MN4057QADigitalBusinessManagementandEmerging

Technologies

Assessment1Specifications

AssessmentTitle Assessment 1–IndividualDigitalReport

ModuleTitle DigitalBusinessManagementandEmergingTechnology

ModuleCode MN4057QA NumberofCredits 15

ModuleLeader DrKamal KPal

AssessmentWeighting(%) 100%

SubmissionDeadline 25thMarch2022by3 pm

Procedure for/where Turnitin via Weblearn under ‘online submission’ tab

tosubmitwork andassessmentlink (the submission link will be available
from1stMarch2022)

FeedbackDate TBC

WordLimit N/A

Format Digital Report (you are expected to answer the tasksmentioned in

the 'assessment task' section of this document intheformof a
digitalreporti.e.videopresentation,intheformofwebsite, blog,voice
overpresentationetc.)

Submitted by:
Student ID:

1
 Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3

Identify the E-business model that the website pursues. Consider E-business concepts and
approaches to comment on specific strengths and weaknesses of your chosen website.................4

Identify a competitive strategy and digital business strategy the company has followed and
provide recommendations/suggestions with clear justifications.....................................................5

Identify their digital marketing strategies and options and provide recommendations/suggestions
with clear justifications....................................................................................................................7

Using similar web market intelligence platform (similarweb.com) please discuss the customer
traffic data and provide recommendations/suggestions for further improvement with clear
justification......................................................................................................................................9

Identify the company’s e-CRM and social network channels linked with the website and provide
recommendations/suggestions for further improvement with clear justification. 400....................9

Identify the cyber security measures the company website has in place discuss if the company
website complies with e-business ethics and provide recommendations/suggestions with
justification....................................................................................................................................11

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13

References......................................................................................................................................14

Appendix........................................................................................................................................16

2
Introduction

The business organisations are operating in a very competitive and globalised business space.
Business managers and owners are trying to establish an online presence and target and sell their
products through online channels (Polyaninet al., 2019). This study aims to evaluate the concepts
and approaches related to e-business models. Furthermore, it also analyses the competitive and
business strategies followed by Zara and provides certain recommendations. It also identifies
their digital marketing strategy and also analyses the data of the customers' traffic. Finally, it also
sheds light on the social network channels of the company and discusses the cyber security
networks within the organisation.

3
Identify the E-business model that the website pursues. Consider E-business concepts and
approaches to comment on specific strengths and weaknesses of your chosen website.

Identification of the E-business model of Zara

Zara is a manufacturer of dresses for women and men and has several outlets all across the
world. The company delivers its products through various channels such as retail outlets, stores
and even through online channels such as e-commerce websites and also through direct company
websites. The company operates through an e-commerce business model and provides an online
market platform where it enlists the products on the websites and thereby allows the customers to
browse through the products. They can easily place an order through the online platforms and the
company will deliver the products directly to the doorsteps of the customers (Kollmann, 2019).
Additionally, the company also uses other e-commerce websites to generate sales and there also
follows a B2C (Business to Customer model). This allows the managers of Zara to transfer the
products and services and easily deliver them through online channels. This model is a very
famous and widely used model by key companies in the fashion retail sector.

Concepts and Approaches

E-business or online business can be described as any form of business that is operated through
online channels such as the internet, web, intranet or extranet. Generally, e-businesses do not
have an offline office and provide their products and services directly to the customers through
internet transactions (Kollmann, 2019). These companies also make use of the online channels to
provide e-CRM (Customer Relation Management).

Strengths of the Website of ZARA

The website uses the logo of the company and it is quite attractive for the users since the
company follows premium pricing. The brand name adds value to the purchase of the customers
and this creates a positive buying experience.

 Zara launches its newer designs and these are fairly available on the company website.
The buyers can easily check through the new collections launched by the company.
 The customers can easily check out and pay for any product and have a very customer
friendly design (zara.com, 2022).

4
  The interface is very user friendly and can be easily used by anyone this is another major
area of success as it allows the user to search less and its designs provide all the
necessary tools and designs within the reach of the customers.

