Zappos mobile commerce

Running Head: Business Systems Analysis

Business Systems Analysis 2

Business Systems Analysis

Lashinia Payne

Southern New Hampshire University

September 23, 2019

Introduction

Brick-and-Mortar is a company that specializes in fashion related products and mainly designer wear, including shoes, handbags, and clothing. However, due to the high competition and the innovation that is required in the modern-day, the company has faced stiff competition due to the competitive advantage and especially in the use of technology that other companies have had over the company's business strategy. The company seeks to increase its online presence by the use of the various technological features available effectively to increase its customer base by increasing the variety of goods and platforms to reach those customers. The overall objective is the creation of e-business as well as the implementation of technology that will help in managerial functions like inventory, sales, customer contact, and payments.

Problem Statement1

The company seeks to increase its online presence by the use of the various technological features available effectively to expand its customer base by expanding the variety of goods and platforms to reach those customers. The overall objective is the creation of e-business as well as the implementation of technology that will help in managerial functions like inventory, sales, customer contact, and payments.

Two Technologies

One of the leading technologies that have been tested and proven by other businesses to be the most useful includes the mobile commerce. This technology came into play by several companies in the wake of the e-commerce era to provide customers with ease of shopping for products. The comfortability and ease of shopping have been enabled by giving customers online payments solutions so that they can be able to make purchases from any location. Another technology is the use of cloud computing which serves several functions such as consumer data analysis that provides companies with oversight of their product attributes.

Business Requirements

Objectives

The main objectives of the project include the adaptation of a technology that will incorporate online shopping, manage the company's processes, as well as manage customer contacts producing visualized information.

Project Description

The project is aimed at providing a market niche by leveraging on the various technologies available in the market with the main aim of making management easy and providing better customer services like increasing the variety of goods available for online shopping and providing customer analytics. The project is looking to improve the customer base for the company which other companies have been able to achieve by leveraging on this technologies.

Technology Requirements

In outsourcing for technology, Brick-and-Mortar will be looking for an interactive platform that will enable the customers to go through a variety of products and at the same make payments just in case they want to make a purchase. Another key feature of the technology will be in its ability to effectively manage data by manipulating it to provide visualized information that can easily be interpreted for managerial purposes. Authorized persons like employees and customers under their own account should easily manipulate the type of information available.

Competitors and Technology

Zappos

Zappos is an online retailer of fashion related products like shoes and clothing that was founded in 1999 in Las Vegas. The company has been able to gain a significant cust6omer base through its customer-focused marketing strategy, which concentrates on customer service, experience, and culture. This is engraving in its organizational culture that seeks to deliver WOW services to its clients. By the creation of an account with Zappos under their websites, the company has provided its clients with a unique shopping experience whereby they can do a multiscreen shopping through their mobile phones. This notion means that clients can start their shopping using one gadget, for example, an iPhone and later on continue with their shopping on their Ipads (Tode, n.d). Apart from making their shopping experiences more enjoyable, the company also uses such platforms to help customers find what they are looking, for example, a dress someone was wearing. A person can do this by taking a photo of that person, post it on the website, and get responses from the readily available customer care agents. The use of Amazon cloud servers has, and on the other hand, enabled the company's employees to focus their effort on services that increase the shareholder values of the company by freeing up space that could have been used in business analysis (Weinberger, 2016).

Macy’s

Macy's is also another company that utilizes cloud computing widely in its operations for various purposes such as analysis of its customer base to know where their loyal customer base lies. The company has also been able to use the cloud computing as a platform for data-management thus enabling the company to match the product attributes with the customer needs based on the data analysis results (Amato-mccoy, 2012). This provision has allowed the company to provide better products over their competitors by paying attention to their customer preferences and feedbacks on their already existing products.

Wireless, Mobile Computing, and Mobile Commerce

Zappos has effectively leveraged more on their cultural values by developing a more interactive approach with their customers through their mobile phones. A customer is ready to take a photo of the product they like, email it, post it on Zappos Instagram page, or even their website (Tode, n.d). After finding, the customers products, the customers are then informed after which they are asked for their credit card details for payment processing. This provision has significantly increased the company's clients over time due to the availability of products with the help of customer are agents.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing refers to the delivery of any sort of hosted services via the internet, for example, data storage services which does not necessarily have to be actively managed (Paul & Ghose, 2012, p. 2222). Macy's company has been able to leverage on the use of various online social platforms to analyze and come up with an insight into their loyal shopper's base. This has enabled the company to maximize its market segmentation by improving on products to reach the various customers through the provision of their preferred products better.

Technology Benefit

The Macy’s company has been able to improve on its customer segmentation, which has enabled them to harness the segment adequately with strong emphasis on their product's attributes (Amato-mccoy, 2012). The company stands to gain by utilizing the full range of analytical benefits that comes along with cloud computing, such as analysis. The data collected will enable the company to determine its primary market segmentation and focus on improving its products based on customer preferences and feedbacks on those segments.

References

Amato-mccoy, D. (2012). Macys.com uses a private cloud to personalize digital shopping strategies. Chainstoreage. Retrieved from https://www.chainstoreage.com/news/macyscom-uses-private-cloud-personalize-digital-shopping-strategies/

Paul, P. K., & Ghose, M. K. (2012). Cloud Computing: Possibilities, Challenges, and Opportunities with Special Reference to its Emerging Need in the Academic and Working Area of Information Science. Procedia Engineering, 38, 2222-2227. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2012.06.267

Tode, C. (n.d.). Zappos combines mobile with personal customer service for easy shopping. Retaildive. Retrieved from https://www.retaildive.com/ex/mobilecommercedaily/zappos-combines-mobile-with-personal-customer-service-for-easy-shopping

Weinberger, M. (2016). Fifty employees left Zappos before an important project was finished. Businessinsider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/50-zappos-employees-left-before-super-cloud-project-finished-2016-1?IR=T