ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

STUDENT DETAILS

Student name: Nguyễn Lang Gia Linh Student ID number: B1112014491

UNIT AND TUTORIAL DETAILS

Unit name: Academic English Unit number: AEn-T121WSB 6

Mon, Wed, Fri 13.00-
Tutorial/Lecture: Ms. Heather Lennie Class day and time: 16.15
Lecturer or Tutor name: Ms. Heather Lennie

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS
Examine the opportunities and challenges that small businesses meet in large e-commerce
Title: environments
Friday, 30th April, Friday, 30th April,
Length: 1200-1500 Due date: 2021 Date submitted: 2021

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 Tittle page: E-commerce

Topic question: Examine the opportunities and challenges that small businesses meet in large e-

commerce environments

Written by: Nguyễn Lang Gia Linh

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 In today’s era, with the advent of science and technology, all fields embracing modern

technologies seem easier than ever to run more efficiently and faster. Consequently, in particular,

businesses are on the way to adopting new technologies to operate in online platforms called e-

commerce, especially small entrepreneurs who are seeking their success in a certain competitive

market. According to Elamathi and Tamilarasi (2017), electronic-commerce is a group of activities

involving commercial transactions including buying and selling over the Internet, likewise, the mode

businesses use to run in this environment is an electronic-business that is not solely a trade but

includes customers' services. There are 93.5% of global internet users have completed a transaction

through e-commerce websites (Santora, 2019). Hence, Montenegro (2021) claims that small

businesses should join in this ideal target market as not solely an increment in revenue, but a way to

further associate with their customers and expand their reach. Considering that the e-commerce

industry and online merchants continue their rapid growth on the Internet, there are a succession of

opportunities and challenges that they need to face to become successful businesses. This paper will

examine theopportunities and challenges that small merchants confront once they enter the e-

commerce marketplace in three main areas: product lines, target customers, and brand strategies.

 The first sector small businesses should concentrate on is products offered on the online

market regarding their diverse quantity, quality, and how to transport them to the customers. It is

widely accepted that e-commerce improves the efficiency of a business through a better organization

of production processes, and widens selection for online customers (Vancauteren, 2011). Indeed, the

online market seems to freely open for retailers the right to sell anything on the web without any

limitations, almost all items customers need are available on the marketplace as long as they are legal

and safe. The prospects, with visual online platforms, are great for e-commerce and its followers

where products are cataloged in a more efficient manner that can help customers easily seek out their

desired items and businesses themselves manage the goods' status through electronic tools. However,

in the certain diverse online market, products with the same appearance inevitably differ from others

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by the price and quality which straightly leads to market riot with such appearances of counterfeits in

lower quality. Hence, it becomes extremely important for a business to ensure offering buyers the

most reasonable cost among competitive e-commerce because people can easily find out elsewhere

on the networking sites. Also, trading on the web means that the transactions are made over pictures

of the items, as the sellers and buyers are solely dealing through the screen. According to a report by

Huseynov and Yildirim (2016), approximately 70% of participants pose an agreement that it is

difficult to examine the quality of products in an e-commerce environment without any physical

experience. Therefore, for small retailers who do not have enough popularity, making reliance on

customers will be a challenge but then if this case is successfully managed, it will be a chance for

gaining more attention from online buyers. Delivery time and cost are additionally an encounter for

deciding to purchase on the web compared to instant consumption in a virtual shop. Ariff, Sylvester,

Zakuan, Ismail, & Ali (2014) define that perceived delivery risk refers to a situation in which

products are in fear of loss, damage, and not performing on time during the process of transportation

for various circumstances so that the quality of the commodity is at least impacted. In short, a retailer

needs to provide the customers with the best experience during the process of trading until the

products are received to ensure further transactions.

