Business Skills for E-commerce: LSST Report, Semester 1

This report examines the significance of e-commerce in modern business, focusing on the London School of Science and Technology (LSST) and its potential adoption of e-commerce strategies. The report begins with an introduction highlighting the importance of technology and business skills for e-commerce success. Task 1 delves into LSST's core business functions, including accounting, marketing, sales, and administration, and analyzes the aims and objectives of various stakeholders such as investors, students, suppliers, and the government. Task 2 explores the impact of e-commerce, associated risks, and the e-commerce system, as well as the global impact of e-commerce on society. It discusses the positive effects like convenience and global market access, alongside negative impacts such as security concerns and unemployment. Task 3 assesses the market potential for an e-commerce opportunity, evaluates the current e-commerce system used by the organization, and determines the suitability of an e-commerce solution for LSST, concluding with recommendations for future implementation. The report provides a comprehensive overview of e-commerce's role, challenges, and opportunities in the education sector, offering valuable insights into how LSST can leverage e-commerce to achieve its goals.

Business skills for E-
commerce

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...........................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Organization’s core business function..............................................................................................3
1.2 Organization’s aims and objectives regarding stakeholders.............................................................4
Task 2...........................................................................................................................................................5
2.1 An E-commerce – impact, associated risk, and e-commerce system................................................5
2.2 Global impact on the E-commerce on society..................................................................................6
Task 3...........................................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Market potential for an E-commerce opportunity...........................................................................7
3.2 Current E-commerce system used by organization..........................................................................8
3.3 Suitability of E-commerce solution...................................................................................................9
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
Innovation and technology having a great significance in the growth and development of
business. Today the internet and information technology is widely accepted at each and every
types of organization. It can help to maintain the communication and relationship between the
various stakeholders. It required various business and personal skills in order to use E-commerce
platform in an effective manner so that the firm can help to attain their desired goals and
objectives (Andersen, Larsen and Boomsma, 2013). This report is based on the London School
of Science and Technology which is a private collage in the United Kingdom. The cited
educational institution wants to connect their overall system with the internet which can help to
provide competitive advantage over others. The main purpose of this report is to understand the
role of E-commerce in this sector in an appropriate manner.
Task 1
1.1 Organization’s core business function
There is various function in a business unit which are related with the marketing, finance,
planning, production, sales and marketing. Each function having different roles and
responsibilities which performed by them collectively. Each functional department is having
their own resources in order to perform their task. They also provide them authority so that they
can attain their individual target in an effective manner. In the context of LSST as given below:
Accounting function: This is one of the major function for the cited business unit which is related
with the financial aspects of the company. There are various roles and responsibilities which
performed by them in order to attain their long term target in an effective manner. In this
function there are large number of invoices and transactions which are related with the students
and other staff (Cheng, 2015). They also required to prepare financial and income statement for
their income and expenditure. For this they required an integrated information system which can
help to make these statement in an effective manner. These data and information are required in
to the decision making process.
Marketing function: This is another important function of the LSST which is related with the
advertising and marketing. A business unit is required that to use various tools and techniques in
order to promote firm’s products and services. In the context of the cited organization the role of

marketing manager is to communicate with the higher authorities about their new courses which
are going to start. Make their marketing plan accordingly which can help to attain their long term
goals and objectives (Hosseini and Bideh, 2014). There are various marketing tools like digital,
print media and social media. The social media platform is one of the most usable in the current
situation. These are Facebook, You Tube, Instagram etc. can be used by them.
Sales function: This is another significant department which is related with the sales of the
company. The profitability and revenue is depending on the sales department. There are various
methods and approaches which can be used by the managers in order to increase sales target of
the business unit. In the context of LSST, the sales department are required to communicate with
the other marketing department and design their marketing strategies accordingly.
Administration function: It is related with the administration activities of the cited company. The
major role of this department is to manage all activities and operation so that they can achieve
their short term targets.
Management information system function: Today each and every types of business and non-
business firms are using information system which I can help to provide more flexibility and
operational efficiency in the business unit.
1.2 Organization’s aims and objectives regarding stakeholders
It is essential for a company that they have to maintain a good relationship with them. There are
various stakeholders such as investors, students, suppliers, government and community. Each
and every individual stakeholder have their own aims and objectives relating the business unit.
Therefore, it is responsibility of the firm to attain its goals which can help to create an ideal
image in the public. These stakeholder and aims are given below:
Investors: These are the major stakeholder of the business which invest in their business. the
main aim of investors is to get maximum return on their investment. There are various business
organizations which required various funds and capital in order to expand their business and for
their product development (Hu, Shu and Qiao, 2014). Such investment came from the such
investors which wants sufficient return. Therefore, it is the responsibility if the cited business
firm is to provide expected return to them. In the context of given case LSST required that to use
various information and data which are related to the investors is to provide on the regular basis.

