The E-Business Customer Journey

This article explores the customer journey in e-business, focusing on the strategies used by ASOS and Ryanair. It discusses how these companies achieve customer satisfaction and provide a seamless online experience. The article also highlights the differences between a fashion retailer and an airline in terms of customer satisfaction strategies.

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The E-Business Customer Journey
Student Name
Institution
Course
Date

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction 3
2.0 Research and Analysis of Evidence 4
2.1 ASOS Fashions Retailer 4
2.2 Ryanair Airlines ………………………………………………………………………
5
3.0 Evaluation and Conclusion …………………………….…………………………………6
4.0 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………….8
50 References …………………………………………………………………………………..9

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E-Business Customer Experience
1.0 Introduction
The businesses which operate online have minimal contact with their customers.
Therefore, they use various techniques to achieve customer satisfaction from the commodity
search phase to the post service engagement phase (Laudon and Traver, 2016). My companies of
choice are the ASOS and the Ryanair company. ASOS, whose initials mean; As Seen On Screen,
is a British fashion and cosmetic retailer. It was founded in London in 2000 (McCormick and
Livett, 2012, p 21). Its primary customers were adults. It operates online, and it is known to
conduct shipping to 200 countries of around 850 fashion brands from its fulfillment centers
situated in UK, Europe and the United States (Wixom et al., 2008, p 112). Ryanair, on the other
hand, is a low-cost Irish airline which was founded in 1984. Its headquarters are in Dublin,
Ireland. It is reported that in the year 2016 it carried more international travelers than any other
airline. It operates with at least 400 Boeing-737-800 planes. The airline company has undergone
rapid expansion thanks to the deregulation of the aviation sector in Europe. Its route network
serves 37 countries in North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. I choose the two companies
because one is a service rendering while the other one is a fashion products retailer. There are
some distinct differences in their customer satisfaction strategies. Both of them operate
worldwide and hence target customers from diverse locations around the globe.

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2.0 Research and Analysis of Evidence
2.1 ASOS Fashions Retailer
ASOS company offers global retails across womenswear, footwear, menswear and beauty
accessories. In its website, there are a wide variety of products where consumers can find the
ones that match the current trends or the ones that emulate common celebrity styles. One of the
essential sectors in an e-commerce business is product marketing. The first step in marketing a
commodity is winning the attention of the target consumers. It also forms the first phase of the

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customer journey. The main aim of the formation of the company is dealing with the wear for
young adults. They later introduced categories such as beauty accessories, male’s fashion as well
as the female fashion for the customers to choose from. For the survival of a company, it has to
have some strategies that will place them at an advantageous spot in the fiercely competitive
market (Huang and Benyoucef, 2013, p 250). The IT strategy is at the heart of its innovations as
the online and mobile channels are some of the key revenue sources to the company. There are
frequent changes done to their sites to incorporate the incoming trends and making sure that it is
tailored for the needs of the customers. For example, there is a section where the customer can
give feedback on the product right after receiving it (Ruane and Wallace, 2013, p 330). The
company also reviews its key suppliers to make sure that the commodities they obtain are of
good quality and the product specifications given are true so as to maintain their trust with the
consumers. After ordering the goods then the next phase is delivery (McCormick and Livett,
2012, p 40) ASOS has a global delivery service where they ship merchandise to the customers
from all the five continents. To know exactly what the customers want it is good to know them.
ASOS has tailored its sites in various languages and also display the commodities with the
selected currency. Nowadays in addition to the product photos, ASOS also use cat-walk clips
that facilitate a better customer experience (Magrath and McCormick, 2013, p 130) The website
is structured in a way that it is simple and easy to use.
2.2 Ryanair Airlines

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Ryanair’s website was launched in the year 2000. It offered the customers of the
company with a new channel to buy plane tickets (Bachis and Piga, 2011, p 660). However, it
was faulty as the booking experience from the customer’s perspective was generally poor. It was
difficult to navigate. The process was full of advertisements and took at least 17 clicks to book a
flight successfully. There were also booking barriers, and the terms and conditions were mostly
hidden (Smith, Binns and Tushman, 2010, p 645). This made the customers unhappy and
threatened their loyalty to the online brand. The company had to update the website to design
one that was smoother and friendlier. All the adverts and captcha codes were removed and
eventually only five clicks were required to book a flight. Live chat was provided in the key
areas where customers could request for help whenever they need it. The website had also been

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prone to automatic redirects that inconvenienced the customers attempting to book flights during
the busy periods of the year (Guritno and Siringoringo, 2013, p 214).
Technology advances fast and to conform to these changes have to be made in the
operations systems. The Ryanair company launched a mobile app so as to serve the interests of
the smartphone users who want to book flights quickly and also streamline interactions in the
website (Njoya and Niemeier, 2011, p 60). It was remarkably fast and provided a better customer
experience. It also acts as a permanent record where the whole process of customer journey from
the booking phase to the moment they alight the plane. The Ryanair company also recognizes the
different types of customers that it has to deal with and so the application is available in different
languages. The Ryanair airlines are known for their low travel fares which differentiate them
from the competitors (Malighetti, Paleari, and Redondi, 2009, p 200).
3.0 Evaluation and Conclusion
ASOS company offers goods commodities while Ryanair company sells its services to
the customers. They have different techniques for survival. The fashion market involved with
many changes (Keen and Williams, 2013, p 645). The company has to look for the new trends
which are trending in the market. They also segment their products along with the needs of the
customers. For example, there are 20-somethings, 30-somethings, 40-somethings and 50-
somethings segments. Each segment is defined by who they are, what they do and how they feel.
For example, the 20-somethings segment entails young adults of between 16 and 34 years old
and are in search of a new fashion trend fit for their budget (Wei, 2016, p 120). They are known
to be price sensitive and influenced by the media and peers. Ryanair company, on the other hand,
gains its competitive advantage from giving their products at a lower price. The flight service,

