Impact of Digital Technology on Marks & Spencer's Business Activity

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Added on 2024/06/28

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This report analyzes the impact of digital technology on Marks and Spencer's business activities, focusing on the role of interactive websites in enhancing customer satisfaction and sales. It addresses the problem of declining sales and customer dissatisfaction by exploring how an interactive website can bring the company into the 21st century. The report outlines a project management plan that includes project scope, deliverables, limitations, budget, success criteria, assumptions, and strategy. Primary research, involving a questionnaire distributed to 300 customers, and secondary research are conducted to evaluate the impact of communication technology on marketing and sales. The findings are analyzed to provide recommendations for improving customer engagement and overall business performance. The report also includes a project logbook documenting the project's progress and challenges.

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................. 2
PROBLEM STATEMENT.................................................................................................................. 3
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES.................................................................................................................. 3
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN...................................................................................................... 3
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION.......................................................................................................... 6
SECONDARY RESEARCH............................................................................................................. 9
PRIMARY RESEARCH................................................................................................................ 10
QUESTIONNAIRE...................................................................................................................... 11
PRIMARY RESEARCH ANALYSIS................................................................................................ 23
SECONDARY RESEARCH ANALYSIS...........................................................................................23
COMMUNICATING THE RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................ 24
PERFORMANCE REVIEW.............................................................................................................. 25
PROJECT LOG BOOK................................................................................................................. 27
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 30
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................. 31
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Figure 1: Customer of Marks and Spencer?.................................................................................16
Figure 2: Reason for decreased sales...........................................................................................17
Figure 3: Customers dissatisfaction............................................................................................. 18
Figure 4: Sales Enhancement....................................................................................................... 19
Figure 5: Major Impact................................................................................................................ 20
Figure 6: Website Effectiveness...................................................................................................21
Figure 7: Attractive Feature.........................................................................................................22
Figure 8: Satisfaction Level.......................................................................................................... 23
Figure 9: Overall Impact...............................................................................................................24
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Table 1- PROJECT BUDGET............................................................................................................. 6
Table 2- WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE....................................................................................8
Table 3- GANTT CHART................................................................................................................10
Table 4- Project Logbook............................................................................................................. 29
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INTRODUCTION
Technology is getting enhanced and is continuously changing the business processes of the
organizations present around the world. The organizations present in the UK are largely
impacted by the digital technology and its advancements. Interactive websites a form of a
digital technology is making the business processes simpler as they play an important role in
the marketing of the organizations. A strategic project management plan needs to be made by
the organizations for the attainment of high profits and sustainability in the business.
Websites play an important role in attracting a large number of customers as it the face of the
company products and services and what all the company deals with. The impact of the
communication technology that includes the website has been evaluated in this report and the
organization that has been taken in this assignment to deeply analyze the influence is Marks
and Spencer. A project management plan will be made in this report that will involve the
various factors like the cost, quality, resources, time etc. so as to make this project a successful
one.
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PROBLEM STATEMENT
It has been noticed that the sales of the Marks and Spencer has been falling from some time
and the customers of the company are using the social media platforms to express their
dissatisfaction regarding lack of choices and their feelings that the company is out of their
touch. So, the CEO of the organization has decided to bring back the company into the 21st
century by the designing of an interactive website for the engagement of customers (Otero, wt
al. 2014).
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of the Marks and Spencer is to reach to its customers, to improve their satisfaction
level and their trust in the brand by engaging them through an interactive website and to
respond to the customers in better ways to improve the sales of the organization. There are
various objectives of the project which are stated as below-
 To evaluate the reasons for dissatisfaction of the customers
 To analyze the requirements and needs of customers
 To evaluate the increased sales of the Marks and Spencer by the utilization of
interactive website in the business (Rodriguez, et al. 2016)
 To evaluate the impact of the website on the marketing of the Marks and Spencer
 To evaluate the benefits of the interactive website
 To analyze the satisfaction level of customers by the utilization of interactive website of
Marks and Spencer
