Interactive and Digital Marketing
Website designers of e-commerce presently experience numerous challenges in trying to build a website with user familiarity to encourage visitors to conduct increased online purchases. To combat fierce online rivalry and overcome the anxiety of cynical shoppers, the website should consider a number of steps to advance usages in relation to online visits, purchases, and supplies. Thus, a websites’ achievement is directly related to the effect of a strong user shopping practice (Dennis, Wixom, and Roberta 35). This dissertation will therefore explore websites based on a number of features. It will focus on two websites Amazon and Argos retrieved from the Amazon website transaction interface and the Argos website’s experience respectively. As a result, the discussion either will be genuine or essentially gives a model commendable of mimicry by e-commerce designers today.
1 (a). Describe each retailer’s website.
The Amazon website purchasing vocation entails goods vended customarily among online traders. The goods are more than often purchased as low-cost merchants. Amazon has in the past claimed to be the world’s biggest selection of goods offered through its associate websites, and sold at the cheapest cost at a lesser profit.
Argos website on the other hand is a website developed with the main goal being to promote the company located in the United Kingdom. The website was developed to sell various goods produced in the company and offered to clients located in various regions. Thus, the Argos website was developed to benefit people who cannot manage to spare time for their busy official and domestic duties in the office and homes to shop among company stores. The Argos website, therefore, makes it easy for clients to purchase goods online.
(b). What information is available on each site?
The Amazon website corporation began as an online bookseller, speedily expanding into the sale of music and movies. It also began online trading activities of electronic gadgets and household properties. Amazon’s website services cannot simply be regarded as an individual line of business since it is profoundly mixed with both its trade business and the Kindle environment. From a purchaser’s viewpoint, Amazon has inaugurated the provision of services such as Amazon Prime that offers free two-day shipment on retail buying, on-request video streaming, and unrestricted admittance to the Kindle lending library. All these are charged an annual fee as Amazon Prime overlaps the contribution and all one can retrieve from business systems with the retail system to offer an extra customer value. Conversely, Argos.co.uk located in British provides information in relation to goods offered among the other seven hundred stores owned by the company. It provides goods such as watches, electronic gadgets, and jewelry. Thus, the two websites provide information in relation to similar goods. However, their pricing strategies and delivery to clients differ.
(c). How easy was each to navigate?
A critical factor facilitating the success of an online store is the simplicity with which customers can traverse sections and panels. Basic store groupings, customer pages, shopping cart folios, purchase pages and so much more should all be accessible at almost any given place within the shopping experience. Both the Amazon and Argos.co.uk websites provide an online purchasing experience that commences on the home page. With regards to the Amazon website, the home page alerts the buyer through a two-fold determination of the website. The first fold includes scanning the home page to find something that stands out. Amongst the everlastingly cluttered design, discrete features instantaneously attract the buyer’s attention since the navigation section is situated in the upper-left part of the homepage. Additionally, the shopping cart panels near the top part of the website including the product search and online shopping panels are also easy to navigate. Amazon’s groups of website designers and architects have ensured that the company website is conspicuous and functional.
Conversely, the Argos website seeks to accomplish its purpose very well. This is based on the features visible through the website’s main page. There are several offers shown on the main page. They are strategically designed on the website’s main home page to entice potential buyers to make online purchases for the company to earn revenues and profits. The Argos website has a major bar at the top pane which exhibits the central classifications of the goods counting kitchenette and laundry, home and equipment, plot & DIY, and among others. The color of the bar resembles that of the captions on the pane on the right-hand side, which displays other offers clients will easily identify, notice and get interested to make deliberate purchases while doing their online shopping. The outlook, therefore, makes the website appear more specialized since a standard color system is used all over the site.
Website designers, customers, project executives, and inventors involved in constructing e-commerce websites and databases can adopt this illustration by evidently highlighting product searches and online purchasing panels. This should be done as an initial plan to attract both first-time clients and habitual customers’ understanding. The moment customers are able to recognize the company website and the products they can search and purchase online buying panel easily increases their desire to take advantage of those features right away. This step however begins with understanding the search panel (Pires, Stanton, and Paulo 9).
(d). What information did you find interesting and useful on each site?
Amazon has integrated online computer files with customer information. This ensures a customer is persistently reviewing the computer system. A customer’s buying history is followed and archived on the server-side. This is a worthy improvement since it animatedly modifies the customer’s experience on the basis of prior searches, webpage outlooks, wish-list embellishments, transcribed appraisals, and, eventually, buying. Online books are one of the utmost and recurrently bought products on Amazon. As a result, the Amazon growth team has implemented the feature normally called the look inside. This feature allows customers to view particular sections of the online books, typically the front cover panel, table of contents, leading pages, index page, and back cover. This can be very helpful since customers will be enabled to tell a suitable book by simply having a look at the table of contents or introduction. Moreover, the feature returns outcomes from any page within the same book. However, it informs the customer if the page is unavailable for preview. Alternatively, the search engine is instinctual enough to contain the plural forms of singular words, which is the best exercise.
