MOBILE COMMERCE

"Mobile Commerce is any transaction, involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods and services, which is initiated and/or completed by using mobile access to computer-mediated networks with the help of an electronic device."(Tiwari,2007).

Aggressive expansion by the mobile phone network operators has not only changed the dynamics of the mobile phone retail market but has also altered the landscape of UK retail.(Mintel,2009) With the development of 3G technology and the high speed wifi，M-commerce has been wildly used by retailers these days. According to the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO), only less than 9 million of revenues were generated by Mobile Internet and Mobile Content services together in the whole m-commerce in 2001,But after 2 years, the turnover in Great Britain was reported to be 212 million and in France 127 million (EITO, 2004). The revenue of the new and booming business jumped to $18.3 billion in 2009 and was predicted that  mobile commerce would grow into a $119 billion global industry by 2015, according to analyst Mark Beccue of ABI Research.

It is a booming market and lots of retailers are now focusing on the huge cake.

 “After losing ground to Amazon.com  for years in online retailing, eBay has emerged as a leader in a new market: mobile commerce.“(MacMillan, 2010) Meanwhile the worldwide mobile leader, which handled an estimated $800 million of merchandise in 2009, is Taobao, a unit of Chinese Web giant Alibaba Group. (MacMillan, 2010).It is really a shock that it was neither Amazon or eBay.

Consumers now increasingly shop with their BlackBerrys, iPhones, and Google's Android through apps. Condé Nast's Vogue global fashion bible has revealed it is set to launch an Apple iPad app(Mintel,2010) Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue, said: "The challenge we set ourselves was to produce something that fulfilled the Vogue values - first class contributors, unparalleled creative and production, fashion and beauty authority - while taking advantage of this new medium to bring the best of the worlds fashion, beauty and style to life at the touch of a fingertip." Within the new platform, retailers could get more close with their customers, pull and push information as well as built a long and solid relationship with consumers.

M-Commerce provide various product, information and entertainments through mobile phone. In October 2010,app issue featured rich media spots from Burberry, Chanel, Fendi, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Parfums Christian Dior, Ralph Lauren and Tiffany. People could directly buy fashion through these apps and there is an even extreme example that the most expensive example this year is a used Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder that went for $139,000. Can’t you believe that?

Another phenomenon shows that people like me can’t live without mobile. No mobile means no social contact, no information and no normal life. Mobile is only a tool of calling people, the meaning of which are far beyond. Upon this, retailers have more opportunities to do e-commerce. Marcus(2010) discussed five mobile commerce trends to keep an eye on for the remainder of 2010,

1.Bargain Hunting

Apps like Redlaser helps users to find out the low online and local price form hundreds of thousands of retailers. It is good for comparison shopping, reading product reviews and making note of a specific product. Redlaser also allow users to scan product bar codes and discover it’s various prices at different retailers(Marcus,2010).

2. Mobile Ticketing

The mobile ticket app makes buying tickets to any concert, sporting event or theater event fast and easy. For fashion retailers, any event tickets or special sale tickets could be sent in this form.

3.Banking

According to data released by comScore, 13.2 million people accessed their bank accounts from their phones during the month of April alone, which is a 70% increase from a year ago. About 5 million are using mobile banking apps in the last year. (Marcus,2010)

4. Tangible Goods

A survey by the Mobile Marketing Association shows that 17% of mobile commerce was used for purchasing applications and ringtones, while another 6% of people used their phones for discounts and coupons, and another 6% used their phones to buy tangible goods  (Marcus,2010)

So for fashion retailers, the 6% could be enlarge in not far future. People begins to have the habit of buying fashion on phone. Fashion retailers like Zara have post the mobile store on app, though the payment system has not been added in. But shopping on mobile would not be a myth。

5. Marketing

H&M just launched the apps. It is obviously a way to advertise the wares of the H&M brand. On the Home screen there are six billboard looking options to flip through: Ladies & Men, Divided, Back to School, In Stores Now, Style Guide, and H&M Fashion Video. people can find out the new released fashion on H&M while they are in the tube or waiting for a bus. It is a really a good way to kill time as well as save time.

However, M-coupons could also be used for marketing and I think it is the most convenient way to keep coupons and use them.

