E-commerce Strategy for Lions Cricket Ground: A Comprehensive Analysis

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E-commerce strategy

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Critically discuss the expectations of internet customers.................................................2
1.2 Critically assess the potential impact of common applications on an e-commerce
business..................................................................................................................................5
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................7
2.1-Plan an e-Commerce implementation strategy for an ecommerce business....................7
Task 3.......................................................................................................................................10
3.1 Critically assesses the risks of linking the business systems to the internet..................10
3.3 Critically discuss security measures to protect an e-Commerce solution......................12
3.4 Critically evaluate current e-Commerce developments and assess their incorporation
into an e-Commerce strategy organisation...........................................................................15
Conclusion................................................................................................................................18
References................................................................................................................................19

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: How electronic payment process works?....................................................................5
Figure 2: How firewall works?.................................................................................................12
Figure 3: Illustration on intranet and extranet..........................................................................13
Figure 4: Working of encryption to deliver security................................................................14
Figure 5: Major areas of digital marketing...............................................................................15
Figure 6: Examples of e-wallets...............................................................................................16
Figure 7: QR code for faster data insertion..............................................................................17

Introduction
In the comparison of the traditional brick and mortar business model, e-commerce has a
wider reach to the customers and can optimise the cost on the operation as the median cost of
the retailers and wholesalers can be avoided. However, the implementation of the e-
commerce strategy for an organisation needs the study around to understand the market
conditions and trends. The report will discuss the expectations of internet customers with the
importance of the common applications in e-commerce to understand the basics of the e-
commerce system design related requirements. Also, it will discuss a detailed implementation
plan for the ‘Lions Cricket Ground’ which is a London based ticket booking organisation for
the cricket events. The report will further discuss the importance of intellectual property
protection and business system protection from the internet linking. Also, several security
measures and developments in e-commerce will be discussed.
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Task 1
1.1 Critically discuss the expectations of internet customers
Definition
The customer is the final user of the product or service to whom the organisation cans
potential revenue. The customers those are inclined toward the purchase through the website
or mobile application based on internet services are termed as internet customers.
Types of internet customers
The 'New to the Net' Shopper: These are the customers new to the internet or online
shopping. Such customers are mainly explorers in the wide variety of the products and
services from the multiple organisations.
What they need: They need a simple and easy to use interface and checkout process with a lot
of validation during the purchase.
Reluctant or nervous shopper: It defines the set of the customers those are nervous with their
online shopping experience and trying to move toward the physical stores. They are
unenthusiastic due to the privacy and security issues on the internet.
What they need: They need clear privacy and security policies with effective online support
and discussion with the business representatives.
Bargain shopper: Such customers compare from multiple online stores to get effective
pricing. They are extensive researchers for the price and value from the same product or
service.
What they need: Such customers expect that the shopper provides them with an accurate and
effective price so that they do not require more searching and lookup (Kiddy, 2015).
The Surgical Shopper: These are the customers those know exactly what to purchase before
they log into the website and purchase only that product.
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What they need: They expect a clear presentation of the experience of other shoppers, real-
time communication with business representatives and archived opinions and product
configurations.
Enthusiastic shopper: These customers prefer to purchase frequently with adventurous
searching on the online store. Such customers use shopping as a form of recreation.
What they need: Customer engagement tools for merchandising, bulletin boards, personal
products recommendations and customer feedback pages are expected to use on the website.
The power shoppers: These customers shop according to their necessity for the product or
service and rarely prefer to look around for other products on the internet. These customers
are strategic to make a purchase (Web.com, 2019).
What they need: These customers expect that the website provides effective information on
products including customer support and experience and expert opinion. They also need
excellence navigation on the online store.
Customer expectations
However, it is complex to satisfy every customer on the internet as they are influenced by
their past and future experience with the online store and demands according to their
knowledge, understanding and other capabilities. Therefore, following are some of the major
expectations of the internet customers those can be included in a good e-commerce solution:
Preferred payment methods: Customers expects there cards and internet banking services are
capable of processing the transaction with the website.