Even though this feature is a little eccentric, it is still a respectable alternative to have when exploring a book for research purposes. E-commerce designers today may not have the financial plan or technical properties to embrace such an option on their websites. However, they can ensure throughout the concept phase that goods are given as much publicity as conceivable on an online platform. Conversely, Argo’s website included voiced adverts. The adverts were voiced by all family members including father, mother, son, and daughter. This was really unique as it sought to connect with clients in a more intimate and familial manner.
(e). What did you find that you didn’t expect to find at a retailer site?
One illustration of personalized content is observed on the Amazon website home page. It adjusts the subject matter based on the manner in which the user has networked with the product search pane feature. As Amazon carries out business transactions, a respectable e-commerce website is enabled to trace customer-side comportment from the server-side. This ensures that succeeding visits from customers are progressively tailored to their likes and routines. This upsurges the tendency that the customer would buy, and in particular situations accelerate the purchasing process. More importantly, it provides the customer with a broader range of goods and services that link together into their expanses of interest. The Amazon buying practice is mixed with tokens of reminders that explain why the customer should buy goods from Amazon rather than other sources. Conversely, the Argos website provides information in relation to pricing strategies. The website offers clients visiting the website an opportunity to compare commodity prices against another website.
(f). What did you find lacking at each site?
This examination and analysis were mainly related to Argo’s website. It reflects the first-hand involvement with Argos and the manner in which they have executed their multichannel familiarity (Ranchhod, Ashok & Marandi 95). The goods a client opts to purchase from the website such as two ink cartridges for a printer include clearly written information. However, the clear layout and structure of the Argos website did not assist in finding suitable cartridges for my printer based on the existing product explanations. After examining the printer one is in possession of, the website offered a cross-selling alternative with the appropriate cartridges designed for the printer. These cartridges are the same formerly browsed although the product description was still absent from the type of the printer. Thus, the website failed to provide upgraded information in relation to cartridges.
- (a) What differences are there for sites that have traditional bricks-and-mortar shops from those that do not?
Particular internet-enabled e-commerce models have been developed amidst imperative deals with the incorporation of Internet networks. More so, they have been developed in relation to customary retail means usually referred to as the clicks-and-mortar trade model. Certainly, vendors ranging from division to department stores and low-end to high-end departments have propelled Internet transactions sites alongside their pre-standing retail passages. A number of people have been involved in online shopping as opposed to brick-and-mortar shopping discussions. The subject might erupt while queuing in a line at the mall, or while taking several hours searching online for a rare commodity. Both brick and mortar stores, together with online traders have particular pros and cons that are diverse based upon the kinds of goods offered and the particular needs of the distinct buyer.
Most brick-and-mortar stores have their profits, and particular product groups are more suited to customary retail settings. A key advantage is the clearest one is the ability to touch and see commodities individually. Online stores can also offer the consumer portraits and videos, but essentially clinging to the good can offer some tactile impresses that merely cannot be complimented online. Reflecting the online shopping for a watch, the weight of the quantity and evenness of the metal notify the customer of its worth.
(b). Does the site encourage consumers to visit the physical shop or just to remain an online shopper?
The general benefits of online buying do not indicate the termination of all brick and mortar stores, but they emphasize how convenient online buying can be. Some service-oriented businesses or those offering complex products will still thrive in a brick and mortar world, as will companies that employ staff members who can offer additional value to the purchasing experience. One major encounter for trade bosses relocating their businesses for a digital atmosphere is the cultural change needed.
Customary brick-and-mortar transactions can be very costly. This means doing the legwork for surveys, interviews, etc. within the area. This is especially true during the first year of the business. In a nutshell, there is a sense of trust and reliability that comes with having your own brick-and-mortar store. Many customers still feel safer buying from a store. There are shady websites everywhere, so having your own physical store adds a touch of professionalism. Many customers still want to see, feel, and touch the product physically before purchasing anything (Ozuem, Wilson, Howell, and Geoff 17).
- How do the retailers communicate the image or personality of their shops? How are they alike? How are they different? If you had no information except that available on the web, would know what types of products are sold, whether the products sold are expensive, prestige products or low-priced products; and what types of consumers each retailer is attempting to attract to its shops? How do they communicate the type of consumer they consider primary market?
