Task 1

In the report I will be investigating why it is important to have a business online, how it affects the business and the importance to investors and other businesses.

I have chosen two businesses to research how being online helps them what their aims and objectives are

A)

        1. The online business I’ve chosen is Amazon

        2. The super market I’ve chosen is Tesco

B)

Amazon.co.uk is famous for selling books but the turn over wasn’t making enough profit, but now they sell other stuff like from cameras to coffee machines, exercise videos to Elvis CDs, they say there’s something for everyone. They also enable independent sellers to sell new and used items on their website via Amazon.co.uk Marketplace. Within Amazon.co.uk you are able to use a variety of resources to help you make your choice, this including customer reviews and personal recommendations.

The Amazon Associates program was the first online affiliate program of its kind when it launched in 1996.  Today, it is the largest and most successful online affiliate program, with over 1,000,000 members world-wide

Customer Focused - Amazon seeks to be the world's most customer-centric company, a place where people can find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Previously Amazon only sold books, music and toys, as they found out that they weren’t even breaking even so they decided based their company solely on the customers needs.
Relentlessly the company focused on offering a unique service for each customer.

Amazon claims and wants to be the world’s most customer centric company, this is the principle under which they operate to achieve their mission. Below you can see that Amazon was ranked the most successful cyber retailer last year and has the biggest turn over compared to other online companies.

                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Innovation – a service which Amazon provides to its customers is an unparalleled online shopping experience which requires being constantly innovative. Amazon operate a hug market, that leads to customers spending billions each year on books, music, DVDs, software, PC & video games and electronics. As they provide an excellent service more and more clients are shopping with Amazon. The reason why Amazon is superior to its revels is because Amazon offers its customers with the latest technology and world-class fulfillment capabilities.

Ownership – another why Amazon is so successful at what they do is that they claim to think like the owners, they claim that their employees have a stake at their success in this business. Restricted stock units are awarded to everyone who is hired to promote a sense of ownership, focus activity on critical business issues and this is rewarded in a long-term success.

High Hiring Bar - Amazon say that they are looking for more talented individuals who are capable of thinking of the bigger picture as the end result would help Amazon to innovate in different categories. This could result in Amazon reaching into a new market and new product and service, this would expand the business and help them shape into the ever-changing industry.

How Amazon work

The philosophy at Amazon is to work hard, have fun, and make history. There employees are cared about what they do as they know real customers are counting on them to innovate and keep there promises.

Why people choose Amazon.

When people join Amazon they’ll able to:

  • learn from smart, focused people who care about their work
  • gain from challenging, interesting projects that have a huge impact on our success
  • work in a casual but accountable environment in which hard work, initiative, and smart decisions are rewarded
  • play an important part in continuing our leadership in e-commerce by bringing new ideas to the table and launching new businesses
  • be rewarded by a great career opportunity and the chance to participate financially in the company's long-term success

Amazon E-Commerce Service

Amazon has spent ten years and over $1 billion developing a world-class technology and content platform that powers the Amazon web sites for millions of customers every day. Using Amazon Web Services, developers can build software applications leveraging the same robust, scalable, and reliable technology.

Amazon E-Commerce Service (ECS) exposes Amazon's product data and e-commerce functionality. This allows developers, web site owners and merchants to leverage the data and functionality that Amazon uses to power its own e-commerce business. Service highlights are as follows;

●        Access product data from Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.jp, and Amazon.co.uk                                                                                                                                        

●        Retrieve detailed item information, including prices, images, customer reviews, and more

●        Earn money using your Amazon Associates account

Amazon claims to provide a good web service for all its customers and developers, some of these include

●        Detailed Product Information on all Amazon.com Products

●        Access to Amazon.com Product Images

●        All Customer Reviews associated with a Product

●        Extended Search

●        Remote Shopping Cart

●        Amazon Wish List Search

●        Precise Response Groups

●        Multi-Operation and Batch Interfaces

●        Detailed Error Messages

●        Built-in Help Functionality

Amazon have a main head office located Slough, Berkshire, 10 minutes away from Heathrow airport and a fulfillment centre located in Marston Gate, Milton Keynes. As Amazon is an internet based company it does not have to be located in or near the town center for people to have access to the goods and services.  

