Unit 29: E-Commerce Strategies for Business Success

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes e-commerce strategies and customer expectations.

UNIT 29: E-COMMERCE
STRATEGIES

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1 Understand the impact of e-Commerce on business...............................................................4
1.1 Critically discuss the expectations of internet customers......................................................4
1.2 Critically assess the potential impact of common applications on an e-Commerce business
.....................................................................................................................................................6
LO2 Be able to plan an e-Commerce strategy.................................................................................8
2.1 Plan an e-Commerce implementation strategy for an e-Commerce business.......................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

Introduction
E-commerce applications are leading the business in today’s world. Many of the businesses have
adopted e-commerce application to change the way business work and get benefits from the
advantages the e-commerce application provides. To become successful in today’s market,
business has to adopt and maintain the e-commerce platform. In this assignment, the different
strategies like marketing, internet, and supply-chain strategies will be discussed. The positive
and negative impacts of e-commerce application on the businesses and the critical analysis of the
expectations of the customer from the application will also be discussed.

LO1 Understand the impact of e-Commerce on business
1.1 Critically discuss the expectations of internet customers
E-commerce is the business of today. It can be defined as an act of selling and buying of goods
and services through the internet. E-commerce business is the most valuable and growing
business in today’s world. Businesses involved in e-commerce make use of an e-commerce
application to perform operations like showcasing products with its description, specifications
and cost, online transaction and acceptance of payments, tracking purchased product till delivery,
notifying users about upcoming deals and offers, and many other operations. Such applications
are created to be accessible from mobile phones as well as desktops and laptops. With such a
great functionality and responsibilities of an e-commerce application, if the business wants its
application to have a great user base, it becomes mandatory to fulfil the expectations of the users.
The business needs to address the ever-changing and sometimes strange expectations of the
users.
Expectations of the users include
 Quick buy and easily accessible
This is the most important and priority of users, in the list of expectations. In this fast-moving
world, no one has enough time to spend on the purchase. The applications must perform fast and
operable as quickly as possible. Navigation to different pages or products and payment
transactions should also be speedy.
 Friendly, 24×7 and fast customer care services
Customer care services should be patient and give time to each and every customer to resolve
their query satisfactorily. The business must have enough staff in its customer care team to
resolve every query without any delay or waiting.
 Timely notifications and customized deals according to the user’s interest
The e-commerce business must provide notifications to its users about deals and offers according
to the user’s analyzed interest. It should utilize different methods of notifications for each
customer like the text message, emails, voice calls, and WhatsApp messages. It will help the
customer remember the deal hours and also confirm the purchase.

 Trackable and super-fast delivery
After purchasing the product from the e-commerce platform, the facility of tracking the product
gives user feeling of satisfaction and increase customer trust in the business. Besides tracking the
delivery should be super-fast and should be customized according to the user’s availability.
 Multiple payment methods
The e-commerce application must integrate multiple payment gateway methods for each and
every user. It can include PayPal, Master card, Visa card, Maestro card and payment facilities
from all banks. It should provide Easy Monthly Installments (EMI) facility and No Cost EMI on
the majority of products.
 Easy and rapid return policies with effective after sale services
The e-commerce business must include user-favourable and rapid return policies. It must also
include services of product-servicing and product-reselling facilities at a minimum cost to the
customers (Reed, 2018).

1.2 Critically assess the potential impact of common applications on an e-Commerce
business
E-commerce has greatly impacted the scenario and functioning of the business. Tasks which
were earlier performed using pen and paper, through real face-to-face interaction of buyer and
seller, which consumes more time and money, can now be done in few clicks on smart devices
right from the comfort of the home. Operations no more require the interaction of buyers and
sellers for the exchange of goods and money. Business operations can today be performed on
World Wide Web (WWW). The important change which the e-commerce brings to business is
performing business operations in Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Customer (B2C)
scenarios over WWW (Scott-Briggs, 2017). E-commerce has influenced the business in both
positive and negative manner.
The positive impact of e-commerce on the business includes:
 With e-commerce, there is no need for retailers or suppliers to buy costly shops in renowned
markets or malls. Business can now be performed from warehouses and even from homes.
This saves the huge upfront cost of the suppliers.
 E-commerce help business reaches a diverse and large number of consumer base quickly and
easily. There is no need to interact with consumers individually.
 E-commerce makes multiple operations in buying-selling task automated. Thus it saves the
time of supplier. Now the supplier can focus more on advertising and marketing of the
product.
 E-commerce help business analyzes the needs and interest of the individual consumer in
order to provide customized deals and notifications to the customer. Thus increase the sale of
the product.
 E-commerce gives the ability to business to receive quick ratings and feedbacks from the
customer. Thus provide ample time to rectify the problems and make the services more
satisfactory.
 Easily accessible customer care services and resolving of consumer issues help a business
gain more customer trust and also provide satisfaction to the customer.
 E-commerce businesses also provide products to the customer at a lower cost as compare to
products purchased from brick and mortar shops.

