Fundamental of E-Business: the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel Beijing - Dissertation Example

Fundamental of E-Business: the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel Beijing 1. Introduction This paper is a study on the ‘The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel’ Beijing website. The hotel is one of the best 5-star hotels in China. This paper consists of the various aspects e-business and analysis of The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel Beijing. This paper is divided in six main sections. The first section briefly explores the literature on the e-business and use of internet in the businesses. This is followed by the corporate information of the company. This section provides information on various aspects of the hotel in brief. The E-business evaluation section elaborates analysis on the three parameters of branding, social networking and mass customisation. The webpage section consists of general looks and feeling of the webpage and its graphical features. Recommendation section is an effort to bridge the gap identified in the current website. The last section consists of concluding remarks. 2. Business Literature on E-Business According to Boardman (2004) the origin of websites has been for different purpose altogether and it got evolved with the growth in the information need of the consumer and society. Boardman (2004) explains that initially Web was considered as a medium for handling different kinds of information. However the huge potential of the information need generated more possibilities of use of this medium. “It was not much more than rich text with the ability to turn selected portions of text into hyperlinks. It was possible to include images and to make these into hyperlinks, but because of the relatively slow download speeds of modems in the mid-1990s, web developers had to be careful about images. It was common for browsers to be configured only to load the text from a web page. (Boardman, 2004, p. 13) There are various e-business models which companies use. These e-business models are based on internal and external data. Companies use this platform to maintain their value chain, generate business and communicate with the stakeholders. The significance of web presence in businesses has increased in many folds. "E-commerce usually refers to an online shop where customers can order, and normally pay for, products or services via the website. The customers need not be consumers, but could be other businesses" (Collin, 2000, p. 99) This led in classification of the e-business models based on the type of stakeholders like business (B2B), consumers (B2C), employee (B2E), government (B2G) or from government to business (G2B), government (G2G), citizen (G2C), or consumer based business models like consumer to consumer (C2C) or business (C2B). E-business models allow integration of internal and external business processes. However it is very challenging to acquire consumer trust online. This trust is difficult to gain from any marketing campaign or promotions. Positive consumer experiences are the key of gaining consumer trust. Derong, Zongqing & Xiaolin (2009) focuses on the need of understanding the user requirements for a successful online application. The poor websites usually fail in understanding their target audience and their information needs. Website is convenient and provides opportunity for the fast services to the consumer. This helps in saving time, energy and resources of consumers by providing round the clock service and information. This provides electronic means for the companies to reach to the customers in easy and cost effective manner. “The Net is very good at bringing together large, dispersed groups of users who can meet in one place and discuss just about anything. There are three basic types of place on the Net where you can meet up and chat: ?' Web forums or discussion areas St mailing lists !,,'7 newsgroups (also called Usenet). (Collin, 2000, p. 129) According to Nicholson (2009), “"Business strategy drives innovative behaviour."  The companies need to reach to the prospective clients and websites provide a perfect platform to the companies. The effectiveness of the internet media is high as it can use different tools and platforms to display images such as graphics, content, flash and PowerPoint. At the same time, for consumers it is easy to find alternative products faster. According to Derong, Zongqing & Xiaolin (2009) quality information on the website and regular evaluation of the information provided like content and image. They further explained that a good hotel website must contain information on facilities it provide, customer contact information, booking information, nearby locations and visiting places and corporate information. 3. Corporate Information The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel Beijing is a part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc has 1041 properties in 100 countries. The numbers of employees in this group are nearly 145,000. The group has mixed business model where the properties are owned by the group, or franchised or operated. There are various well known luxury brands in the gamut of Starwood Hotels and resorts Worldwide Inc. such as Sheraton, Westin, Four Points by Sheraton, W Hotels, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Le Méridien , element and Aloft. The properties cover the most attractive destinations across the world. The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel’s history can be traced back to 1937 when company was founded by Henderson and Moore who acquired first hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts. The hotel is located at the cultural and commercial centre of China. This hotel has proximity with the Agricultural Exhibition Center, the China International Exhibition Center, The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the famed Silk Market and Beijing Capital International Airport that adds to the experience of the guests of the hotel. The hotel has excellent interiors and the expected experience is explained on the home page of the website. The hotel has 827 guest rooms. The hotel provides different features and level of comforts offered. The 1700 square meters space for collective meeting and space for function. Along with that 1131 square meter Grand ballroom adds to the architecture of the hotel. This grand ballroom does not have a single pillar in it that provides extraordinary