E-commerce System for DMU: Market Analysis & Strategic Objectives

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of De Montfort University's (DMU) e-commerce system, focusing on expanding its international student base through distance learning. It includes a SWOT analysis, highlighting DMU's strengths like its reputation and resources, weaknesses such as high course fees, opportunities in distance learning, and threats from competition and changing job market trends. Furthermore, the report applies Porter's Five Forces to assess the competitive landscape of the global higher education market, considering factors like competition intensity, threat of substitutes, supplier and buyer power, and the threat of new entrants. Based on this analysis, the report proposes strategic objectives for DMU, including brand strengthening and enhanced consumer understanding, along with key performance indicators and critical success factors for achieving these objectives. Finally, it touches upon addressing cultural and trust issues in online education to attract more international students.

Running head: ECOMMERECE SYSTEM
Ecommerce system
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Part 1
SWOT Analysis of De Montfort University
Figure 1: SWOT Diagram of De Montfort University
Source (Created by the Author)
Strengths
Strengths
 The reputation of the
University
 Resources of the
University
 The course currently
offered by the university
Weaknesses
 The course fee of the
University
 Students need to pay
additional costs
Opportunities
 Expanding the business
through distance
learning modes
 The utilisation of brand
value
Threats
 Competition from other
renowned universities
 Students focusing on the Blue
collar jobs

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1. The reputation of the University: The De Montfort University is one of the most
recognized universities in England. The university has been awarded a ‘Gold rating' in
the year 2017 by the UK Department of Education under the ‘Teaching Excellence
Framework' for providing consistently outstanding performance in the field of teaching.
Not only that, in 2014, the Research Excellence framework announced more than 60
percent of the research activities of the De Montfort University's ‘internationally
excellent' research activities (Dmu.ac.uk. 2018).
2. Resources of the University: The University has more than 27000 full and part-time
students, 3240 teaching and non-teaching staffs. The campus of the university is
comprised of ten residential halls that offer approximately 3000 university sourced room.
The location of the university is highly beneficial since it is just a ten minute's walk from
the Leicester City centre. The four library sites on campus comprised of the three
ancillaries and Kimberlin Library.
3. The course currently offered by the university: The University offers numerous
numbers of undergraduate and postgraduate study courses along with several part-time
study courses. The subjects offered by the mentioned university include Art, Humanities,
Design, Business, Law, Health science, Life science, Technology and Creative
technologies (University 2018). Considering the fact that very few international
universities offer this vast ranges of course as offered by the mentioned university, this
factor can be considered as the strength of the university.
Weaknesses

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The course fee of the University: Being a highly popular university, the admission fees of De
Montfort University is 7000 pound for the students residing in the United Kingdom and
European Union (Dmu.ac.uk. 2018).
Students need to pay additional costs: Apart from that, students require additional investment
for buying study materials, travel to work placements and print documents. While all the core
textbooks are available in the library of the university, students are also allowed to access the
only library of the University for free.
For international students, the admission fees of the mentioned university for
undergraduate student ranges from 12,750 pounds to 13,250 pounds depending on the subject.
For B.Sc. nursing course, however, the fees are 14,950 pounds. The admission fees of the
Postgraduate degree ranges from 13,000 to 13,600 pounds. Considering the high amount of
course fees, the university has implemented two instalment plans. While the 1stinstallment plan
includes payment of 50 percent of the fees within 4th week of enrolment and pays the remaining
fees in three instalments. In the second instalment plan, 50 percent of the entry fees need to be
paid within the 4th week and the remaining money should be paid in 7 instalments still the month
of May in the next year (University 2018).
Opportunities
1. Expanding the business through distance learning modes: Considering the fact that
DMU has gained an immense amount of popularity both in the UK and among
international students, the university should implement distance education system in
order to expand its business in the global market.

