital technology and transforming
company's products and customer experiences (Chaffey, Edmundson-Bird and Hemphill, 2019).
It impacts the operational functionality of business by innovating products which will create new
value for customer. Whereas, E-commerce is defined as buying and selling of goods and services
over internet. In this report, ebay company is taking into consideration which was founded on 3
September 1995, by Pierre Omidyar. The company act as a mediator between seller and buyer
which connects each other to provide products to customer on behalf of seller. This report will
cover different aspects such as trends and advantages of digital technology and their implications
in handling virtual business (Aagaard, Aagaard and Harrison, 2019). Moreover, an evaluation of
new and emerging businesses will be conducted in regards to cyber security. Moving along, the
influence of collaborative relationships and strategic alliance in context of ebay will be
evaluated. Finally, the e-commerce principles which can be used and applied by ebay will be
discussed.
MAIN BODY
Provide an overview of key trends and advantages of digital technology and implications for
managing virtual business in the global environment by drawing on your chosen business.
Digital Technology include various electronic tools, systems and devices which can be use for
compress large amount of information in storage devices. It also help in quicker transfer of data
from one source to another (Boojihawon, and Ngoasong, 2018).
There are different key trends and advantages of digital technology are as follows:
 Edge computing- This technology is defined as the method of capturing, storing, and
analysing the data of the respective company. By this technology business is able to
process and analyse their data in the best possible manner without outpouring the task of
data evaluation and interpretation (Osmundsen, Iden and Bygstad, 2018). It enables the
company to reduce data transportation cost and storage requirement, therefore it is
considered as cost effective. It also provides wide range of solutions for removing
complexities from data, hence it can facilitate better data management of ebay
(Kreutzer, 2021). The technology will allow the company to normalize large amount of
information into short segment keeping them segregated and enabling data used such as

management, easy accessibility and understanding which will further enable the
management in effective running of business and faster decision making (Vukšić,
Ivančić and Vugec, 2018).
 5G technology- This technology is a fifth generation technology which enable higher
speed of data transmission from one platform to another platform. This technology will
be completely based on OFDM (Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) which will
enable modulation of digital signal across different channels for reduce interference. The
given technology has several advantages like it increase the speed of data transmission
from one device to another device (Luz Martín‐Peña, Díaz‐Garrido and Sánchez‐López,
2018). This technology will also have low latency, here latency means how long time a
signal takes to go from its source to receiver. By this technology signal can pass from one
device to another platform easily in less time which will facilities fast transfer of
information (Sousa and Wilks, 2018). By adopting this technology, management of
business can ensure smooth and faster transfer of data. It will also help to connect seller
and buyer together on mobile and several other platforms. This will also enable effective
management of customer orders and payments of goods which will increase efficiency of
business and lead to rise its profitability (Gauthier, Bastianutti and Haggège, 2018).
 Cyber security- This technology is the application of several technologies which will
help to processes and protects systems, networks and devices from cyber attacks and
hacking. It has several advantages like it helps to protects data from unauthorized access,
it also improves information security of business data, it also protects individual data in
an organisation from being stolen (Abdelaal, Khater and Zaki, 2018). By adopting this
integrated technology in mentioned business, management of company can ensure that
their customer data is safe and secure. This will help to gain trust of customer that their
details such as name, contact number and bank account details are safe. By this customer
can easily share their personal details and do their shopping from company's website
which will ultimately help to rise in sales and profit of company.
 Internet of things- This technology is defined as a network of different physical objects
that is connected with sensors for transferring information to another objects and devices
over the internet (Zehir, Karaboğa and Başar, 2020). Advantages of using this
technology are it helps to monitor data of business by which it is easy to know the

