ASSESSMENT COVER SHEET

Unit Number and

Title
Assessment Title

Unit 1Business Skill for e-Commerce Level 4

Course Title

HND Computing & System Development

Assessment Code

HNDCSD-Unit1/October13

Hand Out Date

11/10/2013

Business Skills for E-Commerce

16/11/2013

Internal
Verifier

Lecturer(s)

Sources of
information

Hand In Date

1. Course notes
2. Recommended learning textbooks and Journals:
a) Chaffey, D. E-business and E-Commerce
Management, Fourth Edition (FT Prentice Hall, 2009)
ISBN 0273719602
b) Courtland, B. and Thill, J. Business in Action
(Pearson, 2010) ISBN 0132546884
c) Hall, D., Jones, R., Raffo, C., Anderton, A., Chambers,
I., and Gray, D. Business Studies (Causeway Press,
2008) ISBN 1405892315
d) Laudon, K. and Guercio Traver, C. E-Commerce 2010:
International Version: Business, Technology, Society
(Pearson, 2009) ISBN 0135090784
e) Malmsten, E., Leander, K., Portanger, E. and Drazin, C.
Boo Hoo: A Dot. com Story from Concept to
Catastrophe (Arrow Books Ltd, 2002) ISBN
0099418371
f) Rich, J. Design and Launch an eCommerce Business
in a Week (Entrepreneur Magazine's Click Starts)
(Entrepreneur Press, 2008) ISBN 1599181835
g) Ridderstrale, J. and Nordstrom, K. Funky Business
Forever (Prentice Hall, 2007) ISBN 0273714139
h) Stanwick, P. and Stanwick, S. Understanding
Business Ethics (Prentice Hall, 2008) ISBN
013173542X
i) Vise, D. The Google Story (Pan, 2008) ISBN
0330508121
j) Wood, G. and Mellahi, K. The Ethical Business:
Possibilities, Challenges and Controversies (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2002) ISBN 0333949935

To be filled by the student

Student
Name

Lecturer

Student ID

Group(e. g.
BDM019)

HNDCSD-Unit1/October 13

Assessment Requirements

An electronic copy of your assessmentmust be fully uploaded by the deadline

date and time.
You must submit one single PDF or MS Office Word document. Any relevant
images or screenshots must be included within the same MS Office Word or PDF
document.
The last version you upload will be the one that is marked.
The file size must not exceed 20MB.
Answer the criteria in order, clearly indicating the CRITERION number.
Ensure that all work has been proof-read and checked prior to submission.
Ensure that the layout of your documents are in a professional format with font
style Arial, font size 12 for the text, font 14 for sub heading and font 16 for main
heading, line spacing 1. 5 and justified.
Use the Harvard referencing system and provide references [e. g. (Smith, 2011)]
within the text and an entry in a reference list. Otherwise it will be considered as
plagiarised work.
Ensure that you back-up your work regularly and apply version control to your
documents.
Ensure that any file you upload is virus-free, not corrupted and not protected by a
password otherwise they will be treated as a non-submission.
Your work must be original with the appropriate referencing

HNDCSD-Unit1/October 13

Assignment Brief:

Top world is an auction house that was founded in 2003. The companys
headquarters is found within Florida, America. The auction house handles the
buying and selling of a variety of goods and services to businesses as well as
consumers. The basic operation of the business is relatively simple. When a
business/consumer places their goods or service within the auction house,
customers will have an option to place a bid for the goods or service, or an option to
buy now (if the business /consumer allows this). When a business wishes to sell
their goods or services through Top worlds auction house, they will set a target
price for the buy now, or a starting price for their bid now action. Assuming that a
customer agrees to this price, Top world will charge a commission for selling their
good/services through their company once the item or service has been bought.
Every Friday, Top World has released a bargain Friday, where they do not charge
commission on any items sold from 9 am to 8pm (Start and Close time of company).
This has helped to gain more businesses and consumers from their leading
competitors. The director of Top world has assigned you a job to develop an ebusiness solution according to the business nature. Before preparing a solution you
have been asked to study the existing business model used by the organisation and
prepare a report on following:
Business
1. The company wants to start an online business to reach more of its
customers
2. The company know that their main online auction competitors are
companies such as EBay and Amazon
3. The company wants to attract businesses to the website
4. The company wants to promote the benefits of Bargain Friday
5. The age group of interest is 1855 years
6. The company wants to make it easy for consumers to search for information
related to various products and services (e. g. Bikes, Cars, Cleaning services.)
7. A login system for users to login into their email accounts
8. Stake holders are two British-born Americans who had a dream of building a
simple Business to Business (B2B) auction house which quickly transformed
itself to Consumer to Consumer) C2C
9. If the company is happy with the fulfilled requirements, Top World will ask you
to produce an E-Commerce solution for it

