Internet and E-Business Report: Fortnum & Mason Analysis

This report examines the e-business landscape, focusing on Fortnum & Mason (F&M) as a case study. It begins by describing the e-business environment, including micro and macro factors, and explores different transaction types like B2B and B2C. The report then delves into the benefits and barriers of online business for F&M, along with security and legislative issues and different communication modes. It further explores the role of internet technologies such as websites, data centers, big data, and packet switching in e-business success. The report discusses HTML features, client-server models, browsers, and search engines. It also examines various e-business revenue models, comparing their advantages and disadvantages, and considers future developments. Finally, the report covers key elements of website design, its impact on e-business, and website usability issues. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of e-business strategies and their application to the F&M context.

INTERNET AND E-BUSINESS

Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................3
Task 1....................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Describing environment of e-business and transaction of business types.................................3
1.2 Benefits and barriers for organization to conduct online business............................................4
1.3 Security and legislative issues of firm.......................................................................................5
1.4 Different modes of communication for E business....................................................................5
2.1 Explaining internet technologies and their importance in making electronic business
successful.........................................................................................................................................6
2.2 Describing the important features of HTML ............................................................................6
2.3 Explaining functions of client server models and browser and role of search engines.............7
2.4 Use of Intranet and Extranet for firm.........................................................................................8
Task 3....................................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Explaining how different e-business revenue models can be used to generate revenues for
business............................................................................................................................................9
3.2 Comparing two revenue models by assessing their benefits and challenges.............................9
3.3 Future developments in e-business revenue models................................................................10
Task 4..................................................................................................................................................11
4.1 Key elements of a better website design structure...................................................................11
4.2 Evaluate the impact of a well-designed website on an e-business...........................................11
4.3 Issues on concerning website usability....................................................................................12
Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................12
References..........................................................................................................................................13

Illustration Index
Illustration 1: Client server model........................................................................................................8

Index of Tables
Table 1: Different modes of communication.......................................................................................7
Table 2: Internet technologies..............................................................................................................8
Table 3: Features of HTML..................................................................................................................9
Table 4: Issues of Website usability....................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Electronic business can be determined as process with help of organization conduct
different business like buying and selling of products and services. However, internet is global
network which provides lot of information and communication services with the help of standard
protocols (Yee-Loong Chong and et.al., 2014). Fortnum and Mason (F and M) is a corporation
which sell various category of gift hampers such as chocolates, biscuits as well as wines in United
Kingdom. The present report represents scope of electronic business for firm. Further, it explains
the how internet works to support online business activities of organization. It defines various E
business models to generate revenue for F and M organisation in the market. In addition to this, it
describes key elements website design structure for conducting online business activities of
corporation.
TASK 1
1.1 Describing environment of e-business and transaction of business types
Generally, environment of e business are divided in macro and micro factors which help
organization to achieve its goals and objectives by developing effective business strategies for
expansion of business. It is described below in the paragraph.
Micro factors
There are many micro aspects like consumers, suppliers and employees of F and M
organisation which create impact on its online activities in the market.
Consumers: According to case, management of F and M conduct proper market study to identify
the needs, requirements as well as lifestyle of customers which help to design its proper services
and products in the market (Lu and et.al., 2014).
Suppliers: F and M organisation manages better relations with suppliers by providing timely
payments and arranging meetings in regular time intervals (Atuma, 2011). Further, this approach
contribute effective role for corporation to achieve better quality of raw material from vendors.
Employees: Staff members of organisation help management of F and M firm to design and develop
effective strategies and plans which aid to expand its online business in the national and
international market.
Macro factors
Organisation has to consider macro aspects like political, legal and technological to analyse the
external environment of online market in the UK (Yang Flynn and Anderson, 2014).

Political and legal factors: As per the case study, they contribute effective role for F and M
organisation to expand business activities in the United Kingdom and other countries. In addition to
this, taxes, legal policies and rules and regulations help the organisation to establish its online
business in new areas.
Technological factors: These aspects like proper communication facilities, appropriate internet
connectivity provide effective services to F and M organisation to manage its online business
activities in the national and international market.
Types of E business transactions
 Business to business (B2B) transactions: These type of activities take place between two
business corporations to sell and buy products and services (Georgiadis, Patrick and Chau,
2013). For example, management of F and M purchase raw material like Cocoa and floor
from its vendors in the market.
 Business to consumer transactions: Enterprise sells its products directly to the customers
without keeping any intermediaries. For example, F and M organisation also sells its
commodities to consumers in the United Kingdom.
1.2 Benefits and barriers for organization to conduct online business
There are many type of advantages and disadvantages for F and M firm to manage its online
business.
Benefits to conduct electronic business
 Management of organisation contribute effectively to increase its sales by increasing the
frequency of consumers (Bordonaba-Juste, Lucia-Palacios and Polo-Redondo, 2012).
 Online business can help the F and M enterprise to reduce cost of intermediaries which
provide huge reliability to manage its online business activities in the market.
 F and M can improve its transportation services by contacting with logistics and couriers
companies in United Kingdom. Further, This process can also help the firm to spread E-
business activities in the national and international market.
 E business provides can give better efficiency to solve queries of domestic consumers with
help of Emails and mobile phones (Barnes and Hunt, 2013). This approach can also help the
F and M organisation to increase numbers of customers.
Barriers to conduct E online business
 E business requires lot of monetary funds to install IT equipments like severs in the F and M
firm