Weaknesses of the Website

 The website becomes monotonous with the similar black and white logo in the
background and often can generate dissatisfaction of the customers as there is a lack of
bright and vibrant colours.
 There are certain glitches in the website that can prevent the easy loading of the data on
the website. This leads to increased loading time and often can lead to dissatisfaction
with poor performance (zara.com, 2022).

Identify a competitive strategy and digital business strategy the company has followed and
provide recommendations/suggestions with clear justifications.

Identification of the competitive Digital Business Strategy

The company Zara aims to provide quality services to their customers and therefore has
integrated the business websites to a much greater aspect. The company has integrated their
digital business and is trying to expand its services to the customers. The company has been
providing its products and services to the customers and is reimagining the current processes.
The use of digital tools and technologies has allowed businesses to generate a deeper insight into
the outside market and thereby create a better possibility for the growth and development of the
market (Nadeemet al., 2018). The analysis of the data of the customers has provided the
company with insightful information that allows them to develop new tactics that will improve
the business decision-making process. With the enhanced utilisation of technological tools and
platforms, the managers can develop structured changes and thereby ensure better market
advantage and growth in revenue and number of customers.

Recommendations

 The online channel needs to be promoted as Zara has been a very famous offline brand
and the customers do not have much idea about their online channels.

5
 The company has been using several e-commerce websites to gain customers through
several channels. This has allowed the managers to reduce the profits. They need to drive
up the sales from the websites of the company and therefore needs online marketing to
the consumers (Park and Mithas, 2020).
 The company needs to integrate newer technologies within its business operations such as
machine learning, Big Data analysis and Artificial Intelligence. This will boost the
decision making and implement automation in the marketing to attract the customers and
will provide the customers with an immersive experience.

6
Identify their digital marketing strategies and options and provide
recommendations/suggestions with clear justifications.

The use of digital marketing has become very prevalent in the current landscape and companies
are using digital channels to enhance awareness. There are several advantages of the use of the
online channels of marketing such as cost-effectiveness and easy targeting. Moreover, the use of
analytics allows the managers to evaluate the efficiency of the advertisement in generating
customers. There are several strategies used by the managers of Zara to improve their brand
visibility and increase sales to gain revenue.

The company Zara receives 50.95% of its customers through direct website visits and 43.80%
through online search engines (similarweb, 2022). The company has focussed on the
development of the websites and has directed the traffic of the search engine directly into the
websites of Zara. The company has extensively used the following strategies to increase
visibility and boost sales. They are as follows:

Search engine Optimisation: This is a major area of concern where the customers are easily able
to locate the company directly. The managers of Zara have included the keywords that the
customers generally search for while they are trying to buy a dress from Zara. This has been a
success as a significant amount of the organic traffic is directly landed on the website of Zara.

Pay Per Click Ads: This is also a form of marketing that leads the customers directly to the
websites of the company. In this case, the companies bid on certain keywords and when the
customers search for the commercial keywords, the websites are visible at the top over the
organic links as ads or sponsored content. This is a very effective way of gathering new leads
and driving traffic directly into the websites.

Recommendations

 It can be recommended that the number of customers from display ads and referrals is
significantly low and the managers need to make use of these channels to increase brand
recognition. The use of the channels will allow the managers to improve the business
value and generate increased business.

7
 Additionally, the use of the company also needs to increase its engagement in social
media channels and increase its engagement with the audiences. This will be a great and
cost-friendly way of increasing brand awareness.
 The company also needs to make use of email marketing campaigns to provide details
about the new launches and share a link to the product pages. This will attract the
audiences directly to the websites of the organisation.

8
Using similar web market intelligence platform (similarweb.com) please discuss the
customer traffic data and provide recommendations/suggestions for further improvement
with clear justification.

The main advantage of the use of online digital marketing channels is that it provides the
company with the advantage of data and allows them to understand their strong and weak points.
This is not possible in the case of offline advertisements. From the analysis provided in
Similarweb, it can be understood that the online performance of the website is not very high as
the global rank of the company is 300 which has fallen 95 places (similarweb. 2022). The
country rank in the US is 560 and the category rank is 17. The bounce rate of the company is
28.12% which is average. However, the average visit duration is 06:50 minutes which is very
good. The average number of pages visited per page is also 13.86 which is also good
(similarweb. 2022). In addition to this, the month of February has significantly fallen to 64.2
million from 93.6 million in January (similarweb. 2022). Most of the visitors to the website are
from the US, Spain and the UK. It can also be seen that most of the visitors to the website are
from direct sources and through search engines. Only 2.54% of the total traffic is from social
media and most of them is from YouTube. The major competition websites of the company are
hm.com, shop.mango.com and bershka.com.

