Business Continuity Planning for an Online Retailer

Online Retailing and Business Continuity Planning

Online retailing is a type of electric commerce also known as electronic retailing which is defined as the selling of services and goods through the internet (Rose, Hair, & Clark, 24). The sale of goods and services can be done from business to business or business to consumers. Business continuity planning involves the creation of recovery and prevention systems that deal with the potential threat of a company.

Developing an Effective Business Continuity Plan

Developing an effective business continuity plan for an online retailer can be done in the following steps; conducting risk assessment, analyzing the impacts of business, developing a business continuity plan, implementing the plan and testing the plan. Risk assessment involves defining the current and potential risks while analyzing the business impacts involves collecting information on assumptions of recovery, essential processes of business and future strategies that may impact recovery positively. After the first two steps, development of a business continuity plan follows then plan implementation which involves communicating the plan to all essential stakeholders and training employees on how to handle the steps in the plan. Finally, the plan is tested and maintained on a regular basis by conducting business assessments annually or bi-annual plan reviews.

Enhancing Efficiency in Online Retail

There are various aspects of the business that the plan would address to enhance efficiency in the online retail.They include potential threats, responsibility areas, recovery teams and alternative strategies of communication. Potential threats should be analyzed to know the strategies to adapt to avoid them. Potential threats greatly affect online retail, for instance, cyber terrorism and floods. Cyber terrorism affects the network and floods destroy the company’s IT infrastructure which is essential in online retailing. Disasters may lead to loss of personnel in business hence it is important to assign responsibilities to the employees and establish a chain of command. The plan should also cover on recovery teams which help in managing a crisis and making things fall into place after a crisis is over. There should also be an alternative communication strategy in the plan which helps in keeping in touch with customers when the company’s internet or phones have issues. Alternative communication strategies include alternative email addresses and ham radios among others.

Work Cited

Rose, Susan, Neil Hair, and Moira Clark. “Online customer experience: A review of the business‐to‐consumer online purchase context.” International Journal of Management Reviews

13.1 (2011): 24-39.