 It needs more IT experts to manage E operations of organisation.
 Hacking and spoofing is also barrier for the firm because many hackers try to hack personal
server of company which create problems to save its important data.
1.3 Security and legislative issues of firm
Organisation suffers with security as well as legislative problems in the United Kingdom.
Security issues: Rapid changes in technology are created issues for firm because it is increased
hacking, spoofing, virus as well as phishing activities (Cherif and Grant, 2014). For example, these
issues enhance the work pressure on the employees in the F and M. In addition to this, Sometimes,
they also destroy important data of company.
Legislative issues: As per case, Government of UK is created many problems for IT companies to
manage its E operations. For example, legal authorities are created many IT laws and employment
policies to handle its online business activities. However, management of F and M organisation
compel to spend high monetary funds to implement these activities.
Steps to minimize the risks
Government of United Kingdom try to reduce hacking, phishing and spoofing activities of
organization. In addition to this, they also suggest IT companies to follow standard protocols like
IPV 6 security, firewall as well as appropriate installation of IT equipments which help to decrease
the security issues of F and M firm (Quangdung, Dechun and Drew, 2014). Further, they create
many strict cyber laws to prevent from these type of activities.
1.4 Different modes of communication for E business
Organisation has many type of communication modes for conducting E business.
Table 1: Different modes of communication
Communication
modes
Description
EDI (Electronic data
interchange)
It is used by F and M organisation to transfer the important data from one
branch to another by using standard protocols. It helps to reduce human
intervention in the system.
VOIP (Voice over
internet protocol)
It is effective approach to transfer the video and audio files through
internet protocol address (Whitmore, Agarwal. and Da Xu, 2015). It
contribute effective role for firm to manage its online business activities.
Video conferencing It is utilized to arrange video chatting among the employees in the F and

M organisation. It helps the managers and staff members to take important
decision by reducing their time in the firm.
Social media Management of F and M use Social media like face book as well as twitter
to promote new products for consumers. This method aids the firm to
make effective relationship with customers in the market (Combe, 2012).
2.1 Explaining internet technologies and their importance in making electronic business successful
F and M organization has many internet technologies which help the firm to make its
business successful.
Table 2: Internet technologies
Internet
technologies
Description and importance
Web sites According to case, it is used to show various types of products such as
wines, gift hampers to consumers. It is valuable for F and M firm to
manage its purchase and buying activities.
Data centres Data centres are centralised data repository which help to store various type
information and data in the F and M (Gilinsky, Thach and Thompson,
2015). Further, they are important firm to handle their E business activities
in a appropriate manner.
Big data It provides effective services to access the data remotely by making
relationship with cloud computing companies. In addition to this, it is also
valuable for F and M to reduce installation cost of IT servers and other
equipments.
Packet switching It is used to transmit data into the blocks which are called as packets.
Further, these packets are transmitted through internet medium from one
user to other (Janita and Chong, 2013). It is important for F and M because
it provides effective security of data during the transmission.
2.2 Describing the important features of HTML
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is a web development language which is utilized to

develop attractive web pages of F and M organization. In addition to this, web browsers can read
only HTML data. This tool has many important features which are described below in the table.
Table 3: Features of HTML
Features of HTML Description
<html>...</html> This feature is used to open and close HTML data.
<head>...</head> It is utilized to generate head type and provide data about document
< title>..........</title> This is used to make title on the web pages.
<body>...........</body> It is utilized for making body like text="#(hexadecimal color code)". It
helps to visible page content (HTML Introduction, 2016).
<h1>.........<./h1> It is used to represent heading in the web pages.
2.3 Explaining functions of client server models and browser and role of search engines
Management of F and M use many functions of client server models, browsers and the role
of search engines.
It is a distributed application structure which help to share tasks or workload between the
servers and clinets in the organization. Further, Client send request to take resources from server in
the system. Mainly, Clients and servers communicate over computer network with the support of
Illustration 1: Client server model
(Source:Client- server model, 2015)