HNDCSD-Unit1/October 13

PART A. 1 PASS CRITERIA ONLY

Pass
In order to achieve a Pass, students must achieve all the Pass Criteria
Task 1
Top world is an auction house formed in the year 2003. The main companys headquarter is at Florida in the
United States. This is company involved in the buying and selling of various goods and services to either
other businesses or also consumers. These happens when a business or consumers place order for a service
or goods, within the top world auction house customers will then have a platform to either bid for that good
or service or even buy the good or service immediately. This will happen if the business or the consumer
who placed the order allows it to sell (Ozlem & Nola , 2011, p. 271).
Top World Company sets various target prices for goods and services in terms of buy know, or even a
starting price that applies in the bid by the customers. The auction house will then charge a commission on
the good and service sold through the companys platform. The main aim of Top world Auction Company is
to bring business closer to other business and consumers, closer to customers and even other businesses to
other businesses. This has led to the diversification of trade through online. This is evident in the companys
Friday, offer that has enabled it to gain more customers and hence remain competitive in the market.
Here, the main stakeholders of the company are businesses, consumers and even customers. This is true as
the three parties actively participate in the companys agenda of selling goods and services. This is because
there is a transaction of parties where one party states the price while the other party bids or buys the good
or service offered. The main objectives here are that all parties gain what they target when the transaction
does take place. When a business or consumer quotes a price, it is the work of the other business or customer
to find out whether they meet the required price. This occurs when the business or customer either accepts or
rejects their good or service offered at the stated price. Also, the seller of the good and service once the price
becomes accepted it will shift the possession of the ownership of the good or service. Thus, the objective
HNDCSD-Unit1/October 13

here is to maximize on the set target (Nabeel & Al-Qirim, 2004, p. 100).
SWOT analysis is a very important tool used in the understanding and in the decision making of all the
situations that are facing the business. This acronym stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats. SWOT is of crucial value to an organization as it helps in providing a favorable framework ion the
reviewing of strategies, companys direction, and position (Anil, 2003, p. 288). A full SWOT as analysis
table includes two crucial areas these are external and internal factors. Strengths and weaknesses make up
the internal factors while opportunities and threat are external factors. The table is as below;
Strengths and
weaknesses
Here, is the internal

These factors may

These factors exist

environment. That is

include; prices,

mostly in the present

the companys inside

profits, skills,

times.

situation.

adaptability,
performance, quality,
brands, infrastructure,
and reputation.

Opportunities and

Here, is the external

These factors may

threats

environment. That is

include; fashion,

the companys outside

market factors, trends,

situation.

seasonality,
competition,
technology, law, and
economic factors.

HNDCSD-Unit1/October 13

These factors exist mostly in the future.

The SWOT analysis table can further be extended and explained in the following criteria as below;
Internal

Reasons put forward

1. These are likely to

2. Easy to implement

factors(strengths/opportunities)

to priorities on

produce highest

and save time.

internals issues.

returns on
investments.

Internal

Options that are

factors(weaknesses/opportunities) potentially attractive

External(opportunities)

Strengths or threats

1. Produce good

2. More stimulating

returns due to the

and exciting. This is

viability of

in terms of challenges,

implementation and

benefits, and surprise

capability.
Here, it is easy to

tactics offered.
1. Challenges

counter and defend.

solutions planning and safe and necessary.

