Investigate and design E-business

This report focuses on investigating and designing e-business solution for a retail company operating in Australian market. For the discussion, famous retail company Myers is selected. The report covers the key features of online shops, e-business model, online retail marketing methods, newer online technologies, success of Myers and similar retailer in Australia.

Running Head: E-Business 1
Investigate and design E-business

E-Business 2
Contents
Ans. 1: Selected Australian Retailer................................................................................................3
Ans. 2: Key features of online shops...............................................................................................3
Ans. 3: E-business model................................................................................................................4
Ans. 4: Features not liked by customers..........................................................................................4
Ans. 5: Online retail marketing methods.........................................................................................5
Ans. 6: Newer Online technologies.................................................................................................5
Ans. 7: Success of Myers.................................................................................................................6
Ans. 8: Similar retailer in Australia.................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8

E-Business 3
Ans. 1: Selected Australian Retailer
This report focuses on investigating and designing e-business solution for a retail
company operating in Australian market. For the discussion, famous retail company Myers is
selected. The company is operating for over more than 100 years in Australia and provides
fashion and lifestyle products to the customers. It is considered as the largest departmental stores
in the whole sub-continent of Australia. The company plays an important role in the life of
Australians as it provides memorable and ever changing retail experience. The company has
around 66 stores in all over the country that is accompanied by well-recognized brand and
managed by well developed mobile, digital and online platforms. This combination provides
leading Omni-channel experience to the customers so that they can become loyal for the
company. The company provides eleven categories of the products including women’s wear,
men’s wear, kid’s wear, youth apparel, electric goods, cosmetic beauty, footwear, handbags and
accessories, toys and general merchandisers (Myer Pty Ltd, 2018).
Ans. 2: Key features of online shops
The chosen key features of online shop of Myer’s website are discussed below:
Detailed product description-
The online products have detailed product description that takes the place of a sales
person. They describe the product with the appealing content that attracts the customers to buy
that particular product. With the creative description of the products features, they also include
important details and facts like size dimensions, expiration dates, manufacture dates and weight
(O'Guinn, Allen & Semenik, 2011).
Variety of payment gateways-
Based on the products, the online shops provide various options for payment methods.
Before setting the options, company understands its customers and their convenience with the
payment methods. The online shops make the transactions easy for their customers. They have
customers’ preferred payment methods so that customer can have unique shopping experience by
online shopping (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010).

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Ease of use-
One of the important characteristics of the website is ease of use. It means company
provides products to the customers what they want without any complexity. This can be done by
creating shopping catagories, adding filters and incorporating comparison capabilities (Luttrell,
2016).
Ans. 3: E-business model
Myers is using disruptive model in order to make its presence on e-commerce business.
The company is using of social media platforms and channels i.e. Twitter and FaceBook in order
to promote new ranges of products and opening dates of the new stores. Further, the company is
creating need for the site in order to become a lifestyle site where the consumers are not only
connected with the fashion trends but able to be up to date with what celebrities are doing. With
the e-commerce site, customers are encouraged to select wide range of clothing products. In the
distribution of the products, high-tech distribution process is adopted by the company and it
takes 48 hours to arrive from distribution centers to stores. With the e-commerce site, company
establishes virtual relationship with the customers on the social networks. In the e-commerce
customer service, company provides personalized services by email or phone that leads high
degree of customer satisfaction (Tuten & Solomon, 2013).
Ans. 4: Features not liked by customers
Out of stock products- Sometimes, there are continuously out of products in the online store,
and then this takes the customers away from the business. Along with this, it also impact on the
sales of the products. Graphic designs- Sometimes customers do not like graphic designs of the
website. This is the most important factor contributing to how customers judge the
trustworthiness and professionalism of the company. Consumers sometimes do not like poor site
designs on ecommerce site.
Unreachable customer service- Consumers sometimes have to face issues in getting customer
support and services by the ecommerce website. Customers sometimes are not able to find out
the contact details while they want to ask question about the new launched products. This
situation is not liked by the customers in e-commerce site (Sheth & Sharma, 2005).

