Comprehensive Report: E-commerce Operations of Airbnb (ENSN201)

This report presents an analysis of Airbnb's e-commerce operations, examining its business model, website content, hardware and software infrastructure, and security issues. It explores transaction processes, identifies key business challenges such as attracting customers, and discusses the use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to address these challenges. The report also provides supporting discussion by comparing the challenges faced by other e-commerce businesses. The conclusion highlights the operational strategies' success, the user-friendly website, and the importance of addressing security concerns. Recommendations are provided to deal with the operational challenges, including understanding consumer expectations and regular reviews of logistics and warehouse operations.

Operations of E-commerce website

Introdu
ction
The target organization of this
oral presentation is Air BnB
which was established in the
year 2008. The revenue of this
business is USD$2.9B and the
net profitability of this business
is USD$480 (Airbnb.co.in. 2020).
There are more than 15000
employee who works in this
organization.
E-commerce operations
strategy can be defined as the
type of strategy which helps
commercial establishments to
enhance their business
operations and net
profitability (Ert, Fleischer, and
Magen 2016).

Organizational
OverviewThe mission of this
business organization is to
create a virtual world for
the consumers so that they
can live in it rather than just
travelling it.
The vision of this
organization is to enhance
their business area to
new market areas.
The organizational
structure of this
organization is inter-
supportive matrix
structure

Business
Model
There are diverse
categories e-
commerce business
models which are
used in business
establishments such
as the B2B and B2C
business models
(Guttentag et al.
2018). The business
model of this
organization can be
understood from the
diagram (Orr 2018).
AirBnB
Host Visitor
Request
Profit, Host & Room
Renting free 3% service fee
Access to market
6-12% Service charges
Room
AirBnB
Host Visitor
Request
Profit, Host & Room
Renting free 3% service fee
Access to market
6-12% Service charges
Room

Website
Analysis
Website Content:
The organizational
website of this
business is very
much user friendly
and can be accessed
from diverse
categories of mobile
devices (Guttentag
and Smith 2017).

Website
Analysis
Hardware
Infrastructure : The
two types of server
which are used in this
business are web
server and
collaboration
(Hernandez et al.
2017).
Software: The content
of website are
managed with the help
of CMS by the admins
of the business (Kim
and Peterson 2017).

Website
Analysis
Security issues: Injection
flaws, cross site scripting
and security
misconfiguration are the
prime security issues which
can have a direct impact on
the business processes of the
website (Leung et al. 2017).
Transaction: The first step of
the transaction procedure is
user registration, the
following step is ordering the
service required and the final
step of this transaction is the
payment option which is
done with the help of reputed
payment gateways like PayPal
(Leung et al. 2018).

Discus
sion
The prime business
challenge of this
commercial
establishment is
attracting the perfect
customers (Quattrone et
al. 2016). This business
challenge can be
addressed in the first
place if a new Customer
Relationship
Management (CRM) is
introduced in the
business environment
(Liu and Mattila 2017).
CRM can be very much

Supporting
Discussion
The business challenge faced
in US travel association
which is one of the biggest
hospitality organization in USA
is data management (Ma et
al. 2017). In order to deal with
this issue this organization
uses a central reservation
system (Zervas, Proserpio,
and Byers 2017).
Identification of the loyal
consumers is the major
business challenge faced in
Wyndham Destinations
which is the other major e-
commerce business in USA
(Mao and Lyu 2017). The
strategic planners of this
organization installed a new

Concl
usion
The operational strategy of AirBnB is very much
on the successful over the years. The
business operations are getting optimized
due to the business model followed by this
organization. The organizational website is very
much user friendly and can be accessed from
different mobile devices. However, there are
few security concerns related with this
website as well such as the injection flaws
and insecure cryptographic storage. The
transaction procedure of this website is also
very much user friendly for both the new
users as well as for the older ones. Attracting

Recomme
ndation
The recommendations to deal
with the challenges of the
operations of this e-commerce
organization are as followings:
• The expectation of the
consumers must be
understood before
selecting the operational
strategy.
• Logistics operations and
warehouse operations
must be reviewed at
regular intervals to identify
the gaps in the operational
strategies.

Refere
nces
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