dancing experience. The hotel has facility to serve all kinds of business meetings and functions of different clients. Three of the finest restaurants of Beijing are in this hotel that serve multi-cuisine meals to the guests. The hotel runs variety of promotional offers throughout the year. 4. E-business Evaluation The webpage of the hotel has contrasting colour and balanced content. The content is simple, effective, and expressive. It provides adequate information. There is no information overload and simplicity has been maintained. At the same time, graphics talk about the luxury and comfort the hotel can offer. This provides intrinsic clues about the hotel. The services offered by the hotel are intangible and these clues have high value as it help customers to determine their expectations from the service providers. The excellent interiors, hotel building and rooms are definitely helpful for the customers to understand the level of service hotel can provide. On the home page of the website the company has provided the drop boxes for booking rooms in the hotel. The customer needs to furnish check in and check out details and number of guests. This navigates them to the different page of Available Rooms, with the options of room preferences and smoking preferences. The hotel provides 3 types of filters based on rates low-high, high-low and recommended. Clients have the facility of currency convertor. In this very page information on reservations, special offers, community related information and preferred guest links are provided. The website is available in eight languages i.e. English, French, Deutsch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese and others. 4.1. Branding The Hotel has established reputation of one of the oldest hotel brands in China. The hotel claims to have three finest restaurants of Beijing. The hotel belongs to one of the largest group of hotels. However during the research, information on the branding activities of the organisation was very limited. Within the internet search with Google displayed first 8 pages have the web links consisted of the key words. However there was no information on any of the press release or media house. The information was on the travel and tours websites. There are exclusive video files available on the website ‘YouTube’. These files provide the glimpse of the luxuries of the hotel. There can be one more reason to this, the target consumers of the hotels usually get the arrangements done through the travel and touring agencies and some have set preferences for the hotel. This can justify the low presence of the information regarding the hotel on the other websites. 4.2. Social Networking On the Sheraton Community webpage, the navigation of the virtual goal is very interesting. The globe rotates and the logo and legends like Sheraton Story, Community story and Face Book connection of Sheraton guests in the hotels across the globe are marked. A user can click on the logo of respective destination and share the experience of the guest of that location which includes the information of the location, tourist places along with the experience of the hotel itself. Figure 1: Globe The click and drag is interesting feature of the website that allows the users to go through the testimonials and experiences of the guests in the past from across the world. The user just needs to click on the specific location’s legend. Figure 2: Social Networking There were only 34 Face book fan booking. The websites like Twitter, Orkut and other social networking websites were not linked with the hotel community web page. However, the guests have shared their experiences through the website. But the potential through the social networking websites of the users would have given more opportunity to reach to the target consumers. The guests who already have experience of the hotel would have many people in their social networking groups who fall in the target consumer groups of the hotel. This provides an excellent opportunity to the hotel to reach to the target segments effectively. 4.3. Mass Customisation Abdelkafi (2008) explains mass customisation as “Mass customisation deals with differentiation that focuses on customer requirements” (p.15). In this website, it is evident that the company provides variety of information and options to the target consumers. This includes options for popular destinations, resort packages and activities and interests. The activities and interests include range of interest areas like beach, partner, cultural, partner, resorts, sports and activities, skiing, wedding and honeymoons, local events, family, features, romantic gateways and many more. Mass customisation is prevalent in the hotel business and this hotel is no different from others. Mass customisation helps the company to cater the needs of the customers in the best manner. 5. Webpage The webpage is simple and interesting in navigation. There is no complexity for any user of different level of knowledge to navigate and find the information pertaining to their needs. The contact information and corporate information has been provided on the web links. The images are graceful and attractive. Overall the web pages of the hotel has appeal to hold the traveller or prospective guest. The home page has 11 important links of Overview, Photos, Guest rooms, local area, Features & activities, Dining, Meetings & Events and Hotel Offers. The overview page consists of link on the bottom of the right hand of the webpage and has flickers so that the attention of the guest is on the same. The second page ‘Photo’ has four sections of Hotel, Guest Rooms, Features & Activities and Meetings & Events. The Guest rooms provides an overview of the number of rooms, types of room, sizes of rooms available to different kinds of guests and their needs. This page consists of four images on the guest rooms. There are 827 rooms in the hotel that includes 98 suites. The size of rooms varies between 45-220 square meters. The hotel has different levels of floors Club level floor, two corporate floors, two Starwood Preferred Guest Floors and two Elite floors. Each floor has different level of accessibility and comfort linked to it. There is specific section for the loyal customers which include their bonus, preferences and other facilities for them under ‘Starwood Preferred Guest’. If the website is compared with the other leading international websites like Marriot hotel the interactivity of the components of the web page are higher. The website of Marriott Group of hotels have an attractive feature; the blog of Chairman and CEO of Marriott International. This blog provides all the information pertaining to the Marriott, links the consumers and stakeholders to the latest happening of the hotel. Marriott News Center provides latest news, blogs and videos on the Marriott hotels. The blog of the chairman and CEO also includes corporate social responsibility news. The overall sense, look and feel of the website is very interesting and attractive. There are clear information on the costs of services and other factors that are important for the decision maker while considering any hotel option. This makes it easier for the consumers to take the decision based on their budget and preferences when they are doing research. 