E-commerce Principles & Digital Business Strategies for Growth

This report delves into the realm of digital business, emphasizing the advantages and key trends in leveraging digital technology for business growth and customer satisfaction. It examines the implications of digital technology on managing virtual businesses, highlighting both the positive impacts like reduced overhead costs and increased efficiency, and potential negative impacts such as job displacement and cyber security risks. The report also explores new and emerging digital business models, focusing on how companies like Amazon address business issues such as cyber security and ethics through models like free, e-commerce, on-demand, and ecosystem drivers. Furthermore, it analyzes the impact of new collaborative relationships and strategic alliances facilitated by digital technology, using Amazon as a case study to illustrate benefits like gaining a new client base, enhancing competitive skills, and reducing risk. Finally, the report touches upon the e-commerce principles that businesses use to operate effectively in the digital landscape.

DIGITAL BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Advantages of digital technology................................................................................................3
Key trends in digital technology..................................................................................................4
Implication of digital technology on managing virtual business.................................................4
New and emerging digital business models in context of business issue such as cyber security
and ethics for Amazon.................................................................................................................5
Impact of new collaborative relationships and strategic alliances through digital technology for
your chosen business ...................................................................................................................6
E-commerce principles that be used by Businesses.....................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Digital business is process of making use of digital technology in order to create new
value for business, enhance customers satisfaction and internal capabilities of the company. In
current scenario, companies are making use of different digital technology to connect and build
relationship with customers to grow and expand their business in international market. There are
e-commerce principles that has to be abided by the chosen company while performing its
respective task in external environment. Collaborative relationship and strategies alliance
through digital technology helps company to make the best use of available opportunities. This
report has covered crucial information relayed to key trend and advantages of making use of
digital technology for managing virtual business. Furthermore, it can be stated that new and
emerging digital business model to understand business issue such as cyber security and ethics.
At last it has described about E-commerce principles that are been used by the company while
performing its task and responsibilities.
MAIN BODY
Advantages of digital technology.
Digital technology in business refer to the use of technology in the creation of new value
in the customer experiences, business models and the capabilities which supports the core
operations of the business. Digital technology is very important for the growth and success of the
business (Verhoef and Bijmolt, 2019). That is it helps the organisation in many ways it helps
them in providing better communication with their customers that results in effective customer
services and thus, helps them in improving their brand image and loyalty by attracting more and
more customer towards their brans and business by providing them high quality products and
services that provides them higher satisfaction. Thus resulting in increasing profits for the
company by increasing the sales of the company and leading the company towards growth and
success.
There are various advantages of digital technology in business that is it helps business
connect with its audiences and provide their customer according to their needs and preferences.
Also, it helps organisation in improving their manufacturing and production process that is with
advance technology. It will help organisation in reducing the cost of production and result in
higher profit maximisation. On the other hand, in case of amazon digitalisation has helped the

company increase its profit maximisation with providing quality services to their customers and
it has provided a competitive advantage to the company over its customer. Thus, it has resulted
in growth and has led the company towards success.
Key trends in digital technology.
In today's world with the fast pace of growing technology there has been a rapid growth
in the digital technology (Rangaswamy and et.al., 2020). Technology has been evolving at rapid
pace with faster processes. There has been various trends in the digital technology world that are
as follows:
 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE- AI continues to be one of the new digital technological
trends due to its effects on how work is done. Artificial Intelligence is known for its
superiority in speech recognition. Image, assistance and many more. However, AI help
the business in connecting with its customers by providing them personalised customers
service and catering their individuals needs and requirements.
 ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION- Another key trend on the digital technology
world is the robotic automation processes, it is process that helps in processing the
business transactions, interpreting the applications and data. It helps businesses in using
processes that are faster and quicker and provides them with accurate results for high
profit margins.
 QUANTUMN COMPUTING- Another significant trend in the digital technology is the
quantum technology. It refers to a form of computing that takes benefits of the quantum
phenomena such as quantum entanglement and superposition. It helps businesses inn way
that they can easily analyse, monitor on the interpretation of data regardless of the source.
Implication of digital technology on managing virtual business.
The digital technology implies by a business can make or break a company. Nowadays
business processes have become complex (Ismail and Zaki, 2017). For organisations to be
successful it very important that they adopt to digital innovation which help them in achieving
their goals and objectives efficiently and make them stay ahead of their competition. However,
the implication of digital technology can have both positive as well as negative impact on the
virtual businesses. That is the positive impacts of digital technology has affected the virtual
business of Amazon that is it has helped them in various aspects like it has reduced the overhead
costs and has helped in increasing the employee satisfaction. Also, it has resulted in higher

