Overview of the nominated websites

Discuss about the JB Hi-Fi and Amazon Online Shopping Site Elaborately. 

JB Hi-Fi is the famous one in Australia and New Zealand while Amazon being the famous retail store all over the world has recently opened a store in Australia and is gaining fame. This report will highlight all the aspects of both the shopping sites and also the difference between the two.

JB Hi-Fi is the populous consumer retail store located in Australia and New Zealand. The retail store generally sells household appliances, video games, Blu-ray, CD and DVD. Amazon, another retail giant open stores all around the world, has opened stores all around the world, they have even opened the retail stores in Australia as well (Fisher, Gallino and Li 2017). The company started its business selling books online later they focused selling other items such as CDs, DVDs, toys, home appliances.

There are various features involved that must be carefully evaluated and examined to increase the SEO and SMO of the site, however, during the evaluation, one must keep in mind the following key features- first impression, homepage pre tests, site navigation techniques, the task analysis, the execution analysis. The organisations while hosting a website should keep in mind the following features. The homepage pre tests help to recognise what purpose the website is going to serve, the identity pretest helps to recognise what the website is all about, the identity pretest help to know the details of the website, the customer will have to look whether they are getting the details they want on this site (“Web Design – The Complete Reference: Chapter 5: Evaluating Web Sites – Introduction” 2017).

Next, comes the navigation pretext, it assists in the validity of the website, the website is checked whether the hyperlinks of the sites are working or not, whether the hyperlinks have the relevant information or not. The hyperlinks do not work sometimes due to improper colour usages like usage of blue colours for the logos and the labels. Next, it must be analysed if the texts images are properly formatted or not, then the subpage pre tests must be checked whether they are sub pages are relevant or not. After all the pre tests analysis, the site navigation should be tested, whether the links within the sites are working well or not, the search facility is properly implemented or not (“Web Design – The Complete Reference: Chapter 5: Evaluating Web Sites – Introduction” 2017).

Main features of website

 After that, site navigation testing analysis should be performed, it includes the below task- testing of readability-the texts within are readable or not, testing of findability- the site contain the relevant information or not, the interactivity is tested and deals with filling out a form and this test is conducted to check the form is properly working or properly coordinating with the database or not.

Lastly, in case of execution analysis, the contents execution is analysed to check the relevance of contents, the visual execution is analysed to check the feel and look of the website, the technical execution is to check whether the site is technically fine, whether the links are working or not.

JB Hi-Fi is known to provide quality electronic goods to Australia and New Zealand. They are the first music retailers in Australia and they are quite popular in both the countries.

Amazon has the reputation of providing excellent service to the customers along with excellent products (Seetharaman et al. 2017). They have taken significant initiatives to reach to the customers and that is why they become customer friendly. They are a popular brand not only to Australia but also to the whole world. They basically focus on the data collection, personal data storage, excellent customer support, recommendations to the customers on top of that the Kindle Marketplace.

Customers’ Data Collection: Both the JB Hi-Fi and the Amazon accumulated data of their customers to know the customers’ demands, customers’ wish list, the products the customers are buying, in this way both the companies can predict what they are preferring, based on that they provide discounts on the products they are purchasing (Brynjolfsson, Hu and Rahman 2013). Amazon is way ahead of JB Hi-Fi as the latter company is only limited to electronic goods whereas Amazon sells all kinds of products including the electronic goods. Therefore, Amazon is close to the customers.

Storing Personal Information: The personal data information can be stored in case of Amazon like address, phone numbers, bank account details which assist the customer for future shopping (Schulz, Grant and Fernie 2014).  JB Hi-Fi also offers the same, however like Amazon they do not show the exact tracking and notifications of the products like when the product got ready for dispatch, when the product got dispatched and when the product will be delivered in details along with tracking number and tracking image. Amazon also shows the shops which sell products via Amazon, so the customers can get a glimpse of the shops and can judge the shop’s quality by ratings and feedbacks the customers provided (Verma, Sharma, and Sheth 2016). JB Hi-Fi is not as competitive as Amazon in this scenario.

Comparison of the two websites in accordance with the HCI design principles

Recommendations to the customers: Whenever the customers logged in Amazon or JB Hi-Fi shows the products customers wish to buy, also show what customers have bought recently, but Amazon additionally introduce the concept of flash sales, in which they offer heavy discounts on the products and the flash sale is very profitable to the customers. JB Hi-Fi is lagging behind, their products are relatively expensive (Farah and Ramadan 2017).

Excellent customer service: The customer service offered by Amazon is simply too good, the customers can buy products, can sell products, even can return products. In return policy, they are considered the best among all the online shopping retail shops (Acimovic and Graves 2017). They refund with full value. Amazon is significantly better than JB HI-Fi. Moreover, they can chat with the Amazon representatives.

Apps: JB Hi-Fi has only the music app in the market, while Amazon has an app with full features, in this way Amazon customers can stay connected with Amazon all the time, can even chat with the company’s representatives whenever required. The customers can buy products on the go simply using their smartphone.

Kindle: Amazon with its Kindle feature can significantly assist the customers, the customers can read books in the form of soft copy and on the tab specially designed by Amazon to read soft copies of books (Schulz, Grant and Fernie 2014).

Amazon Go: This is cloud retail technology provided by Amazon. Amazon provides ‘checkout-free’ service to the customers. The customers go to the store, pick up the products according to their wish and simply check out from the store, immediately after check out, Amazon sends the purchase bill to the respective customers (Brynjolfsson, Hu and Rahman 2013). The customers pay the bill.

Amazon is clearly way ahead of JB Hi-Fi in terms of customers’ service and customers’ satisfaction.

JB Hi-Fi needs to improve a lot, to compete with Amazon they have to follow the footsteps, they have to adopt the cloud technology. Amazon already is the owner the Amazon AWS cloud platform.

In case of Amazon, they can initiate on-spot replacement policy, where the customers can return the product at the time of receipt if the customer does not like the product. The customers should return the product and should enter the details of returning product digitally via their website so that Amazon can keep the return receipt with them in digital form. Also, the customers should get the money at that instance in the form of cash. This on-spot replacement approach can certainly help them to provide better customer service.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the above discourse that specific analysis should be made of first impression, homepage pre tests, site navigation procedures, the task analysis and the execution analysis. The report also highlighted the JB Hi-Fi and Amazon online shopping site elaborately. The HCI design principles between the duo have been a contrast in this report as well. The further recommendations for the two websites have been stated in detail in the report.

References

Acimovic, J. and Graves, S.C., 2017. Mitigating spillover in online retailing via replenishment. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 19(3), pp.419-436.

Amazon Go. 2017. Amazon.com:  Amazon.com. Retrieved 5 September 2017, from https://www.amazon.com/b?node=16008589011

Brynjolfsson, E., Hu, Y.J. and Rahman, M.S., 2013. Competing in the age of omnichannel retailing. mIt sloan management Review, 54(4), p.23.

Farah, M.F. and Ramadan, Z.B., 2017. Disruptions versus more disruptions: How the Amazon dash button is altering consumer buying patterns. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 39, pp.54-61.

Fisher, M., Gallino, S. and Li, J., 2017. Competition-based dynamic pricing in online retailing: A methodology validated with field experiments. Management Science.

Jbhifi.com.au. 2017. JB Hi-Fi | JB Hi-Fi – Australia’s Largest Home Entertainment RetailerJbhifi.com.au. Retrieved 5 September 2017, from https://www.jbhifi.com.au/

Schulz, B., Grant, D. and Fernie, J., 2014. Exploring Success Factors and Constraints in German Online Food Retailing. Les actes des 10èmes Rencontres Internationales de