Ocado's E-commerce: Internet Marketing Strategies and Analysis

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Ocado's internet marketing strategies, focusing on its e-commerce operations as a leading online grocery retailer. The report begins with an overview of the e-business environment, detailing different transaction types like B2B, B2C, C2B, and C2C, followed by an examination of the benefits and barriers of online presence, and security and legislative issues faced by e-commerce businesses. The report then delves into the importance of internet technologies, including the features of HTML, client-server functions, the role of search engines, and the use of intranets and extranets for business communication. Furthermore, it explores various e-business models employed by Ocado for generating revenue, analyzing their effectiveness and reporting on future developments in the field. The report also covers key elements of good web design, the impact of a well-designed website on e-business, and issues concerning website usability. The report is based on the UK's largest online grocery shop, Ocado, and its continuous business expansion.

INTERNET
MARKETING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Environment of E business and business transaction types...................................................3
1.2 Benefits and barriers of online presence\...............................................................................4
1.3 Security and legislative issues faced by E commerce business.............................................4
1.4 Modes of communication for E commerce business ............................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Importance of internet technologies.......................................................................................6
2.2 Features of HTML.................................................................................................................6
2.3 Analyses the functions of client servers and browsers and the role of the search engine for
E business.....................................................................................................................................7
2.4 Use of Intranets and Extranet for business communication...................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Use of different E business models for generating revenue..................................................8
3.2 Analyses each model in terms of its capacity to generate revenue........................................8
3.3 Report of future developments...............................................................................................9
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Key elements of good web design structure..........................................................................9
4.2 Impact of well designed website to an e business................................................................10
4.3 Issues concerning website usability.....................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
Rapid growth in information communication and technologies have made great impact on
business. The present report is based on Ocado which is UK's largest online grocery shop and
expand its business continuously (Balusamy and Sridhar, 2016). Presents report make analyses
on different types of E business transaction and explains benefits and barriers to online
presences. This report also make analysis on different types of modes which are available for
making communication and explains internet technologies for making a business successful. At
last this report make analysis key elements of good websites structure and also discussed issues
which effects usability of website.
TASK 1
1.1 Environment of E business and business transaction types
Ocado is the world largest online grocers and it was established in the year 2000. It is
one of the pioneers in UK grocery delivery service and it is considered as the online super
market. Main aim of entity is to deliver quality products to its customers and for achieving its
target, recently they have tied up with Morrison's for delivering their groceries (Goldenberg, J.,
and et.al., 2010) . Environment of E business consists of various types of factors such as quality
of products, information and communication technology. There are mainly four types of
business transaction.
Business to business
It is considered that type of business which take place in between two business. It can be
established in between a wholesaler, retailer or manufactures. Ocado offers its services through
online platform and it has established its B2B connection with Morrison for delivering their
groceries.
Business to consumer
It is referred to that type of transaction in which end consumers receives entity's products
or services (Hammad, 2015.). Ocado sells its products or services to its customers with the help
of its websites which includes a wide range of grocery products for its customers.
Consumers to business
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It is considered as the unique type of e- business in which the buyers sell their products to
their organization. For conducting such types of activities, Ocado group offers affiliates
programs for its customers. In this, the entity sells individual products through its online
platform.
Consumer to consumer
In this process, transaction occurs in between customers and the third party. Ocado offers
such services to its buyers in which customers of organization sells their products on the entity's
websites to a third party (Hallam, 2016).
1.2 Benefits and barriers of online presence\
In recent years, use of internet and digital technology has opened a new gate for every
organization. It also helped the business firm for increasing sells and establishing intentional
customers. There are various types of benefits and barriers which are available for E commerce
organizations. Some of them are given below.
Benefits of E commerce
Online presences helps Ocado company to increase its sales and also assist them in
offering low cost products to its customers. With the help of internet, entity can easily expand its
business outside UK and can also gain many international customers (Juels, Ray and Richards,
2016.). Through online ventures, firm can also sell its products 24 hours in a day and develop a
network of potential customers across the global. Ocado group is also able to sell its products at
low cost.