6. Recommendations The company has all the good aspects linked with the website as it is attractive, informative, supports e-commerce, includes the promotions and others service related details, provide clues on the services and help the consumers to understand what can be expected. Considering the target consumers of this hotel, the presence of the brand should be on some business news websites and luxury news websites. Company should be involving more into the social networking as it opens the avenue to reach more number of prospective clients with least effort. Social networking has evolved as a strong tool for marketing. The guest themselves would be the advocates for the hotel as they would share their experience on the social networking website, spreading the message across the consumers with similar socio-economic background and closer to the target clientele of the hotel. The word of mouth is easy to spread through the social networking website but have greater impact as compared to traditional word of mouth. The company provides world-class infrastructure and world-class facility to its clients. The website must include information on pricing. 7. Conclusion This is clear that the e-commerce is playing important role in the business of the hotel. It provides consumers to have round the clock access to the services of the hotel and find out various information regarding booking, facilities and other details. The hotel is located at strategic place, has a strong brand image among the targets consumers and other stakeholders and strong satisfied consumer base. This effort can have more impact on the brand image along with other branding efforts. Boardman (2004) had explained how different the purpose of origin of websites and the purpose of current use are. However this is clear that every website undergoes some transition, from basic to complex. This website can be said one of the advance versions as it includes the features linked with multimedia tools and e-commerce. The website is safe and secure for the consumers to use. However the challenge remains the same for the designers and programmers to take it to the next level. Derong et al (2009) suggested that the company can be successful only if the user requirements are understood. This website has been designed and developed with proper focus on the user requirements. Much of the efforts are evident in the looks and content of the website. Collin (2000) suggested internet can bring large group of people to talk about the similar topics. However this is more applicable for the social networking websites. The hotel needs to do much of work to develop its social networking platforms and leverage on it. There are many areas in which this website can be improved majorly the social networking and interactivity of the website. The social networking if strengthened can provide more word of mouth in favour of the hotel. The consumers, who already have experienced the services of hotel, can be best mode of advertisement and branding for the hotel. The social network of these experienced customers will have the clients with similar profiles. It can be concluded that the scope of improvement for the website can be handled by understanding the consumer information requirements, likes and dislikes and consumer online behaviour. The performance can be tracked by keeping the best leaders like Marriott Hotels as benchmark for the company. 8. Reference Abdelkafi, N (2008) Variety induced complexity in mass customization: concepts and management, Erich Schmidt Verlag GmbH,ISBN: 3503110224, 9783503110223 Andreasen, A.R. (2003). The life trajectory of social marketing: some implications. Marketing Theory, 3(3): 293-303. Balmer and Greyser , (2006) , Corporate Marketing , European Journal of Marketing , 40 (7) , 730 -741 . Boardman, M. (2004). The Language of Websites. New York: Routledge. Blackwell Miniard Engel., 2006. Consumer Behaviour: 10th edition, Thomson South-western. Collin, S. (2000). E-Marketing. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Chaudhury, A and Kuilboer, J., 2002, E-Business and e-Commerce Infrastructure. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-247875-6 Derong, L., Zongqing, Z., & Xiaolin, G. (2009). A Study of the Website Performance of Travel Agencies Based on the EMICA Model. Journal of Service Science and Management (JSSM), 2(3), 181-192 Paul Timmers, (2000), Electronic Commerce - strategies & models for business-to-business trading, pp.31, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, ISBN 0-471-72029-1 Matook, S., & Vessey, I. (2008). Types of Business-to-business E-marketplaces: the Role of a Theory-based, Domain-specific Model. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 9(4), 260-291 Mulholland, R., & Cachon, J. C. (2004). Online Marketing Communication in the Tourism Industry: An Exploratory Study of Website Effectiveness among Tourist Lodge Operators in Northern Ontario. Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 17(3), 175-185 Nicholson, P. (2009, Spring). Innovation and Business Strategy: Why Canada Falls Short. International Productivity Monitor 51-76 Schiffman L., Bednall D., O'Cass А. Paladino А. & Kanuk L, 2006. Consumer Behaviour, 3rd edition, Pearson, pp. 11-61. Vârlan, E, 2010. Knowledge Representation in the Context of E-business Applications, BRAND. Broad Research in Accounting, Negotiation, and Distribution, ISSN 2067-8177, Volume 1, Issue 1 available at http://www.edusoft.ro/brain/index.php/brand/article/view/52/82 [accessed on 4 May 2011] The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel Beijing accessed on 18 May 2011 from http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=175&language=en_US&localeCode=en_US Read More