E-Business Application For Woolworths Limited Analysis Essay.

Description of Woolworth's operations

Discuss about the E-Business Application for Woolworths Limited.

The report depicts the importance and usage of E commerce strategy in the commercial market instead of traditional commerce. Electronic commerce is referred to as a combination of selling and buying of goods through electronic channel (Moloney 2015) or internet medium supported by Graphical User Interface (GUI).

In order to maintain convenience most of the well known organizations have decided to adopt Ecommerce business strategies to develop their system. In this report the selected organization is Woolworths Limited. The usability of Ecommerce strategies and the current applications will be described in this report along with the Ecommerce marketing strategies. How the Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) are related to the current Ecommerce system will also be described in this report. After complete diagnosis required changes, applicable for Woolworths Limited will also be illustrated in this report.

During analysis the E commerce strategies, it has been found that Woolworths Limited applies different operation for overall growth. The primary resources used by the company, enables it to reduce its operational and security issues (Arli et al. 2013). Woolworths Limited has engaged different tools to its daily operation for specified recognition in the competitive marketplace. Various sophisticated technologies help the organization to attract more number of consumers and existing consumer’s satisfaction (Da Costa 2016).

From the bricks and motor trades it has been discovered that, in the year of 2008, Woolworths Limited engaged itself to SAP, to support the delivery and other technical processes (Da Costa 2016). Manual information production process is possible with thee adaptation of this technology. Electronic data recipient will receive a manual information system by implementing SAP. GS1 net is another system adopted by Woolworths Limited that enhances the world wide application of the retail industry (Fernie and Sparks 2014). Apart from this, other technologies adopted by Woolworths Limited are Global data synchronization standard and information sharing standard. The GS1net provided features are as follows:

Data integrity is improved and rework in the supply chain management is reduced.

Time and cost management is possible

Resolved paper based or traditional transaction process

Streamline communication is available.

Data exchange and maintenance became easier

Figure 1: Ecommerce application

(Source: Kruger and Fourie 2015, pp-442)

E commerce usability provides many opportunity and strength to Woolworths Limited. It consists of many benefits. With the help of Ecommerce Woolworths Limited has able to expand their business from local to international level. Easily Woolworths Limited can locate more number of consumers globally from suppliers to business partners (Viljoen 2012). The brand image can be improved including better consumer services. The productivity also increases and the supply chain management is easier to handle. Virtual actions are available, consumers get opportunities to select the best suited option from several. In an independent platform users can share and provide their feedback about the service of the company.

E-business applications currently used

Currently among different E commerce applications the main application that are adopted by Woolworths Limited are the SAP that is interrelated to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) management (Stander 2015). It proves a buyer centric management system that is strictly focused on the requirements of the buyers. The activity provides online experiences and enables the organization to develop the brand image. From other prospects direct access to the server and error prevention has become possible. Advanced applications maintained by Woolworths Limited are as follows:

Browser conversion into buyers: This is an important application of E-commerce as users get opportunity to go through the website of Woolworths Limited and can select any one from a set of options (Galliers and Leidner 2014).

Cross selling increment: This application helps Woolworths Limited to be aware about their faults and the consumers can provide suggestion to that they can improve their system. Apart from this, for additional products they can request to the owners so that they could add it for improvement.

Loyalty building:  Value added relations to the website helps to establish a relationship among the consumers and the management of the organization (Fernie and Sparks 2014). Different organization holds different websites and it helps to create competition among them.

Figure 2: Marketing strategy

(Source: Mlitwa and Raqa 2012, pp-350)

Many E commerce supply chain strategies are maintained by Woolworths Limited. The rate of online sale is increasing rapidly than common in store based sales (Fernie and Sparks 2014). The continuous rise of supply chain engaged number of consumers. In fact, the organization is continuously implementing business strategies to develop the system. The strategies are as follows:

The online consumers expect a fast product delivery and easy return process without any external interruption.

There are many advantages in process import and export system. It reduces the cost and time for the overall process (Barnes and Hunt 2013).

Continuous backup system is available due to the presences of operational redundancy.