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
The planning, monitoring, controlling and the termination of the project is known as the project
management with the help of which the aims and objectives of the project can be attained. The
project management plan of the project includes the following factors-
PROJECT SCOPE
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The included scope of the project includes conducting a primary and secondary research that
will further help in the evaluation of the impacts of the communication technology and the
interactive website in the marketing of Marks and Spencer. While many other factors apart
from this will not be a part of this project.
KEY DELIVERABLES
The outcome of the project is the enhanced sales and customer satisfaction of the Marks and
Spencer by the utilization of communication technology in the marketing of the company.
PROJECT LIMITATIONS
One of the biggest limitations of this project is the time duration that only 6 weeks to carry out
this research which has limited the research areas and the number of customers who will be
involved in the questionnaire so the analyzed outcomes will also be limited. The analysis of the
data is limited to the pie charts, MS-Word and MS –Excel (Turner, 2014).
PROJECT BUDGET
Table 1- PROJECT BUDGET
ITEMS BUDGETED COST ACTUAL COST
PEN AND OTHER
REQUIRED ACCESSORIES
£15 £13
XEROX OF
QUESTIONNAIRE
£ 55 £ 50
REFRESHMENT COSTS £45 £40
COST OF THE
ADMINISTRATION
£30 £28
WAGES £350 £322
RESPONDENTS VOUCHERS £220 £ 240
TOTAL EXPENSES £715 £693
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SUCCESS CRITERIA
The project will be considered successful if the following criteria’s of the project are satisfied-
Time
The project must be completed successfully within the stipulated time i.e., 6 weeks
Cost
The estimated cost of the project is £715 so that the project cost should not be exceeded than
this (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016).
Quality
The quality of the project must be maintained throughout and it should not drop down below
the set standards.
PROJECT ASSUMPTIONS
It has been assumed that the customers of the M&S are using the interactive website and it so
it will be useful to attract them through the social media platforms. It is also assumed that the
responses of the questionnaire will be trustable.
PROJECT STRATEGY
In carrying out this research following strategy is followed-
 I will continuously coordinate with my project supervisor to avoid any kind of mistakes
 I have decided the project aims and objectives under the guidance of a supervisor
 The primary and secondary research will be carried out and analyzed (Harrison and
Lock, 2017)
 The research outcomes will be communicated to the desired audience
 My learning of the project will be reflected
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PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
For the implementation of the project has 6 weeks are given so it is essential to plan and
prepare the time frame and decide the project stages accordingly for which the usage of work
breakdown structure and Gantt chart has been done to divide the tasks in particular time
duration (Nakamura, et al. 2015).
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
Table 2- WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
WBS Id Task
Level
Name of Elements Work
Description
Budget
£
Resources Deliverable
1 1 PROJECT
PLANNING
Finalizing
the
research
topic and
planning to
carry out
the project
Project
Supervisor
Project Plan
2 2 PROJECT
DESIGNING
Aims and
objectives
are decided
Project
Supervisor
Project goals
and objectives
3 3 DATA COLLECTION
METHODOLOGY
Qualitative
and
quantitative
research
423 Employees,
customers
and online
resources
Information
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4 4 DOCUMENTATION
OF THE PROJECT
Use of MS-
Word,
PowerPoint
45 MS-Word,
MS-
PowerPoint
Proper
structure
5 5 IMPLEMENTATION
THE PROJECT
Making use
of the
online
websites
and social
media for
marketing
60 Mobile
technology,
social
media and
online
resources
Digital
transformation
6 6 ANALYSING THE
IMPACT ON
MARKETING
Analyzing
the impact
on the sales
and the
customer
satisfaction
40 Employees
and
customers
Success or
failure
8 8 INVESTIGATION Deriving
the
conclusion
from the
data
collected
80 Employees Defaults in the
project are
identified
9 9 COMMUNICATING
THE OUTCOMES
Presenting
the
outcomes
of the
project to a
targeted
audience
60 Supervisor
and
students
Project results
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GANTT CHART
Table 3- GANTT CHART
TASKS TO BE
PERFORMED
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6
Project and
resource
planning
Project
designing
Data collection
methodology
Data analysis
Concluding the
research
outcomes
(Kerzner and
Kerzner, 2017)
Communicating
the outcomes
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SECONDARY RESEARCH
According to Poushneh, et al. (2017), the Marks and Spencer has been facing some drop down
in its sales and the customers are also making expressing their dissatisfaction towards the
company so the company is making use of the communicating technology to enhance the sales
of the organization in which the website plays an important role. The recent technology in the
field of the communication technology is mobile technology which is increasingly used by the
companies to promote their company products and services through the online websites.
According to the customers are mainly dissatisfied because of the lack of the interactive
website of the company which obstructs them to purchase the products of the company.
According to Çizmeci and Ercan, (2015), Marks and Spencer has designed a new interactive
website for his customers as it allows them to interact with and automate their experience. In
order to design an interactive website, the company has integrated a software into a webpage
that can engage the customers. There are different features available in the interactive website
like sharing, clicking, making a selection, adding to cart, adding to wishlist, online payments and
cash on delivery options etc. According to Moscaand Civera, (2017), almost 90 per cent of the
customers, today expects a website to have interactive self-service components and had made
the customer's interaction 70 per cent digital. 76 per cent of the customers who interact with
the local website are likely to visit the physical stores in 24 hours. The interactive website
design lets the Marks and Spencer to make good relationship with the customers and increased
brand awareness (Otero, et al. 2014).
According to Babić Rosario et al. (2016) the conversation rate with the customers have been
enhanced, personalization has been improved, potential customers have been gained and a
competitive advantage has been gained by the Marks and Spencer due to the interactive
website. Li, et al. (2017) stated that the companies with retail business has attained a 133 per
cent hike in the business revenues and almost 76% of the companies are making use of the
interactive websites for the attainment of marketing objectives. Marks and Spencer have been
advertising its products on its website to generate the traffic and it using the web address in the
advertisements to capture the details of the customers and their orders. Marks and Spencer are
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