The Web Sites And Apps

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

An Analysis of the Web Sites and Apps

Todays competitive global business environment demands companies to be more flexible in order to adjust according to changing market conditions. Companies are hence trying to make full use of technology in this regard (Watkins, 1998). The internet has paved the way to introduce and implement the new business models in several industries (Yousept and Li, 2004). Aydin & Kahraman (2007) say that internet has facilitated a convenient and effective channel for the distribution of information and services. Internet has enabled the growth and innovative use of electronic commerce. With E-commerce internet and Web are used to make business transactions (Laudon and Traver, 2010). E-commerce is described as channel for buying and selling of products and services over the internet (Aydin and Kahraman, 2007).

Supermarkets and retail stores are also focusing on new business models and strategies with the growth of online home shopping services. Companies with physical stores are now turning to complementary online stores (Laudon and Traver, 2010) in order to facilitate the customers and stay competitive. Examples include Tesco, Sainsbury, Ocado, Asda, Morrisons to name a few. These supermarkets have websites and apps that facilitate the online buying and selling of products. Other than customers, companies are also able to achieve several benefits from their online services i.e. large savings due to elimination of middlemen and paperwork (Broadwater and Taylor, 2006), better prices, large selection, convenience and time saving (Hays, Keskinocak and Lopez, 2004).

According to perception of consumers, differences exist among the level of online services provided by these supermarkets. These online services provided either through web site or application offer different features, as developed by the company. Though the basic purpose is to enable the online buying of products, companies offer several other benefits in order to gain an advantage over the other companies.

Objectives:

This report undertakes the evaluation of online ordering services provided by the supermarkets in UK. For this purpose, the report aims to:

Specify an evaluation criteria of the online ordering websites

Analyze the current situation of online ordering websites of famous supermarkets i.e. Tesco, Sainsbury, Ocado, and Asda

Evaluation of the Online Ordering Website

In order to evaluate the online ordering websites of supermarkets in UK, it is important to establish an evaluation criterion. Several research studies present the basic factors required for the evaluation of e-commerce website. For example Yousept & Li, (2004) present a method which includes survey and has set of different questions related to the evaluation of the e-commerce website. A set of these questions have been presented in Appendix (A). These survey responses are then measured through appropriate qualitative assessment tools.

The criterion used for the evaluation of the e-commerce services provided by the online supermarkets is based on the evaluation tool known as Extended Web Assessment Method (EWAM). This evaluation tool has been specifically created for the assessment of e-commerce applications (Schubert, 2002).

The Extended Web Assessment Method (EWAM) builds on the original Web Assessment Method and integrates findings from the Technology Acceptance Model and several alternative approaches. In this method, a website is first assigned to a particular category. As the evaluation method applies to several categories of e-commerce websites (i.e. e-banking etc.) it is important to define a particular category for the website. Among the individual categories, specific criteria are set based on the information for that category. Then the level of importance is assigned to each criterion. The importance per criterion is recorded on a scale from "unimportant" (-2) through "less important" (-1), "important" (+1) to "very important" (+2).

According to Schubert (2002) a successful e-commerce application must meet the needs of the user according to the "Perceived Usefulness" (mentioned as Criteria USEF1-USEF15) and "Ease of Use" (mentioned as Criteria EOU1-EOU8), considered from the TAM (Technology Acceptance Model). The factor "Trust" has been included (mentioned as Criteria TRUST1-TRUST2) about the "subjective norm" (taken from the Theory of Reasoned Action). These three criteria categories are allotted to four transaction phases of electronic markets (the information, agreement, settlement and after-sales phase).

The set of criteria requires the assessors to answer few questions based on the importance and category, as described above. The sample set of criteria are presented in the Appendix (B). EWAM tool collects the summary of individual criteria and measure the results in these categories: Information Phase, Agreement Phase, Settlement Phase, After-Sales Phase, Community Components, Final Selection and then calculates the total score.

