Advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce
Discuss about the Website Design Quality And Usage Behaviour.
With the advancement of technology and changes in the societal and lifestyle trends, business organisations are adopting to cater to the needs and requirements of the target market. One of the biggest revolutions in the business front because of technology is the popularity and growth of the e-commerce business. For most business organisation it is one of the most important objective is to cater to the need and requirement of the customers, this has made e-commerce gain popularity in the past decade. E-commerce or E-business can be defined as the process by which a business institution uses technology to meet and initiate transaction. Buyers and sellers meet on a platform, which is driven by technology. Amazon, E-bay, Alibaba etc are some of the pioneers in the e-commerce business model; setting benchmarking milestones for the companies who are new in the industry. This model is based on technology and hence the lifestyle and societal factors play an important role in the business because acceptance of technology is also one of the major aspects. Hardware devices and connectivity with communication medium is important part of the. E-business or E-commerce is the process by which organisation uses the platform of internet to base their operation (Laudon & Traver, 2013).
This business model has distinctive advantages and disadvantages. Advantages of e-commerce, there is no geographical boundaries to the reach of the model as a person can use the website and the services from any part of the world. The website is available for the buyers on a 24*7 basis as like physical stores there is no time restriction as well. The process of buying and selling of the items is easy and much smoother compared to retail business. Form the business perspective there is not cost of setting up stores hence there is capital investment in the initial position is low. The customers can choose their product without having to move from one place to another.
Some of the disadvantages of the process include the business requires a wide range so prerequisites without which it becomes inaccessible. There is also a major reliability issue with the customers as they are mostly used to buying things from the physical store that allows to check the product by observing them physically, in this process the customer gets a pictorial representation of the product which may not be suffice for some. Lack of knowledge among the customers in using the technology is also a major barrier in this industry.
Introduction and history of Zara
In this assignment, a critical analysis of the Website of ZARA will be held in order to understand the dynamics of the e-commerce business website.
Zara is a very popular brand that is highly praised and demanded by people from various parts of the world. With the sole objective of being the number one fashion retailer in the world, Zara aims to feed the world in need of class, fashion and style. The clothing and accessories retailer brand was primarily based on Spain that was founded by the couple Amancio Ortega and Rosalia Mera. The company was brought into the market under the domain of the Inditex Group (Zarahome.com, 2018). The Inditex Group, being a multinational conglomerate, has about 10 companies under its umbrella that specialize in clothing. Zara has been very effective in maintaining customer satisfaction and involving their preferences that has led it to reach a unique position. With its marvel performance, Zara has been able to be the leading apparel company in the clothing industry as is found in the present market. The product lines of the company have three sections commencing to men, women and children respectively. It has more than 1700 operational stores and also include an online store that functions all over the world (Zarahome.com, 2018). It possesses most of its stores in about 88 countries that includes United States, Europe, Asia and others. Zara has been recognized as the “fashion imitator” that imitates the seasonal trend and provides fashion trend in accordance to that in the minimum time possible for it. It has been analyzed that Zara produces about 10,000 designs compared to the 2000-3000 designs produced by its rivals. Thus, it becomes able to maintain parity with the changing tastes of the customers who need not shift to any other brand to suffice their choices. It becomes able to meet the expectations of the customers that accumulatively bring it greater success. The company is highly recommended because of its modern and unique designs in clothing that has a promising quality (Escobar-Rodríguez & Bonsón-Fernández, 2017). People who are fond of fashion are very much attracted towards the brand. Moreover, the apparels have an affordable price that has made the company a popular one among people around the countries. The CNN has connoted Zara to be the Spanish Success Story and many designers claim it to be the most devastating retailer in the global market. Forbes has ranked Zara 53 in its brand ranking and the brand value has been assessed to be worth 10.7 Billion dollars (Ft.com, 2018). The brand has been able to stay out of any controversies and its remarkable performance over the years has made it a highly preferred brand. The healthy culture that it promotes along with the humble nature of the retail brand has led Zara to operate and prosper with more colors and dignity in the global market.
Performance and financial stability of Zara
Zara has a share of about 80% of the total revenue of the world’s biggest fashion retailer, namely the Inditex Group. The brand has been able to raise its net earnings by 18% that accounts to €654m.the company has been able to increase its international presence rapidly that has enabled it to have about 7,385 stores in 93 nations (Ft.com, 2018). The online retail site of the brand has also started to function for the countries of Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia, which it did not have previously that has accelerated to its greater growth. The annual report shows that there has been constant rise in the economy of the company ranging about 10-12% increase with a steady growth in sales accounting to about 12.5% quarterly. In a single quarter, the company has been reported by the Inditex Group to have faced 18% rise in its earnings globally (Ft.com, 2018). The accounting policies and capital management that Zara incorporates within it are very effectively managed. With high maintenance of taxation, and steady flow through supply chains and meeting the demands and expectations of the people around the world, Zara has been able to attain stability in its financial position that serves to be a very effective base for the company to perform smoothly in the apparel industry in the global market scenario.
