Analyzing the Success and Failures of Ensogo: A Study on E-Commerce Strategy

Running head: LEADING E-STRATEGY
LEADING E-STRATEGY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADING E-STRATEGY
Executive Summary
The aim of this report will be to analyse the success and failures of Ensogo, an Australian
based social e-commerce website. There will be a brief company history and the reasons of
the failure of the company in the market of Malaysia. A detailed study will focus on the
failures and there will be remedial strategies and their implementations, which will help the
company to regain the lost place in Malaysia.

2LEADING E-STRATEGY
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Company Description.................................................................................................................5
Business Model..........................................................................................................................6
Factors Responsible for the Closure of Ensogo.........................................................................6
The Significance of Discounted Deals...................................................................................7
The Decision of Business Model Pivot..................................................................................8
The Hasty Layout of Employees............................................................................................8
It held on to daily deals and flash sales for too long..............................................................9
Holding the marketplace lately............................................................................................10
Failure of not stemming the losses.......................................................................................10
Disappointed Merchants.......................................................................................................10
Remedial Strategies..................................................................................................................11
Increase E-Commerce Search Usability...............................................................................11
Personalizing the Home Page...............................................................................................11
Focus on Consistent and Unique Content............................................................................11
Obtaining New Strategies....................................................................................................11
Improving Social Media Strategy........................................................................................12
Generic Selling Strategy......................................................................................................12
Build Advertising Strategies................................................................................................12
Proper Allocation of Budget................................................................................................12
Proper Usage of the Resources............................................................................................12

3LEADING E-STRATEGY
After Sales Service...............................................................................................................12
Proper Payments...................................................................................................................13
Change in Business Model...................................................................................................13
Implementation towards Success.............................................................................................13
Conclusion................................................................................................................................14

4LEADING E-STRATEGY
Introduction
Digital Innovation is the application or use of new and modern technologies to the
existing business practices or those who are facing problems. It, nowadays, is at the heart of
almost each and every organization. They are transforming the business landscape at a rapid
speed. It helps the internal operations of an organization better, faster and cheaper, helps to
find new ways and ideas to engage the users, and bring new products and services in the
market to have an edge over its competitors. It is a hard task and changes the market
conditions, and there is a need for a faster path to transform those innovative new ideas into
winning applications. Coming to e-strategy, an essential to almost every organization who are
performing business over the internet. It describes both short-term as well as long-term e-
business goals, which includes skilled and accurate planning. E-business strategy is a part of
the corporate strategy and business plan, and also interconnects the other plans including the
marketing, organizational and IT strategic plans (Lydenberg, 2015).
The digital transformation of industries symbolizes a huge opportunity to build value
for both the industry and the society. Rapid advances in digital technology are redefining the
world totally. Digital transformation helps an industry with exceptional opportunities or value
creation. In an e-strategy, first-mover advantage helps to occupy the market share and gains a
competitive advantage through control of resources. It helps in strong brand recognition and
impression and product or service loyalty before other entrants. The first-movers gain an
advantage when there is a high converting cost for customers to switch to late-movers. But,
the disadvantages are the involvement of huge cost and having almost no time to avoid
mistakes occurred. Whereas, the late-movers has the advantage of avoid the mistakes made
by the first-movers. They do not have to spend too much to educate the customers about the
brand (Bohari, Hin & Fuad, 2017). They can take the advantage of tapping the untapped

5LEADING E-STRATEGY
customers of the first-movers and can identify the areas of improvement to take the
advantage. But, the disadvantages of late-movers are the insecurity of market share and
establishing their brands as getting entry in the market lately. They also may not be able to
control the resources, like failing to attract as many as eyeballs from the targeted market or
failing to hire talented employees (Goh, 2013).
Company Description
Ensogo, an Australian social e-commerce webpage company, provides its members
everyday deals on restaurants, accommodation in hotels, spa services, beauty treatments,
activities and retail goods. The word ‘ENSOGO’ is taken from the words Entertain, Social
and Go. The company started its journey in 2009 in Thailand, and soon expanded the
business and operations in Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong under
different names and identities. It mainly offers discounted deals on lifestyle and
entertainment services on a daily basis around Philippines and South East Asia. Customers
can avail their discounted services after creating an account at Ensogo and being a member.
Members can also have the access to gain credits by suggesting it to friends or relatives who
is eligible to buy the first deal, and the earned credits from referrals can be used later for
purchasing products as well as services according to their desire from the website (Gregory,
Ngo & Karavdic, 2017). The aim of the company is to launch the social trade and commerce
by encouraging social responsibility. Social responsibility is a vital role followed by the
members and business partners of Ensogo. Because of that, a section of all the sales made by
Ensogo are contributed to local charities. The amount given to charity which is a donation by
their business partners and members are shown by the company to value transparency. The
mission of the company is to make the customers more economical to shop, eat, go on trips
and do their favorite activities. In June 2011, Ensogo was acquired by LivingSocial, which