Digital Business Analysis: Strengths and Weaknesses of Sportsdirect

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Sportsdirect.com's digital business operations. It begins with an introduction to digital business and an overview of Sportsdirect. The report then identifies and discusses the website's strengths, including a wide product range, ease of access, 24-hour delivery, various schemes, and product bifurcation. Following this, the report highlights the weaknesses of the website, such as overloaded content, a lack of creativity, and issues with online payments. Porter's Five Forces analysis is then applied to assess the competitive environment, examining buyer power, supplier power, the threat of competition, the threat of substitutes, and the threat of new entry. A value chain analysis is also conducted, examining inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and after-sales services. The report concludes that while Sportsdirect.com has strengths, it also faces significant challenges that require attention to improve the website's effectiveness, customer satisfaction, and competitiveness. The report recommends creating high-quality content and addressing payment issues.

Digital
Business
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................3
Analysis of website......................................................................................................................3
Strengths......................................................................................................................................3
Weaknesses..................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................7
Recommendations........................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
In the modern era, digital business is emerged as one of the biggest trends in market.
Further, these are those businesses which use information technology in their external and
internal operations in order to gain competitive advantage over other market players. In the
present report, an analysis of the website, Sportdirect.com has been done. In addition to this,
some of its core strengths and weaknesses are highlighted in this report. In the last part of the
report, conclusion has been made and recommendations are provided in order to improve the
website.
Analysis of website
Sportsdirect was found in the year 1982 by Mike Ashley and during its initial stages,
trading of products was done by a single store in Maidenhead. At present, the group is UK's
leading retailers in sport’s brand in terms of operating profits and revenue ((Sportsdirect, 2015)).
There are 120 sports stores which are traded under the name of Sportsdirect.com. Some of the
major brands which are offered by the group include Nike, Puma and Addidas. The objective of
group is to offer exceptional l quality and unbeatable value to the people in market.
Strengths
Some of the major strengths of Sportsdirect are mentioned and discussed below as:
STRENGTHS
 Wide range of products
 Easy to access
 24 hours delivery
 Wide variety of schemes
 Bifurcation
 Wide range of products- One of the major strengths of Sportsdirect is that there is wide
range of products available. There are more than 40 brands that are available and which
makes it convenient for the customers to buy products of his choice ((About us, 2015)).
Main reason for which people in market choose the online shopping is that the range of
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products is very wide as compared to a physical store. Therefore, it can be stated that the
website has taken care of this fact and has become one of its biggest strengths.
 Easy to access- By analysing the website Sportsdirect, it has been identified that the
website is very easy to access. Customers now days are available with wide variety of
choices to buy the products online (Mithas and Lucas Jr, 2010). If they find it difficult to
access the website then it creates dissatisfaction among them and encourages them to
choose other website for shopping. The website of Sportsdirect is very easy to access and
there is no difficulty in selecting and buying the products.
 24 Hours delivery- In order to become competitive, online retailers is also required to
take care of the fact that the products are delivered on time. Fast and accurate delivery is
very important to make an online shopping website successful(Pagani, 2013).
Sportsdirect offers delivery of products within 24 hours which makes it convenient for
the customers. Further, 24 hours delivery has increased the traffic on website and has also
enhanced the sales.
 Wide variety of schemes- There is a wide variety of schemes that is provided on the
websites. On some products, it is offering up-to 80% discounts which has gathered the
attention of people. The discounts and schemes are not limited to a certain time but the
website offers new schemes at frequent intervals (Darking and Whitley, 2007). This has
also forced people in the market to buy products from Sportsdirect rather than buying it
from any other online retailer.
 Bifurcation- The bifurcation has been done in a very good way and there is not difficulty
in finding the products as per choice. There is separate section for men, women, kids,
sports, accessories and brand which make it easy to buy the products according to the
need (Darking and Whitley, 2007). Other than this, there is an individual section for
Christmas which offers different types of gifts which can be given to men, women and
kids. The customer can also select products on the basis of price.
Weaknesses
After analysing the entire website, it has been found that there are some weaknesses
which have been mentioned below as:
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WEAKNESSES
 Overloaded content
 Lack of creativity and attractiveness
 Issues during online payment
 Overloaded content- The content of website is very overloaded which creates a bad
impression in the minds of customers. It is important of an online website to not overload
its content on main page. Further, separate sections can be created in case if company
wants to provide information to its customers (Weill and Woerner, 2012). On the main
page, various sections have been integrated which is not at all impressive. The color and
contrast of the page is also not appropriate.
 Lack of creativity and attractiveness– There is only overloaded content and the website
is not at all attractive. Only providing information cannot help a website in increasing the
traffic and there should be some sort of differentiation (Wall, Jagdev and Browne, 2007).