BLUE SKY-THE OVERLOOK OF E-RETAILING

The latest results from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales(2010) Index reveal that British shoppers spent a total of £4.8 billion online during September (year-on-year growth of 24%), equivalent to £791 per person and bucking the recent fall in sales on the high street. And let’s have a look at the past years. In 2008 over a billion users of theq internet ,the global online market estimate-￡250(IMRG,2009), and consumers in the UK spent ￡22.9 billion online in the first six months of 2009 and an overall of ￡50 billion was spent online in 2009,a figure expexted to increase by over 10% in 2010(IMRG,2010)

From the data,we can easily find out that the e-retailing industry is booming.

The new phenomenon appeal with this development:

1)     the power of online buyers is increased since they have a wider choice and prices are likely to be forced down through increased customer knowledge and price transparency.(Potter,2010)

2)     internet technology enables faster introduction of products and service.(Potter,2010)

3)     the internet facilitates to move to the global market, increasing the number of competitors. (Potter,2010)

with these phenomenon, retailers are facing more threats. Chaffey(2007) analyzed the threats in 3 aspects:

·competitive threats

1)     Threat of new e-commerce entrants.

For the traditional ‘ bricks and mortar’ companies this has been a common threat for retailers selling products.

2)     Threat of new digital products.

3)     Threat of new business models

This threat can also occur form established or new companies

·Sell-side threats

1)     customer power and knowledge

2)     Power of intermediaries

A significant down stream channel threat is the potential loss of partners of distributors if there is a channel conflict resulting from disintermediation.

· Buy-side threats

1)     power of suppliers

It can be considered as an opportunity rather than a threat.

2)     Power of intermediaries

“business-to-business exchanges are arguably less than those from sell-side intermediaries, but risks arising from using these services should be considered’(chaffey,2010)

With so many threats,e-retailing still develop very fast, in this case retailers should make more effects to offer special services to make the added value.Rajgopal(2000)made 5 dimensions to help retailers build up the competitive power.

1).Ease of use (EASE): it relates with the load speed, website design and also the navigation.

2)Customer confidence (TRUST): The novelty of the Internet creates pervasive uncertainty among buyers and sellers, which in turn, increases the importance of trust in mediating commercial transactions among them (Weigelt & Camerer, 1988).

3)Onsite Resources (SELECTION): This dimension of the ranking process measures the range of products and services that the ranked firm carries. presenting products in a attractive and hedonic way is significant, which could direct lead to the purchase action.

4)Relationship Services (REL): This dimension measures ask for the relationship with consumers and also ask for the customer loyalty. High demand in build up a community, with could spread information as well as communicate directly with consumers.

Cost (COST): The cost dimension rates the cost competitiveness of purchasing a typical basket of goods or services sold on a site. value.(Rajgopal,2000)

Upon on these analysis, I found a swot analysis for the retailing system

         

HIGH POTENTIAL ·Electronic catalogue ·E-commerce system  ·Customer intelligence and CRM systems	STRATEGIC ·Procurement system ·Stock control system ·Distribution systems
SUPPORT       ·HR system ·Finance systems	KEY OPERATIONAL     ·Production line systems

     

    LOW                                                                                           HIGHT

According the table above, I think retailers should pay more attention to the high potential area.

For electronic catalogue, they could think about navigation, product viewing, image and search classification.

For e-commerce system, e-promotion could be more discussed, like mail promotion, Advertising ect.

For customer intelligence and crm systems, social media could be wildly used to enticing communications and build up brand loyalty.

social media-twitter

New social media, like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, are being adopted by a growing number of entrepreneurs who seek to deploy them for the benefit of their business.( Fischer,Reuber,2010)Twitter Inc. was founded in 2006 and the company has recently been valued at over one billion dollars (Corkery and Vascellaro,2009). In the year betweenMay 2008 andMay 2009 the number of users jumped from1.6 million to 32.1 million (Vascellaro, 2009); In April 2010 Twitter reported that they had more than 105.7 million registered users (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/14/twitter-user-statistics-r_n_537992.html).

What is the difference between Facebook and twitter？

Compared with Facebook，twitter is quite new and it enables social interaction that is more dynamic and less time-consuming, yet oriented less than Facebook towards the entrepreneur's personal network( Fischer,Reuber,2010). Fischer and Reuber(2010) did a study which believed that Facebook involved more personal commitment and less wide-scale public exposure compared with Twitter; for example, one stated:

“Facebook is a cocktail party and so when you are engaged in Facebook you're surrounded, sometimes very peripherally but surrounded, by people that you know and you like and that are part of your social graph. Twitter's not that. Twitter is more like somebody standing on the street corner with a megaphone saying, “(( Fischer,Reuber,2010,Informant 11)

According to these characteristics, the social media marketing strategies of twitter could be more special compared with Facebook.