Barriers of E commerce
Ocado Company is also facing some barriers for operating its function through online
platform. There are numbers of issues which are faced by the firm one of them is legal issues. In
UK, there are several laws and regulation which apply on E- commerce business such as The
Electronic Commerce Regulations ACT 2002. Another problem which is witnessed by the
company is lack of trust (Kriemadis, Terzoudis and Kartakoullis, 2010). With increase in
numbers of fraud in the recent years customers have lost their trusts from online purchasing and
also the entity spend a lot of money for securing its customers data.
1.3 Security and legislative issues faced by E commerce business
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There are various types of security and legislative issues faced by Ocado Company for
operating its business.
Security issues
It is considered as the main factors which affects the internet business. Thus, it is very
important for the organization to establish advance secure systems for its online ventures. Ocado
entity established firewall for its online business which helped them in monitoring and
controlling the incoming and outgoing internet traffic (Lee and Park, 2016). It provides a secures
way of online transaction to buyers. Organization is also offering digital signature services to its
customers Another issue which is faced by the venture is stealing data of its customers from its
servers and for securing data Caddo uses antivirus software so that they can protect its consumer
information.
Legislative issues
There are different types of rules and laws which are applied on entity's business. A
major problem which is witnessed by the entity is intellectual rights. Ocado is operating its
services at worldwide and in each country it has different rule for the intellectual rights. Another
problem which is featured by company is to provide legal validity of electronic transaction. In
many countries, there are different types of bills that have been passed regarding E payments and
organization need to follow each rules.
1.4 Modes of communication for E commerce business
M1
Every, E- business uses different types of communication modes for interacting with its
customers and business partners (Malaval and Bénaroya, 2013). There are various types of
modes available for Ocado such as social media, mobile phones, SMS and e mails. Following are
modes of communication which is used by Ocado.
Social media
It is considered as the most effective way of communication because it has large
numbers of customers. Example of social media includes Facebook, twitter and Instagram. By
using social media as tool of communication Ocado aware its customers about entity's products
and services. Through social media, they can also receive feedback from its consumers and
develop their products as per the requirements of its buyers.
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Mobile Phones
Another tool which is used by Ocado for communication is mobile phones. In present era,
this tool is used by many customers and entity uses this medium for attracting more customers in
the firm (Oyibo, Ali and Vassileva, 2016). Company sends messages to its buyers and makes
them aware about various types of services which are given by the organization. Instant
messaging software is also used for transferring information to each other.
TASK 2
2.1 Importance of internet technologies
Internet can be defined as the system of interconnected computer networks. Its There are
various types of internet technologies which are used by Ocado for expanding its business
activities such as E mail, personal computers and using internet information for information
searches. Following are benefits of using internet technologies to E commerce (Ristoski and
Mika, 2016).
 Developing long term relationships with customers by making products as per their
requirements and offers wide range of services.
 With the help of internet, Ocado can offer low cost products to buyers and also attract
more consumers across global.
 For conducting business through online platform, entity adds more innovation and
flexibility strategies.
 Thorough online business Ocado enhances its sales and overall profitability of its
business. By using E- commerce ventures, turnover of the company is increased by 3% in
2001.
2.2 Features of HTML
Hyper Text markup Language ( HTML). Its considered as the standard mark up language
which is specially created for Web Pages (Rosca, Arnold and Bendul, 2016). Every HTML wed
pages has two main sections i.e. head and body. Head consist information about web pages and
body section contains the published data. It consists of elements such as tags which are enclosed
in brackets (like< html>) and Most of the pairs occurs in pairs. There are two types of tags in
web page i.e. start tag and end tag. It also contents attributes that further divided as text editors,
objects, editors.
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Main functions of web browsers is to read HTML documents and display them on normal web
pages.
