Week 10

Personalisation consists of many things but the main ones are:

1. Name recognition
2. Check Box Personalisation
3. Preference Based personalisation
4. Segmentation and Rules

I am for personalisation, the reason because it definitely enhancing the users experience and searching.

Name recognition is one of the main features that I enjoy when visiting a website this can make a customer feel welcomed and that it seems as though attention is focused on them as individual customers or website users. Check box personalisation, this is a very user-friendly way to complete forms, it helps them company that is using the website to gather information and helps them by making sure the customers can complete the form efficiently and effectively. Segmentation divides customers and website users into groups accordingly, this can help a website develop a database of certain type of customers.

Personalisation simply means that the website alters its content in a way in which best matches the needs and/or characteristics of the end-user.  To personalise web pages, e-commerce businesses use techniques such as content-based filtering and collaborative filtering.

Content-based filtering recommends items to a customer based on previous transactions, whereas collaborative filtering uses profiling techniques based on customer groupings for example, customers of a particular group (Age, occupation etc) could be assumed to be interested in products of interest to others that are in the group.

The two best examples of web personalisation I can think of would be Amazon and eBay.

The main site that I primarily use is the amazon site and they use personalisation very well because they remember purchases that you have recently bought or searched for, it shows you products that others have bought along with this product and also other products that you might like that are similar.

Below is a screenshot a product i chose to buy and it recommended other products that i might like to buy with it. 

The other site i have chosen is eBay, which also has this features. I have an eBay account, and when i go to the homepage it has already generated a list of recent items that i have purchased.

Below is an image om my eBay account and recommendations.

To conclude I am pro personlisation. I feel that the features allows you to customize webpage’s to suit your individual likes. I regularly use Amazon and eBay, when I visit these sites they remember me and my login details. Many argue that they would prefer to surf anonymously and purchase items without being hassled with a list of recommendations.  A small portion of those who are interested in the recommendations would also complain that they don’t get accurate enough results. There are also a few other turn-offs for web personalisation such as security in some cases, but then again, nothings perfect.  Personalisation benefits millions of internet users every day by saving time and money, producing better, relevant information and making users feel at home when they visit a website.  This is the reason I am pro-personalisation, however it is just my opinion and others may be drawn to different conclusions.

Week 9

This week i have been asked to use different search engines to construct a list of key phrases that describe my chosen e-commerce site. I will then have to compile a list of twelve most popular keywords/phrases that would enable users to find the site more frequently.

I started of by using Google search-based keyword tool. I typed in my site, www.hollisterco.com and it brought up a list of the most popular results. Top of my list was in fact my main competitor, Abercrombie & Fitch, it had the top search with 5,400 monthly searches. Then Hollister Co. womans skinny pants and stretch pants.

Below is a screenshot of my search:

Next i used Google Insight to search for different keywords relating to my website, the tool generated a graph for me, that shows over a period of time. The 5 keywords i used were:

1. Hollister
2. So Cal
3. Laguna
4. T-Shirts
5. Pants

On my regional interest for Hollister Co, United States was the most popular with Canada coming second, i expected this as the brand is an American company.

Below is a screenshot of my search:

Finally i will use the Google Adwords Tool, i typed in my chosen e-commerce website, it gave me a list of  keywords and phrases. This website wasn’t very helpful as it returned a list of keywords from “Jc Penny”, this has no relevance to Hollister Co.

Below is the screenshot of my search:

 

 After using the three tools i found Google search-based keyword tool the most useful, as it returned some keywords that actually has relevance to my site. I found the other two sites not useful as it didn’t have much relevance or keywords about Hollister Co.

Having using Google search-based keyword tool as it was the only site to compile a list of keywords, the top 12 keywords were:

1. Skinny Pants
2. Stretch Pants
3. Super Skinny Jeans
4. Stretch Belts
5. Classic Jeans
6. Laguna Jeans
7. Skinny Legged Jeans
8. Jake Cologne
9. Ankle Jeans
10. Lightweight Scarves
11. Classic Skirts
12. Dark Skinny Jeans

If im being honest, these were the top 12 searches that i have retrieved, but i don’t think they have much relevance to Hollister Co. these are all specific pieces of clothing and if i was to search for them on Google, or any search engine, they could bring up a list of different websites. I didnt really find these sites to be much use. Some keywords, such as “Laguna” and “Jake Cologne” may return searches from Hollister Co. but “Skinny Jeans” and “Classic Skirts”  will return searches from many clothing websites.

