Ecommerce Assignment: Impact Of Online Shopping On Retail Business

Question

Task:
Assessment Details
Thesis Structure Project: The first task that you will need to complete is the 1,000-word extended outline for your thesis. This is an
important road map for the entire project and needs a great deal of care and consideration. The extended
outline will give you and your supervisor a clear perspective of the research project. The outline is also
important for good project management. It involves defining your research process, identifying key
literature, demonstrating knowledge of the projects contents; and outlines the preliminary plan, which can
then be analysed and improved. You must state the identified gap in the literature and explain how your
research will contribute to the wider body of knowledge and managerial practice. Please note that the
research should have a clear International Business focus. This is a formative task, thus it is a
pass/fail assessment. Please note that you if don’t submit or fail the thesis structure your grade of
the dissertation will be reduced of 5 points. In evaluating your work your tutor will consider the
following points:
Introduction and research question: Laying out the appropriate context for the study. Identifying and
justification of the explanatory variables and dependent variables. Identification of the problem, awareness
of industry trends.
Literature awareness: Identification of key literature/authors of the topic: classics; landmarks; most recent
developments.
Empirical content: Justification of data type and approach to data collection. If primary data: Types of
interviews to be conducted, sampling method and size, will pre-testing be done, identification of and
solutions to potential problems; reasons for methodological choices made; accuracy, completeness, level
of detail, and clarity of reported information. If secondary data: quality of data, reasons for choice,
accuracy, completeness, and level of detail.
Coherence and logic between sections of outline/action plan: Each part of the writing should be
appropriately connected to yield a seamless product that is functional for finishing the final document.
Methodology: Suitability for the task at hand; identification of technical, statistical and analytical tools
and/or software that will be used; awareness of methodological issues and of limitations of study;
awareness of research integrity, honesty and ethics issues.
Conclusions Findings: Possible outcomes or contingencies identified and briefly discussed.

Answer

Introduction
The ecommerce assignment examines the words of Dahiya (2015) that Internet has become an important part of the lives of individuals and of the businesses too. By Ecommerce, it can be understood that it is the buying and selling of the products and services through electronic medium. According to Steel, et. al. (2013), before ecommerce was into existence and was so popular, physical trading of goods and services used to take place by everyone but due to the changing lifestyle, promotion of digitalisation and other facilities, ecommerce has now become popular as a most favourable medium to buy and sell goods and services. Ecommerce has its impacts on the retail business which is to be discussed on this dissertation. The dissertation will be conducted to find out the impact of ecommerce on the retail business in context to supermarkets. The dissertation will be divided into various chapters which include literature review, methodology and details about Data collection and presentation of the research study.

Research Question
The main research question of the study explored in the ecommerce assignment is:

1. What is the impact of Ecommerce on retail business of Supermarkets?

Sub questions:

• How the profitability of the retail business affected due to online business?
• How does the customer loyalty and satisfaction get affected from the shift to ecommerce from retail business?

Literature Review
As per Werner (2012), it is discussed in the ecommerce assignment that Ecommerce can also be understood as online shopping which allows customers to buy goods and services over the internet. In the current time, most of the supermarkets have started selling their products online in order to reach maximum customers and n order to provide ease to the customers. The internet has given many advantages to the customers as it is able to provide thousands of varieties to the customers across many locations where retail stores are not able to cater to the needs. The cost of providing business online is much lesser as compared to the cost of setting up retail stores which is beneficial for the companies. But on the other hand, online business is also impacting negatively the business if retail stores.

As per Kirby-Hawkins, Birkin and Clarke (2019), it depends on the physical location of the store that whether it is impacted by the online sales or not. Like this, there are several factors which show the degree of effect of the online sales on the physical stores. According to Maina (2016), competition is the main drive which forces the companies to be available on online platforms. This is how; they can capture maximum markets and face competitions in the market. As added by Dahiya (2017), Ecommerce has been advantageous for retailers as it creates promotion of the business online by directly targeting the customers. It also helps in setting up positive brand image which also helps in increasing the retail sales of the brand. Just like it is advantageous, it also have several disadvantages for the retailers which includes reduce d turnover. Because of online business, the offline business of the retail stores has reduced to a good extent. The online stores are also affecting the pricing of the offline retailers. The readings utilized to prepare this ecommerce assignment mentions that in order to sustain their business in the market, the products are to be sold in lower prices and the profit margins are reduced due to that. Most of the customers use retail shops for window shopping ansd then purchase from online stores to get the discount which is affecting the business of offline stores. In addition to this, Lim (2016) said that the company websites impacts the retail corporations, their campaigns and their sales as well.

As per Sentance (2019), the retail trends are also changing with time. The online sales have grown since 2000. The growth has been relatively consistent across the world. The use of mobile phones, laptops and smart phones have increased the online sales and affected the retail sales across the world.

Empirical content
Data Type and approach to data collection: The data collected from different sources like Primary and secondary. Primary data will be collected through survey questionnaire while secondary data will be collected from different magazines, newspaper articles, websites, research papers, journals and more. Data will be numerical as well as subjective which means qualitative and quantitative as well. This shows that the research approach is mixed. The research is conducted by using mixed approach of research.

Sampling method and size: The sampling of data will be done as per the random sampling method. In this method, the respondents have equal chances of getting selected. The sample size for the questionnaire will be 50. The type of questions used in questionnaire will be close ended questions.

Reasons for methods used: The questionnaire method is used to determine accuracy of data. The secondary data collected is accurate as it is supported by the reliable references and the recent sources of data. The data collected through questionnaire is also accurate as it has been collected by abiding to the ethical concerns, honesty and integrity.

What is the Action Plan for the case explored in the ecommerce assignment?

Methodology
Analysis tools: For analysing the data collected to prepare this ecommerce assignment, the tools like Ms Excel, charts, graphs and calculations will be used in order to process the data and reach out to the findings.

Limitations of the study explored in the ecommerce assignment: The research has been conducted keeping in mind the ethical issues and the limitations of the study which involves the limitation of time and resources. One more limitation is that the answers collected might be biased which cannot be controlled.

Conclusion and Findings
From the overall analysis developed in the ecommerce assignment, it can be concluded that the online business have no doubt created a wide scope for the businesses but it has also affected negatively the business of retail stores. This is how; the companies need to rethink on the functioning of the ecommerce so that both could be managed well together.

References
Dahiya. M. 2017. Ecommerce assignment Study on E-Commerce and it’s Impacts on Market and Retailers in India. Advances in Computational Sciences and Technology. 10 (5).

Kirby-Hawkins, E., Birkin, M. and Clarke, G., 2019. An investigation into the geography of corporate e-commerce sales in the UK grocery market. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 46(6), pp.1148-1164.

Lim, Y.J., Osman, A., Salahuddin, S.N., Romle, A.R. and Abdullah, S., 2016. Factors influencing online shopping behavior: the mediating role of purchase intention. Procedia economics and finance, 35, pp.401-410.

Maina, J.N., 2016. Impact of Electronic Commerce on Kenyan Supermarkets (Doctoral dissertation, United States International University-Africa).

Sentance, R. 2019. 20+ stats that show how online retail is changing. Econsultancy.

Steel, W., Daglish, T., Marriott, L., Gemmell, N. and Howell, B., 2013. E-Commerce and its effect upon the Retail Industry and Government Revenue.

WERNER, F., 2012. Ecommerce assignment Ecommerce and market structure effects in the European retail industry.