E-Business: Analysis of E-Commerce Models of PWC and Deloitte in Australia

This report analyzes the appropriateness of the B2C E-Commerce models used by PWC and Deloitte in Australia, identifies their business goals, and compares their websites using a five-point semantic differential scale.

E-BUSINESS

Table of contents
A. Identifying The E-Commerce business model for the selected businesses.............................3
B. Analysing the appropriateness of the selected E-Commerce models in context of the
websites selected........................................................................................................................ 4
C. Identifying the principal business goals of the websites..........................................................4
D. Website analysis using five point semantic differential scale...................................................4
E. Comparing And contrasting the chosen websites....................................................................4
References.................................................................................................................................. 4

A. Identifying the E-Commerce business model for the selected businesses
This report has identified two competitive rivals in the Australian accounting firm market and
they are PWC and Deloitte, Australia. Both the PWC as well as Deloitte use the B2C e-
commerce model as it provides the accounting services to other accounting firms as well as
businesses along with serving the retail industry as well as the consumers for their financial as
well as accountancy services.
PWC
Website URL: https://www.pwc.com.au/
Screenshot:
Deloitte
Website URL: https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en.html

Screenshot:
B. Analysing the appropriateness of the selected E-Commerce models in the context of
the websites selected
PWC is known for providing accountancy related services to other Financial Institutions as well
as the business organisation. The B2C E-Commerce model is very appropriate for PWC as the
company is involved in providing services to retail consumers as well as other major business
organisations or institutions. They are one of the biggest professional services networks in the
world (Pwc.com.au, 2018). The major clients of PWC are multinational companies and
governments. They are responsible for services like consultation, deals, tax and regulatory
services, government-related reforms and infrastructure development, risk assurance to name a
few.
Deloitte, on the other hand, provides its services to companies as well as individuals. This
attribute of Deloitte makes it a B2C company. They help in providing financial advice to the
companies as well as helps in tax returns of individuals (Deloitte.com, 2018). The company is
known for providing services to retail consumers along with governments, health care industries
and other industries. This company is also involved in providing similar services and products
like PWC.
C. Identifying the principal business goals of the websites
The principal business goals of both these sites it to provide their clients with information
pertaining to the initiatives, policies, products and services which they are known to provide

(Deloitte.com, 2018). The websites also act as a notice board as these sites are used by PWC
and Deloitte for sharing information pertaining to new products, services, initiatives and
undertakings. The website also notifies the users of the various legal and related aspects in
which the company can provide support (Pwc.com.au, 2018). There is another goal of the
website and that is in recruitment and hiring. The company accepts applications from all over
the world and the HR department of the company investigates these applications to identify the
appropriate candidate. The overall business goal of these websites is to provide transparency to
the users as well as act as a platform for sharing information that can have a critical impact on
the global economy and market.
D. Website analysis using a five-point semantic differential scale
1 2 3 4 5
Very Poor Poor Inapplicable Good Very Good
Table 1: Five-point semantic differential scale
S. No. Questions Rating
for PWC
Rating
for
Deloitte
Comments
1. Website URL relatable to
the business name
4 4 Both the websites the name of the
organisation for whom they were designed.
Even though the websites URL does not
contain any information pertaining to the
services and products that are sold by the
companies, however, does provide
sufficient information to the user that they
are going to visit the website of few of the
biggest professional services provider in
the world. Send web URLs do not contain
any evidence of the nature of the services
that are provided by the parent
organisation, both the websites have been
given a rating of 4.
2. Ease of finding the 4 5 The PWC has been given a rating of poor

website using the
general internet search
engines
because PWC is available in several
countries which makes it difficult for the
user to just blindly select the first link in the
results section of the search engine. On
the other hand, Deloitte’s homepage is the
first result when you enter the name of the
company in the search engine
(Deloitte.com, 2018). This is why Deloitte
has been given a ranking of 5 in terms of
ease of finding the website using general
internet search engines.
3. Organisational
information present in
the website
5 5 The website of PWC and Deloitte have
tried their best to present the
organisational information of the respective
companies on the website. Both the
website has sections which provide the
user with a glimpse of the organisational
structure present in the companies. They
also list out the executive and
spokesperson of the specialised areas
which makes the user grasp the
knowledge of the person responsible for
handling these roles and responsibilities.
The organisational information is an
important aspect of the website design
because both the companies understand
that there is a wide range of consumer
requirement and then 20 consumers would
like to know who would be responsible for
delivering the solution to them.
4. Appropriateness of
requirement to provide
5 3 The Deloitte site does not have any
requirement for the user to sign in which