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Ans. 5: Online retail marketing methods
Myers is using digital media in order enhance its presence in the market. Those are as
follows:
Website- Company has used Omni-channel strategy to attract the customers. This initiative
includes click and collect that has enhanced 9 per cent of sales. Myer has introduced new product
catagories and discounts to enhance its range online. 60 million people visit to its website and
increase search engine marketing to drive traffic.
E-mail marketing- Company also started email marketing strategy in order to reach the
customers directly. Company makes the list email of the loyal customers and updates them
regarding new and upcoming products, offers and discounts and send relevant articles from the
blogs (Weinberg, 2009).
Social media- Myers has strong presence on various social media channels i.e. Twitter and
FaceBook in order to stay connected with the customers. By the social media sites, customers are
able to follow the company and get relevant information regarding products. Company has also
strategy to reward the followers in terms of discount and compensations.
Ans. 6: Newer Online technologies
Myers is using new digital media and technologies so that more customers can be
attracted. Company is using social media and e-mail channels in order to connect with the
customers with directly. Company has its strong presence on all the social media platforms like
FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram for the online marketing. Along with this, Search Engine
Optimization is also used to provide relevant information to the customers. Further, with the help
of e-mail marketing, company sends every factor of information by newsletters, advertisements
and broachers to the customers (Williams, 2016). All these technologies are used to
communicate with the customers. For this, company uses effective message that could be sent to
the customers. Company covers 55% of marketing of by FaceBook, 25% by Instagram, 22% by
YouTube and 22% by Twitter. Email covers 1% of total marketing part (Porterfield, Khare &
Vahl, 2013).

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Ans. 7: Success of Myers
Company is successful in the digital media techniques i.e. product ranges, price and
consumer behavior. The reason is that the company is focused on the use of digitization
continuously in order to stay competitive in the market. For instance, every clothing product is
tagged with the radiofrequency identification (RFID) before sending to the warehouses that
provides real time tracking of inventory. Along with this, consumer experience is also enhanced
by digitization. It provides immediate knowledge of inventory knowledge and gives preferences
to the customers (ENewsWire, 2016).
Ans. 8: Similar retailer in Australia
There are various online retailers that are providing similar products and services to the
customers. Some of those are as follows:
DavidJones- http://shop.davidjones.com.au/djs/en/davidjones?
irgwc=1&cm_mmc=Affiliate_148159_finderau._IR_Affiliate&utm_source=Affiliate&utm_medi
um=148159_finderau.&utm_campaign=IR
TheIconic- https://www.theiconic.com.au/?
wt_af=au.affiliate.phg.1l1009531.finderau2.&utm_source=phg&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_ca
mpaign=1l1009531&utm_content=finderau2&dclid=CPOd7ci-k9oCFUzTjgod9xoDZw
Nike- https://www.nike.com/au/en_gb/?
cp=gsns_aff_rak_p*iuXAP7zBk&ranMID=41134&ranEAID=p*iuXAP7zBk&ranSiteID=p.iuX
AP7zBk-1K8OSypGPA6xSzlMv6UcPA
Marks&Spencer- https://www.marksandspencer.com/au/homepage?
extid=af_apdgroup_AUTUMN_AUS_enHive%20Empire%20Pty%20Ltd
%20AU_29918&source=dgmAU
All these companies are providing wide range of clothing products to the customers.
These companies are strong competitors of Myers and try to provide the products on the
competitive rates. These retailers have adopted unique marketing strategies in order to stay

E-Business 7
competitive in the market. As a consumer, I always chose Myers for the shopping as the
company has affordable prices of the products as compared to other retailers. Along with this,
the customer support service of the company is quick and efficient that gives me a unique
shopping experience while buying the products from its website.

E-Business 8
References
ENewsWire, (2016) Ben Myers CEO of Advant Technology speaker at The Digitalization of
Communication, (online). Available from: https://www.enewswire.co.uk/2016/10/11/ben-myers-
ceo-of-advant-technology-speaker-at-the-digitalization-of-communication/ (accessed on 30th
March 2018)
Luttrell, R., (2016) Social Media: How to Engage, Share, and Connect. Rowman & Littlefield
Myer Pty Ltd, (2018), Myer, (online). Available from: https://www.myer.com.au/ (accessed on
30th March 2018)
O'Guinn, T., Allen, C., & Semenik, R. (2011) Advertising and Integrated Brand
Promotion. Ohio: Cengage Learning
Porterfield, A., Khare, P. and Vahl, A. (2013) Facebook marketing all-in-one for dummies.
Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons
Sheth, J.N., & Sharma, A.(2005) International e-marketing: opportunities and issues.
International Marketing Review, 22(6), pp. 611-622
Tuten, T. and Solomon, M. (2013) Social media marketing, Boston: Pearson
Weinberg, T. (2009) The new community rules: Marketing on the social Web, Sebastopol, CA:
O‟Reilly Media Inc
Williams, A. (2016) How Myer is leveraging technology to boost customer experience, (online).
Available from: https://www.cmo.com.au/article/603811/how-myer-leveraging-technology-
boost-customer-experience/ (accessed on 30th March 2018)
Xiang, Z., & Gretzel, U. (2010) Role of social media in online travel information search.
Tourism Management, 31:179–188