Inventory management system is also increased due to direct relation between the consumers and website.

For the multichannel retailers a good supply chain management helps to improve their infrastructure.

Due to twenty four hour services the consumers are able to get service all the time regardless of the geographical boundary of the clients (Galliers and Leidner 2014).

Metrics are available to calculate the market penetration as well. Thu, the consumers can easily compare Woolworths Limited company’s website to others and select the best option among them.

Ease of usage of E-commerce system

The E-commerce system provides several opportunities to Woolworths Limited but at the same time, there are certain security concerns associated to it (Mlitwa and Raqa 2012). The IT architecture is needed to be very strictly protected so that, no other outsiders can interrupt within their existing system (Fernie and Sparks 2014). In order to keep the site secured certain security management are needed to be adopted by Woolworths Limited. The strategies are as follows:

Selection of secure ecommerce platform: A cloud based security platform is required to be adopted so that the clients can easily handle it. The system should also consist of sophisticated object oriented programming language and software systems (Sila 2013). The management team is technically expert and they can provide VoIP supply to the server as well.

Secure connection: Firewall, DMZ is included to the system so that no unauthenticated user can access the site.

Secured network connection: In the IT architecture updated network system is present so that if any connected node fails then, it could be avoid the overall network failure (Kruger and Fourie 2015).

Conclusion

From the overall discussion it can be concluded that Ecommerce has developed many emerging technologies in the management system of Woolworths Limited. Different operations and e commerce strategies maintained by Woolworths Limited are described in this report. Apart from this, application of data synchronization helps to develop the automated exchange and manual data operation is also illustrated in this report. Two basic factors associated to Ecommerce are Supply can management and customer relationship management is elaborated in this report. Not only this but also how the existing operations of E commerce can be developed is also described in this report.

In order to improve the system certain recommendations are provided to the existing management maintained by Woolworths Limited. The recommended suggestions are as follows:

Innovative ideas: Innovative ideas and emerging technologies are needed to be introduced within the existing system to develop the security and risk management system.

Training and development: The employees working for Woolworths Limited are required certain training and development program so that they could develop their operational skills.

Security evaluation: In order to keep the data secured from external attacks different encryption and decryption techniques are needed to be acquired.

Architectural development: Woolworths Limited should implement cloud computing technology so that the management can operate the system easily. As it is platform independent thus, operation can took place in any platform.

Strategic development: The system should implement strategic changes in their existing system. Price relationship identifier is needed to be added so that a synchronized relationship can be configured.

References

Arli, V., Dylke, S., Burgess, R., Campus, R. and Soldo, E., 2013. Woolworths Australia and Walmart US: Best practices in supply chain collaboration. Journal of Economics, Business, and Accountancy| Ventura, 16(1), pp.27-46.

Barnes, S. and Hunt, B. eds., 2013. E-commerce and v-business. Routledge.

Da Costa, E., 2016. Global e-commerce strategies for small businesses. Mit Press.

Fernie, J. and Sparks, L., 2014. Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and new challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan Page Publishers.

Galliers, R.D. and Leidner, D.E., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.

Johnson, P.F., 2014. Purchasing and supply management. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Kruger, H. and Fourie, L.C., 2015. Online product and/or service brand offerings in South Africa. South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, 7(3), pp.440-458.

Mlitwa, N. and Raqa, N.M., 2012. The Socio-Technical Dynamics of e-Commerce Adoption in the Mainstream Grocery Supermarkets in South Africa. I-Business, 4(4), p.350.

Moloney, D.J., 2015. A review of the critical success factors and challenges facing e-commerce in the clothing industry in South Africa(Doctoral dissertation, Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University).

Sila, I., 2013. Factors affecting the adoption of B2B e-commerce technologies. Electronic Commerce Research, 13(2), pp.199-236.

Stander, A.M., 2015. Investigating the use of e-commerce to empower South African women (Doctoral dissertation, North-West University (South Africa), Potchefstroom Campus).

Viljoen, M., 2012. The impact of e-commerce on customer relationship management in the financial services industry.