E-Commerce Implementation in Marriott Hotel: A Comprehensive Analysis

This report examines the potential benefits and challenges of implementing an e-commerce system at Marriott Hotel in the UK. It analyzes the core business functions, evaluates the organization's aims and stakeholder relationships, and investigates the market potential for e-commerce in the hospitality industry. The report also discusses the financial implications of e-commerce implementation, including cost reductions, security considerations, and hardware/software maintenance. Finally, it proposes a tailored e-commerce solution designed to enhance Marriott's business functions and improve customer satisfaction.

E-COMMERCE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Assess the core business functions of the chosen organisation.............................................2
1.2 Evaluate the chosen organisation’s business aims and show how they relate to their
stakeholders.................................................................................................................................4
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Analyse the impact including the risks of introducing an e-commerce system to chosen
organisation..................................................................................................................................6
2.2 Discuss the global impact of e-Commerce on society...........................................................8
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Investigating the availability of market potential with e-commerce portals for the given
organization.................................................................................................................................9
3.2 As a part of your project in implementing e-Commerce for your chosen organization
above, evaluate current e-Commerce systems in use by other business organizations of that
type............................................................................................................................................11
3.3 Discuss the financial implications of e-Commerce solution by considering some essential
factors........................................................................................................................................12
P3.4 Design an ecommerce solution to enhance the business functions of your chosen
organization...............................................................................................................................14
3.5 Evaluate the suitability of the e-Commerce solution...........................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: E-commerce benefits........................................................................................................6
Figure 2: Statistical data of the UK travel market.........................................................................10

Introduction
Currently, the whole world is becoming digitalized which will enhance the use of digital
technology in the market. This will also enhance the competition in the market between the
organizations. This report will discuss the importance and implementation of e-commerce in the
Marriott hotel which is based in the UK and provides hospitality services to their guest. This
report will discuss the e-commerce strategy in the organization which will improve the functions
of the business. This report will also discuss the main aims and objectives of the organization
and how they are related to the internal as well as external stakeholders. Some of the special
features of the e-commerce will also be cover in this report and its importance in the
organizational operations and functions. The report, in the end, will also provide some of the e-
commerce solutions which can be considered by the organization.
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Task 1
1.1 Assess the core business functions of the chosen organisation
Marriott is one of the leading hotels in the UK which provide hospitality services to their guests
and customers with the quality of performance. Their main objective is to provide quality of
accommodation, transportation, and food services to their customers so that they get satisfied
with their way of treating their guest. They always want to make their guest comfortable during
their stay. There are various types of functions performed by the organization with their
functional units that are working for a common objective which is related to the customer’s
satisfaction (Benn et al, 2014). Core Functions of the organization are related to the activities
which they conduct their business for achieving competitive advantage and trust of their guest.
Following are the functions of the Marriott hotel which they perform in this competitive market:
Conduct market research
The main function performed by the organization and their team is to conduct market research
because this will help them to identify the current trend in the market which attracts the
customers and satisfy them with their advanced services. This function is performed by them
because this will evaluate the competitive factors through which they can create plans and
strategies for performing better in the same field.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Functions of the organization are not only related to the services which they provide to their
customers but also related to the steps they take for the social and their welfare (Rosemann and
vom Brocke, 2015). CSR is the major function which needs to be performed by every
organization including Marriott hotel. This function includes the activities which are performed
by the organization as per the social needs and demands of the society and which is beneficial to
the environment.
Development of their business
They also perform the functions through which they can develop their hotel at large scale for that
they improve their service quality and enhance their market scope by promoting their brand. By
providing advanced functions by using advanced technology they can develop the hotel growth
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and enhance their customer base in the market. For developing their business in the market, their
main aim is to enhance their relationship with their internal as well as external stakeholders.
They also promote diversity and equality at their workplace which will motivate their employees
and they perform better in the organization (Ulrich and Dulebohn, 2015).
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1.2 Evaluate the chosen organisation’s business aims and show how they relate to their
stakeholders
Every organization including Marriott has their individual and specific aims and objectives
which are related to their stakeholders whether they are internal or external. Stakeholders of the
organizations are the major assets of the organization who help the organization to attain their
aims and objectives in this competitive market. It is important for the organization to set their
aims or objectives as per their stakeholder’s expectations or needs because they are the ultimate
source through which organization gains profit. Employees and the team of the organization are
considered as the internal stakeholder but customers, supplier or government are the external
stakeholders for them (Grayson and Hodges, 2017). Following are the aims of Marriott hotel
which are related to their stakeholders:
Aim and objective of the organization
The main aim of Marriott hotel is to provide quality of services so that they can satisfy their
customers and manage strong customer base in the market. On the other side, their main
objective is to improve their current policies and procedure regarding the employee welfare and
to implement e-commerce system for providing online booking facilities to their customers.