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unlike fashion, does not involve many changes and they only need to continually offer quality
services so as to maintain customer loyalty (Graham, 2016, p 115)
The activities involved in the ASOS web start from the first step in selecting the
commodity from the various categories, checking for its details, booking the chosen product,
confirming receiving it and finally giving the customer feedback. This makes the website very
complex so as to accommodate the wide variety of commodities and also placing them in a way
that the customers can access them (Hyseni, Brown and Gannon, 2015, p 220). The web design
is also flexible so that it can allow for frequent changes caused by the changing needs of the
customers as well as the arrival of new commodities. The website of Ryanair is not much
complex as the activities involved includes booking, processing payment, notifications of the
flight and alighting hours and customer feedbacks. These process rarely undergo changes, and
the restructuring of the website is done to improve the customer experience.
Both companies apply all the available means to make sure that the customer website is
tailored to their customer’s needs. The website of the Ryanair company involves many customers
and in the past high usage would result in many unwanted redirects that delayed the booking
process (Wit and Zuidberg, 2012, p 20). The customers were disappointed with this and in
response, they conducted a mass overhaul where the whole website was reconstructed to
facilitate faster booking and reducing the clicks. ASOS company, on the other hand, constructed
a website which gives the customers the most product information possible. The images can be
zoomed and rotated so that they can view the products at different angles. ASOS also has a blog
where the customers can add their comments as well as opinions in the open online
conversations. They also offer free product shipping and return worldwide so that the customers
get the commodity at the same price regardless of their location in the globe.

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Both companies have a review platform. This is where the customers who have had an
experience of the good or service can rate the product and give short remarks about the
experience. It is from these areas that they are able to improve efficiency in their operations. The
customers are also able to create personal accounts on the website. These accounts enable them
to access commodities easily in the future. The company can also get in touch with the customers
so that they can send them notifications or even communicate any new products that they may be
interested in.
4.0 Conclusion
The sole purpose of a business is to meet the needs of the customer. In online businesses,
companies can only interact with their customers online. They have their websites where they
conduct all transactions. They ensure that the website is easy to use for the customers to avoid
any inconveniences. Innovative ideas are also put in place to guarantee the best possible
customer experience. ASOS and Ryanair companies are good examples of successful online-
operating firms. Their website is structured in a way that all the needs of the consumers are met.
However, in the rapidly changing world the business sector changes as well and therefore there
needs to be time to time changes in the way that they render their online service so as to
guarantee sustainability in the fiercely competitive market.

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5.0 References
Asosplc.com. (2019). [online] Available at:
https://www.asosplc.com/~/media/Files/A/ASOS/results-archive/pdf/annual-report-2013.pdf
[Accessed 27 Mar. 2019].
Bachis, E. and Piga, C.A., 2011. Low-cost airlines and online price dispersion. International
Journal of Industrial Organization, 29(6), pp.655-667.
de Wit, J.G. and Zuidberg, J., 2012. The growth limits of the low cost carrier model. Journal of
Air Transport Management, 21, pp.17-23.
Google.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.google.com/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjawuD44qHhAh
UD2eAKHT5nBtcQFjAAegQIAhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flightglobal.com%2Fnews
%2Farticles%2Finteriors-ryanairs-passenger-experience-journey-

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423188%2F&usg=AOvVaw1scF5Fwf_TlYGw2hilLbcn&cshid=1553671082176625 [Accessed
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Graham, A., 2016. Airport strategies to gain competitive advantage. In Airport Competition (pp.
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Guritno, S. and Siringoringo, H., 2013. Perceived usefulness, ease of use, and attitude towards
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Huang, Z. and Benyoucef, M., 2013. From e-commerce to social commerce: A close look at
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Hyseni, H., Brown, C. and Gannon, M., 2015, July. Shopping and socialising: online journey to
product evaluation and purchase in fashion retail. In ECSM2015-Proceedings of the 2nd
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Keen, P. and Williams, R., 2013. Value architectures for digital business: beyond the business
model. Mis Quarterly, 37(2), pp.643-647.
Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G., 2016. E-commerce: business, technology, society.
Magrath, V. and McCormick, H., 2013. Marketing design elements of mobile fashion retail
apps. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 17(1), pp.115-
134.
Malighetti, P., Paleari, S. and Redondi, R., 2009. Pricing strategies of low-cost airlines: The
Ryanair case study. Journal of Air Transport Management, 15(4), pp.195-203.

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McCormick, H. and Livett, C., 2012. Analysing the influence of the presentation of fashion
garments on young consumers’ online behaviour. Journal of Fashion Marketing and
Management: An International Journal, 16(1), pp.21-41
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Njoya, E.T. and Niemeier, H.M., 2011. Do dedicated low-cost passenger terminals create
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Ruane, L. and Wallace, E., 2013. Generation Y females online: insights from brand
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Smith, W.K., Binns, A. and Tushman, M.L., 2010. Complex business models: Managing
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