Ecommerce Assignment (National Bank of Dubai) - Essay Example

The National Bank of Dubai is a leading UAE financial headquartered in Dubai1; however, the bank caters to a select clientele. The target customers of NBD consist of corporations,2 as well as the " customer [that is] well-traveled. The bank [has] to appeal to an internationally savvy audience while retaining the local feel of Dubai."3 Therefore, we must approach all the factors from this perspective when rating the various areas under question.Organization of the web site is simple yet operative; however, there is a large amount of, potentially distracting, corporate advertising contained on the home page.

This consists of multiple, animated gif images that may attract the attention of the "surfing" individual, but would most probably distract the savvy customer the bank is attempting to attract and keep. According to a study, by the Department of Psychology at Middle East Technical University, organizational success (of a web site) may be considered by the site's user-friendliness.4 The criteria specified in the study ("rollovers, pop-up menus, and search capabilities") to determine user-friendliness is, however; met by the NBD's web site.

Therefore, based upon these criteria, it must be concluded that the site is an organizational success.The non transaction interactivity of the web site is sufficient and dynamic, yet rudimentary. The most attractive (and unique) aspect of this area is the "careers" section which shows the depth the bank has undertaken to inform potential employees of unique career paths. There is a very well formatted "site feedback" questionnaire as well as a separate link to contact the bank directly. However, an attempt to contact the bank, via this method (during working hours,) did not receive a reply as of the time of this writing.

Privacy and security is a prime concern for all banks and customers and NBD appears to have a fairly good handle on the process. It is somewhat difficult to reach the security information if you do not catch it on the home page. Information on the encryption used, security searches etc., are all quickly provided and while most of this information is fairly standard, it may reassure the customer. The link also provides an "Alert" link to supposedly current threats. When examining the threat link the customer finds information that is outdated for the sophisticated customer and quite general in nature.

The pages are fairly informative, providing information on numerous financial topics that may not directly related to banking, but useful to the customer who wishes to gain additional information while using the site. The customer will also see that the bank provides numerous "high end" services from commodity purchases to global market index funds. In order to do a proper marketing survey it is important to fist understand your customer and second understand the national attitudes of your customer.

Emaratees have one of the highest per capita incomes in the world 5 and as a result are universally educated and speak multiple languages. Yet, the UAE (and more directly Dubai) is primarily made up of expatriates - 81%.6 This high end, well traveled Emaratee is the individual or corporation NBD is attempting to attract. Subsequently, NBD has chosen not to apply a multilingual survey to their web site. The UAE national is completely comfortable with British (and to a lesser extent American) English and customs.

While the bank does have a limited amount of Sharia'a service, they relinquish most of those products to competing Islamic banks. The high end cultural banking values of the UAE are completely compliant and consistent with the banking values held in Western nations.Works Cited