Now days, most of the online retailers have developed their website in such a way that
they reflect high level of creativity and attractiveness which is lacking in the website of
Sportsdirect. Issues during online payment- There are some serious issues at the time of online
payment and it has become one of the major weaknesses of website. Sometimes, the
transactions take too much time which makes customer irritated (Hussain and et. al.,
2007). Other than this, the process of payment is very lengthy and complicated which is
also a weakness of website. Many times, the transactions fail at the last time which
encourages customers to never buy any kind of product from the website in future.
Porter’s five forces analysis:
The five forces model was developed by Micheal Porter in the year 1979. According to
this model, Porter explained that there are five major forces which affect the operations and
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activities of an organization. The five force analysis of the website Sportsdirect is mentioned
below as: Buyer power- The buyer power is very high in case of Sportsdirect and the main reason
behind this is that there is large variety of choices available with the customers.
Therefore, it is not easy for the website to retain its old customers and attract new ones.
(Brousseau and Penard, 2007) Supplier power- Suppliers are the one which provides products to Sportsdirect and its
major suppliers are the brands which are associated with the website. The power of
suppliers is also high and they have power to dominate the practices and policies of
website. Threat of competition- The market of online retailers is highly competitive and there are
many large and small online retailers that are competing with each other (Corallo,
Passiante and Prencipe, 2007).. Therefore, threat of competition is also very high which
highlights the fact that the prices of products will be driven by competitors. Threat of substitute- Sportsdirect has high threat of substitute which is mobile
applications (Mithas and Lucas Jr, 2010). The growing use of such applications has lower
down the sales of online website.
 Threat of new entry- It is not so costly and complicated to open an online retail store
(Pénard and Brousseau, 2007). Further, there are many benefits that are associated with
such business and thus, the threat of new entry is also very high for Sportsdirect.
Value chain analysis
The value chain analysis consist of five major activities which are mentioned below as: Inbound logistics- These are the process related to shipping and warehouse management
of the products which are offered by Sportsdirect. It is one of the most important activity
for online retailers where they are required to maintain the demand and supply of their
products (Nachira, Dini and Nicolai, 2007). It has been observed that the inbound
logistics of Sportsdirect are very effective and it has advanced planning and scheduling of
products with all its suppliers. In addition to this, online inventory data is also managed
very well by the online retailer.
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 Operations- These are the activities related to the integration of information and
managing the entire channels of distribution. Outbound logistics- The activities of outbound logistics are associated with receiving
online orders and making arrangement regrading the distribution of the same. Further it
also includes the process of order confirmation and online payment (Al-Debei, El-
Haddadeh and Avison, 2008). It has been found that they there are some issues payment
procedure which are required to be resolved. Marketing and sales- These are the activities which are related to the selection of online
sales channels and advertising on internet. It also includes online customer feedbacks
process and surveys which are not used very much by Sportsdirect.
 After sales services- These are the activities which supports in making long term
relationship with customers. It is the responsibility of every organization to provide some
sort of support and assistance after making the sales (Wall, Jagdev and Browne, 2007).
Sportsdirect is using such services but they are not so much effective. It is required by the
retailer to interact with its customers after sales through emails or chats.
Conclusion
From the above analysis it can be concluded that the website of Sportsdirect is good but
only upto a certain extent. It is not difficult to access that website and it is very user friendly in
every aspect. Sportsdirect is leading online retailers of sports related products and accessories in
terms of operational profits and revenue. One of the main reason behind this is its 24 hours
delivery. In modern era, when the other online retailers are offering delivery within 7 days,
Sportsdirect is offering in the same in 24 hours. Thus it can be concluded that the delivery
system and channels of distributions are very effective and strong. This has increased the traffic
on website and has helped in getting competitive advantage over other market players. From the
above study it can be also concluded that all the products are bifurcated in appropriate manner
and the website offers wide variety of schemes at regular intervals. The advantages of this is that
it assist in maintaining the interest of customers and retaining them for long period.
During the analysis of website there are some weakness identified such as overloaded
content and issues during payment. On the front page of websites there are various icons and
offers which has been displayed and it seems like they all have been mixed together. In addition
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to this, the icons are not properly arranged in a systematic way. It can be also evaluated that the
colour and contrast selection is inappropriate. Other than this, online payment is considered as
one of the most crucial part of online shopping and there are various options available for
payment. Customers can use MasterCard, Visa card, Maestrocard and PayPal for paying against
their purchase. At the time of payment, some of the transactions fails at the last time. Sometimes
amount is deducted from the card of customer but they do not receive any kind of message
regarding transaction successful on the website. Cases such as double payment are also observed
at the time of doing online payment. It can be concluded that it has created dissatisfaction in the
minds of customers and has also encouraged them to start buying from other online retailers.
