E-Commerce's Impact on Business Strategy: A Marks & Spencer Analysis

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of e-commerce on business, focusing on Marks & Spencer as a case study. It identifies the core business areas, mission, and vision of the organization, and assesses how the introduction of e-commerce affects its overall operations, including risks and opportunities. The analysis also covers the global impact of e-commerce on society and the factors influencing market development and financial performance. Furthermore, the essay applies research methodologies to investigate market potential, evaluates current e-commerce systems compared to competitors, and explains the financial implications of e-commerce, considering technological requirements, security, and capital. Finally, it drafts a suitable e-commerce solution tailored to Marks & Spencer's operations.

ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF E-COMMERCE ON
BUSINESS
STUDENT NAME:
STUDENT ID:
PROFESSOR’S NAME:
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1 - Identifying the objectives of the business entities.............................................................3
P1.1 Identify the core business areas for the selected organisation.................................................3
P1.2 Identify the mission and vision of the selected organisation in relation to the well-being of
the stakeholders...............................................................................................................................5
Task 2- Identifying the effectiveness of E-Commerce in business.................................................7
P2.1 Perform an analysis on how the introduction of E- Commerce into the operating system of
the entity will affect the entire business of the entity including the risks and opportunities...........7
P2.2 Explain how E-Commerce will globally impact on the society in regards to the chosen
organisation taking into consideration the factors that can affect the market development as well
as in the financial performance of the entity330.............................................................................8
Task 3- Understanding the E-Commerce framework for the selected organisation........................9
P3.1 Apply research methodologies for investigating the market potential and the opportunities
arising out of E-Commerce..............................................................................................................9
P3.2 Evaluate the current systems of E-Commerce of the selected entity compared to its
competitors....................................................................................................................................10
P3.3 Explain the financial impact of e-Commerce on the business taking into consideration the
factors like technological requirements, security maintenance, capital requirement and the
sources of fund, etc.150 (C)...........................................................................................................11
P3.4 Draft an appropriate solution relating to E-Commerce of the selected entity including the
requisites of E- Commerce............................................................................................................11
P3.5 How the drafted E-Commerce solution as in task P3.4 will be suitable to the operations of
the business?..................................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
This assignment discusses the business skill and on the importance of e-commerce in the
business organisations. This assignment aims to focus on the various structures of the business
organisation. Apart from this, this assignment aims to incorporate the idea of e-commerce in the
business activities of organisations. In this assignment, the aims and business objectives of
organisations have also been reflected. In this assignment, a critical analysis of market target,
key process and details of market research have also been given in order to present the impact of
e-commerce on the business market. Apart from this, the retail sector has been selected in order
to meet the purpose of this assignment. In this assignment, Marks and Spencer have been
selected in order to analyse the benefits of e-commerce and it has also been shown in this
assignment how e-commerce strategy helps the selected organisations to enhance their business
market globally. Mark and Spencer is one of the famous retail organisations in the UK that
established in 1884 by Sir Michael and Thomas Spencer. Apart from this, possible solutions
have also been given for the chosen organisations in order to provide the right track to enhance
their market by using e-commerce.
Task 1 - Identifying the objectives of the business entities
P1.1 Identify the core business areas for the selected organisation
According to Tamimi and Sebastianelli (2015, p.181), the business structure of the organisations
define the features, organisational aims, and objectives of the organisations. The major
functional territories of organization are HR, Marketing, Finance, Sales, and Customer
administrations. These all practical zone has their own particular terminuses and guided methods
to accomplish the set goals. The Marketing and HR team plays an important role in the overall
business development by creating different milestones at different stages lead by the
organisation. However, the sales team on the other hand manages the customer very well so as to
increase the company’s production simultaneously. Different types of organisations have
different aims, objectives and business purpose. Similarly, Mark and Spencer also have their own
organisational types and it has been observed that the type of this retail organisation is public.
Every organisation has their own aims and business purpose. It has been observed that the main
aims of the business organisations are to achieve huge profit from the business, to extend their
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business in the international market and to have the competitive advantage in the market.
Likewise, the main aim of Mark and Spencer is to make a big profit from their retail business
and to increase the numbers of share in the market. On the other hand, the selected company also
aims to have a huge amount of return from their investment in business. The other aim of the
respected organisation is to develop the sales growth, to provide their customers with the best
quality services and to maintain their brand loyalty among the customers.