It is important to consider that EWAM incorporates the criterion used in the TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) and Theory of Reasoned Action. TAM of Davis (1989) as cited in (Cao, Zhang and Seydel, 2005) predicts that the user acceptance of any system depends upon the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. According to Pavlou (2001) the factor of "Trust" is defined as the subjective probability that customers believe that the current technological infrastructure and control mechanism of the company can support and secure the transactions (Cao, Zhang and Seydel, 2005).

Methodology

The criteria for the evaluation of the online supermarkets in UK have been set based on the methods discussed above. Following the criteria assessment will be done on the basis of the primary research (personal experience of usage of web site and application) and secondary research (customer’s reviews and comments about these web sites and applications).

Using EWAM a set of different questions from each phase (information, agreement, settlement, after-sales, community component and final selection) have been picked and analyzed through personal experience. Similarly customer reviews and comments from different web sites and discussion forums have been taken into account. These set of questions also include the components of the survey adopted by the Yousept & Li (2004) presented in the Appendix (A).

Components of Criteria Set:

Following questions have been evaluated on the basis of their importance as mentioned in the EWAM method.

Web page and specific offer are easily found

Good structure of content

Reasonable information quantity

Transparent and interactive design of ordering process

Fair and individual prices

Easy selection and good integration of generic services

Good Tracing and Tracking

Appropriate customer support

Good quality and quantity of relationships in community

Purchasing power

Good user interface

Secure, reliable and supportive

Objects under Study:

Web sites and apps of following companies were considered during the experiment.

Tesco (http://www.tesco.com/)

Asda (http://direct.asda.com/)

Ocado (http://www.ocado.com/webshop/startWebshop.do)

Sainsbury (http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/index.jsp)

Their mobile phone applications were installed through "Google Play" to use on android. Customers’ reviews of these web sites were also available on internet. These reviews have been studied and assessment has been done as per the criteria set.

Analysis of Online Ordering Web Sites:

The criteria established for the evaluation has been used on a scale of four categories: Very important (++), important (+), less important (-) and unimportant (--). Web sites of four companies Tesco, Asda, Ocado and Sainsbury were reviewed. These web sites were evaluated on the basis of personal analysis and customers’ analysis (with the help of comments and reviews). The details are as under:

Personal Review:

Component

TESCO

ASDA

OCADO

SAINSBURY

N/A

Web page and specific offer are easily found

++

--

+

++

Good structure of content

++

+

+

+

Reasonable information quantity

+

-

++

-

Transparent and interactive design of ordering process

++

+

++

-

Fair and individual prices

+

++

+

+

Easy selection and good integration of generic services

+

++

++

+

Good Tracing and Tracking

--

+

+

+

Appropriate customer support

-

++

--

+

Good quality and quantity of relationships in community

+

--

+

++

Purchasing power

+

++

+

+

Good user interface

+

+

++

+

Secure, reliable and supportive

+

+

+

++

RESULTS

10

8

13

11

Additional Comments:

TESCO: Tesco website is very slow in operation. It seems that it is heavy and loaded with extra information and graphics. User interface is good and the ordering process is very flexible.

ASDA: Fast, simple and interactive website. Customer support system is good.

OCADO: Appropriate quantity of information is available in the form of quick view, which is very interactive and easy to use.

SAINSBURY: Easy to use website. But information related to products is not appropriate.

Customers’ Reviews:

The data for the customers’ reviews have been obtained from different websites. The detail of these websites has been given in the Appendix (C) of this report. Based on the comments, the Criteria Table has been filled, as below:

Component

TESCO

ASDA

OCADO

SAINSBURY

N/A

Web page and specific offer are easily found

+

+

++

+

Good structure of content

-

++

++

-

Reasonable information quantity

+

-

+

-

Transparent and interactive design of ordering process

+

++

+

+

Fair and individual prices

++

+

+

-

Easy selection and good integration of generic services

++

+

+

++

Good Tracing and Tracking

+

+

--

+

Appropriate customer support

-

+

+

++

Good quality and quantity of relationships in community

++

+

+

+

Purchasing power

+

+

+

+

Good user interface

++

+

++

+

Secure, reliable and supportive

+

++

+

++

RESULTS

12

13

12

9

Reviews for Apps

Mobile phone apps of these web sites were also reviewed. For the evaluation comments and reviews were incorporated from different websites about these apps. The components of the criteria set were changed according to the requirements of the mobile phone. Generally, apps have less user-friendly interface.

Conclusion

Based on the results from the primary and secondary data sources, following are the findings of the analysis:

Changing market conditions and globally competitive environment have to be kept in focus and companies need to adopt appropriate strategies accordingly.

It has become important for companies to have user friendly web sites and apps in order to cater to a larger market and retain increased number of customers.

Customers are more concerned about the reliable information, fair prices and discounts and excellent service and customer support.

Few customers have shown their interest in the payments and check out processes. These processes shouldn’t be lengthy and tiresome.

According to the primary data, few companies have loaded their web sites with information about products.

Based on personal reviews, the web site of "Ocado" is most appropriate according to the criteria set.

Based on the reviews from customers available on different web sites, the web site of "Asda" is considered as most appropriate.

With the continuous innovation and improvement companies are able to provide customized products to increased number of customers. At the same time, customers are taking benefit of the competitive market environment. The effort to provide best possible services to customers enables a company to survive in the stiff competition. At the same times, that company gains an edge over its competitors and can reap the benefits i.e. maximum market share, maximum market growth rate, and increased profits.

In the current business environment the companies with maximum number of customers and market share will have a competitive edge over others. For this companies are striving to provide the best retailing services and ease the process of shopping.

Competitive advantages that companies obtain from online ordering services include:

Increased market share: more and more customers find it easy to purchase online. A user friendly web site and app will attract more people.

Companies can obtain the "economies of scale" advantage. By this way companies are able to offer discounted prices on products with attractive promotion schemes.

Customer Database: One of the best advantages that supermarkets can obtain from online ordering services is to maintain a customer database. This database keeps the track of customers’ purchases, their choices and shopping trends. Companies using market intelligence can utilize this data in several ways in order to provide best services to their customers.

Works Cited

Aydin, S. and Kahraman, C. (2007) 'Evaluation of E-commerce Website Quality Using Fuzzy Multi-criteria Decision Making Approach', IAENG International Journal of Computer Science, 1(39)

Broadwater, J. and Taylor, J. (2006) Be Big Online: Understanding Successful Small Business Web Sites, Lulu Press.

Cao, M., Zhang, Q. and Seydel, J. (2005) 'B2C E-Commerce Web Site Quality: An Empirical Examination', Industrial Management and Data Systems, vol. 105(5), pp. 645-659.

Hays, T., Keskinocak, P. and Lopez, V.M.d. (2004) Strategies and Challenges of Internet Grocery Retailing Logistics, Kluwer Academic Publishers. [Online] [Accessed on 2nd August 2012] Available from: http://www2.isye.gatech.edu/~pinar/egrocer.pdf

Laudon, C.K. and Traver, C.G. (2010) E-Commerce: Business, Technology & Society, 4th edition, Prentice Hall.

Porter, M.E. (1998) Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, New York: Simon and Schuster.

Schubert, P. (2002) 'Extended Web Assessment Method (EWAM)- Evaluation of Electronic Commerce Application from the Customer's View Point', International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 7(9)

Schubert, P. and Dettling, W. (2002) Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences: Extended Web Assessment Method (EWAM) - Evaluation of E-Commerce Applications From the Customer's Viewpoint. Vol. 1 Hawaii

Watkins, J. (1998) Information Technology, Organizations and People, Routledge.

Yousept, I. and Li, F. (2004) 17th Bled eCommerce Conference: Online Supermarkets: Emerging Strategies and Business Models in the UK. Vol.1, Bled