Реферат: From Brick And Mortar To Click And
Selling Power?s original E-commerce goals were modest. In 1998, the company decided to incorporate a website into the company?s business model to enable customers to access additional information about sales. The website consisted of several pages of information dealing with past articles from the magazine. This approach did not prove successful because the information was difficult to retrieve, and it offered subscribers nothing in addition to the traditionally published products they already received. Selling Power hired several web-page developers to improve the website, and while each offered a new perspective, the website still was not an asset to the company.
In September of 2000, the Selling Power decided to hire a web contractor with E-commerce experience to analyze the website and assess whether the website could eventually benefit the company or whether the company should focus on another E-commerce venue. Concurrently, the company was experiencing a decline in the number of paid subscriptions, as well as a decline in product sales. These declines seemed to indicate that Selling Power?s average consumers were losing interested in purchasing hard copy subscriptions.
The contractor, Mr. Schindler, had some definitive ideas about the website and the focus that Selling Power should adopt for the future. He felt that the company would definitely benefit from improving the website, and he was subsequently hired to develop a long-term implementation plan. The first step in the planning process was to establish the corporate goals. Mr. Schindler worked with the Selling Power leadership to develop the following nine goals for Selling Power: (a) empower the company to take advantage of the internet to expand its global reach within the sales industry, (b) increase revenues for the company, (c) increase sales training opportunities for subscribers of the magazine as well as other visitors to the website, (d) attract high volume website hits to increase exposure to the magazine and to the products of Selling Power, (e) provide resources for sales professionals, (f) provide a business-to-business (B2B) marketplace ? a directory for buyers and sellers within the sales industry, (g) provide on-line career channels for sales professionals, (h) attract and retain customers via the Internet and (i) reduce the costs of maintaining the website.
The next step in the planning process was to conduct an on-line market overview for the sales industry. Approximately 56 percent of all companies will sell their products over the Internet by the end of 2001, according to a survey of Chief Financial Officers, conducted by Duke University. (A. Schindler, personal communication, December 2000) Based on this and other projection data provided by the contractor, Selling Power was motivated to continue pursuit of the project. This motivation was prompted by their recognition that they would risk being ?left behind? their competition by not participating and by the following advantages to participation. Two of the advantages of a website market are the relatively low costs and the opportunities for global reach. There is also the opportunity for new growth by using the Internet. In addition to selling products over the web, training sessions, conferences, seminars and research opportunities could also be added. Most importantly, Selling Power could be accessible to an unlimited audience with a quality website.
The company also had to identify its major competitors and analyze the Internet opportunities their competition was offering. The primary competitor is Sales and Marketing Magazine ?. While they maintain a website, their main focus appears to be informational rather than product sales. Selling Power viewed this as an advantageous situation because its primary competitor offered little more than brocureware. Consequently, selling Power decided to offer sales professionals a different portal with more options.
Selling Power?s website implementation plan has been evolving in a continuous and ongoing process. At the outset, the contractor provided a basic website development plan to ?launch? the improved website as quickly as possible. However, he is continuing his research to identify areas for improvement and features that could be added to the website. He conducted interviews with company personnel, observed customer service to gain an understanding the overall process of selling the company?s products, held conferences with financial managers to determine available spending money for the project, and observed traffic on the current website. All of these actions have been part of the continuous processes to make the website perform at its optimal level.
The contractor also advised Selling Power that the following characteristics are necessary to make its website ?great?: (a) must provide value for the consumer, (b) must be user friendly, (c) must be well organized, (d) must be ?sticky? (the term ?sticky? refers to making the customer want to return to the website), (e) must be professional, (f) must be global, (g) must be informational, (h) must be educational, (i) must be resourceful, (j) must be secure and (k) must be reliable.
In adhering to the contractor?s recommendations, Selling Power has identified specific areas for improvement to its website.
The current site offers the opportunity to purchase products on-line, but the credit card information is not secure. The user enters the credit card information and then it is transferred via email to the customer service department, allowing the opportunity for this information to be transferred into the wrong hands. Selling power recognizes that customers will be reluctant to provide credit card information to an un-secure website. The company is working on establishing a relationship with its current credit card processing center so that all credit card orders can be approved on-line in a secure environment.
There are also problems with the purchase of magazine subscriptions. There are two areas of concern. First, it appears that many sales people prefer to read information on-line, versus a hard copy of the magazine. Currently, the magazine provides access to the entire website archive, with minimal or no fee. The web contractor suggested that Selling Power provide access to some articles with no charge, but the issues that contain articles with special information, such as the Selling Power 500 (similar to the Forbes 500), should only provide enticing tidbits. This will produce more revenue because people will be willing to purchase these articles on-line in order to have the information.
