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.
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 a wide variety of fiction, non-fiction and general interest books in English, Chinese and Malay languages as well as school textbooks and revision books. It also offers a large selection of magazines, stationery, multi-media products, gift items and CDs.
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 in the appendix.
WHSmith
WHSmith was established by Henry Walton Smith & his wife Anna began this business in 1792 in London. Their youngest son; William Henry took over the business following their deaths in 1816. 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 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, musics, 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 centers 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.
Evaluation Organisations Business Strategies
Evaluation of Popular Bookstore business strategy
Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Porter 5 Forces
Leading bookstore from Singapore
Be the first to be informed of the latest happening & hottest deals in popular
Bargain of Supplier
There are many suppliers providing terms and condition to sell their product to company as the company has an agreement to recommend their products to others. This will make supplier power is higher when buyers have fewer choice from whom to buy.
Customer has little choice to choose the product from supplier. Popular bookstore has offer different kind of product for customer to have choice to chose the product that they want it. Popular bookstore also have offer discount for customer to become membership.
Bargain of Customer
There are many bookshop offer different benefit and promotion for customer.
A lot of bookstore sell same book such as Harry Potter books with lower price for customer.
Customer may consider as necessity for education.
Competitive Rivalry
Some of the books may not be fine in the bookstore and only the bookshop that sells the product type is unique.
There are many online bookstores and catalog companies such as Border bookstore, MPH bookstore, Bernes and Noble.com sell many kinds of books. This will become very competitive in the market.
Threat of Substitution
Nowadays, many of the bookstore have provided many types educational books for student such as previous exam paper, textbooks.
Electronic books are becoming more popular in the industry because they are easy to read for them instead of carrying thick book anywhere.
Threat of new entrants
There is many online companies in same industry that sell same items.
The new entrants of the bookstore may be one of the largest leading bookshops in the market.
There has provided effective product and services to attract more customer to shop in the website such as E-book.
Evaluation of WHSmith Bookstore business strategy
Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Porter 5 Forces Analysis
Fantastic offers on a huge selection of Books, eBooks, Stationery &Cards, Magazines, Gifts, Games, Toys with FREE DELIVERY on all orders over £15.
Bargain of Supplier
Bargain of supplier under WHSmith is reduced due to each individual publisher is not united to supplies all its resources.
Bargain of Customer
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.
Competitive Rivalry
There is few competitive rivalry in WHSmith bookstore as the bookshop is acting under monopolistic condition.
Threat of Substitution
There is no threat of substitution if they get listed in the Stock Market.
Threat of New Entry
There are no threat of new entry 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
Evaluation of Amazon.com business strategy
Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Porter 5 Forces Analysis
Earth biggest bookstore
Bargain of 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 pays supplier products only 35 days after item has been sold, the companies prepare to provide service and products to amazon.com. On the other hand, amazon.com is estimated save more than 15 million of dollars to the company because amazon.com has switched its primary operational system.
For small companies and publishers, amazon.com keeps a maximum of five items in their stock in order to reduce costs.
Suppliers choose amazon.com because their commitment is noticeable and essential.
Bargain of Customer
Consumer buy goods in amazon.com become regular client due to lower price that amazon.com can offer.
Some product price maybe increase due to currency comparison with the dollar.
Competitive Rivalry
Amazon.com has reached certain level of customer satisfaction which can ensure their position in the market for future years.
Threat of Substitution
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.
Threat of New Entry
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
Scoring in evaluating each e-commerce service will be shown as the following:
Scale
Weight
1
20 9
2
15 7
3
105
4
53
5
01
Scale Note: 1 - Excellent 2 - Very Good 3 - Good 4 - Bad 5 - Very Bad
Website Evaluation Form for Popular
Website Name
Popular Bookstore
Website URL
www.popular.com.sg
Criteria
Scale
Weight
Total
The name of the individual or group should be clearly stated in the site.
1
20
The information on the site should be easy to find and easy to use.
1
20
20
Content of the website should be clear and descriptive by its intended audience.
3
10
30
A site should be used standard language such as English.