This is by;

implemented in no

2. The investment is

time.
Weaknesses or threats

The issues here have a 1. Thus, risk

2.Ignoring issues

higher risk potential.

where the risk rates

assessment is crucial.

are low.

This model is useful in the business as it is a very flexible tool of analysis. This is thus useful in the
marketing of the business and used by Top world auction house.
Task 2
HNDCSD-Unit1/October 13

Strengths of a business from the given SWOT analysis table occur in the form of prices, profits, skills,
adaptability, performance, quality, brands, infrastructure, and reputation. These factors prove to occur in the
recent times and thus affect a business in all manner of ways possible. The strength of a business mostly
determined by the business prices, in that, once the business controls the pricing policy, then it can reap
maximum returns from the pricing policy. This occurs where the business gives a range of prices on its
goods and services and then bidding and even the purchase of these goods and services occur from the
customers purchasing them (Ozlem & Nola , 2011, p. 271).
Also, profits mostly aid the business company to achieve the set goals and objectives. This occurs mainly
from the business ability to adapt to the economic times and remain competitive, thereby earning more
returns in terms of its produced goods and services. When a company accrues revenue that when deducted
exceeds its total cost, the business becomes favorable and thus profitable. Top world auction house has
adapted to this policy and, therefore, its strength in terms of the external factors, enables it to remain
competitive and thus rakes in millions of profits (Anil, 2003, p. 288).
A companys skill level is another important factor that enables the organization top remains in business and
achieves its goals and various objectives. Skill level mainly depends on the organization workforce and
whether, its human resource thus able to recruit favorable employees. This enables the company to achieve
the desired levels of production because of the consistent and effective employees on its payroll. This
ensures that both the company and employees achieve their satisfaction levels where necessary.
Infrastructure is another major factor that affects a business development and survival in a market economy.
This is important to the company as the developments within a business organization improve the business,
in that there is room for other services or products production and even the production of new goods and
services. With new infrastructure, there is new ways and space for the creation of more goods and services in
various unique ways (Nabeel & Al-Qirim, 2004, p. 100). This enables the company to sell the new goods
and services that become tailored according to customer wants, hence enable it to remain competitive and
thus of importance. A companys brand proves crucial and thus has to remain guarded at all costs.

HNDCSD-Unit1/October 13

This ensures that the company losses no public image and thus, with a favored brand name or product it is
easier for an organization to prosper than that with a bad public image. Brand name or product protection is
mainly through ensuring that the organization quality in terms of the goods and services produced is at par
with the rules and regulations. This also ensures that the organization reputation remains guarded at all costs
(Lee & A, 2005, p. 200; Mark & Donald, 2005).

Below, is the Top worlds business strengths and how they affect the auction house.
Strengths
Prices setting

This is through the setting up of prices online

Fast and easy communication network

on the various goods and services rendered.

This is important as it brings customers close
to the goods and services and makes it easier
for consumers to search for goods services and

Commission charge

goods that they need.

This commission applies on every product or
service purchased through the company and
thus important source of the companys

Performance and skill

strength.
This is evident as Top world has a bargain
Friday to all its customers. This ensures that,
customers purchase goods and services at
lower prices and thus increases a customers
satisfaction.

The above strengths aids Top world auction house in a major way as they ensure that the company remains
competitive despite the heavy competition from Amazon and even Ebay (Fisher, 2001, p. 22).
The two British born Americans vision of wanting Top world be a business to business relation is in line
with the business aim. With time Top world evidently has transformed in a major way. This has enabled it to
HNDCSD-Unit1/October 13
8