Delivery methods: They expect that the delivery of the product is fast enough with proper
packaging and support to the customers for the installation of some products.
Ease of use: Online store and payment system are easy to use so that customers can get the
desired functions and features easily (Linda, 2010).
Ease of navigation: They need effective categorisation of the products and services so that
they can easily navigate to the most of the website components.
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Timely response to communications: Customer queries and problems are expected to resolve
in effective time. They need real-time communication on their questions through chat
systems, telecommunication and email services.
Special offers: Customers need special offers on branded and regular products along with
timely notification on their mobile or email account.
Mobile technology: They need support through mobile applications as lack of mobile
technology integration can keep the customers away due to complexities to access the web
each time during the order.
Pricing and shipping information: Price on the product is expected to be comparatively low
and effective whereas the organisations have to communicate accurate and reliable
information on the shipping.
Credibility: The contribution of the customers to review the products, and feedback the
process is expected for creditability. It helps them creative and supportive during their
purchasing (Tim, 2016).
Reliability: The products and services are reliable to the customers in term of quantity,
quality, pricing and information associated with them. The shipping, returns and cancel
process is also expected to the reliable.
Visual impact: The images and videos are provided with products on the website so that
customers can understand the usability and features of the products effectively.
Privacy: The customer information and banking details are protected throughout the
purchasing.
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1.2 Critically assess the potential impact of common applications on an e-commerce business
E-commerce business and solution
The organisation using an online presence to sell the products is an e-commerce business
whereas the website through which the organisations have interaction with customers is an e-
commerce solution.
Common application
However, the e-commerce solution has consideration of the several common applications
from other organisations to achieve the functionality. Such applications help to achieve the
performance, quality and efficiency in particular types of operations and appearance on the
website. Following are major common applications required to integrate an e-commerce
solution:
Payment systems: The integration of the payment system is required for e-commerce
solutions to ensure that the payment processing is simple, effective and error free. It helps the
organisation to manage the transactions with high security and ensure faster processing
through support to multiple cards, net banking services, e-wallets and cash on delivery (Yu et
al., 2002). It also provides the services of the currency exchange and automatic management
of the taxations and charges during the transaction processing. ‘Lions Cricket Ground
ticketing system’ can use the PayPal, Stripe or Citrus as payment systems for the solution.
Figure 1: How electronic payment process works?
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Online shopping: There is need of the effective user interface to provide the navigation to the
required links, presentation of the products and services in categories and deal with the price,
offers and other benefits on the purchase. The online shopping platform is required to enable
users for effective purchases. Such systems are easy to use and effective to attract the
customers for the purchasing (Karat et al., 2004). The organisation can use Open Cart,
Magento or Os-Commerce for effective user interface designing and implementation.
Shopping cart software: It is essential to manage the customer’s wish list for the products
and services and enable them for the one checkout for the bulk of the products so that
shopping cart is used. It is required to manage the user accounts with effective management
of the preferred payment method, name, address and banking details during purchase. It helps
to reduce the re-submission of the details during each transaction (Raisch, 2002). The
organisation can use Presta shop, Zen Cart or Magento as a potential shopping cart.
Newsgroups: It is required to promote the products and services to the customers and attract
the market. The organisations have to select the newsgroup such as usenet.net as a significant
source for the distribution of the news and promotional content to the customers. It is
required to market the products and brand value to the customers to ensure they are aware of
purchasing the products (Khoshnampour and Nosrati, 2011).
Email: Communication is essential within the organisation and with customers so that
reliable support can be used to improve the service quality and experience. The organisation
has need of the email services for the internal collaboration among the employees whereas
emails are also required to interact with customers for their queries and problems during
purchasing and transaction processing (Stretcher and Hynes, 2009).
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Task 2
2.1-Plan an e-Commerce implementation strategy for an ecommerce business
Goals and objectives
The goal of the strategy is to establish the e-commerce business from the foundation and
reach to the desired customer base for the sustainability. It has objectives to create internet
presence of the website and later then process for the marketing, supply chain operations and
electronic payment processing.