HTML elements are the building blocks of every E commerce websites and all the
fundamentals features of website are encoded in HTML elements (Totten and Cross, 2015).
Ocado use this HTML for ist website design. It also helps to them for constructs images and
other objects such as interactive forms. It provides a means to create structured documents by
denoting structural semantics for text.
2.3 Analyses the functions of client servers and browsers and the role of the search engine for E
business
M2
Functions of client servers
The term client servers is defined relationships in between two different types of
computer programs. In this relationship one computer program (client) make request for services
and the another program (server) helps to fulfill that request. With the helps this client server
model Ocado able to share all important information with its customers and sales its products
through online platform (Yoo, and Lee, 2011). For example if any customers wants to buy
products then its first have make requests from its computers to entity's websites and then as per
the requests of customers company proceeds that requests. It also assists to firm for display its
HTML elements in an understandable format.
Role of search engine
There are numbers of websites that are hosted through internet. For web users it is always
a challenge to ti gaining assess the correct website. Search engines helps to web users for
assessing correct websites. It is considered as effective tools which assists to users for finding
relevant information. There are various types of search engines such as Google, Yahoo and
MSN. Ocado use this tool for its customers and with the help of this tool they can provide useful
information to its websites users (Yu and Kong, 2016).
2.4 Use of Intranets and Extranet for business communication
D1
For every E commerce company its is important to develop network so they can easily
share information internally and externally. Internets and Extranet are example of this network.
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Intranet can be defined as internalized computer network which use by Ocado for sharing
information withing the entity. On the other hand, extrenet use for sharing information outside
the company.
Use of internet and extranet
Ocado receives many benefits for using this network. By using this tools they can
improve its communication channel and also provides better customers services to its consumers.
With the help of this tool the company is become able to share information with its stakeholders,
use the best practices which assist to them for making proper allocation of resources (Balusamy
and Sridhar, 2016). It also helps to entity for reduces its paper work and provides flexibility.
Main use of extranet is integrated supply chains, more effective collaboration and improved
business relationships Etc.
TASK 3
D2
3.1 Use of different E business models for generating revenue
For developments of E commerce company is E business model is very important. It aids
to company for providing correct design for its E commerce systems as per their business
requirements (Goldenberg and et.al., 2010) Therefore, design of E business model provide vital
information to its prospective business. There are various types of E business model which can
be use by Ocado.
Storefront model
This model is considered as the as modern model and most of the E commerce company
are using this model. This model consists all types of features which relevant for an online
venture (Hallam, 2016). It includes payment system, security of its products and services and
information of business.
Auction Model
It is considered as the forum like websites, which enable sellers to post any commodities
and receives bids from different internet users. Ocado use this model for posting pictures of its
products and offers the lowest prices along with deadlines.
Portal Model
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This model helps to web surfers to search anf find relevant information as per their own
requirements. With the help of this model Ocado can make directly link with its customers and
offers its products.
3.2 Analyses each model in terms of its capacity to generate revenue
All e business models have different capacity to generate revenue but their methodologies
are different from each other. These are briefly described below.
Storefront Model
This model is typically designed for revenue (Juels, Ray and Richards, 2016.) This
model helps to E commerce business for to buy and sales products over the internet. This model
consists features of online payments which take place instantly on the internet. Thus, with the
help of this model owner Ocado can generated a lot of revenue.
Auction Model
Under this model sellers post different types of products and receives bids for different
types of internet users. The sites owners generates revenues by charging transaction and
significant revenue can be generated through online advertisements.
Portal model
This type of models generated revenue through online advertisements. This model used
for online shipping portal where different types of products buy as sales and revenue can be
generated through transaction and subscription fees (Malaval and Bénaroya, 2013).
3.3 Report of future developments
The internet and digital technologies has lead to many new developments for e commerce
business. E commerce business will become very dependable in near future. Ocado is working
as the online retailer and considered as the world's largest online grocery (Rosca, Arnold and
Bendul, 2016). For developing its business the companies need to give more personalized
services to its customers and need to improve its customers loyalty in near future.
