E-Commerce Critique Business Structure and Model - Essay Example

30 March E-Commerce Critique – Business Structure and Model One: The Webby Awards presents some of the bets websites that have beenmade in a year with a view to not only encourage more and more website developers to better the looks and outcomes of their portals, but also to make more people aware of the kind of effort that is being taken in order to make their lives better as well. It is true that most of these websites have some or the other mover advantage given to the people that visit the websites. Most websites work or are popular only because of added and increased traffic and feed by people all over the world. One website that takes the cake when it comes to combining innovative design to achieve its objectives is the Porsche Family Tree website. This website is mainly a B2C or business to consumer website that aims at putting the consumer, his needs and demands before anything else. (Welcome to the Family) It is a very interactive and new age website that showcases the Porsche story shared by every personal experience that has been had while owning the car; the website is an amalgamation of picture stories of different people around the world, happy with their Porsche cars, and urging other consumers at the same time to purchase the car from this company because of its number of advantages. Looking at it from another point of view, it can also be called a sort of customer to customer website because customers have come together and have posted their feedback thus urging others to purchase cars from the same brand. However the main element that eliminates it from being a C2C website like the world famous ebay.com is that there is no transaction taking place between customers except for a certain amount of promotion and advertising. (This is one of the main features of a C2C which is not fulfilled by the website.) The main business objective of the website is to promote the Porsche brand as well as the various cars that the brand has with a view of advertising through existing loyal customers. This website has stories submitted by people owning Porsches from all over the world, which date back to being as old as from the year 1950. This provides a big boost to anyone who visits the website because it tells them about the kind of customer loyalty and attachment that one can create by just being associated with the brand through a purchase. This site is not a purely play site. It is a click and mortar site which allows the customers or website visitors a large number of benefits. The main benefit is that the website becomes very fast and every hyperlink or link opens up a new page easily with no time wasted as such. The pictures and graphical user interface objects on the website are very user friendly as it is a more customer friendly website. It displays all its models as well as stories from different people that have purchased different models of the brand. The homepage of the website it particularly interesting and innovative because it is a family tree consisting of pictures of people from around the world that own a Porsche along with their Porsche stories once a picture is clicked. There is n easy option to add a person’s own Porsche experience as well with not much time wasted. It looks very creative and is very attractive and appealing to the eyes of the consumer or visitor of the website. There are a total of more than 4000 stories to read from and understand. A potential customer can through these ways thus, try and read the feedback that other people have written about. This is one of the best ways of assuring him that he will be able to get full value for the product or service he avails of. For the purpose of this business, since its main objective is to make the customers aware of the reliable and fast cars that the company produces, a click and mortar type website is helpful. It helps to provide a number of concise links to the customer who on clicking can quickly be transported to different stories written and submitted by different people owning the Porsche. A pure play website would not work in this case because the customer may not be interested in reading about or looking at the entire gallery of photographs submitted by all the Porsche users. Thus, it is at the customer’s disposal to click whatever suits or meets his interests, and thus get back with a feedback to the company if required. Looking at the website from this angle, it suits all the needs of being a perfectly well developed consumer website with an excellent portal to which a lot of attention to detail and style has been provided. The e-commerce and business model of this website would be a B2C model with aspects of billboard and advertising included. This website is a very good example for the promotion mix that forms a part of the marketing mix for any company. Since this website aims to create a lot of awareness about its products and services through the internet, it qualifies as a billboard type model of e-commerce. (Samuelsen, Robert) Its objective is thus to try and create revenue trough the website, by making customers aware of the advantages that are associated with owning the Porsche, which leads more and more people to buy the product creating an increase in sales for the company. Further, the website also provides for a great scope of advertising and promoting the products produced by Porsche with the help of all its existing customers. (Ecommerce Definition) They further want their friends and families to read about their Porsche stories on the website as they feel a sense of collective belonging by being associated with the company. Their friends and family are further attracted by the website and spread the message through word of mouth to other people who then become prone to visiting the website and finding out all about it. Value proposition refers to the various advantages and benefits that a company is able to derive by making use of e-commerce. It forms a very important part of the entire structure of the company with respect to its marketing plan as well. When looking at the qualitative or non quantitative aspects or value propositions of the company, some of the main value propositions that are offered by the Porsche website are an increase in customer loyalty and goodwill. The website helps to increase the quantity demanded among the consumers by making the product available to a wider global market with the help of the internet. This further has led to greater economies of scale proving beneficial for the company in terms of creation of more revenue through increased sales. Consumers are able to make decisions faster on the basis of purchase of products and can do so at the convenience of their own homes unless they want to go ahead and test drive the car for themselves. Further, the website provides a collective sense of affiliation along with