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Chapter 4: Research Result
After finishing several phases, this study modified the original CSFs to include the factors noted by the experts, and eliminate some less critical factors. The results for each dimension are described via case studies below.
4.1 Before online stores launched 4.1.1 Technology Dimension Continuous IT Investment
Member information integration
Many offline businesses have membership card and reward point mechanisms that allow consumers to save money or exchange gifts by accumulating points. For enterprises, these mechanisms can keep consumers loyal and allow analysis of consumer behaviors. However, large shopping platforms usually do not have the connected mechanism and have to update their systems to support. Watsons initially opened its online store on Yahoo mall, but Yahoo did not have the mechanism.
Therefore, Watsons communicated with Yahoo actively and revised IT systems to integrate sales data with Yahoo mall.
Supportive hardware and software for service innovation
The industry environment is full of uncertainty. Only constantly innovative enterprises can create value. However, innovation requires hardware and software support. Therefore, businesses must be open to IT investment. “Every day, Cola Tour’s leaders are contemplating how to take advantage of IT to provide customers with better service and satisfy customer expectations.” The vice chairman of Cola Tour said. Moreover, Yuan-Liou Publishing was the first press to implement Oracle ERP for e-book promotion. It hired many IT, research and development engineers for digital rights management (DRM) and other functions.
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Imitate other practice
Before online stores launched, enterprises could not analyze consumer behaviors via sales data. However, they could still provide friendly user interfaces by imitating.
Yung-Ching House Agency referred to domestic and foreign websites that had won interface-related awards. Cola Tour imitated competitors’ practices and then made some modifications. Every business could learn something from others to give customers a better experience.
Collaborative design with users
In addition to imitation, businesses could also invite users to be involved in the design. Because of the potential cognitive bias between enterprises and users, the interface might not meet users’ actual needs. User participation could significantly enhance usability of the website and satisfaction. For instance, The Body Shop asked members, students and users to give advice on its website’s interface design.
4.1.2 Management Dimension Strong Support by Top Management
Business leaders with vision
At the beginning, business leaders must have vision, which is the capacity to envisage future market trends and plan accordingly. Before The Body Shop established its e-commerce websites in Taiwan, it only had websites in Japan and Korea. However, as its headquarters was optimistic about e-commerce development in Taiwan, the online store’s establishment was successful. The headquarters even hoped the successful model in Taiwan could be replicated in other countries.
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Business leaders must have executive power
It is not enough for business leaders to have vision. They must also have executive power to make the online stores real. For Watsons, although former CEOs had vision, most did not execute the e-commerce project until a new Indian CEO took office in 2010. Therefore, business leaders have to take actions; otherwise, it is all just imagination.
Business leaders must persist when faced with opposition
Moreover, business leaders may face opposing views, as some people may object that an idea is infeasible. At that time, leaders have to elaborate and persist in their
opinions. Internet had just started when the founder of Yung-Ching House Agency decided to establish an official website. “Most of the managers opposed the decision because realty data used to be private and confidential, and they were afraid of losing competitiveness once the data became public.” The vice general manager of Yung-Ching said. However, the founder insisted on going online, and the result confirmed that this enhanced the market share.
Choose Appropriate Online Platforms
Find the target audiences
Before choosing online platforms, managers should clearly know who the target audiences are. Because Play TV-Game Store ran a Facebook Fan Page, it was able to view customer profiles via the Facebook Insight Report. There is much information about potential customers in the report, e.g., gender, ages and areas of interest.
Find the platforms where target audiences are
After understanding the profile of target audiences, managers have to know where they are and which platforms they use. In general, reading market research reports is a
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common way to find this information. The e-commerce manager of The Body Shop commented that “Because Momo, PChome and Yahoo are the top three online
shopping platforms in the health and beauty industry, we actively sell our products on them to acquire more customers.”
Choose platforms with required functions
Moreover, selected platforms should be in line with business needs. Jordon Outdoor Functional Apparel established its official website on Shop123 because it provided a back-stage management system. For relatively inexperienced enterprises and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), experts recommend opening online stores on large shopping platforms first. Large shopping platforms not only bring increased traffic but also provide many activity mechanisms and give timely assistance.
Measure own resources
Finally, enterprises have to measure their own resources. Opening more stores may reach more customers; however, it is harder for enterprises to manage and control.
Jordon Outdoor Functional Apparel and Play TV-Game Store have online stores on many platforms. However, they intend to reduce the number of online stores gradually. Uni Café now only has one online store owing to a worker shortage.
Set Clear Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
Objectives must be consistent with company strategy
Whatever the industry is, setting clear KPI is critical for business. Once enterprises set clear KPI, employees will try their best to achieve their goals because of the incentive bonus. However, many enterprises do not know how to set a correct KPI. First, the objectives must be consistent with company’s strategy. The vice general manager of Yung-Ching House Agency said that “To increase market share and take over the
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lead, we set the number of online real estate objects at 1.2 times that of our competitors.”
Set quantified objectives
Moreover, the objectives must be quantified. Supervisors are able to evaluate performance only via quantitative indicators.
Cooperate with Suppliers Closely
Integrate systems with suppliers as much as possible
There are great differences in electronic maturity among industries. For tourism, Cola Tour has many suppliers, including hotels and airlines. To provide customers with timely information and excellent user experiences, systems must be integrated with hotels and airlines. However, some suppliers did not invest in IT infrastructure.
Therefore, Cola Tour also has to update their information pages in an artificial way.
Use real cases to convince suppliers when they have concerns
“When traditional suppliers are moving into a new market, they worry that the new market may influence their profits.” The procurement manager of Watsons
commented. Enterprises can convince suppliers through previous successful cases.
When Watsons decided to go online, suppliers were worried about a price war because of price transparency. In this case, Watsons put only a part of the products online at first and used actual sales data to prove that online sales can increase revenues.
4.1.3 Organization Dimension Continuous IT Process Investment
Use IT to reengineer internal processes
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Businesses cannot have a certain market scale without an IT process. In the past, employees made decisions by themselves, although Cola Tour had their standard operating procedures. Therefore, Cola Tour decided to adopt a sound IT process management mechanism. “Once adopted, managers could easily evaluate performance, and all the employees had to follow IT process, which is best for customer service.” The vice chairman of Cola Tour commented.
Frequent Communication and Coordination among Organizations
Hold interdepartmental meetings regularly
Online and offline businesses need the cooperation of all departments. Carrefour had an e-commerce project team that needed to communicate with the marketing,
purchasing and logistics departments. “However, each department had its parochialism, and it was difficult to obtain their support.” E-commerce project manager of Carrefour said. Therefore, senior managers now conduct large interdepartmental meetings frequently to coordinate and solve problems among departments.
4.2 After online stores launched 4.2.1 Technology Dimension
Analyze Consumer Behavior Continuously
Optimize web navigation interface through data analysis
User browsing habits are changing constantly. Enterprises can gather some findings via data analysis. To fulfill user preferences, enterprises have to adjust website interface design frequently. Director of Yuan-Liou Publishing said that “We revised the relative position of the confirming and canceling buttons, as well as the exhibit on top of the home page, e.g., new books or bestseller.”
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Optimize logistics configuration through data analysis
Enterprises are thinking continuously about how to improve cost-effectiveness. The results of this study showed that enterprises had to analyze sales and relevant data to optimize their logistics configuration. For consumers who were not community residents, home delivery was inconvenient. Therefore, The Body Shop released a convenience store pick-up service, which brought significant revenue growth. Play TV-Game Store found that most of its customers lived in Taipei and therefore added a distribution unit responsible for Taipei.
Evaluate marketing effectiveness through data analysis
When enterprises promote television commercial films (TVCF) and marketing campaigns offline, they cannot evaluate the actual performance. However, online businesses can. The e-commerce manager of The Body Shop commented that “We used conversion rate (CVR) and other indicators to evaluate activities’ effectiveness.
If performance was lower than expected, we could know the reason of failure, revise campaigns and adjust target audiences (TA) afterwards.” Moreover, fine-tuning the product name can also improve visibility. Initially, Watsons put its brand name before the product name, but this method demonstrated poor performance although it was more intuitive. However, after Watsons swapped the order, it dramatically increased the visibility on Yahoo mall. It is illustrated in Table 9.
Table 9. The naming rule of Watsons changed Before 【Watsons】product name
After product name【Watsons】
Understand market demand through external sources
In addition to sales data, enterprises also have to be familiar with the current market
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situation. Watsons discovered that consumers were willing to buy a large number of daily consumables if the price was cheaper. Therefore, it offered discounts for bulk orders. Play TV-Game Store went to online forums to find out which games are the most popular and then sold peripheral products to increase revenues.
4.2.2 Management Dimension
Maintain Customer Relationships Effectively
Provide personalized service
Personalized service not only brings more revenues for businesses, it also enhances consumers’ satisfaction. Watsons recommended special offers to consumers according to their previous shopping records. In another way, The Body Shop calculated the life cycle of each product. When the product was about to be used up, The Body Shop would send repurchase messages to consumers.
Listen to customers and make immediate improvements
Customers in Taiwan tend to complain in various ways if they are dissatisfied with a service. The vice chairman of Cola Tour commented that “The way enterprises react to these complaints is crucial. If enterprises treat the problems passively, customers feel disappointed and leave. Conversely, if enterprises solve the problems actively, customers are willing to purchase again.” Therefore, enterprises had to contact dissatisfied customers, understand their thoughts and make immediate improvements.
Provide perfect post-sale service
Providing perfect post-sale service can create differentiation and increase competitive advantage. Yung-Ching House Agency sells houses; however, it also helps customers resolve tax, asset integration and other issues. Jordon Outdoor Functional Apparel not only sells coats but also provides maintenance services.
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Continuous Process Enhancement
Service process integration
Channel integration strengthens each platform and simplifies the business process.
Assistant Manager of Hua-Nan Bank commented that “Now many problems can be solved online without going to the branch, and then the counter staff has more time to perform important tasks, such as selling treasury products.” For the tourism industry, many customers used to go to the branch to ask for basic information. However, now customers can obtain most information online. The staff only has to handle the critical part, e.g., personal preferences.
Sales campaign integration
Online and offline customers are non-overlapping. However, enterprises can provide better service and bring greater sales through channel integration. The Body Shop put a coupon code on its official website to attract online customers to offline venues.
Watsons provides “click and collect” service, which means customers can order online and pick up offline. These options bring extra sales opportunities to offline stores.
Continuous Service Innovation
Create new value for online stores
There are many restrictions online. For instance, each skin-care product has its specific features, but online customers cannot ask the staff for advice. Therefore, customers may not know which product fits their needs. The Body Shop provides an online skincare diagnostic tool, which is illustrated in Figure 4. Customers can find the most suitable products by answering several questions.
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Figure 4. The Body Shop’s skincare diagnostic tool
(Source: http://shop.thebodyshop.com.tw/survey.php?survey_sn=2)
Moreover, only few people made an appointment to visit houses during the prevalence of SARS. To solve the problem, Yung-Ching House Agency launched a new service, by which customers could watch online videos to see the house first. This increased performance by fifty percent.
Strategic alliance
Strategic alliance occurs when two or more organizations join together to pursue
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mutual benefits. Each partner hopes that the benefits from the alliance will be greater than those from individual efforts. “When China Airlines had just started, most of its business class seats were not occupied. Therefore, we cooperated with China Airlines and Tai-Shin Bank to allow customers to pay NT$30,000 per year to be able to freely upgrade to business class when they took flights.” The vice chairman of Cola Tour said. Furthermore, cooperating with college students is another potentially beneficial alliance, as their creative ideas may create value for businesses.
Enterprise transformation
The best example for enterprise transformation is the record industry. When album sales continued to decline, singers made profits via live concerts. Similarly, Yuan-Liou Publishing put related publications into shows and exhibitions, hoping to exploit a new market. Carrefour originally ran hypermarkets but has recently moved towards Omni-channel. In addition to the establishment of an online store, it also opened small and medium size retail stores, hoping to reach and retain more customers.
After describing every final CSF, this study summarizes them in Table 10 and Table 11.
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Table 10. The final CSFs - before online stores launched Technology
Dimension
Continuous IT Investment Member information integration
Supportive hardware and software for service innovation Design User-Friendly Interface Imitate other practice
Collaborative design with users
Management Dimension
Strong Support by Top Management
Business leaders with vision
Business leaders must have executive power
Business leaders must persist when faced with opposition Choose Appropriate Online
Platforms
Find the target audiences
Find the platforms where target audiences are
Choose platforms with required functions
Measure own resources Set Clear Key Performance
Indicators (KPI)
Objectives must be consistent with company’s strategy
Set quantified objectives
Cooperate with Suppliers Closely Integrate systems with suppliers as much as possible
Use real cases to convince suppliers when they have concerns Organization
Dimension
Continuous IT Process Investment Use IT to reengineer internal processes Frequent Communication and
Coordination among Organizations
Hold interdepartmental meetings regularly
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Table 11. The final CSFs - after online stores launched Technology
Dimension
Analyze Consumer Behavior Continuously
Optimize web navigation interface through data analysis
Optimize logistics configuration through data analysis
Evaluate marketing effectiveness through data analysis
Understand market demand through external sources Management
Dimension
Maintain Customer Relationships Effectively
Provide personalized service
Listen to customers and make immediate improvements
Provide perfect post-sale service Organization
Dimension
Continuous Process Enhancement Service process integration
Sales campaign integration
Continuous Service Innovation Create new value for online stores
Strategic Alliance
Enterprise transformation
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