E-commerce: Trends, Challenges, and Future of Retail

This report examines the growing influence of e-commerce on the retail industry, highlighting the shift towards online channels and the integration of physical and digital strategies ('phy-gital' concept). It discusses the importance of e-commerce for retail stores to survive and thrive, with examples like ASDA's online presence. The report analyzes the impact of e-retailing on consumers, the importance of providing detailed product information, and effective online advertising. It further touches upon the evolving consumer behavior and the impact of e-commerce on diverting offline sales to online channels, emphasizing the need for retail stores to embrace e-commerce platforms to remain competitive in the modern market. The report also touches upon the good and bad impacts on the consumers and the need for retail stores to adopt good advertising and promotion strategies.

Running head: E-COMMERCE
E-commerce Business
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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E-commerce has become the part and parcel of the modern day lifestyle. One of the
most significant platforms where the application of e-commerce is vividly seen is the retail
stores. In order to make sure that all the business operations are taking place in the right
order, both physical and online activities are needed (Dixon and Marston 2002). The trend
over the past few years say that online retail marketing is growing. One major reason behind
this is that it eases the lives of the consumers. In other words, the shopping experience of the
consumers is made much easier and smoother. It is suggested to all the retail stores that they
must start thinking about newer innovative ideas. These ideas make them popular among
their consumers.
There are companies like the digital windows, made by Kate Spade in New York that
offers the consumers a very large touch screen monitor. It is through this touchscreen monitor
that they showcased all their products and the product details. The customers could easily see
the products and order them via the online purchasing method. Then again, a large mob
gathering outside the Apple store for several days, just to buy the first launched Apple iPod
or I phone again proves that people are concerned about the physical purchasing than online
purchasing. However, on an average, the demand for e-commerce or online activities is much
stronger. Hence, the retail stores must now adopt the “phy-gital” concept in their stores (Liao
and Shi 2009). In other words, it must be a mixture of both physical as well as e-commerce
related activities. ASDA is a well-known retail market in U.K. The main motif is to make the
lives of their customers easier and happier. They have recently started their online pages and
mobile apps in order to smoothly carry on their business activities. It is through these online
pages that they can advertise their products, offers, and discounts related to the products in a
very colorful and catchy manner. The e-commerce applications of ASDA are so designed that
the customers can easily track the status of their orders. They can even use their order history

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page for their future purchases. This enables the retail shop to clearly see the behaviors of
their targeted customers and take up strategies accordingly (Fang et al 2014).
Figure1: e -retailing of ASDA
(Source: retailtechnology.co.uk.2014)
However, the e-commerce activities in U.K mainly have three important scenarios or ways in
which it might affect the future of the retail industry-
 Divert the offline sales into online channels
 Effects will vary as per the goods.
In order to survive in the present day scenario, the retail stores must use the e-commerce
p-platform; else there is no bright future (Huang et al 2006).The

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E-retailing has both good and bad impacts on the consumers. It is really easy to avoid the
time and energy of travelling to the retail store but at the same time, the consumers often fear
the uncertainty associated with the same. Hence, it is being suggested that all the retail stores
must provide detailed information of their products on the e-commerce sites. They must opt
for good advertising and promotion of their products online so that the customers can easily
keep faith and confidence in the e retailing business.

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Reference list
Dixon, T. and Marston, A., 2002. The Impact of E-commerce on Retail Real Estate in the
UK. Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management, 8(2), pp.153-174.
Fang, Y., Qureshi, I., Sun, H., McCole, P., Ramsey, E. and Lim, K.H., 2014. Trust,
Satisfaction, and Online Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Perceived
Effectiveness of E-Commerce Institutional Mechanisms. Mis Quarterly, 38(2).
Huang, X.D., Gates, W.H., Horvitz, E.J., Goodman, J.T., Brunell, B.A., Dumais, S.T., Flake,
G.W., Griffin, T.J. and Hurst-Hiller, O., Microsoft Corporation, 2006. Web-based targeted
advertising in a brick-and-mortar retail establishment using online customer information.
U.S. Patent Application 11/427,764.
Liao, Z. and Shi, X., 2009. Consumer perceptions of internet-based e-retailing: an empirical
research in Hong Kong. Journal of Services Marketing, 23(1), pp.24-30.