the brand with the help of the feedback customers can give through their submissions of their personal experiences with the Porsche cars. This adds as a complimentary in terms of the value propositions for the company as well because in turn the company achieves free advertising. Web 2.0 refers to ‘applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user centred design and collaboration on the world wide web. This website is indeed a web 2.0 application website because it fulfils all the above mentioned criteria for such a website. It helps in sharing information through graphically user inclined sources, has ease and portability of use and has been designed mainly for the purpose of using by the viewer of the website. (7 Habits of an "Actual" Web 2.0 Service) This does indeed provide an advantage to the customer because it helps even the most technology challenged consumers to operate the website with a lot of ease and gives them a sense of being included with the functionality of the website. Two: Through this website, Porsche is selling to almost every kind of consumer beginning from the upper middle class sections of society because the price of their cars is a little on the higher end and has gained a sort of status or prestige symbol attached to it. Even then, their main market segment consists of mostly men. ‘ When the submit story button is clicked, a number of options open up right from a Porsche fan to race car driver; this indicates that their market segmentation or target market is not an exhaustive list because a number of different kind of people have been aimed at for the sale and purchase of this brand of cars. The company mostly forms a part of the automobile industry and the e-commerce for this industry is very large. This is because the automobile industry has been flourishing very well in the last few years as more and more people have taken to purchasing cars. Cars are no longer seen as the purchases for a person who can only afford luxuries because these machines have become necessities for all kinds of people. Moreover, over the years the automobile industry has taken a huge stance in e-commerce because more and more machines and engines are being manufactures all over the world with improved technology and growing levels of cost effectiveness which makes more and more people want to buy them. Thus, the market or consumer base has also begun increasing leading to an overall increase in the e-commerce for this industry. As per the US Department of Census Report on e-commerce (2005), this website comes under the purview of the retail sector. This is because it mainly aims at recording customer feedback as well as selling products through the website with the help of improved technology and electronic means of making transactions which can then be shipped across to almost any country. This website consists of a private marketplace as it is owned by a single company. Such companies sell their products to either other consumer individuals or business enterprises. The key design components for having an effective website in terms of being a part of the private marketplace would be that the website should have customer friendly elements and attributes because it is mainly directed at making the consumer attracted towards it. It should consist of a proper user interface of front end model along with a database that forms a part of the backend of the structure which may be accessed indirectly and easily by the consumer. A company can make use of market research to evaluate the effectiveness of its website by finding out how much the website appeals to the consumers or to visitors to the website. It can also try and make a comparison on the basis of rival or competing websites and see how it fares with relation to those in the eyes of the consumers. In order to improve the look or feel of the website to make it more users friendly or to generate more sales, the company should perhaps include an element of fixing appointments for taking test drives of the cars, being able to check out different aspects and specifications of the car as well as have payment options for those that are able to pay directly large sums of money. It may also include instalment plans for people willing to purchase the car on instalment. Moreover, the website should also include other information regarding all these plans and details that would further interest of incite the customer towards the purchase of the products and services from Porsche. Three: Moving on to government websites, one of the best so far is the website called www.dosomethingamazing.com. This is a government website that aims at trying to make the youth aware of social issues and how they can do something amazing that would change the life of others as well as theirs. It helps young people to explore opportunities in various fields. Even people who do not possess anything more than a high school diploma can find ways to somehow do something that would end up making a difference to the lives of others. It mainly has tried to recruit young people to the US Air Force. It has difference sections for people who have college diplomas to join as officers, as well as a section for those that are part of the healthcare industry to help out with the air forces. The website has met its aims very well because it is very user friendly and attractive. It also has a section of games that people can play related to the US air Force. Through this, people can at least hope to understand the kind of tasks that the Air Force has to perform in reality. It aims to make people aware of the kind of hard lives that pilots and fighters have to go through in order to protect their country. It thus aims at recruiting young people to join and make a difference to the country in their own way. It has an entire section explaining the intricacies faced by the US Air Force. Thus is a very interesting website that provides a lot of information and urges people to join the Air Force with sections on how different people with different college or high school degrees can make a difference to the country on the whole. It thus achieves its objectives on the basis of being a persuasive and user friendly, appealing website. (US Air Force) Works Cited "Ecommerce Definition & Types of Ecommerce (B2B, B2C, C2B, & C2C)." Digit Smith. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. . Welcome to the Family | Porsche Family Tree. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. . "7 Habits of an "Actual" Web 2.0 Service | TechPluto." Startup Reviews,Tech News,tech Events,tech Tips. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. . Samuelsen, Robert. "Five Business Models of ECommerce." Frugal Marketing with Shel Horowitz. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. . "US Air Force." United States Air Force - AirForce.com. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. . Read More