E-Business Individual Report on a Website - Essay Example

?E-BUSINESS INDIVIDUAL REPORT WITH A WEBSITE Table of Contents Introduction In today’s world of business, internet plays an important role. Every business recognizes the important role internet plays in promoting their products and brand. Website is the main tools in approaching the target customers. Websites bring customers more closer to the company. Today almost all the big and small names in the business have realized the power of World Wide Web. Every established company has an official website, where they provide their customers with relevant information regarding their product line, their history and most importantly the option of purchasing products online. Official websites play the role of public relations for the business establishments. Their customers have direct connection to the company and feel better informed when they access the official websites. Internet has also opened up a new concept of business operation, the click concept or rather the online shop concept. Gone are the days when to launch a product a brick and mortar model was required. The new trend in the market is the online marketing of products. The click and mortar model of e- business is preferred by many now. Products are shown in these websites with their properties and price range. The customer is able to choose from the options and order the product. The payment is done online and the product is delivered at home. Thus, completely removing the cost incurred in having a brick establishment. Having a proper shop in mall or in a commercial area is a very costly affair but the new trend in the market has made it a complimentary service rather than an essential service. The spread of internet in the globe across has brought this remarkable change. Most people have access to internet in their daily lives and are more accessible through internet (Weill and Vitale, 2001, p.7-9) Business Literature on e-business Internet has indeed condensed the boundaries amongst the countries across the globe. Making promotion in other countries very easy. Doing business in other countries is also become easier due to easy mode of online payment. Shipment from across the globe has also become a very conceivable concept. Making it easier for business establishments to do business online. The main focus when a company makes their website should be, to create attention amongst target audience. The website has to be informative and attention grabbing in a right sense. Attention of customers looking for the particular product on the internet has to be first caught. The website therefore needs to be appealing to the target audience. Viral marketing is a very new concept. For websites the term used is SEM, search engine marketing. The basic goal of SEM is to promote a certain webpage by increasing the traffic of the website. This can be done either developing the content of the website in such a way that the hits on the website is maximised. The first step for any website marketing is to make it more visible. Optimisation of search engines provides this facility to the website. Once the attention of the viewing customers is won, then business can be done with them. Certain aspects must be taken care of when websites are designed. It is important for each website in order to get more customers that it appears in the first page of any search engine. Customers often search their requirements in search engines and very few like to go beyond options appearing on the first page. The website also needs to be very informative about the origin of the company, the history behind the company, the products that are available and the extra services given by the company. The website should also have details about the various payment modes accepted by them. These informations are very essential for the customer looking for making an online booking of a product. Display of products on the websites also plays an important role in creating interest in the customer. The photographs of the products on the website must be properly displayed, elucidating all the attractive features of the products. Research done on consumer behaviour indicates that the customers often feel more bent toward products which are displayed in a attractive way than towards a product kept in a simple way. In online shopping the customer will not have the option of touching and feeling the products directly. The only good judgment that they will be able to apply will be their vision and thus the photographs of the products must highlight their best features. The customers will not have the option of asking a shopkeeper around about their doubts, so the website must have all the information regarding the general queries made by the customers. Having less information about the product can cause loss of interest of the customer. All vital information about the product and the entire process of buying should be made available on the website.(Cunha, 2010, p.5-25) Research has proved there are certain colours and way of display on the internet that attracts the customers more. A proper research on the clientele of the products also gives the business establishments a better idea about how to design their website. The aesthetics, details of the products and the payment process all are direct representation of the kind of customers who are being targeted. E-bay and Amazon are few of the pioneers who were able to tap into the lucrative market of e-business. (Shaw, 2003, p. 351) CuePower - Website Structure Cue power is a UK based e- business. It is primarily into selling of accessories and equipments for playing the sport of Pool. They offer all kind of equipments required to play Pool and Snookers. The product range varies from Cue sticks, Pool table, Pool and Snooker Balls. They offer every possible accessories related to the game of Pool and Snookers. They offer cases for keeping cue sticks, chalk boxes, Pool ball cases etc. They also offer their customers the customised cue sticks. Customers have the option of opting from the various ranges of cue sticks. They offer Piece snooker cues and jointed cues. They have different range and sizes available and the customer can opt from it. The website on the left side has all the various options of cue sticks, cases and other equipments related to sports like American Pool. The products have been categorically separated. The website displays range of products under- Snooker & Pool Cues Mark Selby Snooker Pool Cue