E-commerce and Marketing: Digitalization's Impact on Cloth Business

This report examines the profound impact of digitalization on the e-commerce and marketing landscape, with a specific focus on the cloth business. It begins with a background on how digitalization has transformed the e-commerce industry, enabling quicker transactions and business model adaptations. The literature review highlights the benefits of digitalization, such as enhanced customer experiences and increased purchasing consistency. The report explores the role of digitalization in improving shopping experiences, offering examples like Nike's innovative flagship store. The research aims to describe the significance of digitalization in the cloth business, addressing flexibility issues and the use of applications for customer engagement. The research question focuses on the role of digitalization in enhancing the shopping experience within the cloth business. The report references various studies to support its claims.

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Contents
Background...........................................................................................................................................2
Literature review...................................................................................................................................2
Research aim.........................................................................................................................................3
Research question..................................................................................................................................3
References.............................................................................................................................................4

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Background
E-commerce and marketing promote an organization to latent customers through a variety of
marketing channels. The e-commerce industry has been drastically reformed through
digitalization. It assists companies in offering quick checkouts and secure online transactions.
Digitization has enabled companies to change their business models and adapt to the new
market reality (Spremic, 2017). It is the incorporation of digital technology into all areas of a
business resulting in the way a business conducts its operations along with the value offered
to the customers. The digitization has made companies generate highly engaged customers. It
has started taking on greater significance for the cloth business. It has assisted companies to
attain benefits and the way customer is interacted (Homburg, Jozic and Kuehnl, 2017).
Literature review
Digitization has been effective in offering a consistent experience to the customers.
According to Hagberg, Sundstrom, and Nicklas, 2016, digitalization helps to cloth businesses
to attain customers who are likely to purchase new products. Moreover, engaged customers
purchase 90% more consistently and spend 60% more over online purchases. According to
Dumcius and Skersys, 2019, digitization has eased in speed delivery, customization and
transparency. The digitization has become an integral part of the operations and business
strategy of the cloth business.
According to the opinions of Hannibal and Knight, 2018, the trend of digitalization has
reinforced the business and the customers have become confident of the product they are
purchasing. The digitalization has come up with new business models assisting in greater
potential for success. Moreover, streams of data and transparency of the supply chain have
generated new business models in the cloth business. It provides information to the customers
required to make a sustainable purchase decision. As per the views of Bollweg, et al. 2019,
the digitalization has redefined the shopping space to being pertinent along with appealing
customers. As part of digitalization, technology has become an integral part of the hyper-
connected customers. It guides to the customers for the product availability, engaging
customers and enhancing the time being spent in the store by the customers.
One of the examples of digitalization can be seen in the case of Nike. The company has
opened a flagship store in New York known as ‘Nike House of Innovation 000’. This store is
quite impressive comprising digital elements to form an immersive and greatly expedient
experience for the customers. Other than the customization, the Nike store has instant check-

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outs which is a stand out feature of 6-floor studio identified as ‘Speed Shop’. It enables
customers to reserve shoes online to try in-store. Moreover, customers can find a locker with
their name and this locker can be unlocked through their smartphone. According to Zaman, et
al. 2019, the Nike store has availability of check-out so customers are not required to speak to
anyone or stand in the queue if they want to make a purchase. As per the views of Chernova,
et al. 2019, the digitalization initiative of Nike has resulted in convenience shopping and
engaging customers.
Research aim
The research aims to describe the ‘significance of digitalization in the cloth business’.
The digitalization in the cloth business has assisted in managing virtual experience for high-
end customers. The manufacturers can also manage data in a better way from order to
production (Ramaswamy and Ozcan, 2018). The flexibility issues concerning digitalization
have been considered in the report. This way manufacturers can know what they are making
and at what quality so that they can lead to flexibility (Jonak, Rudnicka and Wloch, 2020).
The applications also assist to the cloth business in providing support and engaging
customers other than just being a transactional platform (Rao, 2018).
Research question
“The role of digitalization for enhancing shopping experience in the cloth business”.

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References
Bollweg, L., Lackes, R., Siepermann, M. and Weber, P., 2019. Drivers and barriers of the
digitalization of local owner operated retail outlets. Journal of Small Business &
Entrepreneurship, pp.1-29.
Chernova, D.V., Sharafutdinova, N.S., Nurtdinov, I.I., Valeeva, Y.S. and Kuzmina, L.I.,
2019, April. The Transformation of the Customer Value of Retail Network Services Under
Digitalization. In International Scientific Conference “Digital Transformation of the
Economy: Challenges, Trends, New Opportunities” (pp. 252-260). Springer, Cham.
Dumcius, M. and Skersys, T., 2019. Towards Business Process Digitalization in SMEs: A
Case of a Small Optical Retail Business. International Journal of Economics and
Management Systems, 4.
Hagberg, J., Sundstrom, M. and Nicklas, E.Z., 2016. The digitalization of retailing: an
exploratory framework. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 44(7),
pp.694-712.
Homburg, C., Jozic, D. and Kuehnl, C., 2017. Customer experience management: toward
implementing an evolving marketing concept. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 45(3), pp.377-401.
Jonak, L., Rudnicka, A. and Wloch, R., 2020. Digitalization of Supply Chain Transparency:
The Case of ChainReact. In Sustainable Logistics and Production in Industry 4.0 (pp. 89-
102). Springer, Cham.
Ramaswamy, V. and Ozcan, K., 2018. Offerings as digitalized interactive platforms: A
conceptual framework and implications. Journal of Marketing, 82(4), pp.19-31.
Rao, H., 2018. Trends in Health Wearables. The International Journal of Frontier
Sciences, 2(2), pp.45-50.
Spremic, M., 2017. Governing Digital Technology–how Mature IT Governance can help in
Digital Transformation?. International Journal of Economics and Management Systems, 2.
Zaman, U., Jabbar, Z., Nawaz, S. and Abbas, M., 2019. Understanding the soft side of
software projects: An empirical study on the interactive effects of social skills and political

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skills on complexity–performance relationship. International Journal of Project
Management, 37(3), pp.444-460.