E-Commerce Strategy: Enhancing Business Processes and Profitability

This report delves into e-commerce strategies, emphasizing the importance of understanding and meeting customer expectations. It analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of deploying an e-commerce strategy, using ASDA as a case study to demonstrate how e-commerce enhances business processes and profitability. The report explores the technologies needed for a secure e-commerce site, including web servers, payment gateways, and database technologies, and evaluates the necessity of an integrated communication platform. It provides a critical analysis of the role database technology plays in e-commerce solutions, covering aspects like data protection and security. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and their implications for businesses engaging in e-commerce.

E-Commerce and
Strategy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Discussion about significance of understanding, addressing & meeting customer expectations
at the time of deploying e-commerce strategy............................................................................3
Using organisational case study analyse how e-commerce has allowed a company to enhance
its business processes & profitability..........................................................................................5
Provide critical analysis of both the advantages and disadvantages of deploying an e-
commerce strategy......................................................................................................................6
Discuss a broad range of technologies that are required to develop and deploy a secured e-
commerce site..............................................................................................................................7
Evaluate & justify the requirements to have an integrated communication platform at the time
of deploying an e-commerce solution.........................................................................................8
Critical evaluate the role that database technology currently plays in the provision of an e-
commerce solution....................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
E-commerce is defined as a modern business practice which is associated with buying as
well as selling products and service, transmitting funds or money by electronic network. One of
the major source of implementing e-commerce activities is internet. It is said that business
transaction supports businesses such as B2C, B2B, C2B & C2C (Luo and et. al., 2020). E-
commerce is basically a support given to business & industries which allow in operations at
global level. It also help organisation to enhance the productivity and profitability of organisation
and also save the cost of implementing activities. For the present report, ASDA is taken into
consideration. It is a British supermarket retailer which was founded in the year 1949 by Peter
and Fred Asquith. The head office of company is located in West Yorkshire, England. The
company has presence in around 630 cities and offer its products as well as services via offline
and online medium both.
The report will cover significance of understanding, addressing and meeting customer
expectation at the time of deploying e-commerce tactics. In addition to this, there is a discussion
about how e-commerce allow businesses to improve their processes and profitability level. The
advantages & disadvantages of deploying e-commerce strategy and various technologies which
are needed to develop s secure-commerce site is described in the report. Moreover, the report
will cover an understanding about requirement of integrate communication platforms at the time
of developing e-commerce solution. In the last, role that database technology plays in relation to
e-commerce solution is elaborated in a proper manner.
TASK 1
Discussion about significance of understanding, addressing & meeting customer expectations at
the time of deploying e-commerce strategy.
E-commerce is basically an act of making transaction that is selling, transferring and
buying of funds by the assistance of internet & other associated means. In addition to this, E-
commerce is mainly categorised in four major business segments that are Business to customers,
Business to business, customer to business and customer-to-customer as well (Carta and et. al.,
2019). Customer expectations is defined as the requirements as well as preferences of buyers
regarding goods and services offered by an organisation. It is significant for a business entity to
focus on meeting with the expectations of customer as it help in sustaining in market for longer-

time that has positive impact on performance and profitability of an organisation. The main
motive of every company is to fulfil the needs of its customer and potential buyers as it assist
retaining in gaining trust of customers and enhance the customer base level of company.
Therefore, customer expectations is considered as one of the ley factor that derive change within
the function as well as operations of business.
If it is talking about present industry trends, customer expectations are evaluated and
analysed by companies in order to gain insight about requirements and preferences of customer
which are flourishing at marketplace and impact on the overall social and environmental trends
as well. Therefore, it is significant for organisations to gain an understanding, addressing and
meeting with requirements of customer and potential buyers (Kawa and Maryniak, 2019). The
significance of understanding, addressing as well as meeting customer expectations is given
below: To seek knowledge about the right buyers- E-commerce is a broader concept that is
available to companies to dealing with such competitive environment and raise market
share as well. It is significant for an organisation to know what people want to serve them
as it help in retaining in market for longer time period. Therefore, at the time of
deploying e-commerce gaining insight about customers requirement renders the business
entity knowledge related to an appropriate market segment they require to target as per
the offering of goods as well as services. In addition to this, if it is talking about
addressing stage where those products were offered that individual want and purchase
that leads to meeting with expectation of customer by company in an effective manner.
Therefore, customer requirements as well as preference assist company to gain
knowledge about market trends in an appropriate way. For ensuring customer satisfaction & loyalty- Another importance of understanding as
well as addressing customer expectations is it help in gaining the trust of customers due
to which an entity is able to retain customers for longer time period. In addition to this, it
is analysed that increase in customer base level enhance the market presence and market
share of an organisation that leads to attainment of competitive advantage at marketplace.
 For effective & successful positioning in market- It is determined that understanding
about the expectations of customer help an organisation to properly position its products
as well as service at marketplace. In addition to this, successful positioning of product

