introduction
This report consists of a range of information gathered about Woolworths and more specifically the offline and online services it provides. What we have exactly covered is an overview of Woolworth's strategy and operational procedures, an offline experience, an ICT overview, an evaluation of an online shopping experience and an evaluation of its competitors then benchmarked against Woolworths. From this information we have gathered we have produced a number of recommendations to improve the Woolworths website that will improve a customer's offline shopping experience.
Strategic and Operational Overview
There are several reasons that differentiate Woolworths in the minds of Australian customers. Woolworths has gone from strength to strength over the past few years, and is a prime example of how to become the biggest retailer and capitalize markets in Australia and New Zealand. Woolworths changed its logo in 2008 even though the previous logo was used for more than 21 years. A slogan was also added to differentiate itself from Coles, Woolworths' main competitor. All these changes indicate Woolworths' pursuit to make their supermarkets one of the biggest on the global arena. It should be noted that much of Woolworths' strategy is the low prices mantra and they've borrowed a few ideas from a world-class retailer that concentrates on selecting a suitable location for their stores-which is considered an important element of success for any superstore. Moreover, the mission statement of Woolworths is to deliver to all customers a delightful shopping experience every time and to focus on increasing product sales with a continual emphasis on increasing value.
Woolworths is an Australian based trade group specializing in general products. In New Zealand, Countdown and Woolworths are fully owned subsidiaries of Woolworths Limited, which oversees their operations and activities. WOW operates in five major business segments: Liquor, Supermarket, Consumer Electronics, Petrol and General Merchandise. WOW's reach in Australia and New Zealand extends to around 3,000 stores. These 3,000 stores house over 965 supermarkets-solely operated and managed by the Safeway and Woolworths brands in Australia.
Offline Experience
In the survey conducted the questions were divided into three general and more specific stages. They are as follows:
First Stage
Do you know that Woolworths has a website?
What is the best way to make people aware of Woolworth's website?
Do you speak English as a first language?
Second Stage:
How could Woolworths encourage people to use their website?
How many times a month do you visit Woolworth's website?
Is it easy to find the goods you are looking for on Woolworth's website?
Third Stage
Do you like the design of Woolworth's website? Why?
Do you have any suggestions to improve Woolworth's website or stores?
Do you find that Woolworth's website has a clear and user-friendly menu and icons?
We took a tour of Woolworths, and made several visits to their website during the study period. Woolworths makes an effort to be attractive to consumers in terms of price and services. We arrived at some recommendations to increase the online and offline customer base. For example, 60% of consumers support the idea for Woolworths to further develop their website design, and some store designs, such as changing the color of the fruit shelves to something more neutral, so that customers experience a more 'natural' environment in that particular section. We also recommend the use of scientist's experts, psychologists, and other experts to provide feedback on the design of the website and stores, which would give Woolworths an edge over its competitors. Such expert opinions could be expected to boost customer numbers.
Some pointers for supermarkets are as follows. It is important for supermarket owners to know what a customer needs and what he/she can't find in their supermarket. Moreover, most customers are cost-conscious, making it important for supermarkets to compare their prices and try to offer the most competitive prices while maintaining profits. However, 20% of online shoppers complained that there are some products that cannot be found on the website. As a result, such customers turn to other websites to find their requirements. Organizing surprise prizes on the website is also a good strategy to entice customers to buy more products, as they stand a chance of winning prize. It is not convenient for customers to come to a supermarket to buy only one item. Therefore, daily needs should be placed near the entry and exit points of the supermarket to make it easier for customers with a short shopping list. Telephone orders have also helped customers save time and encourage customers to return, especially since daily products are a recurring need. Customers also feel happy if their children are happy; therefore, Woolworths should think about entertaining children with gifts, or games online. That is, parents should look at the Woolworth's website not only as a shopping site, but also as a site to entertain their children.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the population of Australia is increasing in some locations more than others. For example, the current population of Australia is 22 million, with 60% of the population concentrated in and around the state capitals of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. Woolworths needs to consider these statistics and keep pace with Australia's growth. Statistics have also shown that the aging population is also increasing slowly, with 21% of the population between 0 and 14 years, 67% between 15 and 64 years, and 12% 65 and above. These numbers are crucial for the future strategy of Woolworths, to accurately define their target customer base. Additionally, 10% of consumers which constants their purchases daily products say that Woolworths should analyze what customers buy frequently and focus more on daily products.
Information & Communication Technology Overview
Woolworths has also incorporated the latest Information Technology (IT) in their operations. For example, bar code scanning has led to a significant reduction in check-out time, that is, it has significantly reduced the unnecessary time a customer has to spend in the supermarket. Most importantly, IT has helped integrate all the Woolworths branches across the world through high quality networks with some hardware and software. Woolworths has also exploited IT for their clerical needs and to extract meaningful data from all stores and branches. Computerization is considered the one of the most important requirements for Woolworth's stores to increase business. The Woolworth's website content contains much information, such as a menu, advertisements, and images. Furthermore, Woolworths has several policies on its website, such as an online shopping privacy policy, and a returns policy. Indeed, the most important policy on the Woolworth's website is the shop security policy, to protect customers' credit cards through firewall protection anti-virus protection.
Online Experience Evaluation
Using two elements from DeLone and McLean's Model the Woolworths websites worth and success can be evaluated. The first element that will be evaluated is the functionality of the website. The website provides users with the required information to perform the task of selecting, purchasing, and having groceries delivered online. In this aspect the Woolworths website is a success and its website adds worth to Woolworths.