They also want to adopt the latest technologies for their business functions so that they can
achieve customer orientation objective.
Target the market
The Marriott is the help dealing in the hospitality business and provides services around all over
the world, so they have a huge brand image (Cho et al, 2015). They target the market by
providing attractive offers and a special discount to their regular guest who came for their
official purpose. All target all type of customers mainly tourist people who came to visit the
destinations and to enjoy their vacations. They also target the professional people who came for
their official meeting and events.
How the aims and objectives of organization are related to their stakeholders
Employees and customers are the main stakeholders of the organization, and they are related to
the aims and objectives of the organization. The mentioned aims of the organization are related
to the customer's satisfaction level through which guest who stays in this hotel will get fully
satisfied with their provided facilities (Grant, 2016). As per their objectives, they want to
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improve the employee welfare policies which also motivate the employees to stay in the hotel for
a long time and together work for a common goal which is to provide quality of services to their
guest. This is how aims and objectives of the organization are related to the internal as well as
external stakeholders (Tomczak et al, 2018).
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Task 2
2.1 Analyse the impact including the risks of introducing an e-commerce system to chosen
organisation
The functions of the famous hotel of the UK named as Marriott that are manual till date and do
not have and website or e-commerce system. Looking at the current competitive trends of online
marketing, the company is planning to build up a website including information for online
bookings and availability of rooms, fares and other accommodation facilities for the potential
visitors.
Internet is a revolution in the history of mankind and with the help of e-commerce the company
is targeting to create an electronic platform which will help in increasing the sales and turnover
of the firm (Turban et al, 2017). Along with this the operational costs can be reduced
substantially with an immediate increase in the market share of the firm and creation of new
opportunities. The doors for trade amongst various countries of the world will also open up with
the help of internet.
Figure 1: E-commerce benefits
The various benefits of Marriott hotel can be described as follows:
Convenience: With the advent of internet and E-commerce facilities a 24*7 access and service
can be provided to your client base which helps the industry to cope with the expectations of
their visitors and compete with the world class standards (Rezaee et al, 2018). The cost efficient
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online electronic purchases are enabled due to online platforms and the bookings with the hotels
along with desirable services can be done by the customers according to their needs and capacity
Larger Market Place: By creating a portal or website for the hotel there will be a humongous
increase in the market size and potential customers of the company as it is opening up to the
population outside the region of operation as well. Even though London is a huge tourist location
with world class facilities available to its tourists, creation of a website or an e-commerce portal
is the best way of overcoming the geographical limitations of any business.
Cost Effectiveness: Internet revolution can also be termed as the cost-effective revolution as it
reduces the marketing and operational costs very effectively. These reductions can help a firm in
the competitive market to pass these benefits on to its consumers in the form of benefits and
discounts. The organic facility of search engines helps in cost reduction as well by getting over
the traditional ways of advertising and adopting the modern trends (Turban et al, 2015). The
automation in terms of billing, payments, check-ins and check-outs, inventory management and
others reduce the labor requirements in the organization as well.
Abundance of Information: Information asymmetry in hotel industry can be dangerous for the
firm’s existence and internet helps overcome that problem as well. Marriott Hotel can provide
the information of all its facilities and amenities which help the customer to plan for their
bookings and enable the deals and bargains for the group buying options.
Target Communication: While checking into the hotel the visitors provide the hotel with their
details which be further used for attracting them with various packaged deals and discounts and
the loyalty customer base can be increased.
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2.2 Discuss the global impact of e-Commerce on society
There are a lot of benefits of adopting e-commerce websites for increasing the turnovers and
reducing operational costs, however it comes with some barriers which can be discussed as
follows:
Loss of Management Control: There is a reduced importance of control management as the e-
commerce has made the users more independent with readily available information along with
facilities online.
Integration Problems: The integration problems can be in terms of updating of the hotel’s
infrastructure in order to successfully implement the integration with available networks.
Organizational Change: Change in the organization’s culture, way of functioning and values
along with adoption to the latest technological trends can be sometimes unacceptable by the
employees. This can lead to forced implementation and stress amongst all levels of management.
Various other limitations of credit card payments and service cost implementations done
inefficiently because of lack of knowledge can be faced (Choshin and Ghaffari, 2017).