Tesco was founded by Jack Cohen, who served with the Royal Air Force during the First World War. After returning in 1919, 21 year old Jack invested 30 pounds of his reward for military service to buy surplus food stockpiles and he opened a little stall in East London.

The first line of Cohen brand goods placed on the market was Tesco tea. In 1924, the name which the company later took on as its corporate name emerged.

In 1932 Tesco Stores became a commandite company. Two years later, Jack bought a piece of land in North London (Angel Road, Edmonton) with the intent to construct the head office and the warehouse there.

The successful development of Tesco Stores is primarily based on a plain vision. They pride them selves on selling high quality goods, improving the standard of services provided continuously, thus responding to the customers’ needs. As far as the goods layout is concerned, Tesco Stores takes into account actual customer needs, thus offering a wide range of high quality goods for reasonable a prices

Below are some of the cooperate responsibility high lights,

●         By expanding their range of Fair-trade to 90 products they have become the UK’s leading Fair-trade retailer.  There customers now buy 1 in 3 Fair-trade products sold in UK supermarkets.

●         They worked with the Red Cross to collect over £2.8m for the Tsunami appeal in our UK stores, and gave over £310,000 in the UK and affected countries

         Through Computers for Schools they gave away over 2,700 computers and over 86,000 items of computer equipment worth £8 million.

         They’ve raised over €1 million for Child line, there Charity of the Year in Ireland.

 

●         They continued there support for Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life with 18,752 Tesco people joining over 390,000 participants around the UK to raise over £20 million.

         They became the first British retailer to have there in-house training accredited by the Qualification and Curriculum Authority. This means they can now award nationally-recognized NVQ qualifications.

         They introduced a new ‘Supplier Viewpoint’ survey to gain an even better understanding of what it is like to work with them.

         there staff benefits from £169 million through Shares in Success and Save As You Earn schemes.

         They have audited 100% of high-risk own-brand suppliers against the labour standards set out in there ethical trading policy.

●         They introduced Britain’s first fully automated recycling machine, which makes it even easier for customers to recycle by sorting metal, plastic and glass so there customers don’t have to.

         They have trained all there buyers and all there high-risk own-brand suppliers on how to uphold labour standards in the supply chain.

         They’ve received grade ‘A’ rating in the Greenpeace

Above you can see the management tool that Tesco uses, this is called the “Steering Wheel”. divided into four quadrants – Customer, Operations, People and Finance – which, in turn, are divided into several segments, each with a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which are based on demanding but achievable targets.

The core purpose of Tesco is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty. There success depends on people. The people who shop with them and the people who work with them.

If there customers like what they offer, they are more likely to come back and shop with Tesco’s.  If the Tesco team finds what there doing with there customer’s or employees rewarding, they are more likely to go that extra mile to help them succeed in what there trying to accomplish.

Below is a list of the values that Tesco take into consideration to offer to their customer,

          No-one tries harder for customers

 ●        Understanding customers better than anyone

 ●        Be energetic, innovative and first for customers

 ●        look after our people so they can look after our company

 ●         Use our strengths to deliver unbeatable value for customers

●        Treat people how we like to be treated

        All retailers, there’s on team….the Tesco team

         Trust and respect each other

●        Strive to do our very best

        Give support to each other praise more than criticize

         Ask more than tell and share knowledge so that it can be used

Join now!

●        Celebrate success and learn from experience        

They regularly ask there customers and staff what they can do to make shopping with Tesco’s and working with them that little bit better.

Below is a screen dump of the strategy they call “Every Little Helps” and its definitions.

        

Shopping trip

Customers have told Tesco some of there wants - clear aisles, to be able to get what they want at a good price, no queues and great staff. Tesco call this our Every Little Helps ...

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Overall this is a well researched and written analysis of how Amazon is such a successful online business. The information on Tesco's successful business model is good but the online part of their business is not discussed at all and this is a major omission. it would have allowed for a lot of comparison between a solely web based business and a business that has had to start using the web