Week 8

In this week’s assignment i am asked to assess the ease (or not) with which you can find the site using a search engine. I have decided  to do 3 different variations of searches on the most common search engine (google) to see if my website was returned. I decided on the 3 most common words that relate to my company:

1. Hollister Co.
2. So Cal
3. HCO

1. In the first task i went onto Google and searched for “Hollister Co.”. The image below shows the results from the search. As you can see from the image, the results were returned to the page in 0.25 seconds with 1,470,000 million returns. In the 1.5 million returns Hollister Co. was the very first return. In the return it shows you the website with a hyperlink, but it also gives you hyperlinks to specific pages of the site. This is a great option as it is quite useful for the user, just exactly what they want.

Results from the search

 2. In the second task i searched for “So Cal”, this is like a slogan Hollister Co. use. The image below shows the results from the search. As you can see from the image, the results were returned to the page in 0.30 seconds with 28,900,000 returns. Unfortunately in the 30 million returns Hollister Co. was not in the first page, so i briefly scanned through a couple of pages to see if it appear but it didn’t, it was just companies and websites relating to the words “So Cal”. However in the sponsored link page “republic.co.uk” is a clothing website although it is not a competitor it is however a clothing brand.

Results from the search

3.  In the final task, i searched for “HCO”, this is an abbreviation that Hollister Co. use. The image below shows the results from the search. As you can see from the image, the results were returned in 0.06 seconds with 1,300,000 returns. In the 1.3 million returns Hollister Co. was the very first return. In the return it gives a hyperlink to the Hollister Co. site and a brief description about Hollister Co. Like the first return it also has hyperlinks of various pages off the site, i think this is great for the user as it cuts out wasteful time.

Results from the search

In the 3 searches that i did i got the expected results, in search and 1 and 3 i expected to see my website Hollister Co. appear on the first screen, although for search 2 i didn’t because, “So Cal” doesnt really relate to Hollister Co. as such in a search engine, it’s just the slogan they use. On each of my searches i didnt come across any competitors either such as Abercrombie & Fitch. I was actually surprised by this as Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister would share the same target groups, so by searching for one i was expecting to see the other there aswell.

Week 7

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is where a business or person does not have to save their programs or data on one stored computer or hard drive and access it via that. They are able to access these from any computer or laptop with and active internet connection. They can use as much as much as the service as they want and it is fully managed by the provider, therefore maintainance is low for the user as the provider will assure this. The user usually pays to use the service either by the hour or by the minute.

Cloud computing opens a very large market for e-commerce initially many companies could make a lot of money if they become the main name in the industry for cloud computing by offering the service. Although after this it also opens up a large market for the sales of software to the cloud. It is a very attractive invention as it could decrease the cost of using software and get   a lot of people purchasing into the use of new software.

I can see a big impact on e-commerce business with cloud computing.  Cloud computing can relieve all the hassle of backing up data, no worries about software packages or hardware going out of date.  It will also take less maintenance to hardware, no office space requirements for servers etc.  This environment in the cloud gets rid of all this and it is very clear why there will be a great impact of the cloud on business’.  Some e-commerce business’ are already using the cloud technology with hosted shopping carts for payment of goods etc.  This service to the e-commerce company saves the time in maintenance and development, with one monthly fee.  A typical example of this could be paypal, most e-commerce sites have a paypal transation method on there site and paypal shopping carts.

Problems & Benefits of Cloud Computing

Problems of Cloud Computing:

• Cloud Computing puts data outside the company, which can be alerting to companies for security and privacy.
• The reliance of cloud computing can cause problems for growing e-commerce websites due to the growing demand.
• Data Protection laws could conflict with Cloud Computing depending on which country you live in.

