The Evaluation Organisations Business Strategies Marketing Essay

Introduction

In this document, there will be three e-commerce organisations that sell much different kind of product or services. The three e-commerce organisation will be two “click and mortar” organisations which are Popular Bookstore and WHSmith Bookstore and the other is “dot com” organisation which is Amazon.com

This document will evaluate and justify the business strategy of each e-commerce organisation using porter 5 forces environmental analysis technique and unique selling proposition capability analysis technique. After that, use a form to record evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the service of each site. Some of the image screen shot will be put in the appendix of this document.

Besides that after evaluation, compare and analyse the results from evaluations, and then make recommendations on how to improve their e-commerce business.

Description of e-commerce organisation

The growth of Internet technology is becoming more important in foundation of business models, business process and new ways of distributing knowledge. Companies are relying on internet and networking technology to make their work more efficient. They sell their product and service in the website is to attract more customers to know more about their company. The purpose of having e-commerce website is to make customer convenient and easy to use internet everywhere to order their product they like.

In this section is describing the three organisation which sell similar types of product which is Book. The three organisations are Popular Bookstore (www.popular.com.sg), WHSmith (www.whsmith.co.uk) and Amazon (www.amazon.com).

Popular Bookstore

Popular Bookstore was set up by late Chou Sing Chu in 1936, engaged in the distribution and publishing of Chinese books. He was focusing on retailing Chinese books and stationery. Currently it operations have over 90 Popular Bookstores and 360 Popular bookstores.

Now, they have its core businesses in retail, distribution, publishing, and e-learning. Currently has many outlets located nationwide such as Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and mainland China and Canada. This Bookstore was a private incorporate company under the name of Popular Holdings Pte Ltd.

Popular Bookstore was listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchange and change name to Popular Holding Limited. It is the retail and distribution bookstore chain in Singapore. Popular sells type categories of books such as fiction, non-fiction and educational books. It also offers others items which can refer to Figure 5 in the appendix.

Popular Bookstore is click and mortal organization. Customer can order book and purchase through website or they can come directly to our bookstore. Popular Bookstore has its financial record. Financial Statement for Popular Bookstore will be shown Figure 1 in the appendix.

WHSmith

WHSmith began bookstall business in 1792 in London by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna. After they died in 1816, their youngest son which called “William Henry” took over this bookstall business. The companies become known as WHSmith, opens its first railway bookstall London in 1848. WH Smith has a history of innovation and creativity.

Now, WHSmith is one of the largest retailers shop in UK. It has over 500 high street stores and over 120 stores at airports, train and service areas. The shop is selling book, magazine, stationery, and entertainment products. WHSmith introduced e-commerce because it helped to increase their daily business, enhancing their services in some of operational areas.

WHSmith is also ‘Click and Mortar’s organization. Customer can shop online or come to WHSmith bookstore. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange. WHSmith has its financial record. The record of their income statement will be shown Figure 2 in the appendix.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com was founded by Jeffrey P. Bezos in 1994 and launched it online in 1995. It is the world largest leader in e-commerce and was one of the first big companies to sell good such as book, music’s, kindle store etc over the Internet. Amazon has greatest contribution to the good of society comes directly from core business activities in the world. Amazon.com is dot com organization.

Customer can sell and buy a lot of product at Amazon website. It has established their websites in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, and United Kingdom. In addition, Amazon.com maintains a worldwide network fulfilment and customer service centres around the world are to facilitate their services more conveniently, more choices types of products, more efficient and at even lower prices for customer. Moreover, Amazon.com is also listed in Stock Market. Figure 3 in the appendix is financial statement for Amazon.

Evaluation Organisations Business Strategies

This section of the report will be using one capabilities analysis and one environmental analysis for each of the bookshop. Capabilities analysis for this section will be used Unique Selling Proposition (USP) in each bookshop. This analysis technique is to define and identify what make the three organizations different from their competitors. This is to boost the organization sales and profit by obtaining their position in the market.

Environmental analysis will be used Porter 5 forces technique in this section. This analysis is to focus on business strategy development in the industry and identify the balance power in a business situation. The Porter 5 Forces model analysis technique is created by Michael E. Porter’s in 1980. It is an effective and useful tools for the organization to improve their business strategy.