efficiency and productivity of the company in diversifying its business operations. And with this
it has resulted in growth potential that is accessing new markets has helped the company in
generation of higher revenue and profits. On the other hand, the negative impact of the digital
technology can affect the company's image and may lead in lower profit maximisation for the
company (Ukko and et.al., 2019 ). That is with the increased dependency on digital technology it
results in risks of job cuts. Also, to apply latest technologies it requires huge capital investment.
And also, there are higher chances of fraud and errors. Also, with one negative feedback it can
hinder the brand image and decrease its customer loyalty this affect its sales and decrease their
profit margins.
New and emerging digital business models in context of business issue such as cyber security
and ethics for Amazon
New and emerging digital business models are new to market that are used buy company
to ensure cyber security and abided to all ethics while performing its respective task. It is
characterized by digital business innovation based on services that are delivered to customers for
new market. Free model, multichannel business, ecosystem drivers and E-commerce model are
different new and emerging digital business model that are used by Amazon for resolving
business issue likewise cyber security and ethics while operating its business (Kraus and et.al.,
2018). Therefore, the new and emerging digital business model are explained as follows:
1. Free model: It is one of the most famous businesses model used by number of
companies across worldwide. The idea behind free model is to offer free services and
users can easily sell products to the customers. Likewise, Amazon lay efforts on
collecting crucial information related to taste and preference of customers on the basis of
that post target advertisement in order to attract them to be part of the organisation (Sousa
and Rocha, 2019). So, while making use of free model, company has tried to abide to
ethical and ensure cyber security by protecting crucial information of individual living in
society.
2. E- commerce model: It is another model that has been used by Amazon as it sell all the
products and services to customers on web page, or they can easily purchase through
making use of internet. Company while making use of E-commerce model has ensured
that it transparently share all information about the products and services to customers.
Their consent has been taken before making use of their personal information to

formulate any strategy (Vendrell‐Herrero and et.al., 2018). Thus, it has helped Amazon in
building trust among the people and improving its brand image in external environment.
 On demand model: Another model has been emerged in the digital technology for
solving the key issues of cyber security and ethics is the model of on demand. As with the
deep knowledge about the customer it helps in building the relationship with the
customers (Bican and Brem, 2020). It provides seamless experience to its customers by
offering various products from multiple sources to their customers at one platform.
However, it is model that does not provides with any physical products to its customers,
but it provides virtual goods and services. For example; the Amazon Video, it caters to
the needs of consumers and provides them high quality products and services that fulfils
the needs and requirements of the customers.. Also, this model help in connecting the
local businesses with the digital platforms and making their business digitalised that helps
them earning more profits and higher revenue. With the use of this model it serves the
various problem that are being faced in the virtual business through using of digital
technology.
 Eco system drivers:one of the most important model that has been used in the digital
technology for solving the key issue is the ecosystem drivers that is it is considered one
of the most useful model in the virtual business. It provides a broad supply base and a
deep knowledge about the customer preferences (Remane and et.al., 2017). Amazon
leverages these dimensions for providing its costumers with a seamless experience by
providing them products from across the world and not limiting the scope of selling. It
helps in creating value for the own company by extracting rent from others. With using
of this model it helps the company in maintaining its ethical values and also it maintains
high security so that there is no cyber security breach.
Impact of new collaborative relationships and strategic alliances through digital technology for
your chosen business
Collaborative relationship and strategic alliance is an agreement between the two and
more parties related to the objective that both companies want to achieve. In another words,
when two or more companies join together with an motive to gain mutual benefits is known as
strategic alliances. Organisation in order to expand their business, achieve higher growth in
future scenario, focus on collaborative relationship so that it can easily enter into new market,

earn high profitability and many more benefits (Xu and et.al., 2019). Amazon through making
collaborative and strategic alliance with company such as blackberry QNX, Yahoo and
Netscape,@ home is able to get numerous benefits which can be illustrated in detailed as
follows:
1. Gain new client base: One of the impact of collaborative relationship and strategic
alliance by making use of digital technology by Amazon is that it is able to easily attract
new customers in the firm. Such as both the companies have their respective market
share, brand image in mind and hearts of customers. So, each of them through making
use of their respective resources, capabilities and strong reputation tries to influence
maximum number of people to be part of the organisation for satisfaction of their wants
(Nwaiwu, 2018). For example: Amazon and blackberry QNX have number or millions
of customers that are residing in different parts of the world. Therefore, company through
making alliance is able to have more customers.
2. Competitive skills: Second impact of formulation of strategic alliance by Amazon is
company is able to gained more competitive, skilled, knowledgable employees that are
ready to work for growth and expansion of firm. Furthermore, company are able to share
their respective expertise with each other which helps in providing services to customers
beyond their expectancy level (Scuotto and et.al., 2017). Likewise, both Amazon and
blackberry QNX have talented workforce that have capabilities to make optimum
utilisation of digital technology to meet wants of customers in effective manner.
Therefore, it leads in enhancing competitive skills of individual working in both the
organisation.
3. Reduce and sharing of risk: The third positive impact that has been yield by Amazon
through collaborative relationship through digital technology is reduced and sharing of
risk among both the parties. For example: Amazon and blackberry QNX share the
associated risk with business in desired ratio thus the impact of risk is not more on any of
the organisation (Mickel and Farrell, 2021). Thus, both the company will be responsible
for sharing any of the loss arise so the burden of loss is not only on one organisation.
4. Facilitate global expansion: Moreover, it can be stated that company through
formulation of collaborative relationship can easily access or enter into global market to
add more customers in the firm. Such as collaborating with local firm through digital