Online shopping is comparable to any additional website explored online activity like banking, bill recompense, or even communications in that it is suitable for the customer. The managing director of Andy Street once mentioned that work and responsibilities undertaken by a retailer assume all people are on board for the division store assembly’s multichannel shift. More so, it can be a barrier to communicating profits and explanations for the transformation. The fast growth and transformation of information technologies have offered a new methodology for retailers to have access to the end market. As significantly more consumers have increased Internet admittance and realized both suitable and secure to buy goods online, e-commerce has turned out to be attractive to more companies. Individuals place a premium on their existing time, and online shopping permits them to run shopping while at jobs or in the course of the evening when physical stores are not characteristically open. Since they are not controlled by four fortifications, online stores can give a closely unlimited variety of goods. This substantial amount of choice offers buyers the capability to realize any commodity and conduct fast price evaluations. The indigenous store simply cannot contend with the range of products obtainable around the world, so smart brick and mortar stores emphasize eminence and accumulation of value to the experience of the transaction.
Customers are predisposed to seemingly twin-professed welfares namely distal and proximal dealings. This occurs as they implement virtual storefront closeness and online transactions settings. Offering buyers an enduring avenue to reach product specifications as desired at any particular time means allowing customers to work out their determination completely, even in the most stubborn of communications. The peculiarity of such communications relies on the time suppleness of online materials. Exploration participants have also shown that in their online use of purchases, they have less regulation compared to their offline mall’s operation. Relating the perception of empowerment to outside clienteles is also a demanding responsibility. Perhaps, customer empowerment concerns the increasing clienteles’ value by offering additional access, contented, edification and commerce to any place the customer is situated globally.
Most computer-based marketing settings offer organizations a methodology that can be used to supply the content in a number of ways to customers. This capability emphasizes on distinctions between information in advertising communication and automobile used to supply the information. This refers to content differing from ordinary known communication. The speed of transition prompted by new technologies has had a noteworthy effect on the way firms and customers relate to each other. Contemporary and emerging technologies challenge the customary process of transactions and the way communications between consumers and companies are managed. The arrival of the internet has had a major impact in the manner in which coordination between firms and customers is done and maintained in the evolving marketing panorama. Many of these changes have been characterized and explicated in unconnected links with marketing communication processes, which influenced consumer comportment in the evolving collaborating marketplace. Control refers to the ability of users in computer-mediated marketing environments to access the content at will, modify content to pertain to needs, and communicate with companies or their agencies concerning these needs.
- What recommendations would you make to each retailer to improve its website?
Computer facilitated marketing settings have permanent human wants and needs that offset traditional marketing communications and dealings. Website activities conducted online have turned out to be ordinary among cyber clienteles. The promising medium, with its boundless sequence of availability, is unraveling customer control of marketing settings. In line with the indications from the online clients, the contours of marketing are offering more regulation to customers. This promotes greater liberty to customers than the traditional methodology of marketing concepts. Sales communication is necessitating reinvention with regard to its key perceptions, practices, and prevailing measures to ensure their suitability for the developing worldwide communicating marketspace. This has remained a major challenge for both doctrinaires and communications specialists. Thus, Amazon and Argos websites have room for improvement.
To improve the Amazon website, the amount of time taken to load information after clicking the search button is a bit long. Thus, the website should ensure the amount of time taken is less than three seconds. Alternatively, it should have settings allowing consumers to set their online accounts including their tastes and preferences. This can reduce the amount of time a client takes in searching for goods and services aligned to their tastes and preferences. Conversely, the Argos website should provide enough details in relation to descriptions and pictures of goods purchased through the website. Argos Company manufactures most of the goods offered through the online e-commerce platform. The products should include all the details clients would need to know including materials utilized to manufacture. This can save consumers’ timely resources researching on manufacturers’ manufacturing procedures as reassurance that they are purchasing safe and healthy goods.
Works Cited
Dennis, Alan, Wixom H. Barbara, and Roberta M. Roth. Systems analysis and design. Hoboken: Wiley, 2009. Print
Ozuem, Wilson, Howell, Kerry, and Lancaster, Geoff. “Communicating in the new interactive marketplace”. Web. 2 March 2014. < www.emeraldinsight.com/0309-0566.htm>
Pires, Guilherme, Stanton, John, and Rita Paulo. “The internet, consumer empowerment and marketing strategies.” Web. 2 March 2014 <www.emeraldinsight.com/0309-0566.htm>
Ranchhod, Ashok, and Ebi Marandi. Strategic Marketing in Practice. London: Routledge, 2005. Print.
The Amazon website: Web. 2 March 2014. <http://www.amazon.com/>
The Argos website. Web. 2 March 2014. <http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Home.htm?sRefURL=https%3A//www.google.com/>