1).Twitter is more suitable for the not-well-known brand, while Facebook is more used for the well-known brand such as ZARA, H&M.

Because twitter spreads more fast and more wilder, it is a fabulous channel for retailers to build up the brand image and brand awareness. But for Facebook,people who have know the brand and the company, would possibly have a look at the website and even be a fans of the brand.Twitter is used innovatively by established firms to perform core business functions that existed before Twitter, such as sales, customer service and branding. (Fischer,Reuber,2010)

2).Twitter could get more wilder and faster promotion effect.

For Facebook, people who have some common characteristic would be in one group or would be the fans of one retailer. So, the promotion through Facebook could only be spread in one specific group but for twitter, tweet is easily post and broadcasted. So even more people could see the promotion and events.

Dell and Starbucks offer coupons through Twitter to promote sales (Miller, 2009).

3). Complains online about Poor service are easily broadcasted by disgruntled customers.

Because of the fast spreading and wild using, complains are easily broadcasted in a large scale. So companies such as Pizza Hut, Comcast, and Southwest Airlines are hiring people tomonitor the Twittersphere for negative comments and respond instantaneously (Reisner, 2009).

These 3 points above are only some of my personal thoughts and Scholarly research on social media in general has now largely focused on how it may be used by companies as a marketing tool to monitor a marketplace (e.g. Berinato, 2010) or increase marketing communication effectiveness (e.g. Dholakia and Durham, 2010;Kozinets et al., 2010; Trusov et al., 2009). So, more functions would be discovered in the not- far- future.

Week7.E-marketing:a new form of promotion,socail media

“The world is a Twitter with Google’s launch of Buzz, the newest social media vehicle intended to entice both consumers and marketers” (Dennis Pitta,2010). Social media, which ‘describes a variety of new sources of online information that are created, initiated, circulated and used by consumers intent on educating each other about products, brands, services, personalities, and issues’ (Blackshaw &Nazzaro, 2004). The UK, for example, 20 percent of all online visitors admit to regularly logging on to pioneering sites like Facebook,

MySpace and Bebo That is to say the new media are dramatically changing people’s life, especially the shopping behavior.

With this emergence of the phenomenon, the online retailers have changed their online marketing strategies. Socail media, as a new hybrid element of the promotion mix, has been playing a significant role in e-commerce. I am going to use Facebook-chanel to discuss the functions of social media.

provide information. It is a main function for retailers to express information, broadcast new evens and release new product, by using this plateform.

"I do not like when one speaks of the Chanel fashion. Chanel is above all a style. Fashion passes, style remains." Gabrielle Chanel

It is a sentence from Gabrielle Chanel which is post on the Facebook-chanel. This simple statement captures the essence of her revolutionary contribution to culture. CHANEL continues, after almost a century, to inspire women of all ages all over the world with its timeless modernity. I can feel the brand strength from the mission and I think customers will be more loyal when they know more about the company and the brand. So, in some instants,Facebook as a new form, provides a plate to build up brand loyalty.

advertising

‘More features around the Ready-to-Wear Spring-Summer 2011 show: backstage pictures, Karl Lagerfeld interviews and celebrities... on http://www.chanel-news.com/’

‘To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the J12 watch, CHANEL launches its new mini 29mm version. Pure and understated. Beautifully designed and stylish.’

You can easily find these kind of post on Facebook-chanel and product pictures and videos are posted. consumers could receive the latest information and see the ads as well. It is not a kind of push ads which make me awful, but a attractive ads pulling me to click the site.

3.a new communication tool for customers

Social media provide the possibility for customers to talk directly to one another. people share information and tips together. conventional marketing wisdom has long held that a dissatisfied customer tells ten people. But that is out of date. In the new age of social media, However, the conversations between consumers are out of the retailers control.

2319881 people like this site

So,social media provide the opportunity as well as the challenge

Week 5 - Website design watch

Lanvin for H&M - The Show (Promo 2011)

Website design has been a main interface for a customer of e-store. Buschke(1997)pointed out that poor interface design had been a key element in a number of high profile site failures. I am going to use Lavin as an example to discuss the website design for fashion.