Internet strategy
It defines how the organisation will make use of the internet to create a presence of the
business for customers. It also considers the activities to manage and grow business
expansion and customer satisfaction.
Domain name selection: The organisation has to select the domain name which can present
the business and operations effectively. It is recommended to select the name such more
similar and professional to the activities. For example, lionscrickettickets.com is a simple
domain name for the business.
Hosting: It is required to host the web pages. The organisation can use internal hosting which
is costly due to the dedicated purchase of the server and software solutions whereas sub-
contracted hosting is shared for cost, performance and availability (Khoshnampour and
Nosrati, 2011). It is recommended to use the hosting of long terms with sub-contracted to
reduce pricing impact or move for internal hosting for dedicated storage and performance.
Design the website: The website needs to be designed with the integration of the principles of
the user interface and experience designing so that effective navigation, use of the graphics
and content can be used to attract the customers. The website also required to achieve high
performance, security and reliability during processing. Latest technology for web designing
can be used to ensure high security and integration of the latest features and functions.
Maintenance: It is essential to manage the effective access and uptime of the website. The
organisations have to focus on the maintenance of the bugs and issues through an update in
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coding, service integration and connectivity with database and business policies (Karat et al.,
2004).
Marketing strategy
Customer attraction can be achieved through marketing as it helps to communicate products
details, offers and business values to them. Marketing is required to drive the potential
benefits through high sales.
Market segmentation and targeting: The organisation has to analyse the market for a
possible set of customers. Also, interest groups and their expectations are essential to
consider in the marketing method. Targeting activity means to deliver adequate content or
support to engage the customers in the purchasing process.
Web communities: Development of the web community can help to engage the customers in
the forums and discussion where they can share their experience and issues with others. It can
help to resolve issues through customer community or helps them to be aware with the
particular product or service (Thomas, 2013).
Advertisement: it can be used as the potential promotional activity for the organisation to
market the tickets. The online and social advertisements can be used to target the particular
market segment and achieve high profitability. Promotional content can be used on other
website and online store to engage customers.
Search engine optimisation: It means to improve searching of the website for customers on
the popular search engines. The effective configuration of the website and its header can
improve the visibility on the internet and can drive more effective genuine searches.
E-marketing software: The use of the software can help to generate effective marketing
content and can manage the customers in the marketing process. It can be used to ensure
effective monitoring and distribution of the content to the market (Parkin, 2009).
Supply chain strategy
It means to deliver the desired product to the customers effectively. It also ensures reliable
and smooth supply chain for ticket booking to the customers.
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Satisfying customer demand: The expectations of the faster and reliable supply chain are
essential to cover during the services. The strategy has the main component to examine the
customer satisfaction factors and integrate them in the services.
Responsive supply chain: Whenever there is an update on the ticket booking, prices or
availability, the organisation is expected to be responsive. The supply chain needs strong
communication to share the operational and executioner data with other resources.
Management: In-house supply chain can be used to ensure high quality, dedicated support
and performance but it is also costly and complex to manage for the organisation (Johnson
and Whang, 2002). The sub-contracted supply chain can help to provide easy ticketing and
booking services to the customers within cost as it is shared with other organisations.
Relationships with suppliers: The lack of local agents and suppliers for the tickets and
services can impact the business services. The organisation is recommended to manage the
partnership like a relationship with suppliers to ensure high traffic for ticket booking and
quality services during events.
Electronic payment strategy
It helps the organisation to ensure effective privacy and security control during transaction
processing. The organisation can make use of the following methods for electronic payment
services and support.
Online transaction processing: The organisation can use electronic payment systems such as
stripe and Citrus for effective payment services. Online transactions can avoid erroneous
practices and improve performance during payment processing (Yu et al., 2002).
Commercial off the Shelf Software: It is off the commercial shelf product which is adapted
to satisfy the purchasing needs rather than the use of the customer made or a bespoke
solution. Adoption of COTS can reduce the operation cost and improve the efficiency with
the pre-defined process for the transaction processing and management.
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