technology will helps Amazon in effective understanding the taste and preference of
customers, current market situation and many more. Therefore, company will able to
easily plan effectively strategies that could be used to attract and retained customers in
the firm. Likewise, firm will be able to understand the associated risk and opportunities
present in market and the manner in which company can make the best use of available
opportunities to stay ahead in competition. While the method that could be used by
Amazon to overcome the associated threat for fruitful results.
5. Decrease in overall cost or expense: Digital technology has contributed in reducing
overall cost and procedure that company has to incurred in order to make collaborative
relationship and strategic alliance with other firm. As through making use of digital
technology, all the terms and condition of relationship can be easily communicated and
exchanged (Bolívar–Ramos, 2019). Thus, procedure related to alliance can be completed
in limited time and less cost for maximum benefits of firm. In addition to this, digital
technology reduce expense by avoiding stationary expense and other related to
collaborative relationship and strategic alliance.
On the other hand, there are some of negative impact of collaborative relationship and
strategic alliance through digital technology such as it may lead in miscommunication between
the employees. Which in results in chance of conflict between the employees related to what all
task and activities that they need to performed and the way objectives of company can be
achieved.
E-commerce principles that be used by Businesses
There are various e-commerce business principles that are used by company to increase
and improve their sales and growth. Amazon can adopt following business principles of e-
commerce to increase their functional operations, customer engagement and market of the
company. User Friendliness: As a e-commerce website amazon can adopt the user friendliness
principle. It refers to the function of the website that is friendly for the customer (Hanson,
and Kalyanam, 2020). The website should be easy to access and friendly in searching
products and ordering online. It help the customer to get the details of the products easily
and attractive pictures also help the business to increase the sale. The easy assess and
understandable website have major possibility to get the order as compared to the

complicated website. Company can make the website user friendly in many ways such as
easy search engine and similar products suggestion, friendly home page of the website
plays an important role in creating the user friendly website. Unique Design Elements: It refers to he design of the website that attract the customer.
Amazon can adopt the principle of unique design elements of the e-commerce principle
(Lin, Wang and Hajli, 2019). It will help the business in positive attraction and
impression on the customer. It also increase the engagement of the customer towards the
website of company. In order to make the buyers notice among the flock, company
should use some bold and unusual components in the design elements of the website. It
will help customer of Amazon to visit the website again. Emphasize the Security: It is the main principle in creating effective and safe website.
The Safety of the customer privacy should be the first priority of the company.
Customers are always concern about the data privacy while visiting the website (Nisar
and Prabhakar, 2017). Amazon should keep the customers information safe. If the
customer will feel the safe while purchasing the product, it increase the loyalty of the
buyer towards the company. Ensuring the safety and security of payment gateway on the
website is very important part in the e- commerce. Amazon should make feel the
customer that the use of payment and shopping is safe and it will not loose the
information of the buyer. Responsive Technology: it refers to the technology that respond to the queries of the
customer. It helps the business to provide service on the website that respond to the
customers questions (Mohd Satar, Dastane and Ma’arif, 2019). This principle in the
Amazon will increase the efficiency in the functioning of the e- commerce site of the
business and it will lead to the better performance in the business service. Such services
increase the customer satisfaction. Use of Effective Colours: Colours should be strategically used for the design rather than
decorative purposes. A good place to start with choosing colours is the logo of the
business that will most likely interpret the colour scheme throughout the whole website.
Amazon should not use too many colours, instead adopt the modest colour palette that
will compliment the colour of the website.

 Effective use of Images: This principle of the e-commerce principle refers to the use of
image to communicate with the customer. Wherever possible instead of words, use icons
which are attractive and easy to understand (Hallikainen and Laukkanen, 2018). Such as
a magnifying glass icon for the search feature or an envelope icon for being contacted.
Infographics are also a great way to present information and communicate value to the
viewers of Amazon. An eye-catching, well designed infographic has a stronger influence
and will be more persuasive to target audience. It will give visitors something that is easy
to understand and remember as well as driving more traffic to the website, as
infographics are great for search engine optimisation and people are more likely to share
them and link back to the website of the company.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that in recent scenario, there are different
trends related to digital technology such as use data analysis, connected cloud and Artificial
intelligence. Companies are able to get maximum benefits through making use of digital
technology likewise, attract millions of customers, build good brand image in mind and heart of
people and many more. At last, it can be summarized, that firm through making use of e-
commerce principles like transparently representing information, ensuring safety and security as
well as privacy of information can stay ahead in competition for longer time frame.

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A, B., 2018. [Online]. Available through <>