user information means that in order to subscribe for a
service or a product it is necessary for the
consumer to get in touch with the
organisations (Deloitte.com, 2018).
However, the PWC site does have a web
portal for the customers (Pwc.com.au,
2018). Since the Deloitte websites do not
contain any service that requires the user
to sign in, the appropriateness of
requirement cannot be judged. However, in
the case of the PWC site, users can login
using their username and password that
they have been provided. Candidates can
login to the career section of both the sites
to upload the necessary documents and
personal information to receive any
notifications pertaining to job openings.
5. Website security
reassurance to the user
4 3 As already mentioned the Deloitte website
does not have any such service for which
the user has to provide their personal
information. This means that the website
security for the Deloitte websites is non-
rudimentary (Deloitte.com, 2018).
However, in case of PWC, the consumer
or the user can sign in with their username
and password and in case they have
forgotten the password they can reset the
same by providing the linked email
address. There is an end to end encryption
for the PWC portal which makes it
reassuring to the user to use (Pwc.com.au,
2018).

6. Website responsible for
fostering user trust in
the organisation
4 4 Both the websites have necessary
information such as legal aspects,
shareholder notifications and accreditation
from other forms which is very useful in
providing the user the necessary criteria
which can enable and faster trust in the
organisations. The websites also provide
the user with the various services that the
companies wish to undertake along with a
clear set of vision, mission and objective
statement (Deloitte.com, 2018). The
websites also highlight the corporate social
responsibility that the companies promise
to fulfil which is also significant in fostering
user trust in the organisation. The website
also provides the user with the information
about the current operations that the
companies are engaged in which enables
transparency and legitimacy to the
websites.
7. Redressal of the legal
issues associated with
website or transaction
engagements
5 4 PWC and Deloitte website have a
dedicated section which provides the user
with an overview of the legal issues that
are associated with the website or in case
of any transactions. The legal section also
Provides the user with a General guidance
of how the sites are to be used, the linked
policies. However, both the sites clean that
they are not responsible for any errors or
misuse of information as it does not
provide any kind of warranty, express or
even implied.

8. Providence for
accessibility needs of
the users
2 2 The websites of PWC and Deloitte do not
have any special accessibility services that
can be useful for the user. As such, both
the websites score very low as they fail to
provide the accessibility requirement of the
user (Deloitte.com, 2018). The only
accessibility feature that is common in both
the sites is the search bar in which the
user can type in a terminology which will
be searched through the entire database.
That is the only access ability provided for
the users.
9. Providence for cultural
or linguistic needs of the
users
The websites do provide a providence for
the linguistic needs of the user. This true
that both the websites belong to global
companies and this is why they have been
able to provide an option of language
selection for satisfying the linguistic needs
of the users. However, both the website
use English as the primary language. It
may be possible that the websites
targeting a specific country will inculcate
certain cultural needs so as to draw in the
customers from that specific country
(Deloitte.com, 2018).
10. A reasonable amount of
product information
present in the website
5 5 Both the website sells the product and
services section in their home page which
enlists the range of products that are
available to the consumers in the specific
country. The amount of information present
pertaining to each of the product as well as
the services is reasonable enough for the

consumer to decide regarding the
Purchase of the service and solution. The
information present also helps the
customer or user to identify the appropriate
service and product which is Tailor fitted to
meet their expectations. Hence, it can be
concluded that both the website contains a
reasonable amount of product information
that can be accessed by the user.
11. Providence for
customisation
3 3 Both the websites do not fall under the
category of social media which makes
providence for customisation non-
applicable to both the websites.
12. Personalization of User
experience
4 3 Only PWC site has a provision for user
portal which is somewhat personalization
of the User experience (Pwc.com.au,
2018). However, in the case of Deloitte,
there is no such provision which makes the
concept of personalization of User
experience null and void. Personalization
of User experience is a very important part
of consumer psyche as it makes the user
feel that they are in charge of certain
aspects of the website in case of their
personal accounts. Personalization is also
necessary for building and fostering trust
among the users.
13. Sufficient channels for
service and support
4 5 It should be noted that both the websites
have sufficient channel that can be
accessed by the users in case there is a
requirement for any service as well as
support. Both the websites are responsible