Summary
Concluding the argument, the Marriott hotel is planning on development of a new e-commerce
portal or website however it may not be important that it will prove to be advantageous for the
growth of the business. Even though there can be various advantages like developing
transparency by reducing information asymmetry and other societal benefits but one cannot
overlook the far worse limitations of the system as well. Considering both the decision and
development should be undertaken.
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Task 3
3.1 Investigating the availability of market potential with e-commerce portals for the given
organization
The Marriott hotel determined the creation of a new e-commerce portal for increasing its
efficiency in terms of world markets and to survive in the competitive industry. Such a step is
expected to lead to an increase in the market potential of the company and reduction in
operational and labor costs along with the marketing costs. It was seen that due to various supply
chain benefits the potential in market has improved drastically. In the period from 2007 to 2017,
the e-commerce industry was seen to have a growth rate of 10.4%. This growth rate was 8.8%
more than what was expected in 2017 annually according to the IBIS World research. Because of
the increase in the global market reach of the company the customers will avail personalized
facilities through the website and can be targeted individually (Qu et al, 2015). A 24*7
communication can be facilitated and there are no capacity constraints here which empower the
availability of information for the visitors quick and easy at their convenient timings.
One of the boons of E-commerce is that it facilitates the electronic transactions which not only
keep the records for the firm but also arranges for payments which reduce the work of the hotel.
It also provides an opportunity of exploring various horizons to provide services to the customers
according to their convenience. It also provides the comparisons for the customers easy and they
can just compare the facilities of two different hotels at the same time. This is where the Marriott
hotel should improve so that they can perform better and be chosen over other hotels in the city.
If a company has customers all around the world they expect the facilities 24*7 and converting
your activities into automated systems of e-commerce can be really cost and labor effective. The
bargains and coupons for some loyal customers can also be provided online itself in order to
attract to visit again and reward their loyalty.
Business to Consumer Transaction: The Business to consumer transactions mainly concern
with online hotel and airline reservations along with other business interactions.
Business to Business Transaction: The B2B transactions include the tie-ups between travel
agencies and hotels. Here the visitor just has to contact one of the agencies and they can arrange
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for both tickets and stay which avails the customers with various packaged deals. This can lead
to flourishing both the industries (Cascio, 2018). Growth with such projects can lead to having a
huge competitive advantage for both the firms which the Marriott hotel is planning to do. This
can also in turn lead to long term and sustainable growth opportunities and can help the hotel
expand its base in various countries helping in earning foreign inflows as well. Various hotels
have virtual tours available on their portals which can also be one of the targets for Marriott.
Figure 2: Statistical data of the UK travel market
It is clear from the graph that the use of e-commerce facilities in the hotel industry is increasing
every day and mainly the online bookings and reservations are increasing. This in turn shows
that Zodiac Lake Hotel has the opportunity of immense growth available.
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3.2 As a part of your project in implementing e-Commerce for your chosen organization above,
evaluate current e-Commerce systems in use by other business organizations of that type.
We have looked at the implementation of e-commerce at Starwood Resort in UK for
understanding the importance of e-commerce at Marriott hotel and the main features seen on
their website were as follows:
Website Layout: The website of Starwood resort was found to be very interactive and it helps
the users to choose their convenient dates and hotel ranges available in those dates. It also
displays a lot of deals and packages for the customers (Cavusgil et al, 2014). The membership
opportunities are also mentioned which allows customers to avail related offers. The
organization’s gallery and pictures displaying the hotel layout along with information regarding
resorts and their availability is shown.
Customer Services: A direct link to customer service forum is provided which enables the users
to drop mails or chat online with the firm in case of queries and it also has respective phone
numbers where they can avail information or provide feedback.
Payment System: Payments for bookings can be made online as well through their website for
which they have partnered with some banks which are leading in banking system over the world
which keeps the transactions safe and helps building trust for the customer (Aleksandrovna et al,
2016). The reservation details along with payment invoices are sent to the customer mail ids.
This is paired with the confirmation codes on their respective mobile numbers which is a two-
way confirmation process. Such a detailed process helps the customer to feel safe and transact
with the business without the fear of being cheated.
Along with this the cancellation facilities and missing stay, feedback along with other relevant
information can be availed by the visitors from the website itself. This type of a design can be
appropriate for Marriott hotels as well as both share similar services which can help them make it
more customers friendly and interactive. Such an upgrade will lead to a huge change in their
market (Strauss and Frost, 2016).