increase the chance of product acceptance and success within the market that has impact
on profitability and revenue level in a positive manner. In the world of e-commerce and
consumption of internet, it is significant for companies to strongly position its products in
order to attract large number of customers and gain higher profits as well. With the help
of gaining knowledge about customer’s expectations an entity can develop effective
strategies that help in potential deployment of marketing and techniques as well.
Moreover, it also help in gaining higher growth and success at marketplace.
Using organisational case study analyse how e-commerce has allowed a company to enhance its
business processes & profitability.
ASDA is one of the supermarket in UK that offer high quality products and services in
order to attain customer loyalty and enhance market share as well (Lynn and et. al., 2019). The
company is flexible and capable enough to integrate operations and activities as per the changing
environment, market trends and customer expectations as well. Asda has an effective and
flexible distribution channel by which it’s good as well as services via intangible and physical
means by incorporating offline and online processes.
In easier terms, Asda has established as retail market that has physical stores and with the
change in time, the company started offering product via online medium in order to increase its
customer base level. This assist company to earn higher profits, increase revenue level & more
significantly meeting customer requirements. Asda at present is aiming and developing shopping
more easy and convenient for customers and for this organisation is connecting both offline and
online stores.
Organisation is making investment in offering easy and convenient shopping experiences
to customer and involved offline and e-commerce operations integration. Therefore, procedure
are involved in which business entity is planned to give seamless service to customers and its
potential business. The business strategy involves new products and categorisation, competitive
pricing, enhanced efficiency and so on. This scheme is known as newly-digital Nectar customer
Loyalty (Mangiaracina and et. al., 2019).
The whole project was developed by higher authorities of ASDA in order to gain leading
position at marketplace and enhance profitability of company. It is analysed that the expected
figure that is saved by brand in terms of cost in next five years is £450 million. As per the
research , most of the buyers purchase goods with the help of digital channels and spend more

time as compare to customer who visit store and make purchase decision. By the assistance of E-
commerce tools and related technologies, it directly impact positively on profitability and
revenue level of Asda. In addition to this, such technologies offers a chance to e-commerce
business to make shopping easy and convenient to customers.
Furthermore, organisation customer loyalty is attained by providing ease and
convenience of shopping to customer that is they find products at a single click and easily order
them with the single click. In addition to this, it is determined that around 10 million people
chooses to buy products online as it save their time and provide products at their doors (Pei and
Yan, 2019). Therefore, it is said that E-commerce allow an organisation to reach large number of
people within stipulated time period that leads to increase in sales and profitability of an
organisation. Moreover, it also help in increasing market presence and performance in an
appropriate manner.
Provide critical analysis of both the advantages and disadvantages of deploying an e-commerce
strategy.
E-commerce define as a tool which provides new opportunities and possibilities to a business
entity which assist in making the sales of company high and more revenue with the help of loyal
customers. It has been said that ASDA adopts e-commerce strategy in their business functions
which help them in order to raise their profitability along with the efficiency of organisations.
Therefore, it is considered as one of the beneficial process for business entities which includes
both advantages and disadvantages along with them. Advantages and disadvantages of the e-
commerce strategies are going to be discussed as follows
ADVANTAGES OF E-COMMERCE Cost reduction- ASDA main strategy is to integrate their both offline as well as online
offline processing which increases the loyalty of customer in an effective manner. With
the help of adopting e-commerce strategies, managers of ASDA reduces the extra cost of
the company in an effective manner (Huseynov and Özkan Yıldırım, 2019).
 Faster buying as well as selling processes- It has been identified that the overall process
of e-commerce functionality is fast as well as consumes less time with the help of which
ASDA can improve the experience of their customers in an effective manner. With the
help of online services, customers experience towards shopping with the organisation

increases and this make them remain loyal towards them. This as a result help managers
of ASDA in order to raise their sales along with the increment of profitability and growth.
DISADVANTAGES OF E-COMMERCE Lack of data protection along with the lower security system- Along with the advantage
there are some issues related to this which needs to be considered by the managers of
ASDA which is data protection. Company need to upload ample number of data and
information on online websites in order to make their plan implement in an effective way.
This is one of the biggest threat for the organisation for the business entity which says
that information can be stolen as well as misused by the competitors (Shahzad and et. al.,
2020).
 Regular modifications in needs and demand of customers- The technology as well as e-
commerce industry is continuously changes as the needs and requirements of customer
changes. This as a result lack the competitiveness of ASDA in reference to technology
along with the service systems as different rivals effectively implement better and high
quality of products and services with the help of technological advancements.
Discuss a broad range of technologies that are required to develop and deploy a secured e-
commerce site.
In present time, E-commerce tends to change significant habits in that helps in purchasing and
selling of commodities. Internet tends to offer effective solution in terms of meeting the
requirements of selling and purchase. Considering the transforming time of E-business in terms
of achieving growth in frequent way which is helpful for customers to reach for the global
boundary. In terms of developing and deploying secured e-commerce sites there are few
methodologies that are used and elaborated as underneath: Web server: It is the significant platform for which e-commerce website is adult. It is
prominently for the effective storage of network for JavaScript, PHP, HTML and other
files regarding the effective database which is stored (Xu and et. al., 2019). This platform
tends to offer proper security for the effective satisfaction of customer as e-commerce
tends to safeguard regarding their data at the time of transaction. For this, web servers
tends to secure websites from any sort of attack of hackers and viruses. For this, effective
platform is helpful for ASDA in terms of securing transaction for their customers in an
effective way and also tends to offer ease to their customers for concerning shopping.

 Web tools: It is undertaken as the authorised techniques which is useful in terms of
creating frontier of e-commerce website. These are concerned with HTML text to other
complex graphics authority techniques. For this, E-commerce website is need to have
effective detection in terms of neglecting price for scrapping which is possible only with
the help of web tools. In terms of ASDA, it tends to prove their online identify online
identity for company in terms of making effective use of web tools to secure transaction
which is made by their customers itself to make their site more secured (Niu, Mu and Li,
2019). Database system: This system is prominently known for the integral aspect of e-
commerce considering the website regarding the effective use and storage of information
considering the product and services. This is quite significant use of technology which is
need in terms of developing and running business in an effective and smooth way and
prominently proceed orders that are placed by customers. In terms of ASDA, for being a
retail company it is important for them to conduct proper database system to create safe
and secure website.
 Networking: It is defined as the effective sharing and exchanging of information in terms
of meeting the prominent goals and objectives of personnel. For an e-commerce website
it is quite imperative to secure their networking system considering the effective use by
them in order to safeguard the data and transaction of customers in prominent manner.
For this, there are several applications and proxy firewalls that can be installed by the
website of e-commerce in terms of securing transaction and also extenuate the effective
solution. In addition to this, hand networking is useful for e-commerce website of ASDA
to effectively manage prominent networking so that they can attract lot of customers and
gain their attention and also effective collect data and information of customers (Wagner,
Schramm-Klein and Steinmann, 2020).
Evaluate & justify the requirements to have an integrated communication platform at the time of
deploying an e-commerce solution.
Organisations are helped by managing the association with the real time communication
capabilities. This is very important that there are meaningful interactions between the customer
for managing the satisfaction level of customers. In context of the present situation, there is
importance of demands and needs of the clients. This provides help in enhancing profits and