Benefits of Cloud Computing:

• There is no capital expenditure, no need for servers, and there will be the joy of unlimited capacity, bandwidth and increased security.
• Administrators and users won’t have to worry about storage capactiy and backups.
• One of the biggest benefits of cloud computing is that small / medium sized business’  can aveal of the setup straight away without having to administer and implement it directly.
• There will be fewer maintenances issues to be dealt with internally.
• Less staff required as no technical staff needed to update the software.

Week 6

Supply Chain Management  is the management of a network of interconnected business involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by end customers. Supply Chain Management spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption.

In my opinion the strategy that Hollister Co. use is both the push and pull strategy. 

The “Push” strategy is the same for most retailing companies as this is a necessity to impress the customer. As e-commerce is slightly taking over the trend of buying in stores and getting ever more popular. Hollister Co. have a deliver charge just like most companies but for a slightly bit more you can purchase “Next Day Delivery”, this can benefit the customers and majority of customer are happy to pay an extra pound or two or this service and have their items the next day. A service like this can attract more customers and certainly impress and retain the customers that they have. The push strategy is used to optimize the production process for cost and efficiency.

In the Pull side of it, as Hollister Co. is in competition with a number of leading brands but a main competitor is Abercrombie & Fitch, to attract the customers away from Abercrombie & Fitch and want them to shop in Hollister CO. they need to look at the situation and ask themselves why do people want to shop here and not Abercrombie & Fitch? What they do is, provide the customer not only with the same service but with a better service, make prices more resnoable, give customers something back, such as discounted rates for spending so much money online, gift vouchers around peak holiday times such as Christmas, enter them into free draws etc. An example of this would be in store ordering, if a unavailable product or item, wasnt present in store they can order it in for the customer and get it delivered to their house, the benefits of this strategy is that it is fast, inexpensive and it is pleasing for the customer.

Hollister Co. uses the virtual integration approach with it having a “co.uk” site, this is virtual integration as it shows use of communications technology and flexibility and response related to delivery. Also Hollister Co. provides other functions to third parties for example using courier services such as Parcel Force or DPD and others to deliver the goods to customers. As for American, European and other countries across the world they use various courier services.

Hollister Co. also uses a value network. This supports supply chain business processes like inventory management, efficient placement and procurement. This also allows trading partners to share information and generate data based on fluctuations in consumer demand to help manage the inventory.

When an order is placed , it has to go through various places in the company’s supply chain which includes, advertising the product, selling the product and delivering the product.  This process does not take long from the customer’s side, but for the retailer it can be time-consuming setting u the operations for these procedures to take place, it can be difficult but it is ensuring customer satisfaction.

Week 5

The threat of substitute products:

The existence of products outside of the realm of the common product competitors which increases the propensity of customers to switch to alternatives

• buyer propensity to substitute
• relative price performance of substitutes
• buyer switching costs
• perceived level of product differentiation

In relation to Hollister Co. their main competitor would be Abercrombie & Fitch. In relation to having the advantage over Abercrombie & Fitch it would be the price of the merchandise. Although Abercrombie & Fitch are a bigger name, many people choose to opt for Hollister Co. and its clothing is the same but the price is a lot cheaper, the use of having Mid-Season, and Christmas sales every so often attracts people to be shopping at Hollister Co.

The threat of the entry of new competitors:

Profitable markets that yield high returns will draw firms. This results in many new entrants, which will effectively decrease profitability. Unless the entry of new firms can be blocked by incumbents, the profit rate will fall towards a competitive level (perfect competition).

• the existence of barriers to entry (patents, rights, etc.)
• economies of product differences
• brand equity
• switching costs or sunk costs
• capital requirements
• access to distribution
• absolute cost advantages
• learning curve advantages
• expected retaliation by incumbents
• government policies

In relation to Hollister Co. if a new company came about their would be a chance of  decrease profitability. Hollister Co. have a specific target market, there clothes are designed for “young, cool and neat” people. There competitors Abercrombie & Fitch are expensive and  Hollister Co. is a lot cheaper this gives them the edge, most of their customers wouldnt be buying for example, a so called expensive tee-shirt and then a cheap pair of jeans from Primark, they will be buying full outfits or equally buying high brand names, as a globally recognised company that are already out in the market, they would already have the edge over any new competitor because of their high profile status.

