Importance of E-commerce in Driving Business Success: A Proposal

This research proposal investigates the significance of e-commerce in driving business success, focusing on a case study of Next plc. The study aims to understand the importance of e-commerce, analyze how it contributes to business success, evaluate its impact, and recommend strategies for improvement. The proposal outlines the research objectives, questions, and a literature review covering key aspects of e-commerce, including its advantages, impact on business, and various strategies. The methodology section details the research philosophy (interpretivism), design (descriptive), approach (inductive), data collection methods (surveys and secondary data), sampling (probabilistic), and data analysis techniques (qualitative). A Gantt chart provides a timeline for the research activities. The research seeks to provide valuable insights into the role of e-commerce in enhancing business performance.

Research proposal
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Table of Contents
Background of the study..................................................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................................................................3
Methodology....................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................6
3.2 Research philosophy.........................................................................................................6
3.3 Research design................................................................................................................6
3.4 Research approach............................................................................................................6
3.6 Data collection methods...................................................................................................7
3.7 Sampling...........................................................................................................................7
3.8 Data analysis.....................................................................................................................7
Gantt chart........................................................................................................................................8
Reference.........................................................................................................................................9
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Background of the study
E-commerce is known as the type of business activity in which products are sell through
online or over the internet. Due to changes in technology companies are become more advance
and they are now using new technologies for increase their sales and profit (Jayashree,
Malarvizhiand Salehi, 2016). The present research is based on exploring the importance of E-
commerce to drive business success. It is essential for the company to understand the
significance of E-commerce and adopt it in their business activities. The present research will
help in developing deep understanding related to the importance of E-commerce and way it drive
business success.
Aims: To explore the importance of E-commerce to drive business success- A study of Next plc
Objectives
 To understand the importance of E-commerce
 To analyses the way E-commerce drives business success
 To evaluate the impact of E-commerce on business success
 To recommend strategies for improving e-commerce in the business
Research questions
 What is the importance of E-commerce?
 What are the way E-commerce drives business success?
 What is the impact of E-commerce on business success?
 What are the strategies for improving e-commerce in the business?
Literature review
Importance of e- commerce
According to the view of Khatoon, Bhatti, and Alam, (2016) E- Commerce has become
an integral part of a business world because our whole work is depending on internet as people
are so busy that they are not going to anywhere and purchase everything which they want
through e-commerce. Almost half of the world purchase or sell their product online and saves
their time too at their own convenience. Jayashree, Malarvizhiand Salehi, (2016) state that
business to business (B2B), Business to consumers (B2C) and Business to government (B2G) are
some of the example of E- commerce. There are many advantages of E- commerce, some of
them are :
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 The best advantages of e- commerce is convenience and ease. Through e-commerce
people can easily buy their product without wasting time.
 People should not face the problem of description because while online purchasing they
give you all the best offer with complete description.
 While online purchasing customer always see the warranty of that item because generally
the shopkeeper not show the warranty of the product.
In the physical store, the geographical area is limited for selling the product while in the case of
the online the whole world can see and choose the product and sell it to anyone (Szolnoki,
Thach and Kolb, 2016).
 The best advantage of using e-commerce is to no investment is required , as we all know
in physically store some amount of money is needed to settle the business but in online e-
commerce business there is no other formality requirement.
 The mode of payment is also through cash, cash on delivery and through bank payment.
Now a day, digital wallet is also another method for the payment procedure.
It also broadens your brand. By offering product 24hours in a day a person can broaden his own
brand and make blogs, in social media can raise your product quality higher and higher (Sisodia,
2016).
To analyses the way E-commerce drives business success
According to the view of Wang, Wang and Liu, (2016) there are many ways through
which e-commerce is useful in our daily life. With increasing demand of online purchasing
people are also creates more interest in the field of e- commerce. In US more than 60% of the
market is based on e-commerce. E- commerce help in many ways some of them are as follows:
 It offers product data sheet: consumer can get all the information online from the data
sheet given in the product detail.
Keep eye on consumer habit: this is the most imp way to analysis that what is the basic need of
the consumer and what is the trend and to keep eye on consumer habit is the best method to
analysis (Sharma and Lijuan, 2015).
 Competence: for effective business transaction, e-commerce is the best method for
business. For setting up new online business very few licences and permits are required
as compared to open a new physical store and to compete your product from others you
need to start with a very low range of the product.
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It increases your sell by offering different item free with one product and to attract consumers
towards your product, one has to offer good things so that people forced themselves to purchase
from your brand only (Ghobakhloo, Hong, and Standing, 2015).
 You can decrease the cost of your product because you do not need to spend extra for
advertising and marketing so you can easily decrease your cost but it is not possible in the
case of physical store as they spend more money to gain the popularity among the people
(Chaffey, 2015).
the impact of E-commerce on business success
According to the view of Choshin and Ghaffari, (2017) E-commerce has affected a lot on
business globally. The main factors are on the B2b(business to business) which means an
organization dealing with another and on the B2C(business to Consumer) which means an
organization doing trade with the customers worldwide. If the traditional process get applied then
E-commerce has synchronized the customers at low cost than required. Now no high class shops
are being opened up in the market areas. And all the task related to marketing and selling of the
product is being done through Web only. Anybody can produce the goods and make the stock at
any distant area and can do the advertisement by making the website and launching the products
on the sites. And when the website becomes active the leader can approach a deep customer
base. And when the customer starts purchasing the goods then there should surety of proper
transportation of services and goods to their end users. Rouibah, Lowry and Almutairi, (2015)
state that it is an opportunity for small businesses to start a new businesses and heighten up their
current businesses or they provide software and hardware services that combine the internet into
a business framework. Almost 65% of all B2B e-commerce has six sectors : government,
manufacturing of industrial equipment, motor vehicles, shipping and retail sector.
