IT assignment on : Online shopping group of Australia.

INTRODUSTION

Catch of the day is an online shopping group of Australia. On its website it says that it is Australia’s No. 1 Online shopping group. It has also other websites associated with it which are scoopon.com.au, vinomofo.com, and groceryrun.com.au. The website is involved mainly in the business of electronic items, televisions, toys, home wares and fashion etc. Catch of the day started in 2006 in Victoria. The website works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Currently total number of the registered users on the websites is more than 2 million and catch of the day has become able to manage it with its advertising efforts.The business of the websites can be explained with the fact that it has sold more than 3400 laptops of Toshiba, 320,000 chocolates of Ferrero Rocher and Samsung televisions of worth more than $1.4 Million within 24 hours. Catch of the day also takes care of the purchase requirements of the mothers and it has developed a new website mumgo.com.au for mothers where they can purchase stuffs required for their kids. Company’s goal is to become the number one e – commerce group of Australia with the help of its four running websites. Catch of the day wants to reach as many people as possible to enhance its market reach and it is ready to launch new websites for achieving its goals (Catch of the day 2012).

DOMAIN OF THE WEBSITE

While searching the website on www.whoismydomain.com following information is gathered:

REVENUE MODEL

Internet has come as a revolution in the world of business. Every company has its own websites today to promote and sell its products and services. In the age of internet e – commerce saw a rapid growth. There are thousands of online shopping companies in every developing and developed country today. Similarly, Catchoftheday.com.au is a leading online shopping company in Australia. These online shopping companies have a revenue model which is based on the business type of the company. A company which sells physical good will work on a different revenue model than a company which sells services. Catchoftheday.com.au is an online shopping company which deals in physical goods and hence its revenue model is according to it (Hashem 2008).For selling physical good a company is required having warehouses where it can keep its stock, shipping to deliver the ordered products, arrangements for the products which are rejected and returned, and an excellent customer service. All these things require high level of investment. Not only proper amount of money is required but also the time is very essential in this model as in delivering the products enough time is consumed. But the important thing is that company can charge for all the efforts which it makes to deliver the products and consumers happily pay for the services that they get from the company. In this manner catchoftheday.com.au runs a successful revenue model (Carter, B, B 2010).

With the help of above mentioned physical goods revenue model catch of the day has become able to manage revenue of $250 million in the current financial year of 2012. This revenue was expected $ 100 million in financial year of 2010 – 2011. Company opened a small warehouse in Melbourne few years ago and currently has a customer base of 1.5 million. Company is also planning to open two new divisions of its business as well as recruiting hundreds of the employees for that (Stafford, P 2011).

STRATEGIC ALLIANCES OF CATCHOFTHEDAY.COM.AU

Strategic alliance is nothing but a relationship between two or more parties to pursue a common goal together. These companies mutually agree to accomplish their business activities together to fulfill their business needs but they remain independent organizations. There are many examples of strategic alliances available such as a company of oil and natural gas can have a strategic alliance with research centers so that it can get better recovery processes, a retailer of clothing can have a strategic alliance with a manufacturer of clothes etc. Similarly, an online shopping company can have strategic alliances with shipping companies, logistic management companies, the companies whom products they sell and so on. Catch of the day also has strategic alliances which are described below:

As we have already discussed that the company deals in electronic goods, televisions, fashion and toys; it has strategic alliances with the manufacturing companies of these sectors. Some of them are listed below:Asus

• Samsung
• LG
• Sennheiser
• Acer
• Seagate
• Toshiba
• Kraft Foods
• Anolon
• Philips
• Tomtom
• Hp
• Navman
• Funtastic
• Belkin
• Atari
• Breville
• Cygnett
• Grundig
• Imation
• TDK
• TEAC
• JVC
• Swann
• L’OREAL etc

WEB STANDARDS CHECKLIST

Web standards checklist will tell us about the quality of the website of Catch of the day. There are many questions which need to get answered to understand the quality of the website. Here quality means usability, accessibility, user friendliness and search engine friendliness of the website. Some of the questions are answered in brief taking catchoftheday.com.au into the consideration.

