Clicks & Mortar

Internet sales as a proportion of the overall sales in the economy are rising at an extreme rate, up from under three percent in 2007 to well over 10 percent in 2013. what this means is a switch in focus for many retailers, to capture this new market.

One example of this major industry shift is in groceries, which have great potential online, being one of the most commonly visited stores by most, simply having everything delivered can save the customers hours a week, while saving the super market money.

 

Almost all of the super markets have some form of online delivery service, all of them offering almost every product from their physical store available for delivery. However, some of them offer better services and offers than others, for instance sainbury's website appears to be very out dated, whereas ocado (being an online only super market) has a variety of features not available through sainsbury's store, making it a lot easier to use.

E-Commerce Online Shopping

Purchasing Items online is generally considred to be a simple process, being a lot more convenient than buying the item in person, and while this is true many do. not appreciate the process that goes into signing up to these websites, which although streamlined can ofter be a lengthy process. For instance, here is the process used for signing up for a tesco clubcard online (which is then used to manage online shopping through tesco)

First of all you are greeted by an option to choose between having a club card already, and not. Selecting not will bring you to a signup screen

 Here you enter all of your information, so that they can keep track of all of your informationa nd tie it to the card, as well as fill out a security code to confirm you are human,

 

Then an email will be sent to your inbox, to confirm your email address is correct (and also as another check that you are human)

 

 

 

 

 After all of these steps, you will recieve a confirmation message confirming a card has been sent to you, and will arrive in a few weeks time.

 

 

 

Doing Business on the Web - Growing the Customer Base

Doing business on the internet is quickly becoming one of the key strategies employed by traditional stores, as a way to get customers business without them ever having to leave their own home. As these do not use the stores physical capacity, they have great potential for savings on the part of the supermarket. However, as all the super markets want a piece of the market, the only way to encourage differentiation in the market is with compeititve pricing and offers, creating a highly compeititve online marketplace.