In accordance with the opinion of Cui and Pan (2015, p.207), the business organisations need to
do the PEST analysis as it helps them to understand the impact of various factors on their
business and also help them to make possible changes in their business in order to promote their
business successfully in the market. Similarly, Mark and Spencer also needs to do the PEST
analysis in order to understand the effect of various macro environmental factors on the business
and it also helps them to run their business in a sustainable way. The various macro-
environmental factors are:
Political factor
Political factors are one of the macro-environmental factors and it includes the rules, regulations
of the government and government legislation. Political factors have a big impact on the business
activities of the organisations. Similarly, the major changes in the political scenario may also
effect on the business activities of Mark and Spencer. The changes in political scenario indicate
towards the changes in rules, regulations, and legislation. Therefore, the respected organisation
needs to changes all their business strategy, procedure and needs to modify their business
activities based on the new changes in the political scenario.
Economic factors
The Economic factor is one of the most important factors in the macro environment and it also
determines the business profit of the organisations. Likewise, the economic factors may also
effect on the business profit, revenue cost and on the market share of the respective organisation.
According to Fang et al. (2014, p.421), economic factors include the pricing, investment
percentage, interest rate, rate of stock exchange and the financial budget. The sudden changes in
the economy may effect on the market share. The decline of market share may decrease the
interest rate and investment profit. Therefore, Mark and Spencer also need to plan their financial
budget, investment amount and stock exchange rate based on the changes in the business
economy as the changes may lead them towards huge business loss.
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Social factors
Social factors include the social ethics and social norms. According to Zhao et al. (2016,
p.1151), the changes in social ethics may also effect on the business. Therefore, like the other
business organisations, Mark and Spencer also need to follow the new changes in social norms in
order to meet the satisfaction level of the customers. It also helps them to maintain the
sustainability in their business. If the respected organisations fail to follow the changes in social,
factors they may fail to satisfy the customers and may fail to hold their good position in the
market.
Technological factor
According to Chen et al. (2015, p.1291), the usage of poor technology may also effect on the
business growth of an organisation as at present situation, consumer prefers online purchasing.
Therefore, the business organisation needs to develop their technology. Likewise, the selected
organisation also needs to use the latest technology in order to provide the consumers with the
better online services.
It has been observed that the selected retail organisation operates various kinds of internal
business functions such as marketing, accounting, administration and operates the management
information system. In accordance with the opinion of Zhao et al. (2016, p.1151), marketing
helps the business organisations to run their business on a right track and it also helps them to
plan a proper business strategy that they can have a large portion of share in the market.
Likewise, marketing also helps the respected organisations to enhance their business market and
help to select their target audience in order to achieve make a big profit. On the other hand, the
accounting also helps them to manage their financial budget, market share, and investment
procedures. The management information system also helps them to keep their confidential
business data safety in a computer device and help them to avoid the data security threat. The
proper administration system also helps them to control all over business activities effectively.
P1.2 Identify the mission and vision of the selected organisation in relation to
the well-being of the stakeholders
According to Hua et al. (2015, p.119), different organisation have different mission and values.
The mission, vision and values of the organisation help the members of the organisations to fulfil
the business purpose of the organisation. On the other hand, it also helps the stakeholders of the
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organisation to meet the organisational objectives and to enhance their business globally.
Likewise, Mark and Spencer also have their own mission, vision and values. The main missions
of Mark and Spencer are:
● To offer their customers the good quality services at cheaper cost.
● To establish their organisations the best retail organisations in the world
● To provide the consumer more advanced online shopping experiences
● To increase the level of demand of the customer for their product
The main vision of the respected organisation is to provide their employees cultural, good
environment and good place t6o work. The main values of this retail organisation are to develop
their standard of business ethics and to satisfy the mind of the customers.
According to Lin (2014, p.119), the concept of stakeholder is very important for the business
organisations as the business growth, business reputation and market profit of organisations
mainly depends on the performance of the stakeholders. A stakeholder is a person or a group of
the organisations that helps the organisations to meet their organisational purpose and help them
to make the profit from their business. The stakeholders of the organisation also help them to
meet their mission, vision and values. The stakeholders can be classified into two types that are
internal stakeholders and external stakeholders. The stakeholders determine the outcome of the
business decisions of organisations. Similarly, the stakeholder is also an important part of Mark
and Spencer as it also helps them in business decision making and also helps to meet their
organisational aims, mission, vision and values. The internal stakeholders of Mark and Spencer
include employees, staffs, financial department, HR department and another department of the
organisation. The external stakeholders include the suppliers, investors, government and
consumers. It has been observed that the good performance level of the stakeholders also helps
them to achieve huge profit from the business. On the other hand, the contribution of the
stakeholders also helps the organisation also help the organisation to provide their customers
good quality services. The internal stakeholder like consumer helps the organisation to extend
their business globally. The various business policies, procedures of government also help the
business organisation to avoid the political, legal obstacles in business. The contribution of the
investors also provide the respected organisation with a strong economic support and the
suppliers help the organisation to understand the current market trend, demand pattern of the
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customers. The various department of the respected organisation also help them to maintain their
financial budget, produce a good quality product for the customers.