The second element that will be evaluated is the Usability of Woolworths website and specifically the Online Shopping application using a Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction. From the Questionnaire it was found that the Woolworths website was pleasant and simple to use. Video tutorials are offered to customers that are new to online shopping. This covers everything from registering to checking out. This was extremely helpful in learning how to use the online shop.
The layout of the website is consistent on every page which makes navigation easy and helps with learning to use the website. It also made it easier to remember where to access the information required. Green and white are the dominant colours used which are the colours of Woolworths. The white text on the green background and vice-versa is readable off the page without difficulty.
When performing the task of searching for products it was a straightforward process and could be done in two ways. The first way was by using the Browse by Section menu which is located on the left of the Online Shopping page. The second way was using the Product Search function which is located at the top right of the page. The Product Search function was found to be the more efficient way. The Product Search function allowed results to be narrowed down through the selection of sub-categories and by sorting the results by brand or by highest and lowest price. This was very effective as it made it faster to scan the results of the search.
The process of adding items to the Trolley was simple and painless to use. Having the Trolley on the right of every page meant you could visually see what is in the Trolley giving you instant feedback. It also allowed quick removal of items which displayed a confirmation pop up and allowed you to change the quantity of a product. The product description given for each product however was very poor. You are unable to gather additional information about a product that you would usually be able to get from the products packaging. Another feature that was found useful was that registered users were able to save their online shopping list. This feature is very time saving for customers that buy similar groceries.
The checking out process was also easy to use and follow. A number of steps were taken giving the options to choose where and when the products would be delivered. Overall it was found that users were satisfied with the Woolworths website as it was easy to learn to use, easy to remember and was an efficient process of shopping. Usability wise the Woolworths website is a success.
Competitor Evaluation and Benchmark
Using the same two elements from DeLone and McLean's Model to evaluate Woolworths were used to evaluate Coles. From this Woolworths is benchmarked against Coles.
The functionality of the Coles website was a success as it provides users with the required information to perform the task of selecting, purchasing, and having groceries delivered online. Functionality wise both the Woolworths and Cole's website were equal.
When performing the task of searching for items/ products the Coles website also offers two ways of finding products. In this case the Coles Product Search function is an equivalent to Woolworths search function. The Coles Product Search function was also found to be the more efficient way. The Coles Product Search function also allowed results to be narrowed down through the selection of sub-categories and by sorting the results. Coles however offers more sorting options. The options available are brand, product, price, unit price, specials and size. This is 3 more options than the Woolworths site offers and made searching that more effective and faster to scan the results of the search.
The process of adding items to the Trolley on the Coles website is exactly the same as the Woolworths website. On the Coles web pages the Trolley is also found on the right of every page and also meant you could visually see what is in the Trolley giving you instant feedback. The difference here was that to delete items from the Coles website Trolley you had to load a new page to confirm the deletion. The use of a confirmation pop up on the Woolworths site is more efficient and saves on loading time. The Coles website also neglects to give additional information about a product.
The checking out process for Coles is also similar to the process that is used on the Woolworths website. A number of steps are also taken giving the options to choose where and when the products would be delivered.
The Woolworths and Coles websites both have its pros and cons but overall both websites are similar in the task of allowing customers to shop online. The small differences that separate the pages have little impact on the usability and functionality of the websites. However these differences could be the reason a customer uses the Woolworths or the Coles website to do online shopping.
Online Recommendations
From the information gathered we have come up with three recommendations for the Woolworths website to improve the experience of its offline customers.
Item Locator
Item Comparer
New Products
From the surveys taken it has shown that the majority of people when shopping for groceries have at some point had difficulty looking for an item or have not been able to find the item at all. From this information the first recommendation we suggest is having a feature added to the Online Shopping application. This feature would allow users to search for a product then be given information about where it is located in the chosen Woolworths store. This recommendation would then allow the user to print their grocery list showing them where each item is located. An alternative to printing off this list would be having it accessible through a web browsing capable mobile phone. Items could then be organised in order by aisles to allow for more efficient shopping. This recommendation would not only impact customers but would also impact staff. With customers using this feature there would be a decrease in customers asking staff where a product is located in the store.
From our surveys we also found that when people went shopping they liked to compare similar products to find which is best for money or which product is the healthier choice. From this we have come up with our second recommendation. This recommendation consists of the Woolworths website having an application that allows online users to compare similar products. The comparer would allow users to compare such things as prices, nutritional information and the quantity of similar products. Additional information would need to be added to each product in the Online Shop catalogue for this recommendation to be successful. Allowing customers the option to compare similar products online before entering a Woolworths store would reduce the time they spend in the store.
The last recommendation we have come up with consist of new products shown on the Woolworths website. This includes new products that are in store and those products that are not yet in store but are on their way. It would also inform customers if there is going to be samples given in store and if so when. Further information would be provided about these products such as a description about it and its nutritional information. This would improve the offline shopping experience by making them more aware of new products that are in store.
References
Beynon-Davies, P (2009). Business Information Systems. British: Palgrave Macmillan
Chin, J. P., Diehl, V. A, & Norman, K. (1988). Development of an instrument measuring user satisfaction of the human-computer interface, Proceedings of ACM CHI '88 (Washington, DC), pp. 213-218. (Also see http://www.acm.org/~perlman/question.cgi?form=QUIS and http://www.lap.umd.edu/QUIS/index.html)
http://www.woolworths.com.au (2010) Woolworths Supermarkets, Available: Woolworths Supermarkets 1997 - 2010 All rights reserved. Last accessed: 01th May, 2010
Rowlands, B (2010), 1410ICT Lecture Notes
