• Posted on October 22, 2020
• Unique Submission Team

E-BUSINESS STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION FOR MARKS AND SPENCER COMPANY

Section 1

1. Management strategy of the retail site

Retail management mainly refers to the process that helps the customers to get the products of their own strategy and also to use the products for their personal purpose. As per Xu et al, (2018), in the case of an online retail site, this can be observed that social media used to provide extra benefits for the company to increase the sales of their products.

Along with this, the management strategy also provides the chance to interact with the customers and to get feedback about their products and the idea about the competitors in the market.

Marks and Spencer company is one of the leading retailer companies in London that also has its own online business services. The company mainly provides its services to the consumer in the field of clothing sectors, food products and also different home products.

As per the recent data the company has approximately 32 million customers that are attached to the sales of the company and thus helps to increase the reputation of the company in the market (corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2019).

It can be observed that the company has established a very well position in the market due to its servicing system, the quality of the products and lastly trust and values for 125 years.

The estimated group revenue of the company as per the year 2019, is about £ 10.4 billion and the revenue for clothes is approximate £ 3.5 billion whereas £ 5.9 billion for the food product (corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2019).

Figure 1: Overview of the budget and revenue of Marks and Spencer company

(Source: corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2019)

Return on investment is generally used to calculate the loss or gain achieved by the company on an investment that has been invested by the company. This return on investment is generally expressed as the percentage and generally calculated to analyze personal financial decisions.

According to Spil et al, (2016), this also helps to understand the profitability of the company and also helps to compare this value with the competitors to get the proper financial idea of the company.

In order to calculate the value of the return on investment, first, the benefit of investment of the company along with the cost of investment is noted down. After this, the benefit of investment value is divided by the cost of investment and the final result is expressed in the form of a percentage.

2. Major components of the idea

Marks and Spencer is one of the most famous retailer sites in London that used to provide service in the field of fashionable attires, a variety of healthy food and also several home products.

From the view of Islam, (2016), it can be clearly observed that the brand value of Marks and Spencer is mainly dependent on the quality, service, value for the customers, innovation strategy and ultimately the trust from customers. The main mission of the company is to provide the best quality of products in every field like the clothing sector or food or even in the case of home products.

The company has the aim to build the inspirational quality of products so that it can be accessed by every people. It also used to serve a variety of products which will help to make a separate space for them in the market. On the other hand, the main objective of the company is to generate a sustainable business that will support consistent and profitable growth in order to retain their position in the market.

Figure 2: Overview of the company service

(Source: corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2019)

It can be clearly observed that the idea of providing the best quality of products has made it possible to gain trust from the customers. As the company has the main aim to serve the best quality of products, it can be observed that it has helped to gain the trust of the customers.  According to Scott and Walker, (2017), along with this, the company has also provided both offline and online business option that also helps the company to attract more customers. Along with this, the company has also enabled the features to provide feedback by the customers which have helped the company to fit its mission and vision in their business strategy. Based on the feedback, the company was able to evaluate the quality of their products and thus it helps to compete with the competitors.

3. Review against competitors

Marks and Spencer has a widespread business in the market of London but it has several competitors that include next.co.uk, debenhams.com, johnlewis.com, asda.com and many more. The competitor’s review of the company is has been analyzed with the help of the Alexa tool and the analysis has been done in detail (alexa.com, 2019).

Figure 3: Different competitors of Marks and Spencer

(Source: alexa.com, 2019)

Traffic data is important data that has been specifically designed for the developers of the company who have web services.It has the advantage to create a web application that helps to understand the historical data based on traffic for the online business site.

It can be observed that most of the online business used to generate traffic stats that help to analyze the effectiveness of the online business. In the case of Marks and Spencer, the traffic source is approximate 47.2% which is comparatively lower than next.co.uk, debenhams.com (alexa.com, 2019).

It provides strong competition with the John Lewis Company because the traffic source for this company is 48.3%. On the contrary, the Marks and Spencer company has beat the company Asda as per the traffic results.

