Coursework Sample on Asos and Marks & Spencer

 Individual Course Work

Asos and Marks & Spencer

[Name of Student]

[Name of Professor]

[Date of Submission]

Introduction

            This report aims to present analysis of the two e-businesses through customer journey models, and theories explaining the consumer behavior and all journey consumer goes through from pre-purchase decision to post-purchase aspects. The selected customer journey model for the report is marketing funnel which can be divided into the five-phases; awareness, consideration, purchase, retention and advocacy (Visual Paradigm, 2021). See the figure 1 illustrating the market funnel, the customer journey model. Meanwhile, model at broader level have two considerations; the sales journey till purchase decision is made and overall customer journey till customers becomes the representative of the brand due to established trust, brand equity and satisfaction through the journey and promote the brand by word of mouth.

Furthermore, referring to the selection of e-businesses, two characteristics were considered as per the instructions; one that it must be an e-businesses or an existing company selling products and services online in the United Kingdom (UK) and second that it must not be an auction site, online marketplace and business to business (B2B). In this regards, the most popular online e-businesses were searched on the internet in the United Kingdom and Asos and Mark & Spencer were selected as most suitable e-businesses with having well-established websites. In addition to, the proposed idea for the e-business is the establishment of ethical fashion brand, as the rising awareness regarding child labor, sustainability, ethical production and all practices that comply with the ethical grounds. The core ideation behind the e-business is to sell all products and services which comply with the ethics, where no moral or ethical rules are undermined or overthrown.

Main Findings

Customer Journey Model

            The customer journey model refers to a process or stages through which a customer goes to make purchase decision and post-purchase behavior. One of the most widely used customer journey model is the marketing funnel which is derived from the AIDA model that assumes that a consumer goes through specific series of steps; awareness, interest, desire and action when they tend to make a purchase decision (Hassan, Nadzim and Shiratuddin, 2015). Similarly, customer journey model can be explained as follows

Figure 1 Marketing Funnel - Customer Journey Model

Source: (Visual Paradigm, 2021)

Awareness

            At this stage the customer gets exposure to the product or service by different means including; TV advertisement, online marketing, social media, search engine optimization (SEO) and other electric and non-electric methods.

Consideration

            At this stage the consumer’s interest develops and consumer starts to learn about the brand that how could it meets his/her needs and fits the lifestyle. Meanwhile, at this stage, the customer also starts to get further information which may include the online search, user’s reviews, pros and cons provided third-party sites and also visits the official website for the more information.

Purchase

            After consideration, the customer approaches to third stage of purchase at which a customer reaches by website, online store or through social media pages of the e-business and makes the purchase decision after consideration.

Retention

            At fourth stage, the customer is retained by means of using different remaining engaged with the customer even after purchase, offering loyalty programs, regular updates through email and mobile. Hence, a customer builds a relationship with the brand.

Advocacy

            After a customer has built relationship with the brand and is satisfied, then customer becomes a representative of the brand due to established brand equity, quality and relation. Hence, customer to tend to give positive reviews about the brand and tend to

Effectiveness Asos e-business

            Asos e-business when searched on the google, the results showed top of the search indicating that company has established a strong search engine optimization (SEO) processes and techniques where it toped results but also has advertised the page through google ads which also provided website of the company on top with mentioned as ad content. In addition to, on the same page, the presence of company on social platforms is also evident where its official Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages links were also given. This shows that company has established a strong online presence through SEO, where it not only provides sites but also landing pages such as exclusive offers including: “Christmas offers” and “Free Delivery”. Meanwhile, its official website also provides search option and categories of products on the google search results. This makes the journey of the customers. For instance, customer preferring to the shop online through apps can also download ASOS apps from the same page either it be android or iOS. These results reveal a strong presence of the company (Mangiaracina and Brugnoli, 1970). The search result of the ASOS can be seen in the appendix

            Furthermore, the official website of the company does not provide any landing pages rather it only shows two option “Shop Women” and “Shop Men” but is not attractive given the fact that it could have provided more often categories from which a customer may choose as per his need and purpose to reach at page. Meanwhile, based on the customer journey model, a customer might have approached the website after awareness but the for consideration stage, he tends to search for the product directly or at least website needs to be highly engaging that customer engages instantly (Mangiaracina and Brugnoli, 1970). However, no such evident was present. However, after opening one of the page for shop men, it provided categories for the clothing and others. But still, the website lacked the effectiveness in fulling the aspects of the technology acceptance model (TAM) which states that perceived use of ease was not present which might affect customer’s journey and it might end at same stage. In addition to, a customer might have influenced by recommendations and reviews but there were also no reviews on the website which also remains a weakness for the ASOS (Märtin, Bissinger and Asta, 2021). Hence it is evident that there is no effectiveness of e-business in terms of inside activities but still it has effectively managed the outside activities such as SEO and online presence on social media.

Effectiveness of Mark & Spencer e-business

            Mark & Spencer e-business was also searched on the internet and google provided results where the Mark & Spencer website topped but there was no ad content suggesting that company has not advertised the website through google ad. As similar to ASOS, search result also provided categories of the products at the same page and option to search directly to the official website. However, there was no evidence of presence of official social platforms of the e-business which might indicate a poor integration of the social media platforms online thus they could not be included into the results (Märtin, Bissinger and Asta, 2021). However, a panel suggested by the Google included links to all official social platforms of the e-business but not on the search results. See search result of the Mark & Spencer in appendix.