Navigability is the basic function for consumers but Navigability is not easily evaluated because users differ in types with their own experience and opinion. As the navigability for lavin , I would like to use simplistic but funny to describe it. Because as you can see the picture below, it is clear, simple to display the images of their products by using white as the background color. Not a number of pictures putting together to force the customers to watch them, but applying a quiet environment to make people think and choose whatever they like; But not as that simple as I mentioned. There are also something “silly and tricky” elements used in the navigation. ”silly and tricky ” I like these two words to make you feel that funny. "hey,am i cool ?"

"not at all"

"oh,look at you two silly women!"

These face emotiones are so intersting,which make the clothes alive.

I like this section very much as well as the lavin window.Different windows are displayed in every month.

so funny,right?

Another outstanding is the fashion show display. From the pics, you could find out the details of what  the model are wearing. It is more easy to instill the product image to customers and make them feel like the super star.

Lawrence and Tavakol(2007)described a homepage as "the entrance door to a shop that invites people to come in and browse and find what they are looking for" and I would like to describe Lavin website as the window to this brand to make more deep understanding. A large numbers of videos can be found to show the product as well as to explain the  design concept for the famous designer. Besides, a special platform  is also put on homepage ,which is called Lavin house. It is not the store in FAUBOURG, but a platform to introduce Lavin and the history.

From the biography of Jeanne lavin, customers could have a more deep understanding of this brand and the brand loyalty could be built at the same time.

Jeanne saw fashion as a lifestyle and she inaugurated this brand principle and extended it across different product line which all together make the lavin world today.

But, there are still some drawbacks on the website. Interactivity is limited and socail media is not wildly used to build customer relationship. I cannot find any blogs and links to facebook or twitter ,or even any place for customer to make a comment.

week4 The navigation design of Levi’s

There’s an art to effectively guiding your readers around your site, so that they know how much content is available, and where to find things when they want them. The easiest way to make a site easy to navigate is simply to not surprise the reader: put things where you would expect them to be positioned. This tutorial will review the best practices that have resulted from years of practice.(Ross,2010)

According to(Helen McCormick,2009),navigation contains two aspects: Search classification and interactive viewing. I am going to use her theory to analyze how Levi’s works in this area.

Search classification:

Website navigation-Ease of use, Too simplistic, Direct route, Different search options

Merchandise classification-Detailed categorise, Utilitarian categorise. hedonic categorise

Interactive viewing:

Viewing function/purpose, viewing rules/responsibility, none purchase opinion

(Helen McCormick,2009)

Search classification

There are several “navigation cues” used on Levi’s UK, such as the search engine. Levi’s has collection, news&events, media center, online shop and store location,5 paths on the homepage to browse merchandise., which are clear and direct routs for customers to use. Consumers might become tired and stressed by examining information on hundreds of products(Ha et al.,2007.Alba et al.,1997)But I found that it is not easy to use, there is no sitemaps and the search engine is so limited. If I want to search the jean, and I input “jean” in the product search blank. The result comes out with more than 17 pages of jean. Then I have to watch 17 pages of pictures to find out on jean that I like. There is no more options for me to do to narrow down my collection. If they could be specified with styles, colors, price, it would be more easy for users.

But as for the categorise, It is detailed and utilitarian. Customers could look for products by specific item as bottom or top, T-shirts or jackets, blacks or blues  Customers could gain Efficiency and achievement from the functional navigation design, as well as an hedonic shopping experience.

Interactive viewing:

Viewing apparel products in a variety of ways can help customers visualize how the items might look when worn(Ha et al.,2007)

Customers gain product details and products information through pictures, video , magazines.

Online retailer depend on image interactivity functions producing photo-realistic rendered images,3D images that rotate, and close-up images, these images enrich the information available to customers and help them estimate the visual and tactile qualities of the product(Inter Corp.,1999,cited in Fiore and Jin,2003)

On the Levi’s website. they use different ways to provide all the information about the product. Photo images, videos, music, ads are fully used in Levi’s media center and news&events to explain the product, to enlarge the brand image and to spread the sprite of Levi’s. It is a fantastic way of the online interactive viewing.

But there is some limited aspects in the web design.

This is a picture that Levi’s show the jean. They only have the front and back view of their product.3D image is not used to “create and manipulate visual images”. Customers could not even know how will it looks like on person. No hedonic sense they gained, no purchase decision they made.

To sum up, these little tips are all my personal opinion and I think all the retailers have their advantages and disadvantages.I am learning and gaining a lot from them.