Foundations of IT (Business): Online Shopping Influence Report

This report investigates the influence of online shopping within the business sector. It begins with an executive summary and table of contents, followed by an introduction to the topic and the evolution of online shopping. The report explores various applications of online shopping, highlighting its benefits such as convenience, lower prices, variety, and reduced expenses. It also addresses potential issues like quality, delivery, and security concerns. A case study on Amazon Prime's online shopping services is analyzed, assessing its loyalty programs, and identifying both advantages and areas for improvement. Based on the analysis, the report offers recommendations to enhance customer experience and mitigate existing issues, emphasizing product security, timely delivery, secure payment gateways, and clear product policies. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the integral role of online shopping in modern business and its potential for revenue generation through customer satisfaction. References are provided at the end.

Running head: FOUNDATIONS OF IT
Foundations of Information Technology (Business)
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The report is about the online shopping influence in the business sector. The evolution
of the online shopping is discussed and the application is discussed. The report also discussed
the benefits and the risk associated with online shopping. The case study also discussed about
the amazon prime online shopping and in the last part the recommendation is made for the
online shopping that how it met customer satisfaction.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Evolution of Online Shopping:..................................................................................................3
Application of Online Shopping:...............................................................................................4
Benefits of the social media:......................................................................................................4
Convenience:..........................................................................................................................4
Low Price:..............................................................................................................................4
Variety:...................................................................................................................................5
Low Expenses:.......................................................................................................................5
Less compulsive shopping:....................................................................................................5
Issues:.........................................................................................................................................5
Case Study Assessment:.............................................................................................................6
Recommendations:.....................................................................................................................6
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction:
In this report the topic that is chosen for the ICT innovation is Online Shopping.
Recently online shopping is being used by a larger section of people all over the world. The
online shopping became popular in the time because the online shopping is convenient as it
saves lots of time and energy of the people. Online shopping is a form of e commerce which
is used by people to buy as well as sell products with the help of internet. There are numerous
vendors that provide the privilege of online shopping to people.
In the further report the discussion will be made in the background of online
shopping. Research review will be made on the online shopping and the description will be
given on how the technology evolved and how it is applied on the business.
Evolution of Online Shopping:
In the recent time online shopping has gone through many evolution. Now the online
shopping becomes an essential thing in the human lifestyle. The pioneer of the online
shopping is Michael Aldrich. Michael Aldrich launched a system in the year 1980 which
enables the people to buy goods and make transaction using the electronic system. After that
in the year 1990 Tim Berners-Lee created the first server and browser of World Wide Web.
And then the server and the browser opened for all to use in the year 1991. In the year 1995
Amazon.com launched their online shopping site in the same year eBay also launched their
online shopping website (Jiang, Yang and Jun 2013). And after that the scenario changed as
many websites has emerged after the time period. And in the current time there are so many
websites that are providing the online shopping. At first the online shopping is only used by
accessing the websites but in the recent time in the generation of the smartphone the online
shopping can be done by using the application that are made for the different vendors of the
online shopping (Laudonand Traver2013).

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Application of Online Shopping:
There are several different application of the online shopping. It provides a huge
benefit to the human being by saving the time and energy of the people. The online shopping
is used for promoting a product and make it available to common people. Customer service
and product support is also provided by the online shopping vendors. The online shopping is
applied to increase the brand awareness among the people (Lian and Yen 2014).
Benefits of the social media:
As discussed that in the recent time the social media become a necessity for the
human life style. It is because of the benefits that the online shopping provides (O. Pappas et
al. 2014). The benefits of the social media are given below:
Convenience:
The biggest perk is the convenience. The online shopping can be done at anytime
from anywhere without putting almost no effort. There are no limit of shopping and there are
various way to pay the amount for the goods that the user want to buy. Online websites are
available 24/7 thoroughly without any interruption (Al-Debei, Akroush and Ashouri2015).
All kind of goods are available under a hood which is very convenient for the user of the
online shopping.
Low Price:
In the online shopping websites there are various attractive deals are given. The price
of the online product are relatively lower than the offline market. The reason behind the low
price is because the products are sold direct from the manufacturer and there are no
intermediate between them. Many online websites provide several offers like coupons,
discounts, and several bankcard offers (Hsin Chang and Wang 2011). The products of the

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online websites only have to pay the sales tax no other tax is applied on the product which
reduces the cost of the products.
Variety:
The choices of the product in the online shopping is huge. The user will be able to get
all kind of goods of different brands all in one place. The user will be able to shop from the
retailer from any part of the world. With the variety of the product the stock is also high in
the inline shopping websites.
Low Expenses:
The extra expenses of the online shopping is zero as the user will be able to shop from
anywhere. The people who choose the traditional shopping ends up investing more on the
extra expenses like the transport, food and other expenses.
Less compulsive shopping:
When we go to the market sometimes it happens that we end up buying something
that we does not have any plan to buy. It basically happens because of the shopkeepers
influence about the product. The stock is also low so we don’t get the desired things. In the
online market we are able to choose the product that we want and from a huge amount of
products (Lian and Yen 2014).
From the benefits it can be said that the implementation of the online shopping in the
business has helped the businesses to grow faster. The businesses now able to generate a
good amount of revenue by investing low cost.
Issues:
With the vast amount of benefits there are lots of issues that are incorporated with the
use of online shopping in the business. The issues of the online shopping is more or less same
for the each vendor who provide the facility of online shopping (Wu et al., 2014).