Popular Bookstore

Capabilities Analysis

The capabilities analysis will be used for Popular bookstore is using unique selling proposition (USP) analysis technique. Unique selling proposition analysis technique for Popular is famous bookstore in Singapore. This bookstore has its own unique product which compare to the other organization in the market. This organization is very famous bookstore in Singapore. They are the only one sell a lot of Chinese book in the Singapore and also sell educational book such as previous exam paper for students and teachers. They also make fast and extensive into the greater china market in china and Taiwan.

Furthermore, Popular created and produced their own brand of products, please see (Figure 4) to support customer needs especially for students and office needs, whereas their competitors does not have its own quality brand of products.

They provide other services such as offer amazing deal if customer becomes member of popular bookstore. Popular will give customer to use their membership card to enjoy 10% at Popular and few selected stores. In addition, they give special discount and privileged from their full list of popular connection merchant to enjoy customer lifestyle such as health & beauty, leisure and eyewear. They will inform of the latest information in popular once the customer has subscribed their email.

In Popular, customer can find e-learning service whereas other competitors does not have offer this service to customer. This e-learning service is helping educator to practice, monitor and improve their knowledge in internet.

Environmental Analysis

(refer to Porter, 1980)

The bargain of supplier is very important for popular bookshop as leads to successful business organization. Supplier has higher power when buyer has little choice to choose. Term and Condition for online purchase given by Popular Bookstore to buyer where buyer should read, understood, and agree with the Term and Condition which include Privacy Policy before they order and purchase book online. Term and Condition such as: Purchase Related Policies, Your Obligations and Responsibilities, Your Account, and etc. For example: When you register at Popular website, you need to responsible to give truthful information and maintain privacy of your account. Popular bookstore had offer different kind of product, discount, and membership to customer. Customer does not have power to bargain the price with Supplier. Popular bookstore creates their house brand product such as paper product, art needs, school needs, and etc. The house brand product will give value for customer and the price will be higher.

Customers are able to access the market information. The supplier has a little power for negotiation if customers know market demand, prices, and cost. Customer can search through internet, and go to other bookstore to find price of products. The product is homogenous and can be found from other suppliers. If the brand of product is not unique similar to others brands, customer will be base on the price. For example: A lot of bookstore sell same book such as Harry Potter books with lower price for customer. Customer can easily switch to another product or company e.g. Popular Bookstore Customer might switch to Border Bookstore.

Many companies have incentive to become market leader. In industry with two or more dominant companies will experience competitive rivalry when these companies are battling to achieve status as Market Leader. If the companies are not well establish in the goal and strategy of game, this will create strong competition in the rivalry. There are many online bookstores and catalogue companies such as Border bookstore, MPH bookstore sell many kinds of books. This will become very competitive in the market. The products are homogenous and mainly compete on the price, because buyer will receive the same value from the products of different company.

Electronic books are becoming more popular in the industry because they are easy to read for them instead of carrying thick book anywhere. It is easy for buyer to substitute. The product’s value is important for customer. Customer wants to have a quality of the product. If company doesn’t offer the quality product, customer can easily to switch to other company to get value product. Customers have a little loyalty to company if the customer is concern only on the prices. If the price of the product is higher, customer will try to find the price of product is cheaper in other company. This will create greater for substitution.

The threat of new entrants is many online companies in same industry that sell same items. They are may be one of the largest leading bookshops in the market. When the products are not unique, and company can easily create online market because they can easily invested. Many suppliers are easy to set up company because start-up costs are lower. There will be a little advertising, research and development needed. This will create higher chance of new entrants to industry.

WHSmith Bookstore

Capabilities Analysis

WHSmith is using capabilities analysis which is unique selling proposition (USP) to describe own unique of their product in the market. Their Unique selling proposition is “Great Offering and Free Services for all product orders over £15” such as offers half price for top 100 ebooks, buy 1 get 1 free photo album, enjoy discount for books and magazines and etc.