Task 2- Identifying the effectiveness of E-Commerce in business
P2.1 Perform an analysis on how the introduction of E- Commerce into the
operating system of the entity will affect the entire business of the entity
including the risks and opportunities
According to Chen and Teng (2013, p.21), the appropriate strategies are necessary for the
business organisations as it helps them to make a good profit from the market. The
implementation of proper strategy also helps the organisations to increase the satisfaction level
of the customers. Therefore, in order to fulfil the market demands, to hold the good position in
the business market and to satisfy the target audience, E-commerce strategy can be the most
effective business strategy for an organisation. It has been observed that the e-commerce
strategy has a great impact on the business. Besides the business, e-commerce also has a great
impact on the consumer. E-commerce business strategy helps the business organisations in the
online business activities. The e-commerce strategy also helps the business organisation to create
the value among the customers, the organisations and the individuals. The global e-commerce
strategy also helps the organisation in collecting the huge amount of revenue from the business.
The e-commerce strategy also helps the business organisations in the production process,
customer process and in the internal management process. The e-commerce strategy also raises
many challenges for the organisations and in the recent years, it has been evidenced by the many
business organisations that the usage of e-commerce strategy introduces many risks for the
organisations that act as a barrier to business growth.
Similarly, the usage of e-commerce strategy also helps Mark and Spencer in online services. It
also helps them to use the internet, web browser to enhance the business market globally. The e-
business strategy also helps them to achieve the trust of the customers by offering them unique
online services. The e-commerce strategy also provides them opportunities of online marketing,
social media marketing in order to have a competitive advantage in the business market. On the
other hand, it has been observed that the e-commerce also helps the organisation in
telecommunication process.
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Apart from this, it has also been observed that by using the e-commerce strategy, the respected
organisation has to face many challenges like economic, challenges and it is their great
challenges to minimise the cost of hiring, production, investment in order to ensure the enough
economic capacity to run the business for long term. The biggest challenge that the respected
organisation has to face is the technological advancement. The latest technology needs to be
adopted for the effective e-commerce strategy and it has been observed that still many
employees, customers are not habituated with the usage of latest technology. It has also been
observed that the organisation has also faced many risks while they are using the e-commerce
strategy for their business. Basically, the major risk factors are cyber security, high technical
attacks, denial-of-service attack, scattered denial of service attack, different virus, malware,
natural disasters, software of hardware failure, failing down of the website etc. Once or for a
while the organisation has to get prepare themselves to deal with these major threats. The
company can plan some measures such as having a high anti-virus software protection, proper
authentication and authorization of that software and should apply data protection act, e-
commerce act and more. The main risk that the respected organisation has to face is the risk
related to information as the using the internet may bring the threat for data security process,
copyright issue, infringement violation to the software developer and the organisations may fail
to save the confidential data. The usage of e-commerce may also bring the operational risks that
indicate towards loss of revenue, decline of sell percentage and lack of market resources. In the
case of security of EC communication, the company can put in use the access control, passive
tokens and active tokens and more. The security risk of e-commerce also becomes a major threat
to the business as it indicates towards the unauthorised access that may violate the data security.
P2.2 Explain how E-Commerce will globally impact on the society in regards
to the chosen organisation taking into consideration the factors that can affect
the market development as well as in the financial performance of the entity
According to Strauss (2016, p.33), the e-commerce strategy has great impact on the global
business market. On the other hand, e-commerce strategy also has a great impact on the
satisfaction level, the decision-making process of the customers. Therefore, the usage of e-
commerce strategy also has great impact on the global business activities of Mark and Spencer.
This strategy helps the selected organisation to win the challenges of new technology and it also
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helps them to provide their customers with the best online shopping experiences by using the
latest technology for their business. The proper implementation of e-commerce also helps them
to mitigate the security issues by installing anti-hacking software, data security software as
providing the customers safe, secure online transaction.
The e-commerce also helps the organisation to communicate with the customers directly. Apart
from this, the e-commerce strategy also helps them to deal with the online customers effectively
and it also helps the management of the selected organisation to create new channel in order to
extend their business. The usage of e-commerce also helps the organisation to win the market
competition and it helps them to have the monopoly power over the retail business. On the other
hand, it also helps Mark and Spencer to fulfil both the needs of the customers and the
stakeholders. The usage of e-commerce also helps this organisation to develop the new selling
chain for the beneficiary of the customers.