interact with consumers at a personal level and this has thus, brought about a facelift of the business
objectives from that of, business to business relation to the consumer to consumer relation. This relates to
the stakeholders initial interest of the organization. Thus, important for the business to maintain the relation
as it will ensure the organization's survival and competitiveness in the marketing industry (Lee & A, 2005, p.
200; Mark & Donald, 2005).
Task 3
With the invention of the WWW or the World Wide Web in the year 1989, electronic internet based
commerce developed into reality from a mere idea. Various consumers browse the internet daily through
different catalogues in search of good orders, best offers in terms of discounts, and then pay for the services
or goods electronically (Fisher, 2001, p. 22). Financial institutions nowadays have an online presence that
allows their customers to manage and even access their accounts and transact financially. Various companies
or enterprises exchange electronic mails between themselves thus making it easier for information to flow
easily and hence of importance (United Nations, 2003).
Thus, carrying out business electronically on the internet proves an easy task as it is easy to cheat and snoop.
This is because security on the internet is not offered as much and thus, leads to acting under false pretense
and eavesdropping. This leaves the genuine customers and even businesses vulnerable to this security
breach. Consumers and E-commerce businesses find it a hard nut to crack because of the lack of control on a
persons security data and the unauthorized use of data or information by third parties (Ozlem & Nola ,
2011, p. 271). Privacy issues in E-COMMERCE-commerce affect in the following major areas, technical,
organizational, regulatory, social, and economic perspectives. Privacy has proved to be one of the crucial
and complex issues that are legal whish face ventures of E-commerce. People view privacy issues in two
dimensions, in that there are those who view privacy as a fundamental right while, others view privacy as a
commodity that is tradable. Various society issues affecting businesses and consumers dictate how the
society members view the issues concerning to privacy. This may not be in unison at all times and,
therefore, leads to conflicts and disagreements (OECD, 1999, p. 4).
Privacy is a major concern to E-commerce in that the concern comes from a technical new environment for
both businesses and consumers. When it comes to business issues and social issues, with the use of digital
HNDCSD-Unit1/October 13

machine systems allows data capturing to occur at high rates and in terms of scope than ever before. This is
because sites that deal with E-COMMERCE-commerce gave great potential in collecting immense data
amounts about patterns of shopping, personal preferences, information patterns, and consumers likes and
dislikes. Technology has also in its own way affected the privacy issue when it comes to E-COMMERCE.
Surveillance cameras used in the data collection in the end have side effects that endanger a persons privacy
policy (Nabeel & Al-Qirim, 2004, p. 100).
When it comes to Top world auction house, the management team must ensure that this issue to do with
privacy issue is dealt with totally. The management teams ensure that its customers get educated about
security issues when it comes to online transactions. Many people are ignorant to the fact that their privacy
issues violation takes places others only understand a little. It is hence important for Top world auction
house to conduct a security awareness campaign that enables all its customers, businesses, and consumers to
be in the know how. Top world business company can also ensure that its customers use encrypted or
cryptos that have regulations in the protection of all consumers, customers and businesses (Anil, 2003, p.
288). This ensures that only those who can decode the messages sent through email are able to decipher the
codes. This reduces to a greater number, the unauthorized personnel from accessing crucial information.
Another area of great concern is that to do with the legal issue that in one way or another affect privacy
issues when it comes to E-COMMERCE-commerce business. Here, there exists two issues namely,
harmonization and liability. When it comes to harmonizing Top world auction house, must ensure that its
laws move hand in hand with those of the national set laws (Lee & A, 2005, p. 200; Mark & Donald, 2005).
This is in terms of copyright, consumers protection, and signatures that are digital. In the issue to deal with
liability, Top world auction house must ensure that a users liability rhymes with the security her or his
technical machine. There is also the confusing bit when it comes to technical components.
This involves software of the server, operating system, client software, and network transport. Thus, Ecommerce guarding is at all costs, and Top world auction house to ensure that the privacy issues rights
become regulated and implemented where necessary (United Nations, 2003). This will enable the
organization maintain a healthy relationship with its customers and helps to improve customer loyalty to the
HNDCSD-Unit1/October 13

10

company. Thus, top world auction house must ensure that it follows these regulations to protect their
consumers and businesses. Once this occurs, then it becomes very easy for the organization.

