Launching E-commerce in the UK

Introduction

Business is the activity through which people can make money by manufacturing, buying and selling goods and services. Structure f business is influenced by different factors in the marketer in which it is operating such as political, social, technological, economic, legal and environmental factors. This assessment is going to discuss about an e-commerce business that is going to be launched and operated in the UK. By representing PESTEL analysis this assignment will discuss how this e-commerce venture will be influenced by different factors in the UK. Moreover, this study will also identify the three different important sectors in the UK, such as food processing, the fashion industry and healthcare, in which the business can be operated. This study will also discuss the strength and weakness of; legal framework in the UK which is going to affect this new venture.

Question 1:

PESTEL analysis of new e-commerce venture in the UK:

Analysis:

From the above-mentioned factors, it can be stated that the new e-commerce venture, that is going to be launched and operated in the UK would face different opportunities and challenges. Whenever it comes to analysing the political factors, the new e-commerce venture will be benefited through the highly stable and strong political and administrative framework in the UK. Moreover, the UK based policies favour the development of e-commerce business in this country which can lead to its economic growth. As stated by Basu (2016), if the political framework of a country is strong enough to develop liberal and relevant trade and business policies for companies, then the economic growth of the overall country increases at a faster rate as compared to other countries. On the other hand, currently, different e-commerce platforms such as eBay face high interference of the UK government into their trade operation, data protection and data handling process which demotivate the marketers to operate their business in this country (Carpio and Lange, 2015). On the other hand, analysis of economic factors shows that, the new e-commerce business is going to be benefited through strong economic position, highest GDP and high purchasing power of population in the UK. This will assist this business to make high profit. On the contrary, as the UK government spent more money on public sectors and healthcare, it can affect the e-commerce platforms in the near future. Analysis of social factors shows that, the new e-commerce business would be highly benefited through high living standard of the UK, which assist the markets to easily approach different types of customers to sell its products (Ahmad et al. 2015). Moreover, UK people are highly educated and concern about their buying behaviour which pose pressure on this e-commerce business, as its marketers now needs to make proper research on the preference and interest of people. Analysis of technological factors highlights that, high standard technologies, increased internet users and fastest digitalisation of market, will assist the new e-commerce venture to operate highly modern and trendy business framework (Al‐imam et al. 2017). Environmental and legal factors are going to affect this new e-commerce venture in different ways. The UK based environmental laws, trade legislation and policies will affect the overall marketing policies and decision of this business. Different waste management acts and environmental protection acts can raise overall management cost of this business.

Question 2:

Question 3:

The selected e-commerce business that is going to be launched in the UK, can be operated in three major sectors such as food processing, healthcare and fashion industry.

Fashion industry:

This is one of the fastest growing and highly profitable sectors in the UK. due to economic boom, technological advancement and educational improvement in the UK, people are more concerned and choosier about their attire. As stated by Gonçalvesb et al. (2016), education, technology and innovation in country assist people to become more concerned about their buying behaviour. The decision taken by the new e-commerce businesses that is going to be operated in this sector is highly realistic and effective, which will assist the marketers to grab majority of customers in the UK. For example, eBay, is one of the leading e-commerce business in the UK, which operates in different sectors such as electronics, healthcare, food and fashion, which assist this business ti gain high profit and market shares. When it comes to analyse the important impact of this sector in the new e-commerce venture, it is important to discuss the effect of this sector on the economic growth of the UK.

Impact of this sector on UK based Economy:

Fashion industry is one of the most profitable industry in the UK, which assist most of the international fashion marketers to invest high amount of fund in the UK by operating their business over here. Based on the database of Office of National Statistics (ONS), more than, fashion industry in the UK accounts for more than 14% of the profit share out t of the entire market profit from the different sectors (Kakabadse et al. 2017). Moreover, the economic boom, and rapid industrialisation, improve the employment and job opportunities in the UK, which enhance the purchasing of people. Therefore, the decision taken by the e-commerce venture in order to operate its business in this industry is highly effective and realistic. More over in the UK, today’s generation is highly finding of innovation and creative fashion products. there is ever increasing demand of highly trendy fashion products which not only will assist this e-commerce venture to fulfil its business target but also provide its marketers the opportunity to deal with new customer along with their new demand (Leong et al. 2016). It is true that, there are several potential rivals in the fashion industry in the UK such as Amazon, and eBay, which will pose highly competitive threats to this new venture. Then also this competitive will also provide opportunities to this new e-commerce venture to improve its business framework by selling the innovative and creative fashion products in order to grab the high level of competitive advantages.