Students: These are another stakeholder which are related with the students. These are the
customers which needs the quality services from the cited business unit. The aim of the client of
LSST is to get the good education and other services from them. They also required various
study materials and resources which needs to be considered by the cited business organization. In
a science and technology institute the research and development having too important. The
manager of the firm is required to provide all these facilities in an effective manner.
Suppliers: Suppliers played a prominent role in the success of each and every business entity.
This is essential for a company is to maintain good relation with them. Sometimes it can help to
provide competitive advantage over others (Rezaeinia and Rahmani, 2016). In the context of
LSST, there are various suppliers such as financial institutions, stationary suppliers, furniture
suppliers, food suppliers etc. They provide a wide range of facilities and services to their students
which can leads to increase their satisfaction level.
Government: The role of government also important in the business. there are various laws and
legislation which are made by the government authorities. This is essential for a business unit is
to follow these rules in an effective manner.
Society: This is another stakeholder which is related with the community. The main aim of the
society is to provide
Task 2
2.1 An E-commerce – impact, associated risk, and e-commerce system
E-commerce is also known as Electronic commerce and it is part of purchasing selling
the products and services help of electronic systems. These are internet and other computer
networks. E-commerce help to transfer electronic funds transfer, supply chain management,
online transaction techniques and many more. Business application of e-commerce are email and
messaging, content management systems, account and finance systems, newsgroups, online
shopping, online banking and many more. Company selling help of their company websites and
is is the most effective technique of transfer worldwide. Its forms divided in to two parts and
these are B2B(Business to business), in this WWW(WORLD WIDE WIDE) help to exchange
company information. Second is B2C (Business to consumer) in this London school of science
and technology sell their products and services to consumers through web pages and directly

order help of company websites. E-commerce has many impacts on organization, involves the
important to change business practices and controls. Consumer need to believe on the e-
commerce and advantages of purchasing through e-commerce. E-commerce help to business to
change consumer perspectives such as consumer need to trust on online buying and most of
consumer don't purchase thigs because they afraid to lose money and online fraud so they need to
change their thinking by purchasing on certified business websites so first they need to buy
company product online. Value include not just provide in less prices but also provide services
which aren't available in market (Seret, Bejinaru and Baesens, 2015). In Ease, you can access the
services anytime on internet. Consumer barrier affected by consumer perception so company
explain to the consumers that company website is safe to buy their products and services. Help of
E-commerce company can connect to his consumer very easily and consumer also give online
feedback about the company product and services. Businesses open their products and services to
the global marketplace and in past, It may have spend years to reach into foreign markets and
traditional booksellers company are facing higher competition from online booksellers such as
London school of science and technology. E-commerce impact on employment issue. E-
commerce can impact on company's marketing, human resource management, operations and
finances. E-commerce include higher use of various currency transactions. Evince investment
needed to set up platform of e-commerce. Economic scale is very important in company
operation and maintain higher influencing relation with main suppliers. Company operation on
e-commerce platform are difficult. Impact of e-commerce on HRM involves workforce planning,
working condition of employee working in e-commerce and higher automation in e-commerce.
And advantage for London school of science and technology are help to increase market share,
enable them to access international market, low maintenance cost and reach higher economics
scales and disadvantages are computer and other devices is important, take high space, training
and retraining expenses and e-commerce is very popular among the people which help to
purchase their favourite company's products and goods very easily so these are the impact of e-
commerce on company which very important to understand for company (Sarwar,
Ramachandran and Hosseinian-Far, 2017).
2.2 Global impact on the E-commerce on society

E- commerce Positive effects on Society are helpful for aged people, help to save time,
availability of knowledge, important for new business and provide employment. E-commerce
generate delivery jobs and people don't need to higher knowledge or eduction for this job and
this is not difficult and it is easy for every person and e-commerce websites provide their
services 24 hours and you can purchase online anytime. Order a product on e-commerce take
very less time (Sarwar, Ramachandran and Hosseinian-Far, 2017). People can choice the various
products and services help of e-commerce sites and today is e-commerce very important for
company because company can promote their products and services very easily an quickly help
of various social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and many more.
Negative effects of society are Unemployment, uncertainty, security problem, consumer trust,
returns, complaints, product experience and delivery. People afraid to put their personnel
information on online and give secure online shop for a consumer. People want to replace and
return the company's product which they purchase online it is also negative impact on consumers
and it can effect badly on the company reputation. Take too much time to deliver the product and
consumer want their products and services as soon as possible so it also negative impact on
company and lot of complaints effect the company reputation. Customer didn't had enough
experience about the product due to few photos and details. e- commerce is simply help to
consumers to buying and selling the company's products and services very easily and quickly. E-
commerce is divided into two parts first one is B2C AND B2C is based on business to consumer
and second one is B2B and B2B stand on Business to business and these are the impact of e-
commerce on society.
Task 3
3.1 Market potential for an E-commerce opportunity
E-commerce plays an important role in the on going market. It expands the market for the
company or the person using this facility. It is very much clear that the there is a need to make
the market global in order to make a good name of the company. It gives various information
about the ongoing trends in the market and the prices of various products. If proper care will be
taken about the current trends then the company can make huge profits. It is very simple concept
and it can help every person (Abowd and et. al., 2017). Today the whole global market can be
accessed very easily over a single platform and that is know as the Internet. Without internet,