In terms of customer, that every company needs to strive to create neet connections

between buyers and sellers is the key to achieving the consistent loyalty of customers towards the

products and brands through great services, relationships, and sufficient privacy protection. A survey

conducted by PWC (2018) illustrates that 73% of the respondents asserted experience on the web as

an important factor in making purchase decisions. Essentially, e-commerce makes it easier for online

merchants to have a flexible fulfillment process by providing regular updates on the web at any time

of the day which can help buyers easier to make their purchases more efficiently such as chatbox

facilities and review desks (Turel and Connelly, 2013). In addition, various payment gateways are

available for different types of e-commerce and suitable for each customer's desirability. E-service

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also refers to the ability of online merchants to learn about customers during every transaction in

which a customer asks for information about the products so that the needs of customers are

identified and such interactions can ensure a good relationship between the buyers and sellers

(Alwahaishi and Talet, 2015). Once the customers are satisfied with the business’s service, it will be

more likely to create confidence in the online buyers about the brand, and customer retention will be

attributed to a stable revenue for the businesses. But still, there is one big challenge that almost every

retailer struggling with is online fraud related to fake personal information from customers and loss

of private information of business websites. Witke (2019) predicts that there will be a 14% growth in

online fraud by 2023, which mostly relating to identity theft and could cost retailers $130 billion.

Despite having worked in a modern technology environment, some small merchants seem to be

reluctant in verifying customers’ identity that can pose a threat to the business itself. When a buyer

visits an e-commerce website, some basic information regarding addresses or contact details,

whether the information is fake or not, is all accepted by the system. It is, consequently, vulnerable

to having attacks in customer data which can lead to significant revenue losses. Therefore, businesses

necessarily need to have a proper identity verification system as well as cybersecurity measures for

the sake of protecting their consumers and business itself from constant security breaches. Concisely,

customers are the top priority while doing business so that providing them with the most efficient

service is the key leading to a widespread acknowledgment in the e-commerce market.

Lastly, e-commerce enables online businesses to operate more conveniently and cheaply

by applying internet-based technology in organizing online strategies such as website design, online

marketing, and leverage social proof by reviews. It is obvious that opening a shopping website does

not require a large amount of budget to build up and decorate a virtual shop. The money, instead, is

contributed to completely upgrade the selling system and investment of advertising the products on

online platforms as a result of which customers are able to purchase goods in a much faster manner

than before. This is a very important aspect of e-commerce because it allows the companies to

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increase their sales and also to make them more competitive with other competitors. Moreover,

website design is a crucial part of any business. As the website is the image of the organization, it

should be designed in such a way that the visitors can easily find out about the company's services

and products (Singh, Malik, & Sarkar, 2016). The pages should be accessible enough by providing

customers with stylish and user-friendly sites that make it convenient to browse and find products so

that the customer can get the best possible experience from the site. In addition, with the rise of

attention in e-commerce, the internet has become an important tool for businesses to reach their

target audience by applying online marketing strategies in which they can promote their products or

services through various means available on online platforms. Owing to research that 70% of

Internet users prefer to acknowledge product information through content rather than traditional

methods of advertising (Cameron, 2021), hence the need for website marketing is also concerned and

worth being investing in to gain high popularity among the customers in the competitive market.

Another method to promote the brand is displaying reviews on the selling websites that can

effectively influence the customer's purchasing decisions (Rodela, 2020). The review sites are not

solely a great way to get feedback about the product and service but also a help for new customers in

learning about the goods’ quality to confidently make a transaction. Therefore, it is important to

make sure that the business has a good reputation in the marketplace from making effective

marketing in internet-based sources. Overall, it is essential for e-retailers to make maximum use of

online platforms in order to prepare themselves with sufficient strategies in succeeding in

eCommerce. 

In conclusion, as consumer purchase habits shift from shopping at traditional brick-and-mortar

stores to shopping online, e-commerce opens a new marketplace in which businesses take

opportunities to develop and expand their brands in diverse online platforms but there are also some

challenges that they need to tackle to become successful. While products are what makes the name of

a business, satisfying customer experience is the key to ensure loyalty in permanent transactions. In

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addition, businesses should draw up more effective strategies to make the websites more attractive

and approachable to gain large amounts of access. As technology is more and more advanced, online

merchants, especially small retailers who are struggling to tackle problems in e-commerce, need to

continuously acquire new methods and learn from big companies to become successful in this

marketplace.

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