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The issues of the online shopping consists of quality issues, delivery issues, logistics
issues, issues with the online payments, issues of additional charges, and the most important
lack of product security. These are the issues that are affecting the business while
implemented on the online shopping. Because of these issues customer trust breaks and the
customer ten tends to avoid those websites. These affects the business as the business can
face a huge set back if the customer satisfaction is not met properly.
Case Study Assessment:
The case study of a company that is chosen for the assessment is the case study of
amazon prime services in online shopping. In the case study the main topic of the discussion
is about the loyalty scheme of the amazon prime services. The case study says that the
program of the amazon prime is very easy to understand. The user who will sign up for the
first time will be greeted with lots of benefits and offers. The case study also says that the
choices are broad of choosing the item and the delivery speed with the shipping method. The
prime also come with specific products in the online shopping segment where only the prime
members are only able to buy the products and avail the offers (Ritala, Golnam and
Wegmann2014). There are several things that the case study shows that need to be corrected
by the company. Usually the price of prime membership is quite high. It is not affordable by
everyone. The customers get confused because they are not provided extra offers for availing
the prime membership, so they feel that they did not get advantages for being honest to the
company (Pappas et al. 2016). In case of the online shopping many user get benefits but there
are users that are not able to get the benefits as the case study shows the both segment of the
facts.

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Recommendations:
The recommendation will be given for improving the customer experience and to
reduce the issues with the online shopping. One of the main recommendation that will be
given is of the product security the online shopping websites vendor must provide security of
the products. The delivery needed to be on time irrespective of the orders (Hsu et al. 2013).
The digital payment gateway must be secured properly. The product and the service policies
must be clear so that the user will be able to read the policies before purchasing any kind of
stuffs. While listing the products the additional charges must be mentioned that for which
purpose (Ashraf, Thongpapanl and Auh2014). If these things incorporated properly so the
online shopping and the business will be gain a huge amount of customer those will be able
to help the business to gain revenue.
Conclusion:
From the above report it can be concluded that in the recent year the online shopping
has emerged a lot and it became an integral part of the human life. In the above report the
evolution and the application of the online shopping is described in the context of business.
The above report also discusses the benefits of the online shopping and the issues that are
related is also discussed. The case study of the amazon prime service is assessed where the
benefits and the limitations are mentioned. A recommendation is made for the online
shopping that hoe the online shopping will be able to meet the requirement of the customer. it
is said that if the customer is satisfied with the service then the business will be gain a huge
amount of revenue from the customers.

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References:
Al-Debei, M.M., Akroush, M.N. and Ashouri, M.I., 2015. Consumer attitudes towards online
shopping: the effects of trust, perceived benefits, and perceived web quality. Internet
Research, 25(5), pp.707-733.
Ashraf, A.R., Thongpapanl, N. and Auh, S., 2014. The application of the technology
acceptance model under different cultural contexts: The case of online shopping
adoption. Journal of International Marketing, 22(3), pp.68-93.
Hsin Chang, H. and Wang, H.W., 2011. The moderating effect of customer perceived value
on online shopping behaviour. Online Information Review, 35(3), pp.333-359.
Hsu, C.L., Chuan-Chuan Lin, J. and Chiang, H.S., 2013. The effects of blogger
recommendations on customers’ online shopping intentions. Internet Research, 23(1), pp.69-
88.
Jiang, L., Yang, Z. and Jun, M., 2013. Measuring consumer perceptions of online shopping
convenience. Journal of Service Management, 24(2), pp.191-214.
Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G., 2013. E-commerce. Pearson.
Lian, J.W. and Yen, D.C., 2014. Online shopping drivers and barriers for older adults: Age
and gender differences. Computers in Human Behavior, 37, pp.133-143.
Lian, J.W. and Yen, D.C., 2014. Online shopping drivers and barriers for older adults: Age
and gender differences. Computers in Human Behavior, 37, pp.133-143.
O. Pappas, I., G. Pateli, A., N. Giannakos, M. and Chrissikopoulos, V., 2014. Moderating
effects of online shopping experience on customer satisfaction and repurchase
intentions. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 42(3), pp.187-204.

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Pappas, I.O., Kourouthanassis, P.E., Giannakos, M.N. and Chrissikopoulos, V., 2016.
Explaining online shopping behavior with fsQCA: The role of cognitive and affective
perceptions. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), pp.794-803.
Ritala, P., Golnam, A. and Wegmann, A., 2014. Coopetition-based business models: The case
of Amazon. com. Industrial Marketing Management, 43(2), pp.236-249.
Wu, L.Y., Chen, K.Y., Chen, P.Y. and Cheng, S.L., 2014. Perceived value, transaction cost,
and repurchase-intention in online shopping: A relational exchange perspective. Journal of
Business Research, 67(1), pp.2768-2776.