sales of products and services. In context of ASDA, it is seen that customer satisfaction is
attained after evaluating the demands of clients. This company develops an identity for managing
the need of meeting needs and demands of the customers. There is requirement of managing
different business activities so that goals are attained in effective time. The integrated marketing
plan developed by ASDA includes the following features –
Establish user experience - Integrated communication platform provides help to ASDA is
increasing customer experience. This provides help in managing different areas that leads to
enhance customer experience (Gans, Stern and Wu, 2019). The customers are allowed to have
effective time to manage the real time access and develop proper experience. Integrated
communication platform helps ASDA to work in such a manner that customers are given priority
and their demands are achieved in specified time.
Easier for maintenance: when companies prepare integrated communication platform, this
is easier to manage the customer queries and other problems they are facing while managing the
customer experience. There is need of sufficient funds and money that can help in preparing
plans to reach the customer experience effectively. In context of ASDA, it is considered that all
data and information related to customers is properly planned in order to enhance the experience.
The integrated communication plan is developed for enhancing the needs of clients. By using
this, the funds are properly planned and goals are achieved.
Introduction of innovative services: When ASDA is using integrated communication
platform to interact with customers, it will enhance the experience faced by them while
purchasing the products and services. There is need of managing high customer experience for
increasing sales and profits. This application provides help in managing innovative services such
as chatbox on which customers can directly contact to the support team of company. They solve
queries quickly and manage to increase customer satisfaction (Peng and et. al., 2019). In context
of ASDA, it is seen that there are various affordable and security planning done for managing the
way in which customers are working and taking care of management. There are various
requirements and needs for attaining goals. This can be done by effectively planning to provide
services in such a manner that clients are happy and satisfied. There are different innovative
services provided to customers in managing the needs and demands. It is essential to fill
customer gap and increase their satisfaction level. The concept of Integrated communication
platform provide help in managing effective way for delivering the products online. This

provides a way for providing products directly at homes of customers. This enhances their
satisfaction level. Hence, companies like ASDA must have good integrated communication
plan.
Critical evaluate the role that database technology currently plays in the provision of an e-
commerce solution.
Database Technology is a tool or an instrument which takes or collects data form the provider,
store it, organize it and finally process it in the most systematic way which enable user to easily
and intuitively collect and reconcile the data according to their requirements and the details they
need for which they are looking and searching (Vieira and et. al., 2019). There are different
shapes and sizes in which these technologies are provided in market with their respective
simplicity and complexities. Database technologies are the effective e-commerce tool which
enable users ease and comfort as well as ensure the safety and storage of data in the correct
place. Thus there are number of benefits and solutions provided by database technology to e-
commerce and which are beneficial for Asda as well. Some of them are mentioned below in
context of Asda: Provides Structure- The major solution provided to Asda's e-commerce strategy by
database technologies is a structure to vast and wide range of data of the supermarket and
stores across UK and others. A structure is very essential for companies to store their data
and e-commerce is supported by database technologies offering a peaceful solution to
their problems of mixing of information removing long search hours or even days for a
small peace of detailed information. Attracts an Audiences- These database systems enable Asda's online site to pinpoint
potential customers based on gathered and compiled information. Teams like marketing
and others in Asda can use customer data for completing their tasks and finishing them in
most effective manner such as of conducting market research. The data enable them in
make more productive and profitable marketing strategies as well as allows them in
staying close contact. This resolves the problem of lack of market knowledge and
customer preference understandings (Li, Shen and Huang, 2019). Tracks Data- Another solution rendered is of tracking of information as databases are the
integral part of a successful online operation or site it play a very crucial role. Therefore,
with the ability of storing, organising and analysing a huge range of data in just few

clicks and seconds. It automatically showcases the needs and solutions provided by the
technologies to the operations of e-commerce of Asda and other users. With the help of
sorted and well organised data company can make fast replies and responses and updates
according to the occurrence of need and even in emergencies.
 Stores wide range of Data- The database technologies offers storage solutions as a wide
range of information belonging to separate segments are stored and organised through
them. Asda's online business website is made more potential and productive as all data is
stored in one place in secured manner and offers more flexibility to the working and
operating of the functions online (Ghavamipoor and Golpayegani, 2020).
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been concluded that E-commerce plays an important role in
understanding, addressing and meeting with the requirements and expectation of customer. In
addition to this, it also assist company to reach large number of customer that has positive impact
on its sales and profitability level. It is determined that an integration communication platform
allow companies to gain insight about customer experience and implement activities in an
effective manner. There are various advantages and disadvantages of deploying e-commerce
platforms that is it allow easy access to customer and on the other side it arise cost to company
that decline its revenue level. Furthermore, database plays an important role in relation to e-
commerce solution by giving information on time period and as per the requirements.

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