Comprehensive Report on Virtual Business Trends and Challenges

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of virtual business, exploring current trends, advantages, and disadvantages in a global context. It examines the impact of technology, personalization strategies, and emerging digital business models, including open-source and freemium models, while addressing information security threats and ethical considerations. The report uses a case study of ASOS Plc to illustrate these concepts, employing SWOT and PESTEL analyses to evaluate the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as political, economic, social, technological, and legal factors. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of collaborative relationships, strategic alliances, and the comparison between digital business and e-commerce. The report concludes with a discussion of e-commerce principles and their application to digital business.

Assessment

Executive Summary
Virtual business can be defined as a business that undertake and complete all and major
activities through electronic means and internet. Numbers of such businesses are increasing and
they have become very popular because of different benefits associated. This report has
discussed trends of virtual businesses and pros and cons of virtual businesses. Virtual business in
order to gain success they are focusing on personalisation. Further, report also has discussed
emerging models for digital businesses and what are the challenges that are associated with these
models and in general with digital business activities. Later report has discussed what are the
importance of collaborative relationships and strategic alliances by means of digital technology
and their importance for personalisation. This also has involved comparison and contrasting
digital businesses and e-commerce business.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
LO1..................................................................................................................................................4
Question- 1 New trends for the virtual business and pros and cons of margining virtual
business on international level, including the importance of Technology and its impact...........4
LO4..................................................................................................................................................5
Question- 2 comparison on the basis on SWOT and situational analysis focusing on the
personalization.............................................................................................................................5
LO2..................................................................................................................................................5
Question 3- Emerging digital business models and challenges associated with information
security threats and ethics in general...........................................................................................5
LO3..................................................................................................................................................5
Question 4- Importance of new collaborative relationships and strategic alliances through
digital technology for implementing personalisation..................................................................5
LO5..................................................................................................................................................5
Question 5- Comparison and contrasting digital business and e-commerce and E-commerce
principles and their application to digital business......................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Customers are to most valuable and most important part of the business because they buy
the product and services from the company and satisfy their needs while company get the profit
by selling their product to the customers. It is necessary for the company top create great
experience for the customers so they can gain their loyalty and take competitive advantages.
This report will cover case study of ASOS Plc. Which is an online British retailer
company. It was founded in year 2000, and they are selling fashion production such as Clothes,
shoes, beauty accessories etc. ASOS is targeting young age group adults who are looking for
online shooing.
This report will success about the trends and advantages and disadvantage of virtual
business. This report will compare ASOS company using SWOT analysis, and it will also
evaluate the emerging business models and challenges that are associated with the information
security threats and ethics in general, This report will conclude importance of collaborative
relationship and strategic alliances with the help of digital technology of the personalization. In
the end of this report will compare e-commerce and digital business .
LO1
Question- 1 New trends for the virtual business and pros and cons of margining virtual business
on international level, including the importance of Technology and its impact
There are many trends within the online virtual business that can also be followed by
ASOS company to expand their business more globally, and they can show their presence as a
good brand within the online retail industry (Andersen and Karlsen., 2018). Here are some new
trends within virtual business.
Digital Mail box
Digital Mailbox is an one of the most popular trend within the virtual business. The
receiving, shorting, attracting customers and forwarding the mail is an important part of the
virtual business and online service provider like ASOS. But This is an very labour intensive task
that is not immune to the errors by the human . In the place of the manual mails forwarding , they
are using digital Mail box to provide fast and speed up services to their clients.
Coworking Virtual Office

The cow working virtual office model is for the people who want to use the office
infrequently, and they want to work from their hone only. ASOS can also provide the online
work to their employees, and they save their money by paying the rent for the offices.
More people are becoming the Digital Nomads
It is the reality that digital nomads are incrementing day by day and it can be opportunity
for the ASOS to norm themselves Nomads digitally (Anwar., 2020). This is the another trend
that made possible by the virtual office services, According to the survey of year 2018 MBO
partners state of the incandescence Research brief that more than 4.5 million people in America
are Described themselves as the Digital Nomads. This can be a great opportunity for the ASOS
to show their presence, and they can take benefit of this new trend.
Advantages and disadvantage of managing Virtual business in the global environment
ASOS is an virtual business who are operating their business globally (Ritter and
Pedersen, 2020). They have to many problems to handle their business virtually within the global
environment, but they also have some advantages that helps them to take competitive advantages
within the market where they are operating their business.
Advantages
 Now a days people are buying their products and taking the services online and mostly of
the companies are transferring their business virtually. It is beneficial for the firms like
ASOS because they are following the new trend and selling their product online on the
global market.
 On the global business environment ASOS can sell varieties of the product because each
country and different culture and clothing style (Dzulfikar and et.al., 2018). ASOS can
create product accordingly and sell within the market.
Disadvantage
 Online business have to follow the different different polices made by the government
and ASOS is operating their business globally which means they have to follow rules
and regulation on the basis the particular companies polices made by government.
 ASOS is operating their business digitally so its hart for them to provide the best
possible services to customers in different different countries. It is necessary for the
company to create offline office where they can provide help to the customers.
Importance of technology and its impact ion business