Majority of customers in retail industries prefers to receiving personal assistance during
shopping. Thus, Ocado need to provide support to its customers by suing different types of
attractive methods such as live chats and video calling etc. the entity can also make its presences
through Social Media which is very effective tool. In near futures company need to give more
low cost products to its customers in order to expand its activities.
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TASK 4
D3
4.1 Key elements of good web design structure( M3)
Structures of web pages directly affects visitor's attentions. Visitors like to prefer to well
organized where they can easily make requests and orders take place easily (Schaltegger, Hansen
and Lüdeke-Freund, 2016). Ocado is online Grocery shop which offers wide range of products
to its customers. Consumers like that web sites where their request of particular products can
easily made and delivery of products is very fast.
 \There are various types of elements which make a good websites structures. On the key
elements of good websites structures is keywords (Totten and Cross, 2015). This can be
defined as phrases which people usually types during using search engines. For making a
successful website it is important to obtained important phrases which assist to its
customers during searching entity's websites.
 Another elements which is important for well structures web sites is content and color of
site. Content of the site should be accurate and provide relevant information to its users.
 At last the navigation structure websites should be made consistent across the numerous
pages, so customers can easily migrate from one page to another page (Yoo, and Lee,
2011). This tools helps to them for getting right information about products and services.
4.2 Impact of well designed website to an e business
The E commerce site is the official customer representative of its business owner. Thus,
for entity it is very important to develop a good website as it create significant impact on the E
business (eCommerce Order Processing Services, 2015.) Ocado is also focuses on developing its
websites through using of advanced technologies. Following are impact of well designed we site
on an E business.
Helps to attract more customers
A well structures websites assists to Ocado for attracting more potential consumers in
business. Design of websites should be according to corporate image so they can offer their
products and services as per their customers requirements and also buyers become aware about
entity's services.
Enhancing sales
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A well structural web sites assist to company for enhancing its sales. If content of
websites is good and capable of invoking the desire visitors response (Parks, 2015). Customers
of company can easily assess products of company and receive in depth information about
products. Thus, it enhances sales of Ocado.
Improves the search engines rankings
A good website assist to company to improve its ranking on search engines. Therefore,
pictures and web content must be properly provided and graphics must be use carefully
(Kriemadis, Terzoudis and Kartakoullis, 2010). It also assists to buyers of Ocado for adding
grocery products in ton their carts and with the help of well organized websites they can easily
purchase their products. Thus, all these elements improves ranking of company's website on
internet.
4.3 Issues concerning website usability
Website usability refers to easiness of using the site for the visitors. Thus, it is very
important for Ocado to understand major issues that can effects usability of websites. There are
mainly two types of issues which effects usability of websites .i.e. formatting and web browser
issues (Malaval and Bénaroya, 2013). Following are issues which need to be addressed.
Improving loading speed
Key features of every websites is which assist to web surfers to navigate the websites
quickly. Ocado need to focus on this problem and need to improve its loading speed and by
improving its loading speed customers satisfaction is also increases.
Improving content
Ocado group need to improve its content so their customers can easily assess their
websites and also nice structures can easily accessed from small computers. The retail company
is also focusing on developing nice content with quality so they can increase rate on search
engines (Oyibo, Ali and Vassileva, 2016).
Browser capability
The websites should also design in a way so that make it compatible with major
browsers such as internet explore and chrome. This helps Ocado for increases in numbers of
visitors and potential clients(Rosca, Arnold and Bendul, 2016).
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that uses of internet and digital technologies have
great impact on entity's business. Today's E business is continuous dominating global business.
Ocado company made significant changes in its structures for adopting internet in order to
expand its business. The company using various types business models for generating revenue
and also focus on developing a well structured websites so they can attract more customers.
However, the organization need to make more efforts in orders improving its ranking on search
engines.
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