 E-commerce platform for the business provides an easy and convenient interface for the
customers to buy and even resell the product. It saves times and unnecessary efforts to go
outside and search for the desired product.
The negative impact of e-commerce on the business involves:
 Run an e-commerce platform 24×7 on multiple servers consumes a lot of energy and thus can
be considered as harmful for the environment.
 Security of customer personal information and the payment information is also another
negative impact of e-commerce on business. Improper security on the servers can lead to loss
of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the customer information.
 Slower return and refund policies sometimes affect the business like loss of customer trust
and loss of consumer base.
 Delivery charges and the waiting for the delivery of product to the doorstep is encountered
by the customer while making a purchase through e-commerce application.
 It needs knowledge (though small) to use and navigate e-commerce application. The
customer who doesn’t have this knowledge can perform unnecessary purchases and thus
create problems for both supplier and the customer itself (KHURANA, 2018).

LO2 Be able to plan an e-Commerce strategy
2.1 Plan an e-Commerce implementation strategy for an e-Commerce business
E-commerce implementation strategy planning involves strategy planning for all the aspects
which help in successful implementation and maintenance of e-commerce business. Beside
general strategy planning, it also includes strategic planning for internet, marketing, supply
chain, security, and payment transactions. Strategy planning can be defined as a course of
managerial discussions, actions, the establishment of agreements, and consideration of the
requirement of resources to accomplish the e-commerce business objectives. Prior planning of
strategy for the implementation of e-commerce business gives a business complete view,
opportunities and future scope of the project.
Marketing strategy planning involves consideration of the following points:
 Identification of e-commerce business objective and future plans.
 Analysis of existing e-commerce market to make efficient, innovative and successful
strategies for the business.
 Segregation of customers or market on parameters like age, interest, gender, status,
geographic area, etc. and target each group separately.
 Development of pricing list of products after analyzing the market rate and product of
competitors to make the product affordable for the great number of consumers.
 Creation of new deals and packages for customers and managing timely notifications through
emails, text messages, voice calls, etc. in order to increase the sale of the product.
 Hiring expert personnel for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) task, to increase the visibility
and number of visitors to the application
 Finding the most effective marketing, advertisement and promotion channels for the
popularity of the e-commerce application (Walker, 2017).
Internet strategy involves consideration of the following points:
 Planning of hosting platform, compatibility, and usability on mobile platforms and server
requirement and selection of service provider is performed

 Contract creation and policies included in the contract or service level agreement (SLA) is
discussed
 Amount of security parameters and facilities necessary at the hosting-platform provider side
is judged
 Requirements for 24×7 accessibility and assignment of channels and bandwidth to the
application is analyzed
 Presentation, designing, advertisement of social media platforms and communication needs
of the e-commerce application is evaluated
 Which payment gateways should be included in the e-commerce application is inspected.
Supply chain strategy planning involves consideration of the following points:
 Solutions for faster and satisfactory delivery of the product to the consumer are figured out
like live tracking of product with the name of the delivery company and personnel
 Development of healthy relationship and creation of contracts with some suppliers is
performed
 Import of goods from which suppliers and mode of transportation to reduce cost and save
time is planned
 Planning of reduction of levels in the supply chain of product to the customers, to provide
rapid and more secure delivery and COD payment methods
 An efficient way of inventory management is figured out to maintain accounts error-free.

Conclusion
In this assignment features, applications, advantages and some positive and negative impact of e-
commerce application on the business are discussed. It provides information about different
types of strategies and it’s planning. Different aspects of different strategy planning and the
points covered in each strategy planning are discussed. It gives the information of thoughts and
expectations of the customers from an e-commerce application.

References
KHURANA, A. (2018). Advantages and Disadvantages of Ecommerce. [online] thebalancesmb.
Available at: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/ecommerce-pros-and-cons-1141609 [Accessed 23
Jan. 2019].
Reed, N. (2018). 7 New Customer Expectations for Holiday 2018. [online] commandc. Available
at: https://commandc.com/customer-expectations-for-holiday-2018/ [Accessed 23 Jan. 2019].
Scott-Briggs, A. (2017). The Impact of e-Commerce on Businesses Read More
https://www.techbullion.com/impact-e-commerce-businesses/. [online] techbullion. Available at:
https://www.techbullion.com/impact-e-commerce-businesses/ [Accessed 23 Jan. 2019].
Walker, T. (2017). Ecommerce Marketing Strategies: A Comprehensive Guide for Growth.
[online] shopify. Available at: https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/ecommerce-marketing-
strategies [Accessed 23 Jan. 2019].