Technology has huge advantages for the ASOS because this firm itself based on the
technology and development of technology is creating huge impact for their business. One of the
important and positive impact of the technology on the ASOS is that In future every work will
be done on the online platforms so it can be advantage for the ASOS because they are already a
virtual business who have expanded their business globally and having goo reputation within the
market where they are operating their business (Gorgoglione, Panniello and Tuzhilin., 2019).
ASOS can also identify the new technology trends within the retailer industry, so they can show
their presence as a one of top online business. It will help them to take competitive advantages,
and they will able to create good experience for the customers virtually. There are many
organizations who are using the technology effectively and expanding their business within the
online market. The Best example for the ASOS is Amazon which is top company in the terms of
earning revenue in the offline and online both the market and this company has use the
technology effectively to take competitive advantages within the market.
LO4
Question- 2 comparison on the basis on SWOT and situational analysis focusing on the
personalization
Personalization is the new trend that is growing slowly showily but there are very few
firms who are suing the personalization method with their customers (Bleicher and Stanley,
2016). ASOS is one of them, and they are personalize with their customers to create good image
in customers mind and make them feel connected with the organization. SWOT Analysis can
help to identify the strength and weakness from the personalization and Pestle will help to
identify the factors that impact ASOS.
SWOT Analysis
Strength
 Personalization is helping ASOS to aware people about the new office of them
personally that helping the firm to connect with their customers (Kazeminia,
Kaedi and Ganji., 2019).
 ASOS regularly run their campaign ion the online sides where they try to
personalize with they customers and mostly they are successful.
Weakness

 It is not possible for the Companies including the ASOS to be personalize with every
customers. Regular mails from the company can irritate customers sometimes and
company can lose their customer.
 Customers can feel that ASOS company is using the personal contacts and emails and
interfering with their privacy (Magadán-Díaz and Rivas-García, 2018).
Opportunities
 Personalization with the customers is an new trend and increase in the use of
Personalization and marketing thorough it can helps ASOS to take competitive
advantages.
Threat
 Online competition is increasing day by day
 hard for the companies like ASOS to create trust among the customers because online
frauds by the other companies are creating threat for the ASOS as well.
PESTEL Analyses
Political
Political factors has huge impact on the ASOS and there are some polices that online
companies have to follow, and they ASOS cannot use the private data of their customers to be
personalize and it also includes Emailing to the customers (Wetzlinger and et.al., 2017).
Economical
Increase in the prices of raw material in affecting the prices of the product sell by ASOS.
It makes hart for the company to provide offer to personalize with their customers. It is necessary
for ASOS to create good relation with their supplier to get discount, so they can pass on to the
customers.
Social
It is necessary for the ASOS to add some value for their customers to create good
experience for them and this company is understanding this properly. They are personalizing
with their customers and sending personal emails and offers on their people with their name
motioned above. It is helping them to socialize with the customers and creating good image.
Technology
ASOS is an online business which means this company have huge advantages of
technology (Adomako And et.al., 2020). ASOS is using the technology to be personalize with

the customers on online side where customers can give their review and customers also get
personal message through the online tools.
Legal
Company is following the all legal polices of the government, and they get personalize
with the customers if they have subscribed with email of the ASOS company.
LO2
Question 3- Emerging digital business models and challenges associated with information
security threats and ethics in general
Open-source model
This is a digital business model in which businesses create software that can be accessed
free by everyone (Härting, Reichstein and Jozinovic, 2017). Such software generally give the
ability to community of programmers to contribute to it. In these two important elements are
involved, one is free that make it spread quickly and another is community that determines its
success. Such business models often earn through premium.
Challenge associated with this is that, only when people are ready to pay for its premium
services, such organisations can earn and make money (Urbach and Röglinger, 2019). This also
involves possibility of information security because these are open-source and it is easy to
access.
Freemium model
This is a model in which business create product and service. Such products and services
are available free but only limited functions can be used for this. However, when customers buy
and subscribe to premium they can access to every function of the product and service.
Challenge associated with this model is that freemium often present them on the basis of free and
then customers might not purchase premium services. This also involves challenges like
information security services. This is because this model also involve collecting data of
customers specifically when they are premium users, in such situation there is a threat for
information security (Gil-Gomez and et.al., 2020). This also involve ethics in general as most of

the organisations often present themselves as free and when users start using they inform about
premium services, this is involved in ethical challenge.
E-commerce model
E-commerce is one of the most popular digital business models (Buck and Eder, 2018). This
business model involves buying and selling of products and services and these are marketplace
that offers different products and services and earn commission on the basis of their sales. Asos
also have adopted this digital model for its digital business. In this products and services of Asos
are sold using e-commerce model.
On-Demand
This is a digital business model in which products and services are availed to customers
on the basis of demand. Airbnb is an example of such model that has adopted this model and this
allows customers to access hospitality services on-demand. Another example of digital business
using this model is Taxi service providers they use this service to enable on-demand taxi services
(Lorenzo-Romero, Cordente-Rodríguez and Alarcón-del-Amo, 2019). Information security
challenge is also there in this model as business collects all relevant and important details of
customers.
LO3
Question 4- Importance of new collaborative relationships and strategic alliances through digital
technology for implementing personalisation
Personalisation refers to a process in which organisations work to provide goods and
services to customers on the basis of their individual requirements rather than standard product
and service for all customers. Collaborative relationships and strategic alliances play are very
important for implementing personalisation by Asos (Makris, and et.al., 2018). Personalisation is
mainly based on information and data of customers and this data and information cannot be
collected solely by Asos. This requires assistance of other organisations and other platforms that
are involved in such practices. This is one of the reasons that collaborative relationship and
strategic alliances through digital technology are important for implementing personalisation.