Figure 4: Traffic sources of Marks and Spencer and their competitors

(Source: alexa.com, 2019)

Figure 5: Comparison of audience overlap

(Source: alexa.com, 2019)

It can be observed that 77% of the person using the internet has been visited on the site of Marks and Spencer and it can be estimated that 1.4 more users will like to visit the business page online (alexa.com, 2019).

Figure 6: Alexa ranking for Marks and Spencer

(Source: alexa.com, 2019)

According to the Alexa ranking, the online site of Marks and Spencer has ranked in 5,647 as per the present situation. As per the record of 90days ago, the company has secured the rank of 6,076 which has been reduced with the time and therefore it is important to adopt a more effective strategy in the business in order to improve their status (alexa.com, 2019).

4. Top-level technologies plan including choices of technology

Marks and Spencer company has re-launched its e-commerce website in the year 2014 and after that, it has experienced a rise in sales by 38.7%. Web development comes with a different set of rules and regulations that helps to make a user-friendly web site which will make the shopping very easy.

From the view of Toms and Zhang, (2016), it can be observed that there are main three languages that are required to know while developing any website. Javascript, CSS, and HTML are the main languages that have been used by the Marks and Spencer Company in order to develop a proper website for their online business purpose.

It can be observed that while building the proper website for any company, it is important to select a proper browser and Google chrome is one of the famous browsers that the company can use. After this, it is important to learn the HTML and CSS (Cascading Style sheets) that will help to understand how the HTML will work.

In order to develop the website, the company can use the Angular framework which is the latest web technology (corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2019). This framework helps to develop dynamic web applicants which will provide the chance to create front end applications without the need for any other applications.

5. Websites improvement strategy

In order to enhance the online business and to increase profitability, it is important to improve web sites. Different web sites improvement strategies are as follows-

• It is important to add value to the website to attract more customers.
• Incorporation of website navigation helps the user to find out what they are looking for and thus make the shopping process user-friendly (Brady and Rehbeck, 2016).
• The website must have the call to action option. This helps to direct the users about what to do after selecting the products.
• The website must contain the social proof which will help the user to access the site more effectively (Weiner et al, 2018).

6. Storyboard for user experience

Security management mainly refers to as the protection of online assets which is then followed by the development, the proper documentation of the assets and also the implementation of the policy to protect the assets. As per Jensen and White, (2018), it can be observed that there is a high risk of cyber hacking in the case of online business.

As the online business deals with the direct transaction of cash from the customers, therefore, there is a high-level chance for fraud or duplication of products. Therefore, while performing the online business, it is important to incorporate IT security technology so that it can prevent any hacking during transactions.

Along with this, it also provides the facility to identify the culprit if any kind of cyber hacking has been taken place. In spite of this, there are different tools that are effective for providing security management, like Anti-malware, Mobile device management, authentication and authorization, network access control and many more.

7. Security management and technology decisions

8. Feasibility

The feasibility study mainly refers to the analysis that discusses the details of the factors which play a great impact on the project. This discusses about the technological, legal, economical and also scheduling considerations so that the project can run successfully.

In general, the feasibility analysis is mainly done for nay business when the business has the aim to enlarge its branch or is going to enter a new sector. As per Yates and Marra, (2017), the feasibility study helps to understand the crucial information about the risk measures while entering into a new sector.

For example, when the Marks and Spencer company has a plan to enlarge their business in the online site, therefore, it is important for the company first to measure the risk in the online field.

It can be done by asking different questions from the stakeholders and also by collecting different feedbacks from the stakeholders to get solid information about the market. There are several risks or barriers for Marks and Spencer Company in order to perform the online business, which is described below-

• Attract more customers: It can be observed that there are a number of online shops that used to sell branded and fashionable clothes to the customers. The viewers used to compare the products in different sizes and it can be observed that each of the sites has a different level of presentation. As a result of this, it is important to create a more attractive presentation in order to attract more customers (Lipitakis and Phillips, 2016).
• Generating targeted traffic: It can be observed that all the digital marketing channels are improving and also adopting different technologies in their system. As a result of this, the retailers are not able to rely on only the type of channel in order to drive their traffic. From the view of Liu et al, (2018), SEO, PPC, different social sites, display advertisements, and many other sectors the company can use to drive their traffic. Along with this, it is important to pay more attention to where the audience is paying more attention and thus needs to strengthen that part.