Task 4
E-COMMERCE-commerce way of conducting business is new through the internet. This medium has the
potential to alter economic activities radically and the social environment at large. This business affects large
sectors of the economy and these areas include; finance, communication and retail trade. These combined
areas make up to 30% of the gdp of a given economy. Others affected by the E-commerce impact are the
health sector, Education sector, and government sector.
Through the combination of various reforms and innovations, it has led to the development of ECOMMERCE-commerce in an effective way. E-COMMERCE-commerce has proved crucial in that, both
the developed and the developing nations benefit maximumly from this initiative (Sean, et al., 2002, p. 1).
The developed countries have put extreme measures in the investment of E-commerce, and this leads to the
opening up to the outside world. While the developing countries struggle to acquire more funds for
investment in the E-COMMERCE-commerce industry, they do not remain behind as various policies
emerge which the developing countries use to their benefits. When it comes to issues about the economy, in
communication and finance, E-COMMERCE develops the two sectors of the economy, and thus a country
stands to benefit (OECD, 1999, p. 4).
The United States of America is the commercial and economic hub and epicenter of the universe. This is
evident, as the US has provided a platform in the provision of new ways of carrying out E-commerce; this is
also in conjunction with the implementation of the various business models in an innovative manner. Ecommerce expectations actively play in the US future growth, in its businesses, although there exists various
obstacles that limit E-commerce. Here, the projections of online shopping are falling short because of the
end of many dotcoms that cause investors and consumers to panic. The slow pace of the US wireless
communication causes this (United Nations, 2003). These issues prove less critical as the US long term
future projections appear bright this is because of its consumer spending online rate, demographic traits that
HNDCSD-Unit1/October 13

11

are strong, large telecom infrastructure, flexibility of its business models, and strong economy. This ensures
that the united States enjoy the huger portion when it comes to E-COMMERCE-commerce development and
investments.
Asia, on the other hand, is a developing continent. Here, the economic and social commission for Asia
works tirelessly to ensure that technology building and industrial development take place. These initiatives
promote cooperation and development in both the regional and national level. Also, internet spread and
internet based models of e-commerce rapidly change the nature of the econ0omic activities of Asias nations
and the various enterprises involved (Sean, et al., 2002, p. 1). Use of e-commerce in Asia proves critical
thus used in the procurement, manufacturing, financial, and distribution services.
The skill of workers in Asia has improved over time, and this is mostly because of the use of e-commerce.
In Asia, small and medium enterprise use e-commerce to develop and establish them. This led to easier and
cheaper way to establish their businesses as e-commerce provides an extensive platform for the Asian
businesses men and women.
It is thus clear that developing countries in Asia use this as a way of developing and in their establishment.
This is because it proves a cheaper and easier way. Whereas in the US more funds generated into ecommerce and used to improve the countrys economy as the large sector of business get affected (Asian
Mass Communication Research and Information Centre, 2005, p. 124).

References
Anil, A., 2003. Web-based Education: Learning from Experience. Baltimore: Idea Group Inc.
Asian Mass Communication Research and Information Centre, 2005. Media Asia. Volume 32, pp. 1 - 300.
Fisher, S., 2001. Privacy By Design:. InfoWorld, Issue 4, pp. 1-27.
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Lee, F. & A, G. P., 2005. Information Ethics: Privacy and Intellectual Property. Michigan: Idea Group Inc.
Mark, S. A. & Donald, T. D., 2005. Privacy and Security Issues in E-Commerce:. Review chapter for the
New Economy Handbook, Volume 1, pp. 1 - 16.
Nabeel, A. & Al-Qirim, Y., 2004. Electronic Commerce in Small to Medium-sized Enterprises: Frameworks,
Issues, and Implications. Auckland: Idea Group Inc.
OECD, 1999. Economic and Social Impact of E-commerce:. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS AND RESEARCH
AGENDA, Issue 40, pp. 1 - 169.
Ozlem, B. & Nola , S., 2011. Impact of E-business Technology on Public & Private Organization: Industry
Comparison and Perspectives. 1st ed. s.l.:IGI Global.
Sean, T. M., John, L. K. & Kalle, L., 2002. Globalizations of E-Commerce:. Growth and Impact in United
States of America, pp. 1 - 29.
United Nations, 2003. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC:.
INITIATIVES FOR E-COMMERCE CAPACITY BUILDING, pp. 1 - 234.

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