BAC102/BBS102/BHM102: Online Shopping and ICT Innovation Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of online shopping as an innovation in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). It begins with an introduction to ICT, defining its role in modern business, followed by a background on online shopping and its evolution. The report reviews relevant literature and discusses key benefits such as increased price comparison and removal of geographical barriers, while also addressing issues like product quality and hidden costs. An industry case analysis focuses on the Australian retail sector, particularly Amazon's impact. The report recommends the implementation of an automated accounting system to improve customer service and for Australian retailers to expand their online presence. The conclusion summarizes the findings, emphasizing online shopping's transformative effect on commerce and highlighting the challenges and opportunities it presents to businesses and consumers.

Running head: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Information Technology
9/29/2019

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Background Information of ICT Innovation..........................................................................2
Literature Review...................................................................................................................2
Special Day........................................................................................................................3
Key Benefits/ Issues of Online Shopping..............................................................................4
Benefits..............................................................................................................................4
Issues..................................................................................................................................5
Industry Case Analysis...........................................................................................................6
Retail Industry....................................................................................................................6
Recommendation....................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Information and communications technology is the extensional term for IT that talks about
the role of the unified communications and the mixing of computers, and telecommunications
and important storage, audio-visual systems, enterprise software, and middleware, that allow
users to search, store, transfer, and deploy information (Heeks, 2017). The aim of this paper
is to present a case study for an ICT innovation that is online shopping and its benefits. The
case study is comprised of detailed description of the ICT innovation, its evolution and
benefits. The selected information and communication technology innovation is being
applied to the retail industry and on a specific company. In the end, the paper is providing
some of the recommendations in support to the presented arguments.
Background Information of ICT Innovation
Online shopping is a type of electronic commerce that enables the customer to directly
purchase products or services from the seller by using internet through a web browser.
Customers search for the product by visiting directly the preferred website of the seller or by
searching the available alternative vendors through shopping search engine that works to
show the similar available products and pricing of different seller online (O’Brien, 2010). As
of 2016, consumers can purchase products online with the use of different devices and
computers, comprising laptops, smartphones, desktop computers, and tablet. Some of the
largest online seller or retailers are e-bay, Amazon, and Alibaba (Angelovska, 2019).
Literature Review
The founder Michael Aldrich founded online shopping in 1980s, which eventually changes
everything the time a system was introduced by him that enables customers, distributors,
suppliers, service companies, agents, and consumers to get connected with the corporate

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system with a medium that is on-line and enable the transactions of the business to execute
and complete electronically in the real-time. The first World Wide Web browser and server
was introduced in the year 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee, but was available for the commercial
use in the year 1991 (Give Away Service, 2016). After this introduction, Amazon.com
introduced its site for online shopping in the year 1995 and ebay was also launched in 1995.
The two sites of Alababa that is Taobao and Tmall were introduced by the company in the
year 2003 and 2008, respectively.
Source [(Give Away Service, 2016)]
The time money got started involving while doing business through internet, “PayPal” was
introduced and till date it has almost 70% share in the market. It offers online payment
facility to the users.
Special Day
In the year 2005, Cyber Monday was devised in order to reflect an increase in the online sales
that happened on Monday after Black Friday. This day was considered to be the biggest day

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of shopping in that year. As per the reports, there were around 83% of the customers who
reported that they feel more confident in making an online purchase on comparison to
purchasing products through a salesperson in the store (Give Away Service, 2016).
In the Asian market, Singles’ Day was introduced and celebrated by the young people of
China. This day is celebrated to present that they are proud to be single. On 11th November,
this holiday is celebrated and with time it has become the biggest days of online shopping
across the world (Give Away Service, 2016). Online shopping has made everything possible.
Providing the discount coupons for gaining the loyalty of the customer and in order to have
the constant communication with the customer different benefits are provided with the decent
discounts for the promotion of the online shopping. This activity became very famous across
the world because the loyalty of the customer started appreciating more.
Key Benefits/ Issues of Online Shopping
Benefits
Increased bargain prices by vising number of shops/suppliers – By visiting number of
suppliers and shops online can help consumer to get the best possible price for the products.
Consumer can check, compare, decide, and select the best seller available and which product
to be purchases offered at best price. Customer provides more priority to the quality and price
of a product, hence it is highly important to browse and search for the best offers (Cheema,
Rizwan and Sohail, 2013).
Removing national or international barriers – Under online business, equal opportunities are
provided to every individual. But, in the online shopping consumers across the world gains
the opportunity to take part and purchase products on the same prices. In fact for some of the
customers, it becomes possible to purchase and experience things from distant places at the
same or regular prices. Online shopping has possibly removed all the spatial borders and