Section 2

1. E-Business strategy for a business domain

E-business strategy mainly refers to as the essential part while conducting business through the internet. This strategy includes both the short term and long term goals that will help to grow the business in the proper manner. Some of the most important e-business strategy that needs to be followedis as follows-.

• Increase search usability: It can be observed that there are two types of visitors that generally used to visit different sites of online companies. Among these, a group of visitors knows what to buy while the other visitors generally come and used to browse the site. Therefore, it is important to increase the search usability of the company website so that it attracts more visitors to buy from their sites. As per Pantano and Dennis, (2019), there is another type of customer who used to search for the items and used to compare the quality and price with the others. As a result of this, the website must include all these properties so that they can meet with the demand of the customers.
• Use of high-quality photographs and proper descriptions: Online shopping is mainly based on the featured photographs which are used to attract more visitors. It can be observed that the viewers will visit the site and will also observe the pictures of the products which they have planned to buy. As a result of this, it is important to provide high-quality photographs so that the viewers can understand all the characteristics of the products and also be able to understand the quality. According to Silvestre et al, (2017), along with this, the other most important thing is to provide a proper description of the product so that the viewers can get a rough idea about the product. For example, in the case of Marks and Spencer Company, it is advisable to provide the details of the garments, like the clothes type, size, color, material and, any more.
• Personalization of the home page: Personalization of the home page is another effective method generally used in the case of online business. In this technique, the website provides the chance to keep a record of the items that have been viewed by the customers. On their next visits, all these items have been shown along with the new suggestions. From the view of Nielsen et al, (2019), the uses of this technology can be observed in many online sites because it helps to find out the correct items by the viewers very easily. Therefore, the Marks and Spencer Company also must use this technology so that the viewers can search for the right products and there will be no difficulties while searching.
• Focus on the unique collection: It can be observed that as time has passed, the newer innovative designs, technologies as well as the ideas are taking place into the market. As influenced by the view of Yates and Marra, (2017), it is advisable to keep the online store site with the updated designs and products. In the case of Mark and Spencer Company, they provide online service in the sector of clothing, food products, and several home items. Therefore, it is advisable for the company to incorporate more unique and consistent products in its list to satisfy the needs of the customers.

This is the key part of the e-business strategy that would concentrate on developing strategy to launch electronic products effectively using social media campaign in the market. Moreover, the tools of STOP and SIT would be utilized for developing strategies for M&S for the individuals of the UK.

STOP: This method includes “Segmentation, Target Market, Objectives and Positioning”.

• Segmentation:

The marketing branch of M&S should hope to segment their clients for electronic items by Demographic, Behavioural and Psychographic division. Accordingly, it turns out to be altogether imperative to build up a social media campaign to draw in the group of customers in the UK.

• Target Markets:

The target markets that ought to be considered by M&S are Middle and High-Income group of Employees, customers, and Professionals, Females and Males of age group between 20 to 65 years, Price Sensitive people, High Society people and Technology lovers in the UK.

• Objective:

The management of M&S would need to build up their social media campaign by guaranteeing that buyers in the UK know about the launch of the new product offering of M&S which is Electronic Goods in the nation.

The substance of the campaign should hope to report the arrival of the one of the most seasoned product offering which was at one time a basic piece of the organization. This strategy if appropriately inferred by the business in their social media campaign would positively bring issues to light and make demand for their new items in the market (Nielsen et al. 2019).

• Positioning:

The management of M&S in their social media campaign must hope to execute the price positioning strategy to launch electronic items in the UK showcase. This positioning strategy would permit the organization draws in both high-salary clients just as price touchy gatherings who are progressively worried about the price of electronic items sold by the organization.

Along these lines, the price of the electronic items ought to be featured in the social media campaign to make more demand for their items in the UK market.

SIT: “This tool include “Stages, Integration and Targeting and Segmentation”.

