How the E-Channels of WH Smith Can Be Revamped - Case Study Example

Re-developing W H Smith – a proposal on e business and e commerce This paper aims at developing a proposal on how the e-channels of WH Smith can be revamped to compete in the local markets, where e-channels have gained popularity and are gaining business and clientele on the basis of the same. Introduction WH Smith is a renowned player in the retailing industry in the UK, selling books, electronics, stationary and CDs, with a wide range of collection, with a market share that is comparative to giants such as Amazon – Smith is no less of a giant either. Of late, consumer researches have revealed the fact that Smith has been facing downside in terms of daily customers, mainly losing these to online stores that are positioning themselves to attract customers, and transferring the customer loyalties. Evidences include reports that confirmed the sales figures during Christmas falling by 1%. The upcoming sections of this report aim at analyzing the various aspects of Smith’s website and plans on how improvements can be made to its various aspects. The next section defines the context of usage of the website. Context of Use Bocij (2008) defines the context of usage as the utility of the website amongst the users i.e. how it is perceived and how its archeology is done. The context of usage is categorized as ‘design archeology’ and ‘identification of the context of use’ by McLeod (2008). Firstly, the design archeology is discussed as follows, and the tabular representation has been added in Appendix I of this report. Within the design archeology, it has been determined that the objective of the business is to sell online – since online selling has a great many number of features associated with it and some are stated as below; these are stated as the advantages of online selling by Laudon (2009): Online selling is cost effective It takes rush and burden away from the physical outlets It makes it easier to keep a track of visitors through cookies mechanism It makes it easier to keep track of customer preferences and likeness and accordingly, packages and discounts can be offered. It is easier for the customer to browse; customers save driving time, parking hassle, traffic issues, and shop with ‘clicks’ Business can generate revenues with banners/advertising on the website Laudon (2009) further states that there is a major downside of the e-business i.e. no competitive or cutting edge advantage remains sustainable over a longer period of time, since it is observable by the competitor within glimpse of an eye. Websites such as Amazon, keep a close eye on competitor movements, spying is common and thus, these businesses always stay one step ahead of their competition. In accordance with the identification of context of use, and the table formulated for its design features, the target audiences are basically convenience shoppers; the term ‘convenience’ is critical here. In accordance with Chaffey (2004), convenience shoppers are individuals who shop as per their conveniences; traditionally, this applied to corner grocery shops whereby the variety of products and services defined them as convenience stores i.e. a one-stop-shop. Today, the meaning of convenience shopping has been redefined; today it implies something more close to e-shopping i.e. shopping from the electronic medium such as the internet or mobile phone from the convenience of customer location. Such convenience shoppers are the prime target market/audience for the business. The stakeholder list includes convenience shoppers as well as well as the suppliers of the products sold at the website. However, beyond these, there are also estimates and analysts from demand and supply side respectively, and coordinators for inventory management. The major activities possible would be order placement, checking prices, comparison of prices, deals offered and discounts given. Other than this, a visitor can also check with the latest products launched or those in the pipeline. The services being provided are rather homogenous; this is a major drawback of e-business i.e. any competitive advantage is not sustainable for a longer period of time. Impact of Home Page This section defines the impact that the home page makes to a visitor. Broadly, there can be two different types of visitors – similar to the concept of shop visitors; first time visitor (walk in customer) and a frequent visitor (regular customer). Consider the example of the first scenario, whereby the visitor is a first time visitor. In such a case, the individual would be looking for information of his interest in the various designed sections and categories. At this point, it is critical that each section devises a comparison of Smith vs. Amazon – its major competitor. The first view of Amazon gives a non-cluttering clear space feel, whereby categories are well defined, search engine is formulate to ease the access and usage, listing of departments and sub-departments is done in a classical manner that makes the view and search very easy. At the same time, though Smith also provides a classical view and a search engine that is similar to Amazon, Smith’s web looks much cluttered. Without scrolling down, at Amazon, only one product at the mid is visible with departments/categories and a couple of paid banners. Smith’s on the contrary shows approximately 7-10 deals without scrolling down. Though Amazon’s page is lengthy compared to that of Smith, it yet gives a non-cluttering outlook to the first visitor. For frequent visitors, the web becomes very much known and there are lesser chances of the surfer being lost in terms of linkage of urls within the given web. The history of repeat purchases reveals that Amazon leads the way. Frequent visits denote customer loyalty to the brand, ad it is seemingly on the higher side in Amazon. Usability Usability of a website is dependent on the functionality that has been programmed at the bank end as well as the ease of access for the same. Usability also depends on the ease of understanding associated with the design and the architecture of the website, its functionalities and how user-friendly environment has been provided to the surfer i.e. the customer. Hereby, firstly the competitor website would be analyzed. Amazon’s concept is similar to that of Nokia, whereby simple outlook and added features makes it stand out. Similarly, the simple, yet effective formula of Amazing has led it to stand out amongst its competition at the global scale. Smith’s website is very casual, which implies ease of usage but in essence, casual implies that the web really looks like any other casually running e-commerce based website. Page Layout and Navigation At present, the layout at Smith’s website is not just very common but is unattractive and dull; it looks very common and does not stand out rather seems like just another online store. From the page layout, no one can think that Smith is a major share holder of industry. Even surfing the web on