performance of company, it also develop speed in business operations and many more.
By implementing this technology in given business, managers can easily find different
shopping patterns by searching and online browsing which will help business to sell
products to targeted customer. Moreover, it would also help in make changes in products
and services as per demand of customer which will increase the sales and rise in
profitability of company (Kedziora and KIVIRANTA, 2018).
 Conversational marketing- It is a type of marketing which is majorly focus on customer
and follows dialogue driven approach. The main advantages of adopting this trend is that
it includes intelligent chatbots that are designed to provide real time communication to
customers and buyers at their convenient time (Kumar and et.al 2020). By implementing
this technology in given business, customer would be able to ask their query at anytime
irrespective of timing of business. Hence this would facilitate customer to access website
any time in order to fulfil their needs regarding the products which are available online
(Büyüközkan and Göçer, 2018).
Critically evaluate new and emerging digital business models in the context of key businesses
issue such as cyber security and ethics that your chosen business uses or may use.
Digital business model is a kind of platform which create value based on the development of
customer benefit using digital technologies.
Several digital business models company can use are as follows:
 Freemium model- According to this model of digital business some services are
provided for free while other services are provided by charging fees from customer. By
applying this model business provide product to users with limited features to show value
of product to customer and keep them waiting longer. For dealing with issue of cyber
security, business can use freemium model (Urbach and Röglinger, 2019). By using this
model, firm can turns their data into intelligence, through which they can build platform
to better highlight recent threats and can take help of security professionals information
from the data they have collected.
 On-demand model- As per this model, business is offering virtual products to its
customer rather than physical products. The main example of this model can be seen in
online video stores, where a user get a right to watch a video for certain period of time.
For dealing with cyber security issue, this model provide cloud computing solution to

their customer where users data get safe and secure. The same data is also stored in more
than one servers at same time so that customer can access their data if one server get
down or lost.
 Marketplace model- Under this model, a information technology platform is provided
by e-commerce company which act as a facilitator between buyer and seller. The main
issue with this model is its complexity and dynamics. If a platform does not have seller it
will not attract buyer similarly if buyer does not have seller, platform will loose its
buyers. According to this model, it provide data backup facility to their customer where a
user or consumer can take backup of their data is different times like daily, weekly and
monthly. By this customer data will remain secure and protected (Tekic and Koroteev,
2019).
 Digital ecosystem model- In this model, there is a collection of interconnected
information technology which can function as a single unit. This model is made up of
suppliers, customers and trading partners. As per this model for solving cybersecurity
issue it provide software which automatically scan and identify relevant security issues to
protect of data of users and business. Through this it is easy to apply this business model
in business.
 Experience model- In this model, business provide wonderful experience to their user
when interacting with system, products or service. The purpose of business behind
adopting this model is to improve the design of their websites so that it provide
wonderful experience to their customer. This model provide encryption of users data, by
which company can convert their customer data into code specifically to prevent them for
unauthorized access. Hence this would help company to prevent from cyber security
issues (Saura, Palos-Sanchez and Correia, 2019).
 Hidden revenue business model- According to this model, business do not charge their
customer for the services it provide to them. Instead of this companies keep their
customer out of revenue model. The purpose behind this model is to keep the customer
and revenue of business separate, so that businesses can focus on its product and services
to take maximum benefits from customer interaction. For dealing with cyber security
issues it provide timely updates to its website to that businesses can update it and can

maintain network security. By giving updates it is easy to remove weakness from
application or website so that cyber criminals cannot use to steal customer data.
Evaluate the impact of new collaborative relationships and strategic alliance through digital
technology for your chosen business.
eBay has made strategic partnership with Yahoo to form commercial partnership. By this
partnership it will benefit both the companies for serving their user and merchant. By this
agreement it will make major impact on areas such as search and graphical advertising, online
payments, co-branded toolbar and opportunity to explore “click to call” functionality.
 Search and advertising- By this partnership, yahoo has become third party provider for
all the graphical advertisements which is made through ebay website. This partnership
has enable yahoo to expand their strength with the ebay high quality online inventory
system providing customers an optimal marketing experience. Collaboration of both
companies has increased the quality and comprehensive of ebay platform which has
enable users to see more up-to-date listings of million of products of mentioned company
website. This has provide customer a better experience by enabling them to find relevant
ebay products (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019).
 Integrated commerce payment system- Collaboration between these two companies
has made paypal as a third party provider of its online wallet. This has provided
customer with additional online payment choice to pay the price of their products which
they purchase from ebay platform. This has enable company to sell their products both
locally and globally. Customers from all over the world can purchase products from ebay
platform which will help to increase sales and rise in profitability of company. Co-branded eBay toolbar- This collaborative partnership has launched newer version of
toolbar which has included the features of both eBay and yahoo. This toolbar has enables
customers to get one-click access to features including Yahoo Mail, Yahoo.com and My
Yahoo. The another main advantage of this new toolbar is that it has provided account
guard to protect customers from spoof website which can easily steal their data while
they are searching for products on eBay platform.
 “Click to call” advertising functionality- This refers to types of google ads, when user
click on those ads it directly make call to business by linking users to their website. This
collaborative relationship between two companies has enable this technology. Through

