A’Sharqiyah University

College of Business Administration

MIFS320 – E-business Technology (Spring2021)
Assignment Project (Individual students)

Submission Deadline: 29th, April 2021

Total Marks: 30
Student Name: 1) Std ID Total
…………………………………………………… ………… Marks

Section: […….] …......../30

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Table of Contents
Identify Opportunities and challenges of using E-Business......................................3
Concept of E-Business:.............................................................................................3
The key challenges facing any organization using E-Business in Oman..................3
What are the major opportunities explored by any organization using E-Business in
Oman?........................................................................................................................4
Question 2: SWOT analysis......................................................................................5
Briefly describe the concept of SWOT analysis in general.......................................5
How any organization might use SWOT analysis to identify new online services/
products?...................................................................................................................5
SWOT analysis of Aliexpress...................................................................................6
Conclusion:................................................................................................................8
References:................................................................................................................8

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Identify Opportunities and challenges of using E-Business.

Concept of E-Business:

E-Business stands for electronic business. Its means that the businesses are using online
platforms like internet, extranet, web and the intranet to run their business. The e business
includes the buying and selling of the goods and services, payment transactions, providing
customer and technical support to your business using the internet. Some people confuse that the
e commerce is the e business but it’s not true e commerce is the part of the e business. The e
commerce is just the act of buying and selling of goods and services online. In e business we use
digital information and advance technologies to run our business and implement these
technologies to our business. The e business has many processes like online order, customer
relationship management, supply chain management, procurement, payment transactions and
many more processes. The main components of e business are given below:
 Online store
 Online marketplace
 E procurement
 Online communities
 Online companies
 Business intelligence
 Customer relationship management
 Enterprise resource planning.
 Supply chain management
The e business is a model that tells us how a company operates to provide the services or
products to their customers by using digital technologies. Through e business many companies
are generating profits. There are many new technologies in the e business through which by
adapting them company can make more profits. The all components of the e business work
together to run the successful operations of the business.

Example:
There are many business all over the world which are using e business to run their operations and
earning profits. The example of some business are Amazon, EBAY, aliexpress, Fiver etc.

The key challenges facing any organization using E-Business in Oman

The e business company we choose for this assignment is the aliexpress because in Oman there
are many people who are using the aliexpress for the buying of goods from aliexpress.
Aliexpress is a Business to consumer and business to business platform that sells their products
directly to the consumers or the companies. This is a Chinese company which is selling their
products to the other foreign countries. Aliexpress can sell their products to both the individuals
and the companies in the bulk form. So there are many companies in the Oman which are using
aliexpress to buy the products. Aliexpress is different from amazon because it does not its

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products other than the bulk form. Aliexpress is a Chinese company so it also does not allow the
non-Chinese people to open the stores of the aliexpress. So that’s why there is no store of
aliexpress in Oman but the people of Oman are buying the products from aliexpress.
There are many key business challenges aliexpress is facing in Oman. The major problem is that
the aliexpress do not ship to every country in the whole world. So there is no direct distribution
channel of the aliexpress in Oman. Basically, aliexpress has the wide range of the products like
clothing, decorations, electronics etc. So, the companies in Oman prefer to buy the products from
aliexpress. So, the people of the Oman find the alternative way to buy products from the
aliexpress and launches a new website which is known as ColisExpat in the Oman. Through this
website you are able to order things from the aliexpress because it is not possible for aliexpress
to deliver products at your door step in Oman. So the ColisExpat is the best e business website in
the Oman to order the products from the aliexpress. There are many other challenges the
aliexpress face in Oman as an e business platform that are given below:
 The main challenge they are facing is the security. The people of Oman order products
from the aliexpress than when they reach through the distributor they cancel and through
this they are facing many issues.
 The other challenge is that there is no retail store of the aliexpress in the Oman. So they
face many challenges in the shipment of the products to the final customers.
 The distribution channels of the aliexpress in Oman are weak.
 The aliexpress have variety of products but they have no big customers in Oman. They
don’t have a good brand image in Oman because of the poor distribution channels.
 The aliexpress has no market knowledge in Oman so they face difficulty there to target
the customers.

What are the major opportunities explored by any organization using E-

Business in Oman?

The aliexpress is a website which works globally and explore new opportunities in every country
of the world. There are many new opportunities the aliexpress find in Oman. Some of them are
given below:
 The biggest opportunity is for the people of Oman is that they can earn through the
aliexpress. The people of Oman can make money from the affiliate program of the
aliexpress. They just to sign in the website of the aliexpress and the knowledge of the
affiliate marketing.
 The other opportunity that aliexpress has in Oman is that there they can target new
market and gain more profits by targeting new people there.
 In Oman there are some business which cannot operate or deliver the parcels but
aliexpress has the opportunity to deliver their products to the door steps.
 In Oman there is no such business that sells bulk quality products to the companies. So
the ali express in oman giving bulk quality products to the companies in Oman.

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Question 2: SWOT analysis.

Briefly describe the concept of SWOT analysis in general.

The SWOT analysis are used to recognize the organization current situation. By doing SWOT
analysis we know where the company stands because it tells us the internal and external analysis
of the company. It also help us to make new strategies for the company. SWOT stands for
strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. Through SWOT you can access these four aspects
of your business. 
There are many advantages of SWOT analysis. Some of them are given below:
 The SWOT analysis can help you to reduce the failure chances of the business because
this tells you the internal and external analysis both.
 Through this you can know your competitive advantage.
 The SWOT helps you to know where the company stands in the market.
 Through weaknesses you know what the weak points are and where the organization
need to improve.
 What are the outside threats which can harm your organization?
 SWOT also tells us the unique points of the organization.
 It help us to do the deep analysis of the company.

