E-Business Applications Report: Woolworths Inc. and E-Retailing

This report examines Woolworths Inc., a major Australian retailer, and its e-business applications. The company's focus on customer-centric strategies and technological advancements is highlighted. The report details Woolworths' efforts to improve its IT infrastructure, including the implementation of SAP systems and cloud-based solutions. It also explores the company's investment in online retail, including the launch of the 'Mercury-2' project and the acquisition of 'Ezibuy' to enhance its online market presence. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of IT and internet technologies for Woolworths and other retail organizations in the Australian market, referencing key strategies such as customer focus, innovation, and supply chain improvements. The report is supported by references to academic journals and industry publications, providing a comprehensive overview of Woolworths' e-business transformation.

E-BUSINESS APPLICATIONS 1
Title Page
E-Business Applications
[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]

E-BUSINESS APPLICATIONS 2
Introduction
The retail organization that I have chosen as part of my individual assignment is Woolworths
Inc. Woolworths is a major Australian retail company with large presence and market base
throughout Australia and New Zealand. Woolworths is the second largest retail chain in New
Zealand and in Australia as well, after the Perth-based firm Wesfarmers. It is also the biggest
takeaway retailer of liquor in Australia and the largest hotel and poker gaming machine operator
in the country.
Retail business in Australia is a huge opportunity and is in an ever-evolving state. Woolworths
has evolved ways to anticipate the customer demand, technological changes and market share.
The company has developed ways to effectively cater to the customers demand by following the
three major strategies of placing the customers at the forefront; listening to customers’ say; and
creating innovative ways to draw them (Woolworths Group, 2017).
Woolworths Inc. believes in that commitment to hard work and integrity is indispensable to
them. The company also believes in a down-to-earth culture and has a family-friendly approach.
The company is open, fair, honest and transparent in all its dealings with the public and investors
(Woolworths Group, 2017).
Woolworths Inc. has now made adopting the modern IT practices and fixing its’ technological
aspects a priority. This is due to the reason that earlier, Woolworths had failed in its’ attempt to
implement a SAP-based merchandising system. The ‘go-live’ feature of Woolworths’ subsidiary
platform Big W made the company to lose millions in dropped sales since it was unable to
supply orders to local stores. Since then, Woolworths has worked on to regulate the SAP
platform and claims that no more reports of outages have occurred (Arli et al. 2013).

E-BUSINESS APPLICATIONS 3
As part of the up-gradation and development initiative, Woolworths’ new CEO Brad Banducci
has laid out several new plans such as the ‘IT Foundation Program’ with the aim of overcoming
the situation of under-investment in IT. Another major step taken by the company towards IT
restructuring was SAP’s cloud-based ‘SuccessFactors’, a human capital management system that
was a mixture of in-house solutions and Excel. This step was highly successful and was
considered as the largest payroll implementation program in Australia (Rentz, Thorpe &
Dabholkar, 1996).
Woolworths has considered that new and innovative techniques pertaining to online retailing
have to be developed and so launched the ‘Mercury-2’ project which aimed to augment the
company’s network with cutting-edge analytics and greater direct selling capability (Arli et al.
2013). Woolworths has also increased its investment in new supply chain methods considerably
to support its rapidly progressing online sales channel that was moving very slowly previously
(Tay, 2015).
Woolworths has also bought ‘Ezibuy’ in New Zealand, which was a step towards increasing the
online shopping market in the country. The company believes that such a takeover would lead to
an increase of 10-20% in online sales and would offer hard competition to local stores and online
retailers in the region (Tay, 2015).
Conclusion
The chosen company in the Australian retail market is Woolworths Inc. which is the second
largest retailer in the country. The company has previously been under-investing in internet
technologies and since the past few months has launched new strategies to strengthen its position
in online retail market. However, Woolworths and other retail organizations in Australia have a

E-BUSINESS APPLICATIONS 4
lot more to consider and figure out when it comes to effectively implementing IT and other
internet technologies in their daily operations.

E-BUSINESS APPLICATIONS 5
References
Arli, V., Dylke, S., Burgress, R., Campus, R. & Soldo E. (2013) Woolworths Australia and
Walmart US: best practices in supply chain collaborations. Journal of Economics,
Business and Accountancy: Ventura. Retrieved from
https://journal.perbanas.ac.id/index.php/jebav/article/view/123/90
DOI: 10.14414/jebav.v16i1.123 on 14 September 2017.
Rentz, J., O., Thorpe, D., I. & Dabholkar, D. A. (1996) A measure of service quality for retail
stores: Scale development and validation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
Retrieved from http://download.xuebalib.com/xuebalib.com.20200.pdf on 14 Sep 2017.
Tay, L. (2015) Woolworths seeks technology edge after completing $100m Project Galaxy.
Financial review. 17th Mar, 2015. Retrieved from
http://www.afr.com/technology/woolworths-seeks-technology-edge-after-completing-
100m-project-galaxy-20150313-143i2z on 14 September 2017.
Woolworths Group. (2017) About Us. Retrieved from
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/ on 14 September 2017.