• Sequence:

The management of M&S should hope to execute numerous successions to make mindfulness about the launch of electronic items in the UK market. At first, M&S should hope to construct mindfulness by making a social media commercial of their new items on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram through different deals limited time and associate marketing efforts.

Also, the organization should post a demo of their items online to make their clients mindful of the highlights and administrations of electronic items to be propelled in the business. Thirdly, this company should hope to furnish its clients with prompt riser online discount that would compel clients to buy their electronic goods online from their sites(Khan, 2013).

• Integration:

The management of M&S should hope to incorporate their social media campaign with their clients using different CRM apparatuses, for example, “Zendesk and Zoho CRM”. These CRM devices would enable the organization to create balanced relationship with their consumers by solving every one of their inquiries identified with the launch of electronic goods in the organization.

Thus, this organization ought to likewise hope to coordinate their new product offerings with their clients by sending limited time messages to all the devoted and new clients present in the database of the organization.

• Targeting and Segmentation:

M&S should hope to target online clients by sectioning them on their inclination of electronic items, for example, AC, television, Refrigerators and so on. The organization should hope to build up its social media campaign by guaranteeing that the online target customers on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are given every vital and important data about their new goods.

2. Future Trends

The future trends of Marks & Spencer can be determined by the analysis of the existing trends in the organization. The management strategy of the domain company, Marks & Spencer greatly influences the future direction of the company. Along with the management strategy, the investments, stakeholders and the innovation efforts initiated by the company can also help in determining and forecasting the future trends of the company.

The high return on the investment of the company can contribute to the future development of the Marks & Spencer (Lipitakis and Phillips, 2016). On the other hand, the relationships with internal and external stakeholders of the Marks & Spencer also help in determining the future trends of the company. In addition, the efforts on the development of innovations management strategy and customer services strategy of the company give sing for the future trends which may occur in the Marks & Spencer’s.

Mark and Spencer also use personalization and customization tools. Create selected premiumpages for all important corporate customers. This page shows all the products included inthe purchase agreement with the company and special pricing based on that agreement.

It ensuresthat accurate prices for every purchase will get by the company employees constantly. It is saidby the company that they are encouraging their employees always for buying Dress materials from premierpage. Mark and Spencer integrate e-commerce websites with entire back-office systems.

Thus, atthe time garments are ordered by the consumer, the info is automatically conveyed to the systemof production, ensuring the unit is built to the specification, and customer service is improved(Khan, 2013).

Mark & Spencer will notify you immediately of production problems and improper supply of supplies. As technology evolves and matures, the capability for evaluating the effect of e-

commerce becomes more important. Internet-related technologies, especially privacy, security

and protection of intellectual property, have weakened the economy as a precondition for the

commercial success of democratic political institutions and regulators.The following can be the major future trends of the company according to the existing trends of Marks &Spencer’s:

• International expansion of the company: In the future, Marks & Spencers Company can achieve more expansion in the global markets. The supply chain system and online retailing process of the company can impress the customers of the global context and can establish their business in different countries. The quality of the products and services of Marks & Spencer’s can help in the company in their expansion process in different countries of the world (Liu et al, 2018). The international expansion of Marks & Spencer’s can contribute to the growth of the annual revenue of the company.
• Digital Marketing: The marketing and business through the digital process can be one of the major future trends of Marks & Spencer’s. Digital marketing through different international digital platforms and sites can greatly contribute to the development of the company. The emergence of the new devices and equipment in Information technology and Artificial Intelligence platforms can help the digital marketing process of Marks & Spencer’s (Pantano and Dennis, 2019).
• Innovative and improved customer services: One of the future trends which can help in the growth of Marks & Spencer is the innovative and improved customer services. The innovative ways of providing customer services can increase the percentage of the global customers of the company and help in increasing the annual revenues of the company (Silvestre et al, 2017). The customer services of the Marks & Spencer can be improved through adding a new product in the list, feedback opportunities to the customers, convenient and free home delivery facilities. In addition, Marks & Spencer can implement customized services providing processes based on customer behaviors researches and surveys.
• High domestic growth and major contribution in the GDP: One of the notable future trends of the Marks & Spencer can be the high domestic growth of the company and the high contribution in the Gross Domestic Product of the United Kingdom. Along with the development and growth of the company through the establishment of digital marketing process, innovative customer services process and new technology the company can contribute to the GDP (Nielsen et al, 2019). High domestic growths along with the high pay scales of the employees, great investments and profitable return on investment can be one of the most important Future Trends of the Marks & Spencer’s.
• Increased sales and revenue:From the future perspectives of Marks & Spencer, it can be predicted that the sales and revenue of the company are going to increase. The future trends of the company are going to adds multiple new and innovative items in the carts which can encourages the global customers to purchases from the company (Goyalet al, 2019). The improvement in the stocks and quality of the products of the Marks & Spencer can influence the buying behaviors of the global customers.
• Innovative supply chain management:One of the future trends of the Marks & Spencer can be the innovative supply chain management system of the company. Recently the company has been focus improvement process of supply chain management. The implementation of the temperature controlling process in the transportation vehicles of the Marks & Spencer can help the company maintain the quality of their product. The future trends of the supply chain management of the Marks & Spencer can greatly contribute to the development and growth of the company (Graysonet al, 2018). It can help in maintaining good customerrelationshipsby providing fresh and better quality fruits and other products. The innovative supply chain management system of the Marks & Spencer can help in the process of on-time delivery and waste control process of the company.
• High Market Competitions:Competing in the global markets can be one of the future trends of Marks & Spencer’s. In the upcoming years, global market competition can be increased very rapidly. The high market competition can bring new and innovative strategies and approaches in the company in order to dominants the competitor’s companies. The increase of the markets competition can influences the quality, customer services and supply chain process of the Marks & Spencer. The quality of the product must be improved in order to meet the international standards which can influence the buying behaviors of the customer. In addition, improvement in the customer’s services such as polite behaviors of the staff, feedback opportunities, and awards programs can help in the market competition (Romero and Vernadat, 2016). However, the improved supply chain networks of the Marks & Spencer’s by implementing innovative techniques can promote success in the market competitions of the company.
• The problem is that numerous websites don’t provide enough information and alternatives at all four levels. For example, websites offer answers about the item yet don’t answer the questions that customers have at the top of the priority list. Otherwise, it’s time for the customer to purchase, however not enough payment alternatives to place the first order. The second problem arises when e-commerce ventures are not properly integrated into the enterprise. As indicated by the magazine survey, most companies consider e-commerce not as a business, however as a feature of the responsibility of an information system (IS) staff. Ordinarily, sales and marketing professionals help develop an e-commerce website, yet the ultimate increases and losses come from are professionals. This is a significant factor that upsets the e-commerce strategy. Units that produce merchandise and ventures are not directly responsible for the sale of the web (Scott and Walker, 2017).
• The encouraging trend is that more and more companies are beginning to decentralize the situation to create e-commerce sites in separate business units, as each gathering is responsible for being a piece of the corporate intranet. As one of the largest sales volumes of a web-based business, the association has optimized its site with the nature of the item and customer preferences. This site is significantly personalized. After registration, each guest to the site will be welcomed by name. Site content is furthermore customized. Mark and Spencer use software-based pattern recognition to compare the customer’s purchase history with the overall record of exchange and to make a summary of suggested books that match their interests and preferences. The association has an exceptionally integrated customer service support system that permits customer service representatives to access all information about each customer’s exchange, purchase information and security measures. The system supports correspondence using email, fax and telephone. It helps create a network of users through a collaborative program. This program enables websites to have hyperlinks directly to the site. Every time the customer purchases a dress on the website, a piece of the website owner’s exchange revenue is available.
• Competitive advantages opportunities: Opportunities form the competitive advantages of the market competition can be one of the important future trends of Marks & Spencer’s. Along with the rise of the market competition the competitive advantages opportunities can also increase for the company. The implementation of the collaboration and partnerships strategy with the regional and small companies can help in the growth of the company. The opportunities created by the competitive advantages of the Marks &Spencer can contribute to the growth of the internal and external stakeholders of the company (Wilson, 2016). The salary and allowances of the employees can be increased along with the development of the company. On the other hand, the investor of the company can get high returns in their investments.

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