Zara is recognized as the leading fashion brand in the apparel industry. The industry serves to be both advantageous as well as have certain aspects that always keep the brand in pressure. This is the chief reason that the brand is constantly engaged in the production of modern designs with time. Having low barriers to entry, the industry that Zara serves brings in many rivalries for the company. The capital investment to enter the industry is relatively low that brings in many apparel companies. However, since buyers do not have enough bargaining power, it serves to be a positive aspect for the company to opt for profits. People coming from the middle and upper-middle classes always tend to buy clothes and spend discretionary income on buying clothes. Thus, the growth of the industry as a whole remains relatively constant. The suppliers also have a low bargaining power and the companies also get cheap labors that become more profitable for it. As a whole, the competition that Zara has as compared to its rivalries is very unpredictable. For instance, in Spain, Zara has a market share of 4% whereas in Sweden, the brand H&M has 10% share. The company also has the potential threat of consumer retention and switching of brands that can affect its growth negatively. However, the global apparel chain of Zara that has a high value research and unique designs with great marketing operations and smooth performance has rendered to it a position yet to attain by other brands that are functional in the apparel industry.
Competitive analysis of Zara in the apparel industry
The company use the website to reach the online customers and extend their source of information to the E-world. The company uses this technology to market their products, reach the customers in a more efficient, and smooth way. Likewise, the official website of an international brand Zara has an official website to reach their online customers. The company website consists of all the products that the company want to show to their online customers. It also has a secret section that is kept separately only for the online customers and that has not been seen by anyone in stores. This collection is specially kept for the online customers of Zara. It was recently discovered that the company sells loungewear. The commonly selected items from the product list are floral pants, dresses, sweaters ranging from $15-$130. The website has a bargain section offering low range products, which is not provided in retail stores. They also have a collection of home ware items, slippers, nightwear and T-shirts. The website highlights the new arrivals in Zara collection, the on trend products, high selling products and the discounted products. This helps the customers to chose the product of their chose and purchase as per their requirement.
Organization of websites serves to be an important aspect for online retail markets. The entire process need to function in a way so that it is convenient for the users or the customers to be precise and simultaneously have cohesion so that it reaches to the customers effectively. If the companies have website that are poorly constructed and managed, it results to a lack of customer usage of the site who get frustrated with the disorganized websites (Kotler, 2015). Moreover, a consistency in the theme of the sites helps the customers to navigate fluently, tracing the key elements that must be highlighted in the sites. Thus, designing the sites is also a vital part for website retailing.
Considering the website of Zara, the site has the images of its clothes, bedding and accessories flashed in the page. It has the list of products on the home page itself at one side so that the customers can easily find the category of items they are looking for in the brand. On selecting the desired item, the customers are able to view the items from different angles that help them to clearly depict the items. The price of the items is also given along the images that help the customers to filter out their desired products. However, sometimes with the continuous flash of various images that occurs in the navigating process, the site sometimes look very cluttered and diverging. The company also forecasts multiple items relating to the product selected by the customer on one single click that guides them with better products of the same genre.
Zara’s website and its organization
The consistency of the site of Zara is found in the continuous image flash that occurs in the site. The navigation bar directing the customers to opt for more items or go to the other options such as payment page and shop more options helps to maintain its consistency (García-Álvarez, 2015). Bedroom décor, furniture, lingerie wear, beachwear, tableware, fragrances and other products that the brand sells online are all designed with the same template that shows the uniformity and consistency of the website.
However, the major problem that the customers face in navigating the site is because they have to get back to the category page every time they want to add products in the cart and scroll over the immense use of images that often serves to be irritating for the customers. Thus, they log out of the site losing the interest of searching their products.