the whole, does not lead to any link that suggests Smith being a major entity in the industry nor does the outlook of the page suggest anything likewise. The navigation of the website is in accordance with the assumed rule of thumbs i.e. the pages are not very lengthy; thus a maximum of 2-3 page-down clicks leads to the end of the page. The structuring of the page is in consensus with the web standards and norms; the pages are linked, and there are no dead-links or non-working links. Over all, despite being well structured and mapped as per the requirements of a normal user, it is fundamentally the outlook that fails to impress a visitor. Evaluation Testing For evaluating the present web, few randomly selected stakeholders were requested to surf Smith and a competitor – Amazon, and then their opinions were taken. These stakeholders included suppliers of various products as well as some customers and some analysts. The responses were as follows. Firstly, the customers indicated that the outlook of the web is very cluttering, with all things jumbled up and a lot of things being on the main page itself. The customers thought that the information was literally bombarded towards them. Many customers said that unless someone is absolutely aware of Smith and their reputation, and their precise url, one could easily assume Smith as being a look-alike Chinese brand. Other than this, customers also insisted to the fact that though the options and features and analytics, etc on the web (compared to Amazon), were quite similar, yet Amazon had better presentation of their website compared to Smith. In accordance with the suppliers, they said that the required data for their supply scheduling and forecasting was easily available. They could see the selling numbers and the demanded products, just as on Amazon. This actually made their life easier. However, the suppliers also indicated the lack of user-friendliness in terms of representation of text and graphical outlook. They said that a simple graphical add-on can really change the outlook to a greater effect. As an analyst, it was thought that there was a lot of redundancy of data on the title page and thereon. A lot of features have been repeated on the title page that could have been normalized with ease. At the same time, using drop down options would have also made it easier Conclusion Today, globally there are websites that claim to be genuine online shopping websites but are frauds as they take orders and never return back to the customer. Interestingly, many webs are look alikes for the renowned big names. Other than this, there are emerging players in the market that are following similar templates, which are easily available at cheap prices. Interestingly, the current outlook of Smith’s web is no different than this. A website generally has two sides; functional/technical and outlook. Despite the fact that the functional/technical side of the website is very appropriately designed and sound in mapping, the outlook is where the web fails to impress a visitor. Thus, an improvement on those grounds can give it a cutting edge over its competition. References Barbara McNurlin, Ralph Sprague, Tung Bui (2008) Information Systems Management – International Edition. 8th Edition. Pearson Education Dave Chaffey, Steve Wood (2004) Business Information Management – Improving Performance using Information Systems. Pearson Education John McManus, Trevor Wood-Harper (2002) Information Systems Project Management – Methods, Tools, and Techniques. Pearson Education. Ken Laudon, Jane Laudon (2009) Management Information Systems. Global Edition. 11th Edition. Pearson Education Paul Bocij, Andrew Greasley, Simon Hickie (2008) Business Information Systems – Technology, Development and Management for the E-Business. 4th Edition. Pearson Education Raymond McLeod, George Schell (2008) Management Information Systems. International Edition. 10th Edition. Pearson Education Sasan Rahmatian (1995) Management Information Systems – Learning Exercises and Applications. Pearson Education Wendy Robson (1997) Strategic Management and Information Systems – An Integrated Approach. 2nd Edition. Pearson Education Appendix I: Design Archeology Object/Service: What is it? Sell online, reduce burden on the stores, convenience based shopping Users: Who are the typical users? Every individual who wishes to make a purchase from W H Smith but does not have ample time to run down to a near-by store to fetch the required goods Stakeholders: Who else are stakeholders? Regular and walk-in customers/shoppers, suppliers, publication houses Activities: When is it generally used? Online purchasing, pricing comparison, checking availability, discounts and bundle offers Tasks: What can it specifically do? Provides online information about pricing, availability, discounts, offerings Browsing across products and offerings Proving information about major deals Online shopping facility Free delivery in many states and paid delivery otherwise Revenue through banner advertising Environment: Where is it used? e-environment Information: What can you find out from it? Pricing Latest models of commodities launched Upcoming models of commodities Competition: What’s different about competitor products/services? Differentiation is almost nil since products and services are quite homogenous Appendix II: Identification of Context of Use Website: State company & URL http://www.whsmith.co.uk/ Users: Who are the target users? Suggested: Convenience shoppers Actual: Convenience shoppers Stakeholders: Who else are stakeholders? Suggested: Customers and Suppliers Actual: Customers, Suppliers, Demand Estimators, Supply Analysts, Inventory Coordinators The Business: What are the business goals for this site? What brand values and associations should it communicate? Suggested: Reach the masses, and making Smith’s website as the fore-runner amongst the competition It should communicate ‘convenience’ Actual: Maximize sales through website, as it is cost effective Commitment, Innovation Activities When would it be generally used? Suggested: When customers are in a hurry, or wish not to drive all the way for the purchases Actual: All the time for purchases, price comparisons Tasks: What can users specifically do on the website? Suggested: Purchases, price comparisons, check the latest launches of products Actual: Purchases, price comparisons, check the latest launches of products Environment: From where would it be used? Suggested: Anywhere and everywhere Do you think it caters for these environments? If not, why not? Yes because e-access allows usage virtually anywhere across the globe Information: What should you be able to find out from it? Suggested: Improvements Actual: Improvements Competition: What’s different about competitor products / services? Amazon – the market leader in innovation and enhancing competition amongst the suppliers, giving choices to the customers by bringing in various innovations and creativity through their various modes and mediums Read More