1
20
The information should be current and accurate
2
Interactivity features such as forms to become member in the site should be provided clearly.
The page should load in a reasonable amount of time.
Advertising should be limited and appropriate.
There is no pop up ad when you are visiting the site at the first time
The site has a good reputation
The site provides safety when user wants to make payment to complete the transaction.
The website Design shall display a short, image, descriptive title and informative in every page.
User personal information should be protected.
User should not pay a fee when become member in the site.
The page should be consistently available and load without a problem.
The page should not have confusing navigation such as too many clicks or hard to find the pages.
The page should not have inability to use the browser's "back" button
Browsability information can be retrieve from the site's database, every time user search for the book in the website.
Content and links should be linked to appropriate pages.
The page should display when the product is 'out-of-stock'
There is no dead link found in the site
Website Evaluation Form for WHSmith
Website Name
WHSmith Bookstore
Website URL
http://www.whsmith.co.uk/
Criteria
Scale
Weight
Total
The name of the individual or group should be clearly stated in the site.
1
20
20
The information on the site should be easy to find and easy to use.
1
20
20
Content of the website should be clear and descriptive by its intended audience.
2
15
30
A site should be used standard language such as English.
1
20
20
The information should be current and accurate
2
15
30
Interactivity features such as forms to become member in the site should be provided clearly.
2
15
30
The page should load in a reasonable amount of time.
5
0
0
Advertising should be limited and appropriate.
2
15
30
There is no pop up ad when you are visiting the site at the first time
1
20
20
The site has a good reputation
2
15
30
The site provides safety when user wants to make payment to complete the transaction.
2
15
30
The website Design shall display a short, image, descriptive title and informative in every page.
2
15
30
User personal information should be protected.
3
10
30
User should not pay a fee when become member in the site.
1
20
20
The page should be consistently available and load without a problem.
2
15
30
The page should not have confusing navigation such as too many clicks or hard to find the pages.
1
20
20
The page should not have inability to use the browser's "back" button
2
15
30
Browsability information can be retrieve from the site's database, every time user search for the book in the website.
1
20
20
Content and links should be linked to appropriate pages.
1
20
20
The page should display when the product is 'out-of-stock'
2
15
30
There is no dead link found in the site
5
0
0
490
Website Evaluation Form for Amazon
Website Name
Amazon Bookstore
Website URL
http://www.amazon.com/
Criteria
Scale
Weight
Total
The name of the individual or group should be clearly stated in the site.
3
10
30
The information on the site should be easy to find and easy to use.
1
20
20
Content of the website should be clear and descriptive by its intended audience.
2
15
30
A site should be used standard language such as English.
1
20
20
The information should be current and accurate
1
20
20
Interactivity features such as forms to become member in the site should be provided clearly.
2
15
30
The page should load in a reasonable amount of time.
1
20
20
Advertising should be limited and appropriate.
1
20
20
There is no pop up ad when you are visiting the site at the first time
1
20
20
The site has a good reputation
1
20
20
The site provides safety when user wants to make payment to complete the transaction.
2
15
30
The website Design shall display a short, image, descriptive title and informative in every page.
3
10
30
User personal information should be protected.
2
15
30
User should not pay a fee when become member in the site.
1
20
20
The page should be consistently available and load without a problem.
1
20
20
The page should not have confusing navigation such as too many clicks or hard to find the pages.
3
10
30
The page should not have inability to use the browser's "back" button
1
20
20
Browsability information can be retrieve from the site's database, every time user search for the book in the website.
1
20
20
Content and links should be linked to appropriate pages.
1
20
20
The page should display when the product is 'out-of-stock'
4
5
20
There is no dead link found in the site
5
0
0
470
Comparative analysis of evaluations and recommendations
Appendices (optional)
Figure 1: Popular Income Statement
Figure 2: WHSmith Income Statement
Figure 3: Amazon Income Statement
Popular link for financial stability: http://www.popularworld.com/about/directors.html
WHSmith link for financial stability: http://www.whsmithplc.co.uk/WHSPLC-IR-Reports.htm
Amazon link for financial stability:
Sections A and B