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2. The utilisation of brand value: DMU University is awarded multiple for their valuable
activities within the education field. Therefore, The University can use their honourable
reputation and valuable portfolio in order to achieve extended consumer segment across
the world through various online and offline based promotional activities.
Threats
1. Competition: Some of the major competitors of this university include University of
Central Lancashire and the University of East London (Rothaermel 2015). The number of
distance courses offered by these universities are vast enough to attract international
students for distance education
2. Focus on the Blue collar jobs: Due to high availability and payment in the blue-collar
careers, college education in the international market is becoming less crucial.
Summary
The high reputation of DMU University is one of its major strength. Not only among the
students of UK and US, a huge number of students across the world, get admitted to the
university every year. Considering the fact that the De Montfort University is one of the largest
universities in the UK, the resources of the universities can be considered as one of its major
strengths. However, the mentioned university provides a vast range of bursaries along with
effective library resources to support the learning activities. The high admission fees of the
University can be considered as one of its major weaknesses. Since the fees of De Montfort
University are pretty high compared to that of its local and global competitors, several students

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may select the competitor universities for their distance education. Apart from that, students'
needs to pay additional costs along with optional extras associated with the courses.
Recommendation
DMU University can use their honourable reputation and valuable portfolio in order to
achieve extended consumer segment across the world. They can provide additional
accommodation and residential facilities for foreign students to keep them motivated (Hays,
Page and Buhalis 2013). The University also formulate their admission fees by incorporating the
price of study materials and other additional expenditure through offering the package based
course. De Montfort University can also use online marketing and online promotional activities
as advanced promotional tools. DMU University can also improvise online admission and test-
based scholarship system through which they can penetrate the global market of the higher
education industry. The university can also articulate their various fees structure by providing
extra facilities to international scholar students. Apart from that, De Montfort University can
recruit more efficient and professional teaching and non-teaching staffs in order to uplift their
overall quality of service.
Part 2
Porter’ five forces analysis of DMU
According to the researchers, the global higher education sector is facing a perfect storm
across its competitive landscape since the last 5 years (Rothaermel 2015). Therefore before
extending its market in the global educational sector, DMU should analyze the market trends of
higher education prevailing across the world as well as in the UK. In order to analyze the
external market of DMU, Porters five forces analysis has been performed.

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The threat from the existing competitors
The intensity of competition in the higher education market of UK as well as across the
world is high. The reason behind this is the availability of a large number of institutes with
similar market shares. This factor has increased the competition between the universities both for
the academic market of UK as well as for overseas market. According to a survey, the number of
Higher education Institute funded by Higher Education Funding Council of England is 130, out
of which 122 higher education institutes receives direct funding from HEFCE (Trainor et al.
2014). Moreover, the government of England is focusing on enhancing the number of
universities and as a result, the intensity of competition is expected to be higher in the upcoming
years. Some of the major competitors of DMU include the University of Central Lancashire and
the University of East London.
Threat from substitute
Considering the fact that DMU is planning to expand its business through distance
learning, the threat from a substitute for the mentioned university is moderate. The two possible
substitutes for distance learning is traditional HE model and alternative degree routs (Schaper
2016). In spite of the fact that the demand for perusing full-time course with the help of
traditional business model is high, several students are found to be proffering distance education
as their course of study due to the massive availability of internet and trustworthy delivery and
supply of information.
Power of the suppliers
In the UK, the power of the suppliers is high. The power of the suppliers is highly
dependent on the government policy as well as the funding model. According to the government,

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the reforms of UK are designed to deliver a highly responsive higher education sector. The
funding is supposed to follow the success of the institute and the decision of the learners (Dobbs
2014).
The strength of the buyers
Considering the fact that the numbers of universities along with other higher education
sectors are increasing globally, the strength of suppliers when it comes to distance learning mode
is high. Besides that, tuition fees can be considered as another reason for the increased strength
of buyers. Since the students are now directly a part of Higher education income, the consumerist
approach over the year has increased. Students have numerous options to choose from while
considering going for distance learning (Sung and Mayer, 2012). Not only the students, in recent
years, employees are also getting increasingly vocal about demanding their requirements from
the universities.
The threat of new entrants
The threat of new entrance is all about the barriers to entry in a specific market as well as
the attractiveness of the market. When the question comes about the attractiveness of the Higher
education sector, it can be clearly understood that the market is highly attractive. According to a
recent survey, more than 2 million students are getting benefited from the Higher education in
England (Hays, Page and Buhalis 2013). Not only that, when it comes to international students,
UK stands in the second position, the first being the USA. The total income of higher secondary
educations in the UK is more than 30 billion pounds. However, the chief barrier faced by new
providers who want to enter the market of higher education is the student number controls along
with the slow and complicated processes designed for obtaining university title. Taking the