connectivity and networks are not easily maintained. A person sitting in India can easily shop in
US,UK,Australia etc. If we and study the market more and more companies are coming online
and are making profits. It gives them a global presence and can be used to make this presence
fruitful for making various .If we see in the current case of London School of Science and
Technology then due to the e-commerce their sales has increased. Through internet they are able
to show their presence in the global world which in case helps them to attract student in their
college (Benoit and Herzog, 2017). The admissions increase by the facilities that e-commerce
has provided. There is a huge scope of e-commerce in the market. The companies have to choose
innovative ways to provide there products in the most interesting way possible. Today online
shopping is preferred due to certain reasons-
 It is cheap – Due to high competition the companies are compelled to provide products at
cheap rates. This is very essential to grow the sales of the company.
 It has wide variety of products – Due to the huge market the products availability is also
high. Various kinds of products can be found here. It adds variety and makes the scope
for growth.
 Different modes of payment – There are different modes of payments in e-commerce like
online payment, cash of delivery etc. It gives various options and makes it more useful
for both buyers and sellers.
Profit earned is more – Since the sales are more so the profit earned will be more.
 Feedback – Reviews of products can be recorded and so proper actions can be taken.
3.2 Current E-commerce system used by organization
E-commerce refers to the practises of doing payment online and using electronic payment where
it refers to paperless monetary transactions. It is very useful since it has revolutionised the
business practises which are of great use (Bhardwaj, Nahar and Volakis, 2017). These practises
include reduction in the paper work, labour cost etc. It is also less time consuming and generates
better results. There is no time restriction to payments that is the payments can be done in day as
well in night. If such facilities would be provided, then nobody would go for direct cash
payments. Various systems of e-commerce which are used by the organisation include -
Payments through credit card

Payment through debit card
Payment through smart card
E-money
Electronic fund transfer (EFT)
Payment through credit card – Payment can be done by using the credit card. It is the most
common method of payment. A credit card is a small plastic card having a unique number
attached to it with an account (Andersen, Larsen and Boomsma, 2013). It is issued by the bank to
the customer and it includes various informations like the card holder which is the customer
itself,the merchant who is the seller of the product and can accept credit card payments,cad
holder's bank,merchant's bank,the brand of the card like vis or master card.
Debit card – It is similar to the credit card but main difference is that when debit card is used the
the amount is deducted from the account holder's account immediately if there is money in it. So
it becomes compulsion for the customer to keep money in the account otherwise transaction can't
take place.
Smart card – It is similar to debit and credit card. But it has a small microprocessor chip
embedded. It has the capacity to store customer work related information. It is also used to store
the money in order to use it for any future transactions. Visa cash is the example of smart card.
E-money – It refers to the transfer of money from one financial body to another financial body
using the network but there is no middle man involved here. These are faster,convenient and
saves a lot of time (Cheng, 2015).
Electronic Fund Transfer – It is used to transfer money from one bank account to another bank
account. It can be done using ATM or computer. When money is transferred proper notification
are send to the holder.
3.3 Suitability of E-commerce solution
The financial implications of an e-commerce solutions are as follows –
Prices are less – When the selling is done in a particular area then the prices can be considerably
high. But when a company competes at the global level then the prices tend to fall. It is so
because of the competition in the market.

Shipping and handling – The shipping and the handling costs are included in the price of the
product. Usually customers pay 20 to 100% more to get that product.
 Shipping carriers – As a retailer, they would expect to lower the cost of shipping in order
to earn profits. In order to do this various door-to-door tracking of private,expensive
carriers come in play. Companies like Fed ex can be used very well in order to transport
these items safely and easily (Hosseini,and Bideh, 2014).
 Insurance of shipping – Things can lost. But to save from this loss the carriers include
some insurance with the premium or international offers. This can be used very well to
save themselves in from any loss.
 Payment processing – various paying techniques are there to do the payments. Like
payment through PayPal,Google checkout etc. These can be done using the
cheques,cash,money orders etc. Buyers can use the credit card to do the payments,ATMs
etc. These transactions are very useful for doing various buys.
 Sale commissions – These commissions can be generated from selling the product and
making these profits. It can be seen a huge profit and commissions can be made if sales
are really high. This in case leads to growth of the company and use it name for better
results in the future. Sales commissions are a sure way to win any competition.
 Online sales and marketing – It is the best way to increase the sales and to market oneself
in the ongoing market. Today most of the work is done over the internet and it in result is
generating huge profits also. Marketing over the internet is very crucial since it make the
company's image global in the market. This in result attracts the customer and increase
the sales a lot of the company. Now, it is clear that taking such actions profits can be
made out of them (Hu, Shu, nd Qiao, 2014).
Conclusion
As per the above mentioned above report it has been concluded that E-commerce is too
important for the current business scenario. The report discussed about the core business
activities of the cited business unit. There are various functions of the company which are related
with the marketing, accounting, administration, sales etc. The report also explained about the E

commerce and its impact on the business and the various risk which is associated with the
business and its future performance.

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