How any organization might use SWOT analysis to identify new online
services/ products?

The SWOT analysis helping the e commerce companies to know new online services by doing
the internal and external analysis. The SWOT analysis can help the e commerce business in that
way that they know the online platform are their strength. The products they are selling online
have a unique point or not. The most of the people can prefer the shopping from the physical
stores rather than the online stores so through the SWOT you can also know the buying behavior
of the customers. The shipping method they are using is good that can be weak or not. Or
through the external analysis they can know about the opportunities they have available and the
threats they may face that can harm their e business platform.

Strength: 
The strength help you to know the company strong points and it help you to make distinguish
between the strength of your competitors. The advantages of the organization also comes under
the strength.  The strength are the most important part of your organization. It also tells you the
unique point of the organization. If you are getting any advantage from the company than it
means that this is your strength. 
E.g. if your company is producing the high quality products than this is the strength of the
company.
Weakness:
SWOT analysis is very valuable if you search the information correctly and it helps you to know
what the weak points of your organization are. Weakness is the internal feature of the
organization like the strength. There is always a weak point in your organization that can be the

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cause of the failure for the organization. So the SWOT analysis can help you to find the weak
points in the organization. 

Opportunities: 
Opportunities tell us that something good is going to happen in the organization. By looking at
the opportunities in the organization we can increase our profits in the company. The
opportunities are the external point of the company. This tells you that what can happen in the
future in the external environment. The changes in the government policies can also the
opportunity for an organization. The new market trends are also the opportunity for the
organization.
Threat: 
Threats are that can negatively effects the business. So they are also the external part of the
organization. By SWOT analysis you can know what are the threats which can harm your
organization success? The quality of the products can change with time so that is the threat for
the organization if they don't put attention towards it they may face issues. The bad debt and cash
flow problems also are the threat for the organization. 
So by the SWOT analysis you know the internal and external problems and solutions for your
organization. It helps you to safe you organization from the loss and help you to gain more
profits. 

SWOT analysis of Aliexpress.

The SWOT analysis of the ali express are given below and they help them to know what are their
internal and external analysis to grow more in the market as a e business platform. Through
SWOT aliexpress also know where they have to work on to improve their e business platform.

Strength:
 Excellent Outcomes in the new market:
Aliexpress has built expertise in full-filling the demands of new market and building
achievement in them. The aliexpress is already a leading e business platform which is
selling their products worldwide.
 Highly successful at Go to Market strategies for its products.
 The Strong Free Cash Flow
Aliexpress has very strong free cash flows that provides all the incomes to the company
to increase and make diversification into the new projects.
 Strong community of aliexpress
The ali express has strong customers and they are loyal to the brand. The aliexpress has
built a good relationship with their customers. The distributors of aliexpress are not only
deal with the products but also promote the products of the ali express
 Aliexpress has a very strong network of trusted supplier of raw material thus enabling the
company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.

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Weakness:
 They need to pay attention towards their research and development sector because the R
and D sector of the aliexpress is weak. The Research and development of the aliexpress
does not matches with the standards of the other companies. This a mature organization
but lack the research and development sector.
 The ali express is also not paying attention towards the new technologies. There are many
organizations which are using new methods of payment but ail express is still using the
old one and the customers are not satisfied with this.
 Like other e business platform aliexpress should also start selling the single product
rather than only selling to the Business to business companies.
 The financial planning is not done properly in the aliexpress.
 There are many competitors of aliexpress which are giving more benefits than aliexpress.
So the organization should pay attention towards it to decrees the chances of loss.

Opportunity:
 The aliexpress can increase their sales if they find new distributors or the free cash flows
help the company to invest in new technologies to increase their sales.
 Another opportunity the ali express has that they have to introduce new technologies in
their system to get the benefit from it. It also help the aliexpress to maintain a good
relationship with their loyal customers.
 Aliexpress has already a good brand image and working worldwide. So aliexpress should
also start the distribution of the products in the countries where they are not operating.
 The new tax policies also help the aliexpress to increase the probability.
 Aliexpress can also open their brick and motor stores. That is the biggest opportunity for
them to gain a good name in the market.
Threat:
 The ali express has not the good labor. They lack in getting the skilled labour in the
worldwide market and it is the one of the biggest threat to the steady growth of profits for
Aliexpress in the world.
 The most of the people prefer to buy from physical stores than the online store so that is a
threat for the ali express.
 The currency issues is also a threat for the ali express because it is delivering the parcels
all over the world and each country has its own currency. So that is an issue for the
company.

Conclusion:

In today’s world e business is spreading very fast. Each organization is opening their e business
platform to increase their sales. The e business online platform help the companies to sale their
products online and increase their business. There are many opportunities and threats each

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company facing while using e business but these opportunities and threats are helping the
companies to decrease the loss of failure. In the second part we discuss the SWOT analysis. The
SWOT analysis are very important for any organization because it helps you to examine the
company internal and external analysis deeply and help you to make better your organization
from others. In this document we discuss the aliexpress opportunities and challenges and the
SWOT analysis in detail.

References:

Temok (2006) Title: What is E-Business | Meaning, Types, Components, Model and Features,
https://www.temok.com/blog/what-is-e-business/

Dr. Balamurugan Muthuraman (2019) Title: Trends and Problems of E-Commerce in Sultanate of Oman
https://www.ijert.org/research/trends-and-problems-of-e-commerce-in-sultanate-of-oman-
IJERTCONV7IS04001.pdf
Mind tools (2020) Title: SWOT analysis
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm

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