Through the use technology efficiency in the B2B e-commerce has increased. For special
products buyers get easily targeted. It helps the buyers to to find time manageable goods or some
other alternative goods. Coalitions is the other reason where small business are benefited from
B2b e-commerce industries. In coalitions small scale industries do the negotiation for the pricing
of the goods (Newell, Wu. and Jiang,2016)
. New and fresh customers are exploited through e-commerce. Declination of goods and services
makes profit in the selling of the products regarding the approach of new customer base line.
Through this loyal customer can be retained or maintained to along term basis and this improves
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the service and product quality of the company. Various new e-business opportunities are
acknowledged like attracting customers, improving effectiveness in the services and puality of
goods, building fine relationship with the customers and suppliers who are sustainable in their
company.
Methodology
3.1 Introduction
Research methodology chapter comprises of various tools and techniques that assist in
completing the research. With the use of appropriate tools and methods researcher can easily
reach the aims of the study (Kerr, Eckert and Wandwabwa, 2016). Tools and techniques which
are used by the scholar in the present research are as follows:
3.2 Research philosophy
Research philosophy is known as the belief, assumption and values of the scholar for the
selected topic. It leads to make easy for the investigator to carry out research in an effective
manner (Wright, Wahoush. and Jack, 2016). Basically, there are two types of philosophy such as
interpretivism and positivism which can be used by the scholar. For the current investigation
interpretivism philosophy will be used by the investigator. It will help in emphasis on subjective
part of the study.
3.3 Research design
Research design is known as the method through which investigator can present all the
findings in a systematic manner (Bailly and Comino, 2017). Further it assists in addressing the
problem of the research in an effective manner. Three types of research design are there such as
descriptive, case study and exploratory. For the present research descriptive research design will
be used by the scholar. It will help in determining the characteristics of the population which is
covered in the study. Along with this, it helps in developing deep understanding related to the
selected topic and its issues.
3.4 Research approach
Research approach is the method which assist in finding out the way through which
specific and general information can be gathered (Mebius, Kennedy and Howick, 2016). It is of
two types that are inductive and deductive approach which can be used by the scholar. For the
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present research, inductive approach will be used by the scholar as because it will help in gaining
specific information first then move toward collecting general information. It is considered as
one of the effective method which help in analysing the information for getting valid outcome.
3.6 Data collection methods
The researcher need to collect information from different sources so that it can make
investigation more authentic and reliable. It is of two type primary and secondary which can be
used by the scholar as depend on the nature of study (Winit‐Watjana, 2016). Primary
information is that which is collected at the time of carrying out the research. It is also
considered as specific information which help in reaching the aim. On the other side secondary
information is that which not new but it helps in creating a strong framework for the present
research. Therefore both, primary and secondary method will be used by the scholar for the
current investigation. In primary information will be collected through survey method. In this
question will be asked from 20 employees of Next plc. On the other side secondary information
will be collected from books, journals and internet. Reason to select primary method is that
researcher can easily gather specific information such as related to E-commerce from this source
3.7 Sampling
To collect respondents from large number of people is difficult for the researcher
(Creswell and Poth, 2017). Therefore, sampling method can be used by the investigator in
primary research. There are two method of sampling probabilistic method and non-probabilistic
method. In the present research probabilistic method will be consider for the survey. Here 20
employees of Next Plc will be selected through random sampling method. Reason for selecting
this method is that it minimises the chances of bias.
3.8 Data analysis
At the time when all the information is collected it is important for researcher to evaluate
it. It will help converting the raw data in meaningful information (Edson, Henning and Sankaran,
2016). There are two techniques that are qualitative and quantitate which can be used by the
researcher for analysing the data. For the present research qualitative data will be used. In these
various themes will be prepared on the basis of results and interpretation is done. Along with this
to present it in effective manner different types of graphs and charts will be prepared.
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Gantt chart
Activity/Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Making
proposal
Framing
objectives and
aims
Carrying out
secondary
research
Tools and
techniques
Gathering
primary
information
Analysing the
data
Interpretation of
data
Recommendation
and conclusion
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Reference
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Choshin, M. and Ghaffari, A., 2017. An investigation of the impact of effective factors on the
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Behavior, 66, pp.67-74.
Ghobakhloo, M., Hong, T.S. and Standing, C., 2015. B2B E-commerce success among small
and medium-sized enterprises: a business network perspective. Journal of Organizational
and End User Computing (JOEUC), 27(1), pp.1-32.
Jayashree, S., Malarvizhi, C.A., Abdollahbeigi, B. and Salehi, F., 2016. The Efficiency of e-
Commerce and Social Media on Product Innovation and Business Success. Advanced
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Szolnoki, G., Thach, L. and Kolb, D. eds., 2016. Successful social media and ecommerce
strategies in the wine industry. Springer.
Wang, W.T., Wang, Y.S. and Liu, E.R., 2016. The stickiness intention of group-buying
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