The ability to actually purchase the magazine on-line is also an area that needs improvement. Currently, any visitor to the website can purchase a subscription to the magazine, with three trial issues, and then cancel with no payment. This falsely increases the amount of accounts receivable revenue because a majority of the subscribers cancel upon receiving the invoice. The contractor suggested that Selling Power change its on-line payment process for subscriptions.
Implementing a website with all of the envisioned capabilities at Selling Power is an ongoing process that will take approximately eighteen months to complete (the projected completion date is March 2002). The contractor has presented many ideas that might improve traffic and increase sales on the website. However, not all of the proposals will work for the company. It will take time to introduce different ideas and monitor the response from the customers. To-date, Selling Power has had success in making the following improvements to its website:
1. The company has implemented the on-line credit card processing. The customer can no longer order a product without paying first. By eliminating the pay later feature, the number of subscriptions has been slightly reduced, but the value of receiving paid subscription orders is a positive step for the company.
2. Selling Power now offers product specials to increase sales. Sales have greatly increased because of this option. It also encourages customers to return to the site on a regular basis to purchase products. This has definitely been a positive enhancement to the website.
3. Contests offering thought provoking challenges to people within the sales profession, with a chance to win money, seems to have increased traffic on the site. These visitors are not necessarily buying products but they are reading the information provided and it has the potential to attract subscribers in the future.
Currently, Selling Power is working on enhancing the website by making navigation easier. More color has been added to the site and more links have been added, but more work is still needed in this area. The company is also creating an on-line career channel as another enticement to attract visitors. This is a new area for Selling Power, and will take several months to develop.
Overall, the corporate website for Selling Power has improved, and the results have been very positive. Sales have increased from approximately $6,500 per month to approximately $12,000 per month. The traffic to the site grows every week. The company is receiving positive feedback from its customers. There will still be a period of trial and error, but the company realizes that, while not every proposal will benefit the company, the money invested in this contractor will be far less than the benefits it will receive. Creating a corporate website definitely appears to have been the right decision for Selling Power.
A Javier Romero Design Group Web Implementation Plan
The Appendix contains an actual website implementation plan proposed by JRDG. The plan is extremely lengthy (160 pages) and detailed. It was also prepared specifically for an organization titled the Strategic Research Institute (SRI), a conference and information company. The plan addresses SRI?s needs, and it is not generic in nature. Still, the research team believed that it is a good example of an experienced web developer?s development proposal.
The research team studied the JRDG plan to ascertain whether it incorporated the textbook steps cited above. The purpose of making this comparison was to determine whether real world website developers actually practice the methodology described in the researched text sources. An exact procedural match was not anticipated, so the team searched for substantial similarities to, and significant differences from, the methodology cited above. Because of the SRI specific nature of the proposal, the reader is forced to interpret some of the material and make inferences regarding similarities and differences.
Embedded in the plan (see Appendix) are proposed steps for incorporating the following characteristics into the SRI website: (a) value for the customer and SRI, (b) user friendliness, (c) ease of use, (d) site organization, (e) making the site ?sticky,? (f) leadership, (g) professional appearance, (h) global capabilities, (i) value as an informational source, (j) value as an educational source, (k) resourcefulness, (l) E-commerce capabilities, (m) security and (n) reliability. The plan also proposes detailed methodology for incorporating the following capabilities: (a) the ability to access and retrieve company, product and service information, (b) customer support for conference and information management, (c) the ability to interact with customers, and (d) the ability to conduct transactions for products and services electronically. The plan does not appear to address methods (i.e. data warehousing) for personalizing interaction with customers or for developing a community among customers. It is not clear whether the latter characteristics have been omitted intentionally or not.
Analysis
Selling Power analysis.
In comparing Selling Power?s experience in with the textbook steps described above, the research team made the following findings:
1. Selling Power does not appear to have conducted any significant research before initiating its movement into the E-commerce arena.
2. Initially, the company did not develop a strategic plan for entering into the E-commerce arena. Only after experiencing initial failure did Selling Power seek professional help in developing its plan.
3. Selling Power had little success with the first few contractors hired to help develop its E-commerce site. The research team assumes that these contractors had experience as website developers but little or no experience in E-commerce.
4. Based on the interview results provided during research, it appears that the strategic plan, developed by the contractor and Selling Power, did incorporate the majority of the steps and elements required for a successful venture into E-commerce.
5. Selling Power?s plan appears to provide a competitive edge over its key competitor.