this technology whenever any ad of product get display on customer screen it directly get
them to company website by which customer can easily purchase them if they want. This
technology has benefited for company so much.
Discuss how e-commerce principles could be used by your chosen business.
These principles are all about developing two- way communication with customer. By
these principle business can digital expertise that will reflect individual taste and preference.
There are different e-commerce principle use by e-bay company are:
 Unique Design elements- This is considering as one of the most important e-commerce
website design that exist. By unique websites a business can attract large number of
customer to their website which would increase traffic on website. Uniqueness in website
by developing designer templates is very necessary because it creates first impression that
how customer is perceiving the website. In the terms of mentioned business, by making
their website more interactive and attractive e-bay can increase their traffic on website
through which customer can develop a tendency to purchase the product. Simply by
adding more designer templates mentioned company would be able to increase attention
of customer on their website which would help to increase sales of company.
 Emphasis on security- Business should pay major attention on security of their website.
It is necessary for company to create those websites which are highly secure so that user
can trust it and can easily use it also. To provide security to websites, businesses can do
following things such as- pay attention to several details like broken links and 404 errors,
they can also use a secure server, they can also use trust seal such as Norton and Mcfree
to provide assurance to secure transactions process. In the terms of respective company,
management of company can also provide security to their website by adopting certain
measure which are discussed above. Through this a company can protect their website
and can provide security to customers that their data is safe and secure.
 Responsive Technology- It is very necessary that the website of business should be
responsive in nature. Generally several websites take long time in responding to customer
need by which they do not prefer to purchase product form that website. Therefore it is
very necessary that the website should be highly responsive in nature. In the terms of
mentioned business, management of company can use several technologies such as
Gridset, Abode Edge inspect and many more. By using such technologies management of

eBay can make their website highly responsive which would enable customer to do
shopping from that website and an increase sales and profitability of company (Gupta,
Mejia, and Kajikawa , 2019).
 Target Market Knowledge- Knowledge about the demand of customer is very
necessary for business to survive in both offline and online market. Sales of product of
company in online platform would happen only when business sell products according to
target customer. Therefore it is necessary for business to update their product list
according to demand of customer. In the terms of mentioned company, management of
eBay should make proper market research to launch their product according to demand of
customer. This would help to help to increase in sales of company and make company
profitable.
 Effective product description- Information about products should be clear and concise.
There should not be any technical jargons use while giving information about products.
Details of products should be small and easily understandable by another person. In the
terms of mentioned company, management can make their product description short and
easy which can easily understandable by customer. Details of products should include
things such as its uses, description, seller name and many more. Effective products
description would help customer to decide whether they should purchase product or not.
 Search column feature- This feature enable customers to search products according to
their need and want. Management of mentioned company has already equipped with this
feature, but there are certain things management of eBay can do to upgrade their search
column are as follows:
1. They can enable auto-complete functionality in their search column by which Google
will automatically detect the sentence before customer finish it. This would save
customer time (Dornberger, 2018).
2. Management can also enable Omnipresent search feature, by which search box would be
enable at every page so that customer do not need to return to home page for searching
something. This would save customer time and energy.
Hence, by adopting these features eBay would be able to create new customer experience for
their users.

CONCLUSION
On the basis of above report it has been concluded that digital business technology play a
very vital role in overall success of an organisation. By adopting this technology, businesses
would be able to generate sales not only from local level but from global level also. In this report
it has been discussed different key trends and advantages of adopting digital technology in
business and how it is has impacted the business operations in global environment. Moreover
different digital business model has also been discussed to know how they can protect business
from cyber security and ethics. Next to it, impact of collaborative relationship of given company
by digital technology has also been discussed. Finally, different e-commerce principles and their
uses in given company have been discussed.

REFERENCES
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