The intensity of competitive rivalry:

For most industries, this is the major determinant of the competitiveness of the industry. Sometimes rivals compete aggressively and sometimes rivals compete in non-price dimensions such as innovation, marketing, etc.

• number of competitors
• rate of industry growth
• intermittent industry overcapacity
• exit barriers
• diversity of competitors
• informational complexity and asymmetry
• fixed cost allocation per value added
• level of advertising expense
• Economies of scale
• Sustainable competitive advantage through improvisation

In relation to Hollister Co. and it competitor Abercrombie & Fitch, for example if Hollister Co. see an oppurtunity after christmas when most people don’t have money and  class=”hiddenGrammarError” pre=”and “>there income would be as much they may have a sale by reducing sale items by 25%, and Abercrombie & Fitch may respond by making their sale 30% off. The rivalry can be a good thing though, it can bring out the best in the company and exploit new strategies and techniques and have the edge over its customer.

The bargaining power of customers:

Also described as the market of outputs. The ability of customers to put the firm under pressure and it also affects the customer’s sensitivity to price changes.

• buyer concentration to firm concentration ratio
• degree of dependency upon existing channels of distribution
• bargaining leverage, particularly in industries with high fixed costs
• buyer volume
• buyer switching costs relative to firm switching costs
• buyer information availability
• ability to backward integrate
• availability of existing substitute products
• buyer price sensitivity
• differential advantage (uniqueness) of industry products
• RFM Analysis

As a retailing store there is no bargaining power of customers, a customer cant walk into the shop and buy 20 white tee shirts and ask for discount, there is only a discounted rate for staff. That is the reason of sales, when these items arent getting sold during a particular time, like after christmas, they’ll sell them on for a discounted rate.

The bargaining power of suppliers:

Also described as market of inputs. Suppliers of raw materials, components, labor, and services (such as expertise) to the firm can be a source of power over the firm. Suppliers may refuse to work with the firm, or e.g. charge excessively high prices for unique resources.

• supplier switching costs relative to firm switching costs
• degree of differentiation of inputs
• presence of substitute inputs
• supplier concentration to firm concentration ratio
• employee solidarity (e.g. labor unions)

Depending on the quality of the goods supplied by the supplier, they will determine the bargaining power, for example if a supplier is supplying higher quality goods than most other suppliers this can give them an incentive to ask for more money. The fact that companies such as Hollister Co. like to form a good relation with their suppliers as they can depend on them means to switch suppliers would be taken a great risk, this could result in profit lose and maybe even effect customer loyalty.

 

This is a Porters Five Image

Criticisms of the 5 Force model

Porter’s framework has been challenged by other academics and strategists such as Stewart Neill, also the likes of Kevin P. Coyne and Somu Subramaniam have stated that three dubious assumptions underlie the five forces:

• That buyers, competitors, and suppliers are unrelated and do not interact and collude.
• That the source of value is structural advantage (creating barriers to entry).
• That uncertainty is low, allowing participants in a market to plan for and respond to competitive behavior.

An important extension to Porter was found in the work of Brandenburger and Nalebuff in the mid-1990s. Using game theory, they added the concept of complementors (also called “the 6th force”), helping to explain the reasoning behind strategic alliances. The idea that complementors are the sixth force has often been credited to Andrew Grove, former CEO of Intel Corporation. According to most references, the sixth force is government or the public. Martyn Richard Jones, whilst consulting at Groupe Bull, developed an augmented 5 forces model in Scotland in 1993, it is based on Porter’s model, and includes Government (national and regional) as well as Pressure Groups as the notional 6th force. This model was the result of work carried out as part of Group Bull’s Knowledge Asset Management Organisation initiative.

It is also perhaps not feasible to evaluate the attractiveness of an industry independent of the resources a firm brings to that industry. It is thus argued that this theory be coupled with the Resource-Based View (RBV) in order for the firm to develop a much more sound strategy.

Week 4

Q7.

