Business Leveraging Strategies Among Online Retailers

Introduction

The online retail industry has taken the internet with a storm. The success of the retail industry mainly depends on customer experience. This experience is taken to a new level through online shopping. Today, there is a myriad of virtual retailers who offer a wide range of categories. Even the traditional brick and mortar stores are making an effort to have an online presence. Recent statistics show that e-Commerce is the future. A study conducted in 2016, showed that customers used the web to acquire 51% of their purchases. Notably, this was up from 48% and 47% in 2015 and 2014 respectively (Patel, 2016).

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This paper focuses on the online retail industry because it perfectly applies the Business to Customer (B2C) model. The websites chosen for analysis are Amazon.com, eBay, Noon.com, and Fingerhut.com. Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world and offers a wide range of products and accessories. The company is responsible for 43% of all online sales (Weller, 2017). eBay is also a popular online retailer but differs from Amazon in that it offers a platform for online users to sell used items. Noon is among the latest entrant in the exciting Middle East market which is projected to offer a value of $10 billion in 2018 (Sun, 2017). The leveraging strategies employed by Noon with an aim to attract the Arab market are an interesting case study because most people in the Middle East prefer physical shopping (Detrick, 2017). Fingerhut was chosen for this analysis because it narrowly focuses on electronic goods.

Context

Context is premised on two factors, functionality and aesthetics. Functionality mainly hinges on ease of navigation and stability of the website. Aesthetics includes the colours and visual aids used to create an attractive website. The four chosen websites scored well on functionality. They contained visible category tabs and the search tool. The speed of loading web pages was also fast for all the websites. The key difference in functionality was eBay's category menu. It was not located at the top left side of the webpage like in Amazon, Noon, and Fingerhut websites. It was instead located towards the bottom of the webpage.

Regarding aesthetics, Amazon and Noon websites used the most appealing colour schemes. The eBay website invested in using a variety of colours for the company name. Fingerhut opted for a conservative light blue theme. Its product categories were also represented by icons rather than real images as in other websites. In a nutshell, the verdict is that Amazon, eBay, and Noon websites balance both aesthetics and functionality while Fingerhut is functionally dominant.

Content

Amazon, Noon, and eBay heavily rely on a cognitive driven appeal mix. Both Amazon and Noon use the home pages effectively to demonstrate good discounts for popular products. eBay's home page refers to affordability using a captivating image just below the search bar. Fingerhut's website is not successful in illustrating good prices. Instead, it focuses on displaying its product range via categories. All websites do the same but in a different way. Both Noon and Amazon prioritize a display of popularly sold items in their home pages. eBay and Fingerhut, on the other hand, prefer to display a summary of all categories. Noon has also used time-sensitive context to create leverage such as the "mum in a million" promotion.

Community

Online retail websites aim to create a personalized experience for the users. Customers will thus feel a stronger connection with the business itself rather than with other customers. In websites like Amazon and Noon, for example, the closest one can get to a communal interaction is through product reviews and ratings. The verdict, therefore, is that all websites have limited interactions.

Customization

The four retailers have allowed some extent of customization by offering prospective customers an option to sign up. Customers who have signed up get access to some personalization tools such as wish lists offered by websites like Amazon and Noon. Amazon has also gone a step further by using the users' browsing histories to display relevant products for them. The other three websites have not adopted this strategy. The Noon website has made an effort by prioritizing on displaying products that are popular in the Middle East market such as fragrances.

Communication

There are three main channels of communication between the online retailers and the customers. First, is the updated live feed in the home pages. The feed communicates information about new products, featured products, and popular products. This type of communication is evidenced in Fingerhut, Amazon, and Noon websites. The second is the use of product reviews where customers give their views. The final one is the use of customized email alerts for users who have signed up for the websites. One-way communication is the major channel used.

Connection

All the websites use a destination site type of connection. Most of the content in the websites are developed by the retailers. There are rare links to third-party websites unless it is to their won social media pages.

Commerce

All the four websites analyzed have medium to high commercial capability. They have standardized user registration platforms, various payment options, and delivery choices. Of the seven consumer-targeted elements discussed, context, content, and customization are among the most important aspects to consider for building a successful online retail business.

Recommendations

According to the analysis, Fingerhut has the weakest website because it is low in context, content, and customization. The company should focus on moving from a dominant functionality context to an integrated context. They can use better graphics and live images to attract customers without sacrificing the function. Regarding content, the company should be active in prioritizing trendy products on its homepage. It should also make use of better display of price discounts. Finally, the company should emulate Amazon in trying to customize the products displayed to the users as much as possible.

References

Detrick, H. (2017, October 2). This Middle-Eastern e-Retailer Is Taking on Amazon. Retrieved from Fortune Website: https://www.fortune.com/2017/10/02

Patel, S. (2016). 7 Successful E-Commerce Companies That Made It Big With Content Marketing. Retrieved from Inc. Website: https://www.inc.com/sujan-patel/

Sun, M. (2017, March 28). Amazon just bought the Middle East's biggest online retailer. Retrieved from The Christian Science Monitor Website: https://www.csmonitor.com

Weller, C. (2017, September 8). Amazon Makes Up 43 Percent of All Online Sales. Retrieved from Inc. Website: https://www.inc.com/business-insider/