This means that through strategic alliances and collaborative relationships can help Asos to get
insights about customers and their preferences and using that Asos can implement
personalisation (Remane and et.al., 2017). This collaboration and strategic alliances can be with
social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or with other digital platforms through
which Asos can collect insights of its customers and implement personalisation.
Asos can also take assistance from organisations that are specifically involved in
collecting customer data and insights and on the basis of that implementing personalisation.
These are also known as collaborative relationships between organisation in which organisations
work with each other for the benefit of both organisations. Digital technology is playing
important role in collecting data and information of customers and this way organisation can
collect information through digital technology and its applications.
Other than collecting another important step for effective personalisation strategy is
analysis of data and identifying personalised information and preferences of customers. In order
to do so Asos requires collaborating with and builds strategic alliances with organisations those
are involved in activities of data analysis. In order to create collaborative relationships and build
strategic alliances, Asos can select different customers’ touchpoints (Kraus and et.al., 2018).
These are points and places where customers come in touch with customers and these are also
points from where Asos can collect data of customers. These different customer touchpoints are
also part of omnichannel marketing of the organisations. Omnichannel marketing is one that link
different customer touchpoints and enable Asos to implement personalisation.
This suggests that for data collection as well as for data analysis, it is very important that
Asos create collaborative relationships and build strategic alliances with other organisations
using digital technology. Digital technology is very effective in collecting customer insights and
using this effectively data can be analysed as well. It is very important that Asos build strategic
alliances with right touchpoints.

LO5
Question 5- Comparison and contrasting digital business and e-commerce and E-commerce
principles and their application to digital business
E-commerce as well as digital businesses both are emerging models of doing business
and increasing number of both present evident for this. However even though both these are
carried out using internet and digital platforms both of them are not same. E-commerce is
concerned with buying and selling of goods around the web however on the other hand digital
business is not limited to this, as digital business along with commercial transactions also
provides other services (Wirtz, 2019). In other words e-commerce is only buying and selling of
goods and services over web whereas digital business involves running a business using internet.
E-commerce only requires a website whereas digital business involves website, CRM, ERP and
several other functions and elements. Overall, e-commerce is a part of e-commerce where e-
commerce involves only monetary transactions, digital business involves business transactions.
E-commerce principles and their application to digital business
Adequate Information
Information is one of the very important principles of e-commerce and this should be
applied for and to digital businesses. In order to increase customers and increase conversion rate
it is important that customers are able to gain adequate information. Adequate and all required
information play important role in trusting in business and products of the business and reflect
that business and products are genuine.
Constant Branding
This is also one of the important principles of e-commerce that is utilised for digital
marketing. Digital marketing involves constant and effective branding of the business, this helps
in increasing visibility of the business, this also is important for increasing value of the business
and create its positive image (Banna, 2018). Constant branding also is important as this enables
to connect and engage with more customers.
Audience Targeting

This is another principle of e-commerce that is applicable for digital marketing. It is
important that e-commerce businesses target right kind and right type of audience and reach to
them using right channel and platform to create right and suitable information. Without having
specific target market digital business will not be able to attract right customers who are actually
interested in products of company and for whom products and services of company are required
and desired.
Competitive Differentiation
This is another principle of e-commerce that is applicable for digital business. Regardless
of nature of business it has become very important that businesses are competitively
differentiated. This enables customers to differentiate products of Asos from its competitors and
identify true value that is provided by Asos. This is not possible when products and services are
not differentiated compared to customers. Because there is nothing different in products that
attract customers and they will remain with competitors.
Visible and Compelling
This is another principle of e-commerce that is applicable for digital marketing. This
means that digital business should be visible to customers over different platforms like social
media, digital media and other digital platforms (Gogolina, 2016). This is because if digital
business is not adequately visible in such situation, customers will not be able to know about
existence of the business and what are offering of the business. Concerned with compelling, this
is linked with content and design that encourage customers and audience to engage with brand
and know more about its offerings.
CONCLUSION
As per the report has been discuss the trends and advantages and disadvantage of virtual
business and cover the case study of ASOS. This report has been compare ASOS company
using SWOT analysis and Pestle analysis, and it also has been evaluated the emerging business
models and challenges that are associated with the information security threats and ethics in
general, This report has been concluded importance of collaborative relationship and strategic
alliances with the help of digital technology of the personalization. In the end of this report has
been compared e-commerce and digital business.