Apart from this, e-commerce also makes this organisation empower the customers for online
purchase and it encourages the selected organisations to develop their promotional strategies like
online advertising, television promotion, and blogs and so on. Apart from this, it also helps them
to understand the requirements, issue of the customers by using the social networking strategy.
Task 3- Understanding the E-Commerce framework for the selected
organisation
P3.1 Apply research methodologies for investigating the market potential and
the opportunities arising out of E-Commerce
According to Huang and Benyoucef (2013, p.251), e-commerce strategy provides the business
organisation wide range of opportunities. It also helps them to increase the number of selling
and helps them to develop their productivity. Similarly, the e-commerce strategy also helps Mark
and Spencer to have huge numbers of potential buyers for supporting their business.
E-commerce strategy helps the organisations to enhance their market size as the big market size
helps them to have many buyers. The big market size also helps the selected organisations to
have a huge of revenue from the business. The e-commerce strategy also helps this organisation
to increase level of growth and it has been observed that this company has gained 50% of market
share. It also helps them to create new distribution channel for the customers and it also helps
them to understand the different areas, ages of customers.
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P3.2 Evaluate the current systems of E-Commerce of the selected entity
compared to its competitors
The organisation, Marks and Spencer have been developing e-commerce strategy for a long
period in order to improve their global market. The need for the development of advanced E-
Commerce framework has grown considerably over the years as an effect of increased cross-
border flow of capital in the modern age.
Currently, the organisation focuses on the developing a central warehouse system and desirous of
implementing an appropriate system for the customer self-service. The IT team is concentrating
on the fact to develop a creative strategy for delivering value-added customer service. There is
lots of innovation driven by the IT team for encouraging customer innovation. The framework of
the E- Commerce technology operates over 63 stores located in about more than 100 locations
(Strauss, 2016, p.33).
In addition to the above, the company has also assigned the sales representatives with IPads in
order to provide a demonstration of the variety of products offered by Marks and Spencer to its
customers. Appropriate E-Commerce governance software is also implemented into the system
of E-commerce in the entity. In order to provide appropriate access to all the customers of the
entity and to the employees and the sales representatives, the company has designed known
software termed as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).
It is also necessary for the assignment to perform a brief comparison on the E-Commerce
framework of Marks and Spencer with that of its competitors. Generally, there are three
competitors of Marks and Spencer viz.. Next PLC, ASDA Group Limited, TESCO PLC.
Next PLC has also developed many e-commerce frameworks to serve its customers. It has also
developed a key strategy to facilitate multiple payments termed as Click and Collect. It has also
invested in establishing an online framework amounting to £1.5 billion.
ASDA Group Limited has also been developing an appropriate framework for strengthening the
market. It has developed a customer-oriented shipping module by which the customers will place
their orders, receive the delivery and thereby facilitate the payment (Hua et al. 2015, p.119).
TESCO PLC, on the other hand, has developed a remarkable online grocery website in order to
facilitate the payments and timely delivery of the products to its customers.
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Therefore, it can be concluded that the framework of e-commerce as established by our selected
organisation i.e. Marks and Spencer is much more remarkable in nature and much beneficial for
the retail stores to achieve the aim of sales maximisation.
.
P3.3 Explain the financial impact of e-Commerce on the business taking into
consideration the factors like technological requirements, security
maintenance, capital requirement and the sources of fund, etc
According to Chen and Teng (2013, p.21), e-commerce strategy has great impact on the financial
sectors of the organisations. Similarly, it has been observed that e-commerce also affect the
financial sectors of Mark and Spencer. On the other hand, it has also been observed that various
factors like technological requirements, hardware, security, start-up capital, funding sources and
software. The installation of various types of software, program, and software developer for
managing the effective finance may increase the initial costs. However, it will be helpful for the
selected organisation as it helps them to conduct their business for long run. It may also decrease
the variable cost and thereby this organisation can operate the economics of skills. It also helps
this organisation to have the sufficient capital for preparing a technological framework and it
also the amount of initial cost. The funding sources of finance also help them to have internal
sources and external sources. The usage of internal sources is less risk; however, the cost of this
source is high. On the other hand, the chances of risk are high for external sources; however, the
cost is low. The usage of debt finance by implementing the e-commerce also helps Mark and
Spencer to have tax benefit.
P3.4 Draft an appropriate solution relating to E-Commerce of the selected
entity including the requisites of E- Commerce
Implementation of an appropriate network of E-Commerce is necessary for the effective and
efficient conduct of business in the era of cross-border flow of capital. E- Commerce has to lead
to an increase in the level of sales maximisation in the modern days. Due to E-Commerce, the
level of competition has increased in the global retail market. There is a need for implementing a
qualitative framework of e-commerce in the retail industry to counter tough competition in the
global market.
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