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above discussion into account, it can be stated that the threat of new entrance for the DE
Montfort University is moderate.
Set of Objectives and Key Performance Indicator of DMU
After going through the above Porter’s five forces analysis of global Higher education
market, it can be understood that the mentioned university needs to develop a set of objects so
that it can acquire success in the global market associated with distance education. A set of 5
objectives that should be fulfilled by the university in near future have been mentioned below:
Objectives Key Performance Indicator
1. In spite of the fact that DMU is highly
popular in England, the University
needs to strengthen its brand
positioning in order to attract
international students (Schaper 2016).
The university will rank within the top 30
universities in the world by 2020
2. Secondly, the university needs to raise
the level of understanding the
requirement of consumers that is the
students and the global market trends.
The communications, Virtual environment and IT
will meet accessibility by 2020.
3. The University needs to develop
targeted communication campaigns
The application for admission of the international
students will increase by20 percent till the end of
2020.

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Identification of critical success factors
For achieving the above-mentioned objectives, the Critical Success Factors for DMU are as
follows:
 Effective support from top management that includes leadership, the creation of award
system an incentive policy, allocation of sufficient resources and adequate trading
provisions.
 Stake holder’s investments that include good communication among stakeholder and
proper understanding of the vision and goal of the project.
Link to 2 online documents: 1. http://www.dmu.ac.uk/ 2.
https://www.hotcoursesabroad.com/india/uk/school-college-university/de-montfort-university/
3516/international.html
Part 3
The suggestion about addressing cultural and trust issues through websites
Considering the fact that the two most dominant issues that act as a demotivation for
students who want to go for distance education are culture and trust issues, DMU must promote
and address their cultural and trust policies in order to encourage more and more students to take
admission for their online distance learning courses (Rothaermel 2015). In order to address both
cultural and trust issues of student reported online, DMU should investigate on the matter within
24 hours and for any type of cross-cultural issues, the accused if found guilty should be warned

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and highly fined. In case of any trust issues related to the payment of fees, the university should
refund the money to the student in the complaints are found to be justified.
Methods of using online communication tools to reach potential target consumers
One of the most effective ways that can be used by DMU to reach out to its potential
consumers is to use popular social media platforms for promotional and communicational
purposes. Considering the fact that in this era of modernization, the youths are highly inclined to
the usage of social media platform for official and personal purposes, promotion through social
media can attract a huge number of students. In addition to that, usage of social media platforms
as a promotional and communication tool is highly cost-effective (Schaper 2016). Some of the
most popular social media platforms that can be used by DMU are Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram. These platforms will enable the university to directly communicate with the students,
understand their requirement and answer their queries. This, in turn, will enhance their consumer
loyalty and brands equity.

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Reference List
Boling, E.C., Hough, M., Krinsky, H., Saleem, H. and Stevens, M., 2012. Cutting the distance in
distance education: Perspectives on what promotes positive, online learning experiences. The
Internet and Higher Education, 15(2), pp.118-126.
Dmu.ac.uk. (2018). De Montfort University - Leicester, UK. [online] Available at:
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/ [Accessed 29 Mar. 2018].
E. Dobbs, M., 2014. Guidelines for applying Porter's five forces framework: a set of industry
analysis templates. Competitiveness Review, 24(1), pp.32-45.
Hays, S., Page, S.J. and Buhalis, D., 2013. Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use
by national tourism organisations. Current issues in Tourism, 16(3), pp.211-239.
Rothaermel, F.T., 2015. Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education, pp. 234-237.
Schaper, M. ed., 2016. Making ecopreneurs: developing sustainable entrepreneurship. CRC
Press, pp. 123-126
Sung, E. and Mayer, R.E., 2012. Five facets of social presence in online distance
education. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(5), pp.1738-1747.
Trainor, K.J., Andzulis, J.M., Rapp, A. and Agnihotri, R., 2014. Social media technology usage
and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social
CRM. Journal of Business Research, 67(6), pp.1201-1208.
University, D. (2018). De Montfort University, UK – Ranking, Reviews, Courses, Tuition Fees.
[online] Hotcoursesabroad.com. Available at: