COM5027 Digital Business Coursework Assignment Brief 2025-26 | AU

COM5027 Assignment Brief

As part of the formal assessment for the programme, you are required to submit a Digital Business assignment. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting assignments.

Learning Outcomes:

After completing the module, you should be able to:

1. Critically examine key concepts and techniques for e-business, e.g., CRM, procurement, e-commerce.

2. Propose e-business strategies for the delivery of products and services.

3. Evaluate legal, ethical, social, and global issues in the context of e-business

Graduate Attribute:

Responsible Global Citizenship: Understand global issues and their place in a globalised economy, ethical decision-making, and accountability. Adopt self-awareness, openness, and sensitivity to diversity in culture.

All learning outcomes must be met to pass the module.

COM5027 Assignment Task

Brew Star is a UK-based small business that specialises in filter coffee. Established since 2019, Brew star currently runs 43 shops in various locations across the UK but the head office is located in central London, London Bridge: which is comprised of 10 full time staff and all are permanent: the owner, the operations manager, two store managers, 2 retail assistants and four staff who run the small warehouse where imported coffee powders are stored ready for packaging and distribution.

The owner has established relationships with single estate coffee estates in various countries, including Africa, India & Sri Lanka. All 43 coffee shops comprise a team made up of a branch manager, a few permanent full-time and part-time staff, and a handful of contractors who deliver fresh filter coffee powder/ coffees along with sandwiches and scones to their clients in nearby villages for an extra charge and a percentage of earnings, which is given to the coffee shop in return.

Brew Star’s coffee powders are transported to the UK to the warehouse located in Milton Keynes. The warehouse is attached to the retail shop (this location was chosen because of the opportunity to rent a building with combined retail and storage space). The warehouse is where the imported coffee from the various countries is packaged into Brewstar-branded sealed packs to be sold in the retail stores.

Relationships with suppliers were established through visits to coffee estate owners in various countries. The owner’s strong ethical stance meant that she was keen to work with small growers rather than big firms as a way of helping small firms to create sustainable businesses that employ local people. These small coffee estates are not technology-intensive: orders and invoices are processed via email.

Orders currently tend to be infrequent, depending on sales via the stores. Numerous factors have impacted the supply of raw coffee powder. The COVID pandemic impacted the company in terms of the supply chain, which meant new relationships had to be established with coffee estates in various locations in order to maintain stock. Global warming has also impacted the company, where growers have been affected by floods, droughts, and heatwaves that have destroyed or limited coffee stocks, which then impacts supply and price.

The company has been selling coffee in its various store locations and sells directly to the public. The stores are doing well, and sales are rising. The filter coffee products tend to be more expensive than supermarket equivalents, and this premium is accepted by their client base, who are driven by quality and taste rather than price. The owner has been in talks with major retailers (supermarkets) and is looking at supplying her coffee products to supermarkets in other new locations, though this will necessitate a ramping up of imports and storage, as well as new internal systems to manage orders with these new clients. At the moment, internal systems for tracking and managing are small-scale, based on common productivity tools in the Microsoft Office suite (database, spreadsheet, etc). They do not employ IT (Information Technology) staff, relying on limited internal expertise.
 
Marketing is limited to in-store marketing in the retail stores, and the company has limited experience with online marketing and social media, though they do have a Facebook page. They have a website, but this is not e-commerce enabled. The owner is keen to understand how they can further extend their customer base whilst maintaining the premium brand.

The overall strategy for the business is decided by the owner. The owner is not technically literate over and above use of basic IT packages. She is keen to establish an e-commerce presence in order to expand the reach of the business, initially in the UK but also abroad. The owner recognises that when the agreements with the supermarket chains are signed, she will need to invest in additional staff and systems to manage demand, and she has set a timescale of 3 to 6 months for this to happen. She is also keen to establish cafes in more locations and create an ‘experience’ for customers, e.g., coffee drinking taster evenings, food that complements the coffee, and host friendly games to get the reviews on the coffee powder to assess its quality time to time.

COM5027 Task:

Following a meeting in the company, you have been employed as a consultant to advise on the best approach for the business to take in terms of digital transformation. You have been tasked with writing a report that analyses the environment (internal and external) that which the company operates and proposes a strategy for implementing e-commerce and undertaking digital transformation, considering the issues highlighted in the scenario. You should support your report with relevant and appropriate literature, e.g., case studies, market analysis, peer peer-reviewed literature. (4000 words) (100 marks) (LOs: 1, 2, 3 & 4)

COM5027 Assessment Criteria

Note: All sub-tasks are considered to be equally weighted. Where grades are awarded across multiple sub-tasks, the marker will allocate grades appropriately. e.g., If the task contains parts a) and b), they are considered together (as each relates to different aspects of the learning outcomes). A response to the second part that gets a lower mark would reduce the overall grade awarded, even if the response to the first part is of a high standard.

Coursework – 100 marks