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stops the geographical barriers to enable a new shopping experience (Lim, Leung and Sia,
2004).
Consumer at the demanding position – There is a well-known saying that the customer is
always right, which is always not proven true. But, in the case of e-commerce, this saying is
considered to be the motto of the entire industry which has also allowed it to be so much
successful. In this competition of making the satisfied customer, it becomes very simple for
the customer to get high discount on the product and get their needs satisfied at low prices. In
return, the supplier gain the huge number of customers who are satisfied with their services
and products and post positive reviews and promote their business willingly or unwillingly.
This allows them to gain more profit and motivation to improve the services and get
successful. This can be considered as a win-win situation and online shopping is surely
directed at the concept that is mutual satisfaction.
Issues
Quality of Product – This is considered to be the major issue that is experienced by the online
shoppers. The product quality is mostly not up to the mark that is showed in the pictures.
With the increasing competition intensity in the industry of e-commerce, because there is
number of websites that are becoming a marketplace for the sellers for vending their services
or products, the issues and fraudulent activities in the market are increasing (Katawetawaraks
and Wang, 2011).
Trouble with Hidden Cost – This is another issue that is experienced by the customer even
with the top e-commerce companies. Online marketplace does not provide detailed
information to the customer regarding the hidden costs on different things. For example, the
consumer is enticed into purchasing something that says is cost at a certain price. But, in a
minute they pay high amount in order to get the delivery of the product like additional

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shipping, tax charges, etc. This ultimately make customer to pay extra amount to purchase the
product (The Conversation, 2019).
Industry Case Analysis
Retail Industry
The retailing industry of Australia has reflected a comparatively passive performance in the
year 2018. The growth of the retailing in the current value sales just increased marginally on
2017 and the review period CAGR, whereas the number of retail stores in the nation
decreased at fast pace than the previous three years (EuroMonitor International, 2019b). This
is because of the increasing popularity of the online retailing in Australia. Third-party sellers
of every type of products are flocking at these platforms, because they offer opportunity to
massively increase their experience and reach, while also decreasing the cost of shipping and
measuring data-driven customer understandings. Amazon is the leading e-retailer in this
industry who has adopted this online shopping innovation of the information and
communication technology in order to gain the maximum share in this segment by offering
better services to the customers at reasonable prices (EuroMonitor International, 2019a).
Since taking entry in the Australian market in late 2017, Amazon.com has unceasingly
extended its offers on daily grocery products comprising non-perishable foods and on other
products too like clothing, electronics, etc. In present market scenario of Australia, Amazon
is giving direct challenge to Coles and Woolworths by providing similar products at the same
prices and in few cases it changes the prices of the product in a day of corresponding moves
executed by the two supermarkets chains (Bell, 2019).
Amazon is the current topic in the entire retail industry of Australia after the news in which it
provided the confirmation of its expansion plan. The largest e-commerce player of the world
is not the newcomer to this market, because it operates its Kindle e-book store in Australia

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and also providing its cloud-based web services (Jacod, 2017). Amazon is not just the largest
retailer on the entire earth, but is the largest than many of the key local retailers combine.
Source [(Jacod, 2017)]
Recommendation
Amazon is the leading e-retailer of the world and offer high quality products to the customer
at reasonable prices. The company is involved in offering best discounts offer to its
customers during festive season. But, many times during this period customers deal with
number of issues while doing their online shopping. After placing the order of the product
and receiving the confirmation for the same, many times customer receive a mail regarding
failed order which is very disappointing and unsatisfying. This also raises the issues for the
customer as they have made the payment for the product but after the cancellation of the
order they do not receive quick or instant refund or payment which restricts them to make
repurchase (Siddiqa, 2018). Hence, to reduce the chances of these types of issue the company
is recommended to install an automated accounting system that can reduce the manual
procedures and save type of the business and take instant decisions through which it can