hardware (Client- server model, 2015). In addition to this, Server is able to perform multiple tasks
at the same time which contribute effective role for client to share resources as per its demand in the
system.
Tool Advantages Disadvantages
Client and
server model
It aids in data sharing with the support of
structured query language (SQL). It also
helps in managing online business
operations of F and M.
It gives appropriate flexibility to share
resources on the various platforms.
Many clients have to wait to access its
information which generate many
problems for them due to heavy
workload on the server.
If server of organization fails then all
clients do not able to achieve any type
of information from the system. This
thing creates problem for the clients
to accomplish its operations (Sparrow,
2016).
Functions of browsers
The main function of browser is to achieve proper information for clients from various
resources. It also help consumers to all enable data regarding products of F and M organization on
the web page. This process start when user enters Uniform resource locator address such as http://
www. yahoo.com then URI (Uniform resource identifier) initiate its operations with Hyper Text
Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
Role of search engines
Search engine play important role for organization to raise its sales of products in the market
(Janita and Chong, 2013). In addition to this, F and M firm pays many search engine corporation
like Yahoo, MSN, Google and Bing to represent its website to consumers in top ten list for buying
its gift hampers like chocolates and wines in the European zone.
Applicability for firm
Client server model is valuable for F and M enterprise to reveal all products and services to
consumers. It contribute effective role for organisation to increase its sales of its commodities in the
electronic market. Further, it also aids in increasing efficiency and performance of E operations of
firm such as buying and selling of products through internet (Schumacher and et.al., 2013).

2.4 Use of Intranet and Extranet for firm
Extranet and Intranet helps F and M organisation to manage its operations.
Use of Intranet: It is an internal computer network that helps the firm to share information with
people in the organization. It is utilized to fulfill electronic communication needs for staff members
at same time in the firm (McElheran, 2015). For example, employees of F and M can access online
and offline files and document at same time. In addition to this, Intranet is used for staff
changes,office events, new products and preparation of work schedule in the firm However, it
generates more security problems for employees of F and M such as data overload and unauthorized
access.
Use of Extranet: It is an additional version of the intranet where multiple business organizations or
partners can have authority to access necessary information. This process help the corporation to
take their appropriate decisions (Combe, 2012). For example, Management of F and M can use
extranet for implementing joint projects with another companies which contribute effectively to
handle their online business activities in the market. Further, it provide facilities for firm to connect
with consumers. On the other side, Extranet can be costly for management of F and M due to its
higher cost of installation.
TASK 3
3.1 Explaining how different e-business revenue models can be used to generate revenues for
business.
Management of F and M can use various type of e-business revenue models which aids to
gain more profit in the online business.
Online advertising: Online advertising is a effective revenue model to enhance the revenue of
organization by purchasing advertising space on other websites. Further, it also consists of pay-per-
click and pay-per-view methods for the corporation (Barnaghi, P. and et.al., 2012). For example, F
and M firm can pay money to other websites to promote its products and services by using these
approaches in the market.
Affiliate marketing: It provides opportunity to earn better revenue through marketing of its
products on the website. For example, Consumers refer gift hampers to another clients and advice
them to buy them. Further, F and M gives some profit percentage of its sales to consumers which
helps the firm to increase its revenues in the market (Bordonaba-Juste, Lucia-Palacios and Polo-
Redondo, 2012).
Transaction fees: Enterprise takes few amount of fee on the behalf of advertisement and promotion
of consumer products like cars and mobiles. For example, Amazon uses transaction model to

generate effective profits from the consumers.
3.2 Comparing two revenue models by assessing their benefits and challenges
Affiliate marketing
F and M can achieve effective stack of customers without spending more monetary funds
and giving more marketing efforts. In addition to this, organization can increase their sales with the
help of this method in the market (Quangdung, Dechun and Drew, 2014). However, sometimes,
organization commits to pay good percentage of its sales to clients. Then after, management of F
and M gives less commission which produces issues for their clients. These activities can reduce the
revenue and profit of organization in the E business industry.
Online advertisement
Online advertisement can provide better information and knowledge about the products of
organisation. Further, it can also help to enhance the sales of organisation by increasing revenues in
the market (Malhotra, 2014). It can aid F and M firm to make better relations with customers which
can contribute effectively to increase its profit. On the other side, if the organization use traditional
advertising skills then it creates issues to achieve high revenues from consumers.
On the base of comparison, F and M can chose online advertising method in the market.
This approach can help organization to gain effective revenues and profit by using attractive online
advertisement strategies.
3.3 Future developments in e-business revenue models
Management of F and M can develop future developments in e-business revenues models
which can aid to achieve better revenues in the E-sector of UK. Some of them are described below
in the points.
 Organisation can explain its strategies and practices to customers with help of social media.
This process can help the firm to develop affiliate marketing in a appropriate manner
(Whitmore, Agarwal and Da Xu, 2015). For example, Google corporation utilizes this
revenue model to increase its profit in the market.
 Management of F and M can use attractive and latest online advertisement approaches
which can aid to increase its market share and revenues. For example, Amazon and yahoo
use online advertising which help to increase its sales in the market.
 Generally many corporations use transaction fee revenue model to increase its profit. So F
and M organisation can take less percentage from its consumers as comparison of before to
enhance its sales in the market (Gilinsky, Thach and Thompson, 2015). For example, E bay