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Following is the wireframe diagram of the e-commerce portal:
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Architecture of the payment system:
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3.3 Discuss the financial implications of e-Commerce solution by considering some essential
factors
It is essential and effective for the organization to implement the e-commerce system and
technology in their business so that they can perform their functions more effectively. It is also
identified that implementation of e-commerce is a large project for the organization, so they need
to do huge investment, but with the help of e-commerce solutions, there are many benefits
achieved by them in a positive sense (Hua et al, 2015). Following are those types of financial
implications which are gained by the organization after e-commerce implementation:
Cost of the sales
After implementation of the e-commerce system, they can reduce their sales cost, and this is the
most beneficial point for them in this competitive world. Product manufacturing and product
selling are the two things which are handled and controlled with the help of e-commerce
strategy. With the help of e-commerce, they can also reduce the cost of third-party who promote
and selling their products on their behalf because they can sell their products and services to their
guest directly as they do not require any middle person.
Cost related to security
Technologies used by the organization will reduce the paperwork as they record all the
transactions and details of their guest booking directly in the computer system (Sigala, 2017).
But security requirement is enhanced in the e-commerce as they need to secure the site or data by
installing password or code system, so that information about their guest gets secured and safe.
They need to invest in the security so that they can reduce the risk chances and impact of that
risk on their performance. With the help of proper security, they can gain the trust and loyalty of
their customers. This type of implication related to the finance put a negative impact on their
economic status.
Enhance the maintenance cost of hardware and software
With the implementation of technology, maintenance of hardware and software get also
increased that put financial implication on their business (Nayar and Kumar, 2018). They need to
update and upgrade their hardware and software so that they can improve the performance of the
organization. There are various computer systems used by the organization to access the sites.
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They need to upgrade the internal processor and operating system of the computers or machines.
This will also require high investment from the organization, but this will provide high benefits
to the organization (Laudon and Laudon, 2016).
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P3.4 Design an ecommerce solution to enhance the business functions of your chosen
organization
Marriott hotel has designed different types of sites that support their online services, e-commerce
booking orders and transactions. Marriott organization has their official web page at which they
provide the information about the payment method and also how to book your rooms along with
the effective user interface. Effective management of their customer services and users
registration can be conducted by the database management system which satisfies the needs of
their guests (Hai et al, 2015).
Following is the e-commerce solution which can be used by the organization to enhance their
business functions in this competitive market:
Product details of the rooms and other facilities
It is important for the organization to provide the details about their services and accommodation
facilities which they are providing to their guest on their e-commerce site. This will help the
guest to review the rates and other quality of services through their official sites (Reino et al,
2016).
Booking of rooms in bulk
By using their official website, they can take the booking orders of their guest which help the
customers to select best rooms as per their need or expectations, and they can also compare the
rates of this hotel with their competitors. Guest can select the rooms which will satisfy their
demand.
Provide the location tracking facility
With the help of location tracking of their hotel, they can provide better facility to the guest they
can easily reach to their hotel and avoid the chances of some other risk when they are on the way
(Pappas, 2017). This is also one of the best e-commerce solutions which will attract the
customers, and they get satisfied with their services and help to achieve the aims and objectives
of the Marriott hotel.
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3.5 Evaluate the suitability of the e-Commerce solution
The suggested e-commerce solution for the organization is very effective because through this
they can achieve the trust and loyalty of their customers and also attract them towards their
services and quality. With the help of above mentioned e-commerce solutions they can manage
the functions and operations of their business through their official website which will reduce
their operating cost as well as reduce their time investment. This will improve the performance
of the organization because employee workload will be reduced through implementation of e-
commerce system and latest technology (Tomczak et al, 2018).
This will motivate the employees towards their work and they try to enhance their working
efficiency. E-commerce implementation will help the organization to get connected with their
customers directly and provide all the information and detail about their services and facilities
through their web page. Guest also knows about the status of the hotel and see the review along
with the photos of their rooms and restaurants which may attract them as compare to other
competitive hotels.
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Conclusion
The above report has concluded that e-commerce is the most effective strategy and system which
can be used in the hotel industries so that they can effectively provide online booking, payment
and cancellation facilities to their guest. This report has also discussed the main aims and
objectives of the Marriott hotel which is based in the UK and provides accommodation,
transportation, and food facilities to their guest. In this report has been become clear by adopting
the current technologies it has become easy for their organization and its team to perform their
functions in this competitive market. This report has also discussed the financial implications
which are related to the e-commerce implementation. At the end of the report, some of the e-
commerce solutions are also provided to the organization through which they can improve their
facilities and connect with their customers more effectively.
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