When you purchase merchandise from Hollister Co. using a credit card or debit card, we collect your name and transaction information related to your purchase ie. items purchased, the price you paid, the payment method you used, which may include your credit card or debit card number, and the time and location of purchase, which may be combined with your online purchase information.

When returning or exchanging merchandise at Hollister Co. they collect personal information such as your name, address and telephone number and transaction information related to your return or exchange.

For my competitor Abercrombie & Fitch

When you purchase goods from Abercrombie & Fitch its the same process as for Hollister Co. They refund any merchandise in resaleable condition with a copy of your original invoice. You have a couple of options. You can, visit any Abercrombie & Fitch store, or send it back to their address at Abercrombie & Fitch Returns Department. All returns will be credited back to the original payment type. Although if you return merchandise without a receipt or invoice, they will provide you with a merchandise credit for the last known value of the item.

Theres isn’t a difference from Hollister Co. and my competitor Abercrombie & Fitch, although they are competitive in business they are basically a similar company, the only difference being the price of the goods.

Q8.

Hollister Co. use the information collected for the following purposes:

• To understand your needs and preferences, and develop, market, sell or provide products and services, and possibly to conduct surveys, research and evaluations.
• To complete your transaction for the goods or process your return or exchange.
• To manage and develop Hollister Co.’s business and operations, administer accounts, collect and process payments.
• To detect and protect Hollister Co. and other third parties against error, negligence, fraud, theft and other illegal activities and to comply with policies.
• As permitted by, and to comply with, any legal or regulatory requirements or provisions.
• If you submit a resume online, they will use the information you provide solely for the purpose of evaluating you as a candidate for employment and to contact you about prospective employment.

By submitting personal information to Hollister Co. you are agreeing that they may collect, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with the purposes and uses identified in their policy or as required by law.

Hollister Co. limits the number of employees that have access to the databases that contain personal data, and Hollister Co. employees are advised of the importance of confidentiality. As an added safeguard, Hollister Co. does not store credit card information with your registered online profile. Hollister Co. has a written security policy.

Q9. 

Hollister Co. uses a browser feature known as a cookie, which assigns a unique identification to your computer. The cookies are typically stored on your computer’s hard drive. Information collected from cookies is used by Hollister Co. to evaluate the effectiveness of their Web site, analyze trends and administer the Web site. The information collected from cookies allows them to determine such things as which parts of their Web site are most visited and difficulties their visitors may experience in accessing their Web page. With this knowledge, they can improve the quality of your experience on their Web site by recognising and delivering more of the most desired features and information, as well as by resolving access difficulties. In addition, Hollister Co. would use cookies to help keep track of items you put into your shopping cart and to tell them whether you have visited Hollister Co. in the past. This allows visitors registered with the online store to maintain shopping carts between visits. They also use cookies and/or a technology known as web bugs or clear gifs, which are typically stored in e-mails to help them confirm your receipt of, and response to, their e-mails and to provide you with a more personalised experience.

Week 3

Q.4

The website that i have chosen is Hollister Co. as it is an American based company and owned by Abercrombie & Fitch, Abercrombie & Fitch would be its real main competitor, the only thing separating the two companies would be price, its other competitor would be American Eagle, another American company. I used a website called http://www.trafficestimate.com/to check to see how many visitors the site has had in the last month. Hollister Co. has had an estimated  1, 037, 400 visits in the previous month. Abercrombie & Fitch has had 130, 600 visits in the previous month although this is a website for users in the UK only the American site had generated an estimated 1,400,600 visits.

 

 Above is a graph that shows how much visit each of the sites has had over the past year. It is clear that Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister Co. have had around the same amount of visits, although American Eagle has clearly twice as many visits.