Food sectors:

This new venture is going to operate its business in the food sector of the UK market. For This reason, this venture is going focus on enlisting different healthy and tasty food products on its shelf. As the UK based customer prefers healthy and eco-friendly foods that will improve their health, this new e-commerce venture would sell healthy and low-fat food, such as instant soups, dry fruits, vegetables, heath drinks, fruit juice, sugar free sweets and herbal teas instead of the luxurious and high calorie food products. This venture is going to sell only branded food products as majority of the UK based customer have high living standard who prefer the well-known brand’s products.

Healthcare:

The New venture will also operate its business in healthcare sector in the UK. It will sell huge ranges of medical products such as medicines, health drinks and instrument. By maintaining quality and authentication of each medical products, it is going to grab the majority of UK based healthcare market.

Two HR policies:

HR policies are important for the new business to set proper management process and business framework for dealing with current market trend in the market in which it is going to be operated. In this study the new e-commerce venture that is going to be operated in UK based sectors, has taken two important HR policies in order to maintain well-organised business framework.

One of the HR policy is appointment of high skilled and efficient mangers and staffs who have extensive knowledge of retail industry. As stead by Liang (2018), appointment of efficient staffs and mangers is important for newly launched business in order to set roper management policies, guides and build strong workforces which is associated with meeting organisational target.

Another HR policy taken by this new venture is managing organisation resources in well-organised manner through this process, the mangers in this e-commerce business would be able to allocate resources according to the market trend in the UK market. Through setting proper economic fund, managing proper resources such as staffs and mangers, maintaining proper technical instruments and machines, this business can build well-organised business framework which can deal with current market trend in the UK market (Morgan, 2017).

Impact on these HR policies on modern workplace:

Healthcare policies:

Through conducting the above-mentioned HR policies, the new e-commerce venture would be able to maintain well-organised business framework. Highly eligible and potential mangers in this business will ensure that all health and safety policies is maintained within the workplace in order to protect the health and safety rights of all staffs. According to Thompson and McLarney (2017) health and safety is important asset in business which ensure the healthy, highly productive and creative workforce. In order to operated the UK based sectors, this new e-commerce venture needs to follows all the health and safety guidelines, in order to ensure that all the staffs and managers are protected from any kind of sudden hazards and injuries. This process will assist this company to maintain a productive and highly positive and healthy workforce that will be highly contributed towards the common organisation goals in order grab the success.

Diversity policies:

As stated by Rahman (2015), diversity policies assist organisation to deal with diverse marker trends. In the UK market, the new e-commerce venture is going to face the diverse economic and market trend which will pose severe pressure on its marketers to set right marketing decision in order to cope with this trend. Through implementing diverse this venture will be able to deal with current market trend in the three different sectors in which it is going to be operated. In this aspect, this new e-commerce venture needs to make proper marker research on the UK based sectors, in order to understand the current demand, preference, social trend and buying behaviour of customers (Turban et al. 2015). For example, eBay, the largest e-commerce giant in the UK, has strong diverse strategy that assist its marketers deal with ever-changing demand and preference of the customers. In this aspect, the new venture, needs to be focus on implementing realistic diverse policies which will assist its marketers to combat the sudden challenges in market by setting appropriate marketing rules.

Equality policies:

Equality policy would assist the marketers of this new venture to promote the equality within its workplace as well as in the community (Yu et al. 2017). Under the Equality Act 2010, the new business venture will maintain equality and bias less framework inn its business in order to provide the equal opportunities to all staffs, and customers. Moreover, all staffs will be equality treated with proper respect and dignity in the workplace. This e-commerce venture would also show discrimination free service to all customers in order to present its brand value and business ethics in front of global business landscape.

Conclusion

This above-mentioned discussion concludes that, there are several factors such as pollical, social, economic, environmental, legal and technological that influence the overall business decision of an organisation. In order to operate new e-commerce venture in the UK, it is important to understand the impact of all these factors on this business. Through conducting proper marker research in current market trend in the UK, the business will be able to understand the taste of consumers which will assist marketers to select he right organisational policies.

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