            Furthermore, referring to official website of the Mark & Spencer, it shows an attractive page with ease of use and also engaging content and view of the website. Hence, it makes it more feasible and attractive for the customer to visit and navigate easily over the website. In addition to, website also asked for cookies option which means it also offers customized customer experience to each one based on the search results of the user (McDowell, Wilson and Kile, 2016). Hence, this makes e-business as most effective since it can offer and show products based on search results of the users. Therefore, as per the customer journey model also known as marketing funnel, the customer tends to be remain engaged as it provides all information on the same page, easy to navigate and might find it useful, so the customer would be at the purchase stage through this journey (Dholakia and Zhao, 2010). Similarly, as per the technology acceptance model (TAM) website also has perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use which tend to lead to attitude towards using the website.

Analysis

            There are five stages in the proposed customer journey model and if the customer makes a gets awareness through social media or online advertisement then it tends to seek information about the products or services being offered by the e-business. However, in case of ASOS, the search results provided a strong presence of the company online and showed top results of the brand which indicates a strong outside activity, integrated pages, strong search engine optimization and backlinks that makes the e-business to top in the results and all relevant channel of communication apparent on same page (Dholakia and Zhao, 2010; Mangiaracina, and Brugnoli, 1970). This was found in case of ASOS but Mark & Spencer did not have same feature where its official social platforms were not listed in the search results rather in the panel on right side. This indicates Mark & Spencer has not been so active on the social media platforms which is one of most important contemporary as means of communication. Furthermore, referring to the customer journey model, the customers would be more engaged with website of the Mark & Spencer than ASOS given the fact that its website was built with effective user interaction which makes it to comply with the technology acceptance model (TAM) for the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use and leading to actual use of the system (Fedorko, Bacik and Gavurova, 2018).

            In addition to, exploring the inside activities of the both websites, Mark & Spencer has provided a more customer experience as it offers reviews of customers on each product, 3-months interest-free monthly payments option with PayPal and also free delivery over the shopping of £50. Hence, this makes the customer to shift from consideration to purchase stage in the customer journey model. In contrast to, ASOS does not provide such options and experience to the customers, thus it can be determined that as per the technology acceptance model (TAM) there is no effectiveness of inside activities of ASOS which could influence customers to shift from consideration stage to purchase stage and retention and advocacy (Fedorko, Bacik and Gavurova, 2018). However, there was no any information on the tracking the delivery in real time but Mark & Spencer provided information on the expected delivery, guest check-out but this experience was missing on the website of the ASOS. However, there was one important distinction between the website, ASOS site slower to load then Mark & Spencer and ASOS was provide a free delivery irrespective shopping amount.

            From the analysis conducted above, it can be can determined that Mark & Spencer provides a better customer Journey than ASOS, and it also has maintained perceived usefulness and perceived use of ease which enables customers to actually use website and navigate easily due to user-friendly interface and engaging content (Dholakia and Zhao, 2010). However, the website of the ASOS lacked in such aspects which affects overall customer experience and does not comply with the customer journey model and technology acceptance model. It is because, the customer always needs to be engaged with the content and they must experience the excellence to shift customer from consideration to purchase and retention to advocacy (Märtin, Bissinger and Asta, 2021). This was evidence in case of Mark & Spencer but was absent in case of ASOS, thus, it can be evidently claimed that Mark & Spencer has provided more effective e-business website which is built around customer experience and to make customer to remain engaged.

Proposal

            The proposed e-business is to establish a business online that will only sell the products and services which are by means of ethics. All products and services will be will be sold will follow all ethical aspects and moral obligations, where from acquisition of the raw materials to production of products and till delivery of the products would follow the ethics. For instance, all material will be acquiring from the suppliers who meets with the ethical parameters and products will be sold which are produced by following the ethics in production such as no child labor, equal wage pays, no discrimination, environmentally sustainable practices and also corporate social responsibility. This is a new and emerging concept as the awareness among the customer and general population has been rising and sustainability has also become need of time to ensure environment is preserved for the generations to come. This would be a distinct competency of the e-business to operate based on the aspect of sustainability and ethical e-business.

References

Dholakia, R.R. and Zhao, M., 2010. Effects of online store attributes on customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.

Fedorko, I., Bacik, R. and Gavurova, B., 2018. Technology acceptance model in e-commerce segment. Management & Marketing, 13(4), pp.1242-1256.

Hassan, S., Nadzim, S.Z.A. and Shiratuddin, N., 2015. Strategic use of social media for small business based on the AIDA model. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 172, pp.262-269.

Mangiaracina, R. and Brugnoli, G., 1970. The ecommerce customer journey: a model to assess and compare the user experience of the ecommerce websites. The Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 14(3), pp.1-11.

Märtin, C., Bissinger, B.C. and Asta, P., 2021. Optimizing the digital customer journey—Improving user experience by exploiting emotions, personas and situations for individualized user interface adaptations. Journal of Consumer Behaviour.

McDowell, W.C., Wilson, R.C. and Kile Jr, C.O., 2016. An examination of retail website design and conversion rate. Journal of Business Research, 69(11), pp.4837-4842.

Visual Paradigm. 2021. Marketing Funnel vs Customer Journey Map. Available from: <https://online.visual-paradigm.com/knowledge/business-design/marketing-funnel-vs-cjm/#>. [December 12, 2021].

Appendix 1 – ASOS Search Result on Google

Appendix 2 – ASOS Official Website

Appendix 3 – Mark & Spencer Google Search Results

Appendix 4 – Mark & Spender