Recommendations

 It can be recommended to the managers of Zara that they need to attract more audiences
from various other channels and provide better opportunities for growth and
development.
 The company has lost views in the previous months and thus need to increase their
investment in enhancing brand recognition and awareness (similarweb. 2022).
 Zara also needs to increase its investment in other countries and gather customers in a
smart and effective manner. This will increase security and enhance the number of
customers in the emerging markets.

Identify the company’s e-CRM and social network channels linked with the website and
provide recommendations/suggestions for further improvement with clear justification

9
Any business organisation needs to maintain good relations with their customers in order to
ensure that they provide support to the problems faced by them. Customer relation management
becomes important for the companies as the customers are an integral part of the business and
provide feedback to the employees. The company Zara has established its presence across
several nations and has been maintaining its relationship with its customers. The managers have
been communicating with the customers of several nations through their customer support teams
and have helped the business to grow (Kampani and Jhamb, 2020). Other than this, Zara has
established itself as a lifestyle and most of its collections attract young men and women. In order
to attract engagement with the target audiences, the management of Zara has established their
digital presence across all the social media platforms and thereby creating a better opportunity
for the company to target the customers.

It can be seen that the enhancement of the relationship between the company and the customer
allows the managers to receive brand loyalty and also increase the number of returning
customers. The managers of Zara have included direct links of their social media pages in the
web pages and provided scope for communications with the target audiences. The managers have
also enhanced the process of engagement and have made use of technology to develop and
deliver content that has the ability to increase engagement with the audiences. Through the
channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, the company can easily develop a fan base
and establish communications and also do promotional activities such as sharing rewards,
providing news of the new stocks and releases of the company and much more(Bayat, 2022).
The managers can also respond to any major grievances faced by the customers through the
online platforms and these will act towards the growth and development of brand loyalty in the
minds of the consumers. Since Zara is a brand operating in the premium segment, they need to
employ these platforms and develop their brand to attract more individuals to try their products.

Recommendations

 The managers of Zara need to improve their services and customer relationship
management possibilities when they are operating through different e-commerce products
to sell their products. They need to ensure that the relationship with the customers is
enhanced across all the platforms.

10
  The use of digital tools and technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in
the website can be implemented. The use of virtual assistants and chatbots will allow the
managers to develop themselves and thereby create better opportunities for the managers
to ensure growth and development (Adnanet al., 2021).
 Within the website, the managers also need to provide direct connections for the
customers that will allow them to easily make a purchase and provide assistance in case
they face any technical difficulties within the product.

Identify the cyber security measures the company website has in place discuss if the
company website complies with e-business ethics and provide
recommendations/suggestions with justification.

With the increased use of technological tools and online platforms for business, there are several
issues that one might face in the current scenario. Since the companies are collecting and making
use of the data of the customers in the business operations and marketing process, there are
several issues related to security that has emerged over the last decade. The managers of Zara
need to understand that the data collected by them is very sensitive in nature and any breach in
this kind of data can lead to serious consequences (Coburnet al., 2018). Companies generally
tend to store data such as personal information, contact details, banking information and even
social security numbers to provide ease of transactions. However, the management of the
business organisations and the governments are working towards the growth and development of
stipulations and guidelines that will allow the companies to provide safety to the data stored
within the servers of the business organisations.

Since there are sensitivity issues, the loss of the data can put the consumers in a very vulnerable
condition and it can also threaten security to a much more severe extent. The managers of Zara
need to ensure that the use of the data is made reliable for the consumers and they need to
comply with the necessary stipulations created by the countries (Rachenko, 2021). For instance,
while operating in the UK, the managers need to take care that compliance with the Data
Protection Act 2018 is made and also needs to ensure that all the stipulations in the General
Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)are made. This will enhance the overall quality of the data
and provide reliability to the business processes. In addition to this, the proper use of the data in
the business will boost the overall performance.