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provide quick refund to the customer. This process will not just save the time of the business,
but will increase its loyalty towards to brand and encourage repurchasing the product.
Further, the analysis highlighted that other retailers of Australian market are dealing with
intense competition from Amazon due to its online presence and effective pricing policy.
Hence, the Australian retailers are recommended to expand business over online platform and
try to provide high quality products at low prices. This will not just help them in increasing
the competition for Amazon but will also increase their sales.
Conclusion
The above report has provided a detailed analysis of the online shopping an innovation of
information and communication technology and its benefits in the market. From the analysis,
it has been identified that online shopping is supporting in removing the national and
international barriers for the people as it allows them to purchase everything from anywhere.
However, online shopping expose business and customer to number of barriers such as theft
and fraudulent activities, issues in receiving the refund, etc. In addition to this, the analysis
has highlighted that Amazon is the leading e-commerce business that has allowed the
customers to purchase all they need at affordable prices very conveniently. Bur, the company
is raising some challenges for the customer that can be overcome by the recommendations
presented in the last section of the report.

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References
Angelovska, N. (2019) Top 5 Online Retailers: 'Electronics And Media' Is The Star Of E-
commerce Worldwide [Online]. Available from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninaangelovska/2019/05/20/top-5-online-retailers-electronics-
and-media-is-the-star-of-e-commerce-worldwide/#78811bed1cd9 [30 September 2019]
Bell, M. (2019) How Amazon will change the Australian retail landscape in 2019 [Online].
Available from http://www.adnews.com.au/opinion/how-amazon-will-change-the-australian-
retail-landscape-in-2019 [30 September 2019]
Cheema, U., Rizwan, M., and Sohail, N. (2013) The trend of online shopping in 21st century:
Impact of enjoyment in TAM Model. Asian Journal of Empirical Research, 3(2), pp.131-141.
EuroMonitor International (2019a) Internet Retailing in Australia [Online]. Available from
https://www.euromonitor.com/internet-retailing-in-australia/report [30 September 2019]
EuroMonitor International (2019b) Retailing in Australia [Online]. Available from
https://www.euromonitor.com/retailing-in-australia/report [30 September 2019]
Give Away Service (2016) The Evolution of Online Shopping [Online]. Available from
https://www.giveawayservice.com/blog/online-shopping-development [30 September 2019]
Heeks, R. (2017) Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) 1st
ed. U.S: Routledge.
Jacod, A. (2017) How Australian Retailers Are Reacting to Amazon's Arrival [Online].
Available from https://www.ordermentum.com/blog/how-australian-retailers-react-to-
amazons-arrival [30 September 2019]

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Katawetawaraks, C. and Wang, C. (2011) Online shopper behavior: Influences of online
shopping decision. Asian Journal of Business Research, 1(2).
Lim, K.H., Leung, K., and Sia, C. (2004) Is Ecommerce Boundary-Less? Effects of
Individualism–Collectivism and Uncertainty Avoidance on Internet Shopping. Journal of
International Business Studies, 35(6), 545-559.
O’Brien, H.L. (2010) The influence of hedonic and utilitarian motivations on user
engagement: The case of online shopping experiences. Interacting with computers, 22(5),
pp.344-352.
Siddiqa, A. (2018) 5 challenges e-retailers may face and how to overcome them [Online].
Available from https://services.amazon.in/resources/seller-blog/challenges-e-retailers-face-
and-how-to-overcome.html [30 September 2019]
The Conversation (2019) The hidden costs of online shopping – for customers and retailers
[Online]. Available from https://theconversation.com/the-hidden-costs-of-online-shopping-
for-customers-and-retailers-109694 [30 September 2019]