Cases Spring Offers Accessories Snooker Tables Pool Tables Table Cloth Other Games Gifts At the extreme bottom left the website has proper information regarding the Return policy, Payment mode and contact details. The website at the bottom space also provides information about the manufacturer of these products. This gives the customer the option to choose their product according to the manufacturers. The website also gives the viewers the option to subscribe their news letter regarding the latest products on offer in their store. The centre of the website is completely covered by the photographs of the products. The photographs are mostly the top view shots of the products. On clicking on these photos, the various ranges under each category are displayed with information about the specification of the product. The website also in order to build up clientele, has created a forum. Customers can log into this forum to discuss the latest in the sport of Pools and Snookers. The customers can directly log into the forum from the official website itself. The top of the websites flashes the shipment option used by CuePower. They offer free shipment to all the orders from UK and the shipment are specifically done through the credible courier services like DHL and Royal Mail. The website also displays Seasonal offers, like spring offers. It has options for gift ideas for the customers. The customers have the option to customize their gifts. The Website also uses Mark Selby the celebrated Pool player hailing from UK as a Brand ambassador. The website displays Pool products specially designed by Mark Selby. The customers are offered several payment options to choose from. This makes it convenient for the customers and Cue Power also does not loose out on any customers due to restrictions in payment mode. The website does not mention any thing about having a community on famous social site like Facebook, Twitter and Orkut. The website on the top flashes telephone numbers, where customers are invited to call for any kind of query regarding CuePower product and services. The websites does not anything mention about the countries where the service is available. The website also does not mention any details regarding the timings for tele queries. (CuePower, 2010) Concepts of e- business applied by the Website Website Development An effective and appealing designers is required to keep the visitors remember the site and visit it again. A properly designed website always plays an important role. It can encourage the visitor to actually indulge in a purchase. The way the website is designed is a directly linked to the credibility of the organization. A well designed website portrays a well managed organization. A visitor’s trust is won by a good maintained and designed website. Thus, to convert the visitor or inquisitive buyer into an actual sale the website design has to be aesthetic. Cue Power has been successful is designing a website that ensure the customer that the organization is into selling Pool and Snooker equipments. The extra services are also mentioned on the websites clearly. The website also displays other sport equipments like table football equipments. The website has given enough focus to all the product lines. Customised gifts, Table cloths and specially Mark Selby is given equal website space. This is a strategy incorporated by CuePower to keep their customers well aware about all the products they offer. The full visibility of all the products also shows their competency in managing the quality of all the products equally. The website is also user friendly since the visitor on first glance is aware of the payment modes that can be opted from. Mark Selby’s association with the organization is clearly indicated to give the organization more credibility. This also helps the customer to recognize the brand easily. Thus the strategy of using a sport Celebrity for brand recall has been used by CuePower effectively. Website Optimisation. In e-business visibility is very important. Visibility on the internet can acquire on optimizing the website in such a way that it appears in most search engine. Developing the content of the web in such a way that all the related words to the products are included is very essential. A customer will generally type the words related to the product or in some case the direct product name. To make the website more visible it is important that the website is search engine friendly. To make it easier for the customer to search a particular website. The organization must improve the ranking of their website with the most used search engines. CuePower does not have much visibility on the internet due to not being search engine friendly. Typing cue sticks or Pool equipments does not lead to CuePower website in search engines Like Google and Yahoo. which are the most sought after engines (Li., Ong. and Nee, 2006, p.247). Content Management Having interactive element incorporated in the website invites more customers. These certain features make the websites interactive and engaging to the customers. Features like: Forums, RSS Feed and Blogs are necessary in e-business because they give an avenue to the customers to discuss their opinion about the products. The organization is also able to keep a track on the customers and evaluate their expectations. These features help the organization to offer better products and services in future (Sheffield, 2009, p.17). e-Mail Marketing The ease of e-mail, and the affordability attached to it helps an organization to send their message directly to their target customers. Features like New letters and auto responders give an organization a way of marinating data about their customers. This can be also used as a measure of lead development. Cue Power has feature like News Letters where the customers can register themselves with the website and subscribe the news letters published by CuePower. This makes it easier for Cue Power to directly approach their customers and keep them informed about the new products on offer. (Jenkins, 2009, p.88,89) Social Marketing Capitalising on the immense popularity of certain social network also helps organization to establish their brand. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are extremely popular with people utilizing internet. It gives the brand more visibility. The community formation on these social networking sites also gives direct links to the loyal customers. The brand also becomes more popular once a new customer feels the brand recognition amongst the other customers. Thus it helps in brand building of the organization. CuePower is visible on FaceBook and Twitter but the official website does not mention these websites (Weinreich, 1999, p.68) Brand Development Having a website with a specific logo always helps in leaving a mark on the customer’s memory. Brand recognition and development can be easily achieved by marinating the website in such a way that it invites customer’s attention. Having the organization logo on all the forums and news letters and customised products and the photographs of the products definitely leaves an impression on the customer. This is very essential in developing a brand online. CuePower has done that. The distinctive way in which CuePower is written in all the websites, forums and New Letters helps in Brand development with customers (Timacheff. and Rand, 2001, p.227, 231) Critical Analysis CuePower has lot elements that can give the organization an edge over others. The organization is associated with Mark Selby who is a well recognized figure in the world of Pool. The website of the organization has some key faults. The first visual impression of the website is very chaotic. The arrangements of the elements are done in a very irregular manner. The website in aesthetic sense is very poorly designed. The website requires a lot of patience on the part of the visitor to grasp the entire concept of the organization. There is no mention about the key people who are running this operation. The information published on the website is also not well detailed. The website does not mention the timings regarding the tele- queries. The website does not properly mention the details of the countries where their service can be availed. The customised gifts that are being offered are not properly mentioned. The photographs displayed of the products are very not visually appealing. They are taken from a distance and does not provide the customer a proper sight about the product. The CuePower website lacks in key information. Information regarding the specific dimension of the products, the various ranges of colours or sizes is not distinctly mentioned. The website does not properly display the products and is not very informative about the products. A customer who wants to know more about the difference in the performance between the ranges of cue sticks will definitely not be helped by this website. The web site has to apply the concept of search engine optimisation to gain attention from new customers. Web development and content development of the website should be done in such a manner that the website appears in all the commonly used search engines. The website is not search engine friendly either. A direct search on Google or yahoo about the products offered by CuePower does not easily lead to CuePower Website. The website has no mention about the community CuePower has on FaceBook and Twitter. The organization will lose on lot of new customers by lacking such key features. The branding has been done strategically because it has many followers in FaceBook and the brand name is always written in a particular fashion. This does provide them with brand recognition. The overall presentation of the website is very casual and aimed at people who are well aware about the Game of Pool and Snooker. However CuePower is also offering different range of products like table cloth line and customised gift line. To attract customers towards these products CuePower has to portray them as a one of their key products and post their website links on related forums. Conclusion CuePowr has been successful in building a brand name for itself in the UK market of pool and Snookers equipments. The organization has to develop their website further for expansion in the market outside UK. The organization needs to capitalise on the wide reach of internet to increase their market share. A well developed strategy to build the brand online and offering better services online will help CuePower to establish themselves successfully in the market. CuePower can build up on their set customers to get more customers. Word of mouth and appreciation note written by customers on the website will invite more customers. CuePower website does display certain key features; it has to update the website regularly to reap benefits from these features. Website development and maintenance is key factor CuePower has to focus on. Recommendations To attract new customers and retain the old customers CuePower must keep developing their website. The website has to be well arranged. The products that are offered have to be displayed with their key features highlighted in a appealing fashion. The lists of products have to be displayed in an appealing manner. The website needs to mention their community on Facebook and Twitter to gain new customers and keep track on old customers. The organization will have to opt for optimization of their website. To gain visibility on search engines marketing strategies must be applied. Having advertisements of unrelated products on their website can also gain them visibility in search engine. Proper information about shipments outside UK should be incorporated in the website to gain customers from outside UK. The website should also encourage the visitors to call the organization in case of doubts, by giving proper details about the timing of their operations. References 1. Cunha. M.M. (2010). E-Business Issues, Challenges and Opportunities for SMEs: Driving Competitiveness, Idea Group Inc (IGI) 2. CuePower, (2010). [Online], Available at: http://www.cuepower.co.uk/categories/pool_tables.html [Accessed on May 04, 2011] 3 .Jenkins .S. (2009) . The truth about email marketing, FT Press 4. Li.W.D, Ong. S.K and Nee. A.Y. (2006), Integrated and collaborative product development environment: technologies and implementations. World Scientific 5. Shaw. M. (2003). E-business management: integration of Web technologies with business models, Springer 6. Sheffield. R. (2009). The web content strategist's bible: the complete guide to a new and lucrative career path for writers of all kinds. Richard Sheffield 7. Timacheff. S and Rand D. E (2001). From bricks to clicks: 5 steps to creating a durable online brand. McGraw-Hill Professional 8. Weill. P and Vitale M.R. (2001), Place to space: migrating to e-business models, Harvard Business Press 9. Weinreich. N.K (1999). Hands-on social marketing: a step-by-step guide. SAGE Read More