With the help of Porter five force analysis it can be concluded that the all the five forces are very
high and it is not easy for the website to grow and survive in long run. There are some important
changes which required to be done as soon as possible. This will help the Sportsdirect to make its
website more effective and attract new customers. In addition to this, it will also enhance the
sales and profitability of the online retail store.
Recommendations
It can be recommend to the website that it needs to create high quality of content in its
web pages. It will be a very challenging task but it is very necessary for Sportsdirect as it will
directly affect the sales and traffic on website. It has been observed that usually it is the first page
of website which will make or break the brand image of Sportsdirect. It is recommended that the
company should select appropriate combination of colour and contrast on its web page. The
advantage of this is that the website will look more attractive and catchy. Other than this, it is
also recommended that Sportsdirect should create a short content for its online store. This will
assist in making the customers aware about what kind of products and schemes are offered by the
retailer. The unique selling proposition (USP) is missing in the entire page and thus, it is also
suggested that the website is required to highlight its USP on the page. One of the major benefit
of this is that it will support customers to determine why they should choose the products of
Sportsdirect over its competitors. The online retail industry is highly competitive and it is not
easy for businesses to survive in long run. Thus, by highlighting USP on the website will also
assist in getting competitive advantage. Other than this, it has been observed that there are some
serious issues which has been faced by customers at the time of making online payment. Thus, it
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is recommended to check its entire process of online payment. Further it can be said that if the
procedure is not improved then the company will not be able retain its customer in long run. It
has been witnessed that it is very easy to retain old customer as compared to attracting new ones.
Thus, the online retailer is required to improve the process of online payment in order to create
high degree of customer satisfaction.
It is also recommended that the retailer is required to implement the system of feedbacks
and reviews. After purchase a quick review can be taken from customers, so that Sportsdirect can
become aware about the issue faced by customers and their experience. After analysing the
website it has been also found that the content is not readable. There are many icons displayed on
the first pages which sometimes makes it very difficult for people to find key words and read the
content. There are various blocks of text created on the website which are not looking
appropriate and it is recommended that the online retailer should use bullet points instead of
blocks. This will make the web page neat and more presentable. It can be also suggested that in
order enhance its sales and profitability, Sportsdirect is required to create trust in the minds of
people. Many of the leading online retailers have stated to use trust sign in their overall business
strategy. This not only helps in retaining customers but also encourage them to repeat purchase
for long period of time. It is suggested that Sportsdirect can use trust signs such as user review
and live chart. Other than this, it is also recommended that there should be complete
transparency in terms and conditions of the Sportsdirect. All the facts and terms associated with
the entire process of online shopping should be displayed and communicated to the customers.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Al-Debei, M. M., El-Haddadeh, R., and Avison, D. (2008). Defining the business model in the
new world of digital business. In Proceedings of the Americas Conference on
Information Systems (AMCIS). pp. 1-11.
Nachira, F., Dini, P. and Nicolai, A., 2007. A network of digital business ecosystems for Europe:
roots, processes and perspectives. European Commission, Bruxelles, Introductory
Paper.
Pénard, T. and Brousseau, E., 2007. The economics of digital business models: A framework for
analyzing the economics of platforms . Paris Dauphine University.
Corallo, A., Passiante, G., and Prencipe, A., 2007.The digital business ecosystem. Edward Elgar
Publishing.
Brousseau, E. and Penard, T., 2007. The economics of digital business models: a framework for
analyzing the economics of platforms.Review of Network Economics. pp. 6(2).
Hussain, O. K. and et. al., 2007. A methodology to quantify failure for risk-based decision
support system in digital business ecosystems. Data and knowledge engineering. 63(3).
pp. 597-621.
Wall, B., Jagdev, H. and Browne, J., 2007. A review of eBusiness and digital business—
applications, models and trends. Production Planning and Control. 18(3). pp. 239-260.
Weill, P. and Woerner, S. L., 2012. Optimizing your digital business model.MIT Sloan
Management Review.
Darking, M. and Whitley, E. A., 2007. Towards an understanding of FLOSS: infrastructures,
materiality and the digital business ecosystem.Science Studies. 20(2). pp. 13-33.
Pagani, M., 2013. Digital business strategy and value creation: framing the dynamic cycle of
control points.Mis Quarterly. 37(2). pp. 617-632.
Mithas, S.and Lucas Jr, H. C., 201. What is your digital business strategy?. IT professional.
12(6). pp. 4-6.
Online
About us. 2015. [Online]. Available
through:<http://www.sportsdirect.com/customerservices/otherinformation/aboutus>.
[Accesses on 10th November2015]
Sportsdirect . 2015. [Online]. Available through:<http://www.sportsdirect.com/>. [Accesses on
10th November2015].
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