They have offer eBook service whereas other competitors do not have provided eBook for customer. They sell e-book fiction and non-fiction. This will make customer more convenient without stepped out from the house. They can buy and read eBook from internet without carrying a thick book everywhere.

They set up over 1000 stores in UK. According to WHSmith reviewer, WHSmith is the new Woolworths without the clutter. Customer can always walk to the nearest store to buy the things they like. It is very convenient for customer. Moreover, customer has a chance to sit and read a few chapters before they decide to buy the book. In addition, aside from product range and prices, they also set up and are the only store in train station whereas other competitors do not have. This is the major advantage for this organisation where traveller is looking to entertain themselves on a long journey even if the price in the train stations is more expensive than other stores.

The organisation makes their website function as easy as possible for people to use. They have made some access key by using the keyboard to use the site without using the mouse. Please refer to Figure 6. But this function only support in browser that provide access key such as Internet Explorer. They also provide if visitor want to change the size of text on the screen, visitor can use increase, decrease or default text size buttons which provide at the bottom on WHSmith screen site. This will make visitor easy to read their product description in the site.

Environmental Analysis

(refer to Porter, 1980)

The bargain of supplier is depends on business organization that have power to negotiate with their supplier. WHSmith bookstore has the largest suppliers’ business and many retail group and has power to negotiate over the suppliers. Currently, bargain of supplier under WHSmith is reduced due to each individual publisher is not united to supplies all its resources. WHSmith will lose their bargaining power as they only focused on one main supplier which a service is not easily copied. If all the retailers unite, WHSmith bookstore will gain better bargaining power of customer.

There is little competitive rivalry in WHSmith bookstore as the bookshop is acting under monopolistic condition. WHSmith has over 500 high street stores and over 120 stores at airports, train and service areas. It is one of the largest retailers in UK selling books, magazine, stationary, and entertainment products.

There is no threat of substitution if they get listed in the Stock Market. WHSmith has been listed in London Stock Exchange. It has financial recorded. WHSmith has long time branded company. Customers have well known about WHSmith bookstore and trust them. This will reduce for customer to substitute to other bookstore.

WHSmith has long time history and strong brand image. They have many outlets at airports, train and service areas in United Kingdom. They have been listed in Stock Market. There will be difficult for a new firm to enter in the industry because they do not have following criteria:

Contracts and agreement with publisher and retailers

Capital requirement and set up costs to listed in stock market

New entrance of bookstore has less experience and distribution channels

Amazon.com Bookstore

Capabilities Analysis

Capabilities Analysis for Amazon.com will be use unique selling proposition (USP) to describe their unique product. Amazon.com is the only world largest online retailer and the first company e-commerce leader on the World Wide Web. They are business offering the largest selection of books on internet and expanded its retail service include selection of product such as cell phone, toys, electronic, jewellery, sport and etc. Visitor can choose a wide variety of product category they like on Amazon. It is very useful and easy to find the product.

They has provide others services whereas different from their competitors in the market such as selling own item at Amazon, 1-click ordering the product, and a free service provided to allow author to increase more readers, promote books. Furthermore, customer can enjoy free 2 day shipping at Amazon depends on the location whether it is local or international, Amazon will use air or ground shipping to get the items for customer within the promised time frame whereas others online shopping retailer need 5 or more time to deliver the product.

Amazon has created its own product called “Kindle” is third generation hardware device used without a computer connection which enable readers to read newspaper, textbook, magazines, blog and etc.

Environmental Analysis

(refer to Porter, 1980)

The bargain of supplier for amazon is the unique inventory and Information Management system. Suppliers choose amazon.com because their commitment is noticeable and essential. Amazon.com is the world largest e-commerce. They have invested in unique inventory and information management system to coordinate effectively with supplier. An advantage with most of their providers is they do not charge their products until amazon.com sell them. This is one of strategy from big companies in amazon.com.

Amazon.com has offer lower price and discount product for buyer. Consumer buy goods in amazon.com become regular client due to lower price that amazon.com can offer. This will reduce buyer to switch to another company. Some product price in amazon may be increase due to currency comparison with the dollar.

Amazon.com is world largest e-commerce and listed in Stock Market. The brand image of Amazon is very popular among buyer. Amazon is selling many different kind of product such as books, games, electronic, jewelry, and etc. Customer has many choices to choose the product and purchase online. Therefore, there is no existing competitor rivalry currently in Amazon.com as they have reached certain level of customer satisfaction which can ensure their position in the market for future years.

Amazon.com does not have threat of substitution because they have innovated product and services and also their name is trusted and well organized in the market.

There are some companies such as Facebook.com, Youtube.com etc developed their website with a simple idea and listed in the Stock Market in a short time. This may be possible for threat of new entry in the amazon.com.

Form for evaluating E-commerce service

Evaluation Form for Popular Bookstore

Criteria

Excellent

Very Good

Good

Bad

Very Bad

5

4

3

2

1

Usability

I find the site easy to navigate.

The site has clear and descriptive content.

The page should load not more than 3 minutes.

A site should be used standard language such as English.

There is no pop up ad when you are visiting the site at the first time

The page should be able to add product to shopping cart within three clicks

Product information should easy to find.

Able to use the browser’s “back” button

Ease of using search function in the site.

Content and links should be linked to appropriate pages.

The page should display when the product is ‘out-of-stock’

No dead link found in the site



Information

The name of the site should be clearly stated.

The information should be updated and accurate

The information should be easy to understand.

The information on the relevant topic should be provided.

The information well organized and appropriate format.

The website Design shall display a short, image, descriptive title and informative in every page.

Advertising should be limited and appropriate.

Interaction

The site has a good reputation

The site provides safety when user wants to make payment to complete the transaction.

User personal information should be protected.

Interactivity features such as forms for ordering the book should be provided clearly.

Effective in communication with company

Product or Services should deliver as promises.

Total

80

28

1

1

1

Evaluation Form for WHSmith Bookstore

Criteria

Excellent

Very Good

Good

Bad

Very Bad

5

4

3

2

1

Usability

I find the site easy to navigate.

The site has clear and descriptive content.

The page should load not more than 3 minutes.

A site should be used standard language such as English.

There is no pop up ad when you are visiting the site at the first time

The page should be able to add product to shopping cart within three clicks

Product information should easy to find.

Able to use the browser’s “back” button

Ease of using search function in the site.

Content and links should be linked to appropriate pages.

The page should display when the product is ‘out-of-stock’

No dead link found in the site

Information

The name of the site should be clearly stated.

The information should be updated and accurate

The information should be easy to understand.

The information on the relevant topic should be provided.

The information well organized and appropriate format.

The website Design shall display a short, image, descriptive title and informative in every page.

Advertising should be limited and appropriate.

Interaction

The site has a good reputation

The site provides safety when user wants to make payment to complete the transaction.

User personal information should be protected.

Interactivity features such as forms for ordering the book should be provided clearly.

Effective in communication with company

Product or Services should deliver as promises.

Total

40

52

6

0

2

Evaluation Form for Amazon Bookstore

Criteria

Excellent

Very Good

Good

Bad

Very Bad

5

4

3

2

1

Usability

I find the site easy to navigate.



The site has clear and descriptive content.



The page should load not more than 3 minutes.



A site should be used standard language such as English.



There is no pop up ad when you are visiting the site at the first time



The page should be able to add product to shopping cart within three clicks



Product information should easy to find.



Able to use the browser’s “back” button



Ease of using search function in the site.



Content and links should be linked to appropriate pages.



The page should display when the product is ‘out-of-stock’



No dead link found in the site



Information

The name of the site should be clearly stated.



The information should be updated and accurate



The information should be easy to understand.



The information on the relevant topic should be provided.



The information well organized and appropriate format.



The website Design shall display a short, image, descriptive title and informative in every page.





Advertising should be limited and appropriate.



Interaction

The site has a good reputation



The site provides safety when user wants to make payment to complete the transaction.



User personal information should be protected.



Interactivity features such as forms for ordering the book should be provided clearly.



Effective in communication with company



Product or Services should deliver as promises.



Total

65

28

6

2

0

Scale Note: 5 – Excellent 4 – Very Good 3 – Good 2 – Bad 1 – Very Bad.

Comparative analysis of evaluations

My evaluations for the best from three websites bookstore are Popular Bookstore. It is because when the first time I visited the website, I know this website is selling book. I saw the first and third advertisement that they put in the site. This first advertisement is to attract their parents to come and celebrate with their children by buying book up to 68% savings in popular. The third advertisement is shown that there is an examination tips. Find a course, etc for students. The purpose is to attract more students to come and learn the previous exam paper tips, etc. This site is more for educational types. For this site their target audience could be teacher, parents, and students. However, Amazon and WHSmith website do not have advertisement on the educational books. WHSmith website has advertisement on e-books, annual, and photo albums.

Popular Bookstore is categories as “click and mortar” organization as well as WHSmith bookstore, but Amazon is category as “dot com” organization. Popular and WHSmith bookstore have online website and many outlet in different places. Amazon.com is only e-commerce website.

Popular Bookstore has search function and list such as all categories and title. Amazon and WHSmith bookstore only has search function and all product or department. Popular and Amazon have provide wide ranges of products for customer, but WHSmith has provide a little choice of product. The product of WHSmith is showing in vertical and horizontal way. Popular and Amazon is showing only in vertical way.

The design of screen Popular website display on the left; font size and type are very small, whereas WHSmith display it in the middle; font size and type are able to read. Amazon displays the full screen design in the site; font size and type are bigger than the other website.

Popular, and WHSmith provide description for the products, but Amazon provides only customer reviews of the products. WHSmith and Amazon give detail stock of the items is still available or out of stock, but Popular do not give detail about available of stock.

Popular, WHSmith, and Amazon have same feature which is shopping carts, which allow user to add product to shopping cart within a second. They are able to add many different kind of product in the same cart and purchase in one transaction. They can pay with their credit card such as visa cards or master cards.

Amazon and WHSmith have “Wish List” where the customer can keep the product and buy next time. But, Popular do not have it. Amazon also can prepare gift wrap to product for user. When gift wrap product, it did not include the price of items on the packing slip as a gift product, whereas Popular and WHSmith did not provide it.

Recommendations

I would like to recommend that website design shall have a simple, neat, nicer and wider screen layout in the site. It is good for organization to put more type of products and information. It will attract more customers to visit the site to get more detail of information on the types of products, quality and how to use the product and the product prices provided in the site. Moreover, for font size and type provide function to increase or decreased button for customer to choose if they want to see clearly and easily in the site. If the site has smaller font size and type, it will hard to see and click for some visitors who have got eyes side problem and older people. This will make customer not interested to visit the site anymore. Therefore the organisation will lose their profit.

The page of website should load very fast. The content of website should appear in a minute. The user will know quickly and clearly information inside website provided. The organisation can offer lower price in the product or give discount 10% for members who purchase the product from website. It will increase the user interest to order product from the site. This will make better financial for the company.

There is no pop up ad in the website as the organisations focused on advertising of their own product. This is marvellous features to attract more customer as it is about promotion strategy in the organisation. Customer will know as this is organisation advertisement and they will click on it to find the detail of information.

In website should display a wide range of product for customer to have many choices to choose it. The customers have different kinds of preferences and buying habit. Some customer would buy according to price, brand, colour, or basis on the current news. Customer will buy product that have value to them. Provide details product descriptions, and plenty of photographs or images of the product. Customer would know value, function, and story of products. Beside of the products should tell that the stock is still available now or out of stock. The customer can decide earlier before they are processing further to add to shopping cart and purchased online.

Provide more feature such as “Save” for later, Wish List, and Gift Wrap in the shopping cart. Customers can keep the products and remember to buy later. They can send to their destination address and will not include the price of items on the packing slip as a gift product.

In shopping cart should provide many types of online payment such as master cards, visa cards, pay pall, delta, maestro, American express, dinner club, and etc. Customer can easily purchase many items online with their credit and debit cards in one transaction

Appendices (optional)

Figure 1: Popular Income Statement

Figure 2: WHSmith Income Statement

Figure 3: Amazon Income Statement

Figure 4: Popular House Brand

Figure 5: Popular Website

Figure 6: Access Key in WHSmith website