11
E-business ethics

There are several benefits of making use of the digital channels, tools and platforms for the
growth and development of business. But it can also be seen that there are certain platforms that
collect the data of the customers and sell them in a structured or non-structured format. This
buying and selling of data become unethical (Setiawanet al., 2018). This is increasingly
becoming a concern and the managers need to create industrial self-regulation to ensure that the
customers and general users of the internet have rights to prevent the websites to collect their
data. This will enhance ethical practices in the businesses and also cause better business
opportunities.

Recommendations

 The managers of Zara need to update their cookie policy and provide the details to the
consumers about the use of the personal data collected and analysed by them.
 The IT infrastructure of Zara needs to be integrated and security features need to be up-
to-date. Installation of the devices such as firewalls and other devices can also help the
company to improve the security systems and secure the stored data (Setiawanet al.,
2018).

12
Conclusion

From the above presentation, it can be inferred that the growth of online businesses has provided
several opportunities to the organisations and also increased the convenience of the customers.
The use of online channels for marketing has enhanced the overall effectiveness and boosted
several possibilities. Furthermore, from the analysis of the customer traffic data from
Similarweb, it can be said that the managers of Zara have made use of the marketing strategies
such as SEO and pay per click advertisements to increase the chances of success. It can also be
concluded that the development of the online channels for Customer relation management can
increase brand loyalty and the managers of Zara needs to enhance their support in all the
channels of the business organisation. They also need to integrate the security system and
provide better opportunities to the consumers.

13
References

Adnan, A.Z., Rahayu, A., Hendrayati, H. and Yusuf, R., (2021), February. The role of electronic
customer relationship management (E-CRM) in improving the service quality. In Journal of
Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1764, No. 1, p. 012051). IOP Publishing.

Bayat, Z., (2022). Assessing The Effect of Using CRM and E-CRM On Customer Loyalty and
Satisfaction.

Coburn, A., Leverett, E. and Woo, G., (2018). Solving cyber risk: protecting your company and
society. John Wiley & Sons.

imilarweb.com, (2022). Competitors & Similar Sites[online] Available at:

https://www.similarweb.com/website/zara.com/#overview [Accessed 16 March 2022]

imilarweb.com, (2022). Marketing Channels Overview[online] Available at:

https://www.similarweb.com/website/zara.com/#overview [Accessed 16 March 2022]

imilarweb.com, (2022). Traffic and Engagement[online] Available at:

https://www.similarweb.com/website/zara.com/#overview [Accessed 16 March 2022]

Kampani, N. and Jhamb, D., (2020). Analyzing the role of e-CRM in managing customer
relations: A critical review of the literature. J. Crit. Rev, 7(4), pp.221-226.

Kollmann, T., (2019). E-business. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.

Nadeem, A., Abedin, B., Cerpa, N. and Chew, E., (2018). Digital transformation & digital
business strategy in the electronic commerce-the role of organizational capabilities. Journal of
theoretical and applied electronic commerce research, 13(2), pp.1-8.

Park, Y. and Mithas, S., (2020). Organized Complexity of Digital Business Strategy: A
Configurational Perspective. Mis Quarterly, 44(1).

Polyanin, A., Golovina, T., Avdeeva, I., Vertakova, Y. and Kharlamov, A., (2019).
Standardization of business processes based on the use of digital platforms. In Proceedings of the
33rd International Business Information Management Association Conference, IBIMA (pp.
3904-3912).

14
Rachenko, Y., (2021). THE DETERMINATION OF AEROSPACE TEAM MEMBERS WITH
CYBERSECURITY ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED DATA. International Research Journal of
Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science, 3(02).

Setiawan, N., Tarigan, V.C.E., Sari, P.B., Rossanty, Y., Nasution, M.D.T.P. and Siregar, I.,
(2018). Impact Of Cybercrime In E-Business And Trust. Int. J. Civ. Eng. Technol, 9(7), pp.652-
656.

similarweb.com, (2022). zara.com[online] Available at:

https://www.similarweb.com/website/zara.com/#overview [Accessed 16 March 2022]

zara.com, (2022). Product search[online] Available at: https://www.zara.com/uk/ [Accessed 16

March 2022]

15
Appendix

16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34