The design of the site enables the customers to recognize the products and purchase as per their need. The web design determines the e-commerce strategies of a company. If a company is giving offers and discounts them this web page hi-lights the offers and informs the customers about the following information. The web paeg improves the company reputation and technical standard of the company, thus the market demand of the company increases. It is very important to create a well-framed web page to seek online customers attention and market the product on a large scale. The web page is visible to the whole world, thus marketing the product in a worldwide scale. The mentioned company Zara needs to modify and improve their web page design quality. There are unwanted videos and audios in the site making the customers angry and frustrated. Many times these videos make the customers shut the site to avoid the disturbance from the video clippings. Few major issues faced by the customers for a improper designed page are:
- The product images slide too fast and hence the customers cannot view the products properly.
- The videos consists too loud music that can embarrass the customers in a public place.
- The menu overlaps the images that give an incomplete and untidy look to the page. The designing of this page has to be improved to get a clear view of the image as well as the menu.
- There is no events tracking system
- The page names are excessive long and difficult to reference back.
- They are using IBM WebSphere Commerce as website platform, which has a horrible URL structure.
- Few important website elements not being tracked are product basket, shopping guide, interaction with Lookbook, magazines, option for product information.
The real goal for a website is to create a demand for the product in the market. The products that has to be hi-lighted to the customers must be well designed and framed to seek customers attention. Zara is concerned about the way they deploy the updated information technology to facilitate their exchanges. The product page of Zara consists of all their products starting from dresses, shoes, nightwear, sweaters and many more products. The products are of good quality however, the prices are a bit expensive for this brand. They have good collection of dress, shoes and accessories starting from affordable ranges to premium range and high quality. The product consist of the products, with their different colour availability, size, designs. The page has an option to filter the product on the customers basis, the customer can select the products on the basis of their price, colour, size, discount given in the page (Jung, Xiong & Sato, 2013). The product page has a special option for secret collection, this section consists of the special collection kept by the company only for the online customers. The page needs to be more synchronized and well framed to make it easy for the customers to purchase their products. In their product page have a variety of collections bedroom products including flat sheets, pillowcases, quilts, bedspreads, blankets, cushions, rugs, valances, protectors. They have a collection for bathroom products including towels, bath mats, bathrobes, baskets, bathroom curtains. They have a collection for table ware including products like tablecloths, placemats, glassware, kitchen textile, serving dishes, coffee and tea, coasters, napkin rings, bread plates. They also have collections for kids wear, loungewear, linen selection and special prices. This special price includes the discounted product for the customers who demands for a bargain with the company products. This option is only available in the online stores of Zara and not in the retail stores.
The website navigation is an important part of web designing. The web navigation helps the user to find the information that is required by them. The web page appears to be incomplete without the navigation bar. The navigation key indicates that the website is holding some knowledge and can fulfil the queries that the customers is seeking from that website. It can spread the customer’s research and helps the customers to search and explore the production extend of the individual company. The Zara website has a easy navigation system. The home consists of the product headings in the left hand side of the page. If the customer clicks the heading, the sub headings are opened and the customer can view the in detailed products available under that category. The customer is then navigated to the product page where they can find the product details and variety.
The above image shows the product page where the detailed information’s are given for the bedroom products. The left hand side of the page consists of the variety of products available and the centre of the page has the images of the customer required products along with their individual name and price. The customer can select the product and save it in the basket and then proceed further for new selection or buy the selected product. The procedure becomes easier for the customers for the ease in navigation.
Cyber crime is a common threat to official websites in today’s world. The risk to cyber crimes are increasing as the world is getter more dependent on internet usage and accessibility. The companies that are using websites and internet access to transact business has to make sure risk free environment to prevent their customers from suffering and also preventing the company from an bad image. Just like other reputed brands Zara is also using their official website for transacting business. They are committed to their customers for securing their password and credit card information’s. The company enables its own security system by providing the user password to recognize their customers and keep a track of them. They also remind their customers to change their password after a certain interval of time. The credit card information’s are encrypted. The payments through master cards and visa card are transacted through secured systems. The bank confirms the authority about the card then only the company charges from the customer’s card. They have a separate section for clarifying the customer’s security payment system (Sun, 2013). The company tries to keep a well-framed security system however, there are few issues faced by the customers. It has been found in reviews that the customer’s credit card was used fraudulently and the customer’s computer has identified this site as an unsafe site. Thus, there is a suspect that the hacking site was Zara’s official website. However, there is a dual situation for every system. The company has to develop a better security system to make sure that the customers are not facing any issue regarding their transaction as it can damage the company reputation and online trade of the business.
