Factors That Influences Businesses

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Technology has changed remarkably in recent time. This raid advancement in technology has a major affect on daily lives of ordinary people. Amongst other changes ecommerce is a major change which is changing the way people do their businesses. Almost everything can be bought online. This has a major impact on businesses as people who are less able to go out and do regular shopping can now take advantage of internet and can do all activities which a normal person can do online. This increased in number of customers also means more business for businesses with online presence.

Websites with increased usability and accessibility can be design to gain more business and hence more profit. People who are less able as compare to other people can also actively use online technology to conduct their businesses as websites can be develop in a way to help these less able people. For example people with limited visibility high contrast colours and bigger fonts can be used to increasing visibility of contents, for people with limited brain capacity number of different images can be used to convey intended messages more easily.

Ecommerce is also more profitable for businesses as they can cut their cost and hence can afford to sell products at cheaper prices. Conducting business online means businesses do not need to buy or lease shops to store and display products. This also means businesses need to spend less on logistics, utility bills and on recruitment of sales assistance. This savings can directly be passed to end customers by reducing products selling price which can attract more customers and hence more profit.

Recent advancement in technology has also helped many businesses to expand beyond regional boundaries and that has make project management harder (Lewis, 2006; Aydin, 2004). World has become a global village and hence enhance methods and means of doing businesses are required to keep competitive. If a business needs to flourish and be competitive they need to enhance their presence by using multiple channels of conducting business.

Though everything else online businesses also have its draw back such as products cannot be seen before buying it, customers need little bit technical knowledge to buy products online, there is a waiting time for product to be delivered and presence of hackers can also cause problems.

This research will compare tradition ways of conducting businesses with ecommerce and will suggest which way of conducting business will help in increasing customer satisfaction level and profits.

Aim

Aim of this research is to develop compare and contrast tradition way of conducting businesses and ecommerce and suggests ways in which businesses can increase customer satisfaction level and profits.

Objectives

Objectives of this research are listed below. Each object is a milestone on its own which would take this research a step closer to achieving its aim.

Factors which affect businesses would be extracted using secondary research and hypotheses would be developed based on them.

Secondary research would be used to compare and contrast businesses conducted in tradition way and ecommerce.

Recommendations and conclusion would be drawn using the result obtain during second objective of this research.

Each of these objectives should be completed in the order shown here as otherwise it may hinder the research work and would reduce the reliability of this research.

Road Map

Chapter 1:- This chapter layout an introduction to the problem. This chapter would also give aim and objective of the research.

Chapter 2:- This chapter looks at the previous works done. This chapter will look at work of different researchers and will critically review their work to lay the justification of this research.

Chapter 3:- This chapter will layout the methodology that would be carried out to complete different objectives of this research so to achieve its aim. Risk analysis and ethical consideration will also be discussed in this chapter.

Chapter 4:- This chapter will compare traditional businesses with online businesses. Different aspects and factors of both businesses will be looked upon and discussed.

Chapter 5 Ethical Considerations about the research would be conducted in this chapter.

Chapter 6 Risk analysis associated with traditional and online business would be done in this chapter.

Chapter 7:-. Data Analysis would be done on the primary data gathered with the help of a questionnaire. Different statistical test will be performed to calculate the accuracy of the data. Regression line analysis would be conducted to test hypothesis developed for the research.

Chapter 8 Case study would be conducted on a traditional business and online business. Dixons group which has number of stores such as pcworld and currys would be as a traditional business. Amazon would be used as a online business for the study.

Chapter 9 This chapter would conduct different analysis of traditional business vs online business. Some of the analysis that will be used in this chapter includes SWOT analysis, PEST analysis and Potters five forces analysis.

Chapter 10 :- This chapter will take into account results obtain from chapter 8 and will use them to draw recommendations.

Chapter 11 This chapter will conclude this research and will stress different aspects which can be taken in future to further enhance this research

Literature Review

A tradition business is one which we see all around us in streets, cities, malls and shopping centre. All such business comes under traditional business. These types of businesses are around for centuries and though have constantly improved over the period of time by taking newer technology such as electronic tills, price checks machine and self checkouts but the main idea of conducting a business is still the same.

Online businesses are those businesses which are conducted over the internet, phone or through emails. These businesses are consider newer type of businesses and are significantly different from the traditional way of conducting a business.

Traditional businesses require significant manpower, space and investment as compare to online businesses. Online businesses are more type consuming in terms of delivery time and require certain amount of computer literacy to complete. Online businesses also have associated risks of hacking, identity theft and spamming.