• Does the site use a correct Doctype?

A Doctype provides information about the version of (X)HTML to the validator. Catchoftheday.com.au uses a correct doctype which is DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional.

• Does the site use a character set?

With the help of character set a browser becomes able to detect the character encoding and hence it gets the readable text. Obviously catchoftheday.com.au uses character set which is iso-8859-1 (Web Quantified 2012)

• Does the site use valid (X)HTML and CSS ?

Catchoftheday.com.au uses valid (X)HTML and CSS as the document appearance of the website is not botched. Text to HTML ratio of the website is 21.06%

• How does the site perform in terms of speed/page size?

Performance of the website of catchoftheday.com.au is very good as when we go to open the links given on the website we get the easy access to the information given on the webpage. We don’t have to wait to see the webpage of catchoftheday.com.au. The speed of the website is approximately 1.511 seconds and 52% of the site is faster.

• What is the degree of separation between content and presentation?

The degree of separation between content and presentation is high as the website uses CSS for all the aspects of presentation. The font, color, heading are perfect on the website. Catchoftheday.com.au uses headings H1, H2, H3 and H4 for its presentation.

• How is the accessibility of the website to the users?

Accessibility of the website is excellent. The website uses alt and tab attributes for the proper accessibility. As the website is in the business of selling goods of different industries it needs to give pictures on its web pages and the pictures use colors, fonts etc. Website has managed all the aspects of accessibility successfully (Web Quantified 2012).

• How is the accessibility of the website for devices?

Accessibility of catchoftheday.com.au for devices is also good. It can get opened easily by any browser. The content and images on the web pages of catchoftheday.com.au are equally accessible with all the browsers. Also the performance of the site is excellent in hand handled devices.

• How is the basic usability of the website?

Basic usability of the website is very good as the content on the website is properly categorized with the help of headings and images. Navigation system on the site is perfect and the language used by the site is English which is consistent and appropriate. The only problem with the site is that it doesn’t have sitemap or contact page and since the website is involved in many products it display a large amount of information on the web pages and users have to scroll down to see all the information but all these things are not difficult (Max Design 2004).

MARKETING

Basic marketing strategy

Basic marketing strategy of the website can be explained by the 4Ps of marketing which it uses to achieve its strategic objective. Website uses products of many industries e.g. electronics, televisions, toys and fashion. It sells laptops of Toshiba, Asus etc; televisions of Samsung and LG and so on. A long range of products makes the consumer base of catch of the day very large.

If we talk about pricing strategy off the website we find that it believes in affordable pricing. Catchoftheday.com.au has differentiated itself with the help of its low cost pricing. The quality of products provided by the website is equal as its competitors but the price is low than the competitors. Company places its products in the warehouses and then the orders are placed with the help of transportation and shipping. For promotion company mainly uses internet and electronic media. So we can say that the strategy of the company is to provide better quality product in less time and in affordable prices. It also uses the strategy of limited time of deals to make its products unique and rare.

Market Segment of the website

As we all know that segmentation is done on the basis of mainly four factors demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioral. Catchoftheday.com.au also uses many of these factors for its market segmentation. If we see geographic factor we find that the website is present for all over the Australia. Taking demographic factors into our consideration we find that website takes care of the requirements of all the age groups. Laptops and personal computers are generally required by youth and office going generation, televisions are required by households, fashion stuffs takes care of the demand of ladies and gents consumers and toys division of the website understands the requirements of kids. Psychographic factors are also used by website for its market segmentation as currently the website is offering many deals related to Christmas and on Christmas people love shopping.

Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship management for an online shopping company is very essential. If there is a single customer left dissatisfied on internet, he/she will make thousands of the customers dissatisfied in very short period of time as we know that connecting with our friends and relatives on internet today is easy. Catchoftheday.com.au understands the requirements of CRM and believes in customer service excellence. Company focuses highly on the design, quality and convenience of its products and services to get it customers satisfied. It focuses in the demand on each individual customer (Nathan et al 2011).Advertising

For advertising catchoftheday.com.au uses mainly electronic media and internet. Social networking websites have become a great tool for advertising strategy of any company today and since catch of the day is an online shopping company internet is the place for its advertisements. It uses Facebook, Twitter etc for advertising its products and services. An example of the advertising efforts of the company has been given below with the help of figures:

(Source: Nathan et al 2011)

(Source: Nathan et al 2011)

Apart from above company has also its sister websites which are being used for the advertisement of the company.

LOGISTICS

Logistics is nothing but the management of the flow of resources from the point of origin to the resources so that the requirements of the company can be fulfilled. Since catch of the day sells products of other companies obviously it will require storing products in a warehouse and then it will be delivered to the consumers. There is a link given on the website (http://www.catchoftheday.com.au/suppliers.php) which shows how the website works. In this video it is shown that the company keeps its products in warehouse and then with the help of trucks the products are send to the destinations (Catch of the day 2012).

PAYMENT SYSTEM

Company uses usual payment methods. The company believes in making payments methodology as easy as possible for its consumers. The payment methodologies mainly used by catch of the day are Paypal, Debit Cards and Credit Cards. Catch of the day does not accept Amex or Diners (Catch of the day 2012). Consumers can also make their accounts on catch of the day website and can keep money in their account to purchase the products.

SECURITY

Security for an online shopping company is too important. A customer wants security for the transactions which he/she does through the websites. As well as when ordered are placed the product should reach to the consumer in a usable position. There is disclaimer given on the website regarding security of the products. The disclaimer is given below in brief:

It says that company takes care of the product and services but it does not give warranty that the products and services will be delivered without any fault. Company is ready to exclude all the liability of the customers in the case of damage or loss according to the law. But still there are some cases in which company will not be liable for the damages or loss which are errors done by consumers on the websites, failure of consumers to understand the terms and policies of the company from the website, personal problems of the consumers, if consumers use the information from the website which is unauthorized etc. Company also will not be responsible for any direct or indirect damage if the consumers had not used the proper web address which is www.catchoftheday.com.au and there are no characters before or after the address. Similarly website has given disclaimer regarding return of product and resupply of products and services (Catch of the day 2012).ANALYTICS

Analytics of the website is very clear. Website uses table form to show the products and their prices. Products are given in rows and columns. Website uses pictures of the products and below the pictures prices of the products are given. Website also has a column on the left which displays special offers. At the top of the webpage links for different requirements of the consumers are given. We can say that website uses top – down form of analytics to display it products and services.

RECOMMENDATION/CONCLUSION

With help of its marketing strategy and unique business model catch of the day has become number one online shopping company in Australia. It has crossed the mark of $ 250 million in just six years of its foundation. It has four other sister websites which helps it in achieving its strategic objectives (Gettler, L 2012). Company is also planning to launch a new website for the mothers where they can purchase stuffs for their kids. There are some improvements given below on which company can focus:

• Homepage of the company is sometimes annoying because of its large advertisement. Also the colors used on the website are dark and the time left is given in middle of the webpage. Company can bring some improvements in the display of the webpage.
• Company also needs to improve its menu bar. E.g. in the link of about us sufficient information is not given. Also it should add more links to the menu bar like contact and site map.
• Company also needs to bring some improvements in the items which it sells e.g. chocolates or laptops of Sanyo. It can go for bigger brands like Sony. The brands which consumers can get easily from an offline store should not be there in the list of catch of the day. It can focus on the products of APPLE as well.
• For advertisements company can go for print media as well like back cover of magazines and newspapers (Nathan et al 2011).

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