The e-commerce system enables the customers to purchase the products sitting at home. The advanced technology has helped the generation to improve their level of comfort and ease to the market, thus enabling to shop by not being physically present at the stores. The introduction of e-commerce and advanced technology is helping both the entities of business. The salesperson as well the customers are using this system to sell and buy products. This system has helped to improve the business skills and produce a lot variety of stock to the customers in a short span of time. the online stores help the customers from a far extend to view the product and receives the product knowledge. The customers can buy product from different culture and country sitting in one single place. The same has happened for an international brand Zara. The company is now easily available to the customers who were not well aware of this brand or may be could not reach the brand due to unavailability. The customers are able to purchase their products, receive the information about the offers and discounts of the products, the customers are getting information about the new arrival products and can buy them accordingly. This is increasing the company sale in the international market and bringing a huge profit to the company (Katawetawaraks & Wang, 2013). However, the web page needs to be well designed and maintained for a better sale in the market. The brand is most of their products due to their brand image in the market. The web page that is used by the company is not up to the marks and needs rectifications for a better sale in the online stores of Zara.
The website of Zara has several measures to communicate with the customers (Chow & Shi, 2014). They send an email to the customers when an order is placed, which serves to be the confirmation mail. A customer retention mail is also sent to those who register themselves online. The company also ensures communication with the customers through the number given in the “contact us” section of the page that lies at the bottom of the site. The company also ensures privacy policies of the customers and renders free home delivery recently that has enabled an increase in demand of the people (Jung & Jin, 2014). The site also has the return policies given in the site that is thoroughly maintained by the brand. However, the site does not include any online chat options or fax number that proves to be degrading its site to certain extent. The lack of impersonal set up often end up with customer retentions from using the website for purchases, it being an automated system (Thakur & Kaur, 2015). The website must integrate better measures in the website to reach to the customers and help them in need. An improvement in customer care services is an essential requisite for the website that would accelerate the online costumer communication resulting in profitable outcomes in Zara’s e-commerce (Al-Qeisi et al., 2014).
The SEO strategy is a competitive marketing tool used by online retailers. It is a strategy used by online retailers to build a successful internet business. The company has a good access in web world. They are only famous in popular cities and locations. In Google, the title tag is only top line information above the URL. The title tag describes the website. The website has a description of women, kids and men apparel. They also show the new arrivals and latest trends in the site. The customers have to give 69-70 keywords to identify the products. The online page is more flash oriented. The common keywords that identify the brand are very less (GUNAWAN, KELLY & TARIGAN, 2018). The company must increase their keywords for identifying and searching the products of this brand.
The company does not have any affiliation with any other brands. Inditex who is also the owner of few other brands like Pull&Bear, Massimo, owns Zara. It has page in facebook, twitter, instagram to create brand awareness in the social world (Gamboa & Goncalves, 2014).
The official site of Zara is available on the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox, internet explorer, Google Chrome. The mobile site is more convenient and easier to access in comparison to the computer monitor. The system can be designed further and ease the accessibility to the customer by changing few required things in the website. The company can access the technology in a better way (Gamboa & Goncalves, 2014). There are few drawbacks in the technical field of the website, which has to be considered by the company, and thus required changes must be made. The shopping site should be made more convenient to the customers so that the brand can become more popular in future.
Conclusion:
A detailed analysis of the Zara website suggests that there are many requirements for the company to develop its website to be more effective in e-commerce and trade. Being a leading company in the apparel industry, the company must strive to work on developing its website. The brand has been significantly losing its repute for the disorganized and lack of efficiency of the website that has been criticized on several grounds. The promising quality that the company provides with the production of apparels focusing on the expectations of the people, Zara has been on the high esteem of people from all around the world. However, the performance of the website and its presentation has completely diverged from the facilities one get in the stores. The company has incorporated modern technologies and tried to induce modern steps as is observed in the site that has face book, twitter or you tube links of the company to be followed for updates. However, presence of many other loopholes in the website leads to the obligation for Zara to improve the site in order to channelize their e-commerce capabilities reaching more people in no time. As a practitioner of e-commerce, Zara must strive to initiate methods to improve communications with the customers so that interactions are more effective. This would add smoothness in the trade of the company over e-commerce. Zara has also not resorted to take the advantage of SEO that has kept it lagging behind compared to the other apparel website markets. It must aim to improve the navigation process and product pages and reduce the images with an increase in information of the products. The marketing site of Zara also lacks the option of getting customer reviews and feedback from customers that is a very essential part on any e-commerce site. Thus, Zara has a brand though has the potential to occupy greater preference by people all around the world to sell its wide range of products that are both unique and modern, yet the online site that it has does not have the same potential to attract the customers. With the improvement of the e-commerce factors, Zara would be able to sustain its fame as the leading brand in the competitive apparel industry.
References:
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