There are few benefits and drawbacks of both type of businesses and people with different options and accessibilities prefer different businesses. This chapter will look at current literature on both type of businesses and will critically review them.

building online business

Figure Info Guide

Factors that influences Businesses

With the progress and advancement of technology, developing a website is becoming more straightforward task these days. Anyone with little technical knowledge can use online tools to develop a simple website in few minutes. However in order to make such a website secure and to make a secure system of processing order and payment is a difficult task and require significant skills and patience. There are not significant technical knowledge requires for opening and running a traditional business but there are significant factors which influences the type of way a business is conducted (Johnson, S. 2012).

There are number of factors which a business should consider before deciding what type of mean traditional or online business is more suitable for business. Some businesses are successful if conducting in traditional way while some businesses are more profitable when conducting online. Some business can use both of the means to make their businesses more successful. Some of the factors which Influences the way a business is conducted are listed in this chapter. This is not an exhaustive list of factors and will grow and change with the passage of time as the knowledge on the current topic is furthered (Hedlund, M.; Business Studies Online; Tanninga, B. ; InfoGuide; Hub Pages).

Audience

What type of audience is business is targeting. Type of audience plays a significant role in way businesses are conducted. Businesses are for audience and hence everything a business does revolve around type of audiences. If audience of a business is different as compare to the audience a business is targeting that can have a significant impact on businesses and their profits (Hedlund, M.; InfoGuide).

Segmentation of Audience

If businesses cannot target whole audience they usually target a segmentation of audience. A businesses needs to decide whether the audience they are targeting can be divided and if yes whether this segmentation of audience is the one which businesses can and should target. A clear example would be if a business is targeting older generation of population and using online business communication means than that would be a significant drawback as older generations are not much familiar with newer technology. There is only small percentage of older generation, who can use internet, trust to give their details out (Hedlund, M.; Tanninga, B).

Upfront Costs

The cost a business needs to start also plays a significant role in way businesses are conducted. If there is lack of upfront cost business can opt to go online and until it get significant funds that are required to open a traditional business outlet it can target audience through online business (InfoGuide).

Size of a Business

Size of a business also plays a vital role in deciding what channel of conducting a business is valid. If a business is small usually it is conducted in a traditional way if a business is multinational and is a well known brand than online business can also be conducted at the same time (Tanninga, B).

Adaptability

How quickly are certain means of conducting businesses can be adapted by the target audience is another factor which influences the way a business would be conducted. This factor also applied on type of business that is conducted as well (Tanninga, B).

Ease of Use

Depending on the nature of business and its target audience ease of use of a business is a critical issues and plays a significant role in way a business is conducted. If ease of use of conducting a business is neglected it can have a significant affect to business profit and can even risk business existence (InfoGuide).

Accessibility

On the Internet, the more unique your offering is, the greater your chances of making a success of it. Remember, there are millions of people sitting in the comfort of their homes surfing the net. They are not looking for the products that are easily available in their neighbourhood stores and malls (InfoGuide). There is a general consensus among Internet experts that niche businesses have a greater potential to thrive and prosper on the Internet (Tanninga, B).

Affordability

Whether a business can afford to be run in the way it is currently running or should it expand to other regions as well is a question which is faced by number of businesses. It is always good to conduct a business in traditional way even if the online presence of business is here as it will not only enhance the reputation, accessibility and trust (Hedlund, M.; Tanninga, B).

Marketing

Research and Development

Profitability

Service

Justification of Research

It is important for a business to analyse different factors to check what is a better way for a business to operate is. It is important to look at different advantages and disadvantages of traditional way of doing a business against a newer online way to conduct a business. Even if a business knows what is an optimal way to conduct a business but if advantages and disadvantages of choosing that way is not stress than there is a higher chance that it will not operate to it optimal capacity or would complete fail.

Conclusion

A very clear example of success using online business is that of amazon.com. There are millions of visitors to Amazon website and it is conducting a business of billions of dollars in a year. It has significant impact on the way a business is conducted. On the other hand if we take an example of PCWorld they were conducting their business traditionally until recently they have launched a competitive online presence.

Online presence is required to stay competitive in the market. Both type of businesses needs warehouse and manpower to do their regular business but the amount of space and manpower require to conduct a business through traditional way is much higher as compare to online businesses.

It is important to look at the different risk and benefits associated with each type of business. This would be done in chapter four where traditional and online businesses are compared and contrasts and their advantages and disadvantages are listed.