for serving thousands of customers all over
the globe and in order to maintain the
competitive position in the Global market it
is necessary for both the companies to
have enough service and support channel
that can tackle the frequently asked
questions as well as the specific product or
service related questions (Deloitte.com,
2018). Both the companies enjoy a wide
customer base which is because of the fact
that they are able to satisfy the queries and
support requirements of their customers for
a very long period of time.
14. Ease of finding
information pertaining to
the organisation,
products and services
5 5 As we have already discussed that there
are provisions for search boxes in both the
website which makes it easy to find an
organisation, products as well as service
related information on the website. Both
the companies use the website and Ammo
to communicate with their customer base
with the updated schemes, policies and
business decisions. If the user knows a
specific term for the product, service or the
organisation related query, they can easily
type the keyword in the search section
which will be checked against the entire
database to return results which are nearly
similar or completely similar.
15. Readability of the
website
5 5 The websites use readable fonts and a
simple language for putting forward their
list of operations, services and products.
This along with the fact that the website

has been tweaked to inculcate the various
linguistic needs of the users underlines the
readability aspect of the websites.
Readability plays an important role in User
experience as the use of illegible fonts
complemented with technical jargons can
intimidate the users and this will not satisfy
the objective of the websites.
16. Ease of navigation 4 5 The websites can be easily navigated
when maximized. They can also be easily
navigated when they are cascaded side by
side or stacked Together. Navigation plays
an important part in User experience and
the ease of navigating in each of the
websites is very high. The user can select
the country in which they want to find the
products and services. There is also
provision of different sections in the
website which can be selected by the user
to access information regarding the
organisation, history, list of Publications,
product as well as services.
17. Website aesthetics 5 5 While the PWC website has a corporate
looking aesthetic with fonts which are used
for official purposes makes the website
legitimate as well as prosperity in the eyes
of the user (Pwc.com.au, 2018). On the
other hand, the Deloitte website uses a
combination of black and white
background with bold fonts which makes
the website look quite futuristic
(Deloitte.com, 2018).

18. The ability of the website
to Foster community
among the users
5 4 The companies hire people all over the
world and in case the people belong who
was certain culture or linguistic criteria, the
user can identify themselves with them and
this enables in fostering a sense of
community among the users.
19. Website and website
features loading time
5 5 Both the websites have a very short
loading time due to the absence of heavy
features.
20. Web browser and
platform support
5 5 The websites can be accessed from the
laptop as well as smartphones which
means that the website is supported by a
wide range of web browsers as well as
mobile communication platforms.
21. The range of payment
options
3 3 While going through both the websites,
there has not been any instance of making
of payment which is why this criterion is
not applicable to both the websites.
22. The range of delivery
options
3 3 Product or service delivery for financial and
accountancy is provided in person which
limit the delivery range of the website.
Table 2: Website comparison
E. Comparing And contrasting the chosen websites
Both the websites are similar in nature. There isn't much difference in the functions of the
website apart from the literature and aesthetics used in the websites. While the PWC website
identifies the geographical region of the user to provide a list of products and services which are
specific to that region. On the other hand, the website of Deloitte begins describing the products
and services for the global market. Only when the consumer selects the location of preference,
the site redirects them to another window which enlists the various operations and functions of
the company undertaken in that location (Deloitte.com, 2018). The PWC website is aesthetically
pleasing and with a corporate outlook, it underlines the fact that the company is very

professional and will attract the professional clients (Pwc.com.au, 2018). On the other hand,
Deloitte makes use of GIFs to highlight the areas in which the company dominates. This
futuristic outlook will be much more appreciated by retail consumers as well as small
businesses who wish the employ the services of Deloitte in their business undertakings.

References
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https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/about-deloitte.html?
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September 2018]
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[Accessed on 17 September 2018]
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