Q.5

The process in purchasing an item from Hollister Co. is as follows:

• The user needs a modem to gain Internet access.
• The user will need to download an Internet browser.
• Once connected to the internet, go to the address bar and type in www.hollisterco.com.
• When the page is loaded click on the hyperlink to view boys or girls.
• Browse through the site until you decide what you want.
• Click the item you like.
• The image will be enlarged and you will have the option to pick what size you want, select a size and click “Add to Bag”.
• In the top right hand corner it will say “My Bag”, click on that and it will display all the items you have put in your shopping cart.
• Proceed by then click “Checkout”
• You will go through a series off 3 steps, first filling in your billing information, secondly puting in your account details to pay for the items and thirdly checking that the details are correct and you then click “Buy”.
• Once this is done an automated message will be sent to the warehouse for dispatching.
• The items will then be delivered from an outside company such as Fed Ex or UPS to the local airport, where the items will be shipped via plane.
• When arrived a local courier service will collect them and they will be hand delivered to your door.

Q.6

With the huge Increase in the use of mobile devices such as mobile phones and laptops and other hand held devices that allow people to access the internet while they are on the move.

Mobile Commerce could be a way forward for the Hollister Co. People use mobile phones for every day use. If  Hollister Co. could invest on advertising and research into the new mobile commerce it could increase the number of people viewing and buying the product. It could introduce new users to the company. Setting up a Mobile Commerce means that customers can get reminders sent of up coming sales and promotions, can get adverts sent via text of new stock etc. Statistics show that there are three times as many mobile-phone subscribers as Internet users worldwide. This is a gap into the market to expand and promote Hollister Co. Early retail adopters are already finding ways to factor the mobile phone into multichannel service delivery. For the more basic mobile offering, retailers are using SMS to communicate promotions. 42% of retailers provide the ability to view product information on a mobile device through reformatted web pages or specific mobile pages, with a bit of develop research and enhancement into mobile internet usage i feel could be a another succesful income for the company.

Week 2

For this assignment I was asked to look at my chosen e –commerce website and gather specific information about the business.

The first part of the assignment was to have a look at my website, www.holliserco.com. This site is an e-commerce website selling and advertising the stock that they produce. The website has all the usual necessities that everywebsite has. On the homepage of the website you have the option to view Mens or Womans clothes. One aspect of the website is that it does a lot of advertising and showing pictures of “models” in there branded clothes.

 

Not only is Hollister an e-commerce sitebut it has over 1250 stores worldwide with a revenue of 1.5 billion in 2007 it has increased to 2.5 billion this year. The company has an avergae of around 5000 members of staff, recently a new store will be opening in belfast, the first in Ireland and should be creating around 40 jobs. The size of the company is huge as it is branded as a “teen retailer” and its recent global expansion of opening stores in the UK is on the up as it has plans to open 5 more stores later this year in the UK.

Hollister Co. is an American lifestyle brand by Abercrombie & Fitch. The concept is designed to attract consumers aged 14-24 through its SoCal-inspired image and casual wear. Goods are available in-store and through the company’s online store. Despite the age target, the appeal of the HCO brand is universal like its parent brand and was ranked as the second most preferred teen clothing brand in 2008. The first store was opened in July 2000 at the Easton Town Centre in Columbus, Ohio. The concept was formulated around a fictional background story created by Mike Jeffries to provide more of an atmosphere for the HCO shopper.The fictional story states Hollister was founded by J. M. Hollister in 1922 as a pacific merchant shop in Southern California.

Statistics of Internet Usage in the UK

In my research from January 2006 to June 2008 there have been a total of 2.5 million new users on the internet. That is nearly a 10% increase in people who used it in January 2006 until June 2008. 

In 2006 a total of 13.9 million people where connected to the Internet, that is an average of 57% of all people in the UK. However there is still 43% that doesn’t use the internet. These people could be either elderly people, people with no computer skills or people in a lower society that can’t afford the running costs.

This can be due to numerous reasons - 

• The development of computer technology
• How accessible the internet has became
• The development of cheap affordable broadband

The internet has become a crucial part of our lives, it is used mainly to run business activities, to socially interact with people, e-commerce and personal issues. The increase in internet popularity in the last few years is due to e-commerce and mostly the use of social networking sites such as Bebo, Facebook etc. also online gaming has brung a huge increase to internet usage with the likes of gamers using the XBOX, PS3 etc.

www.bebo.com

www.facebook.com

 

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/inta0806.pdf

Whilst doing my reaserach i found that 70% of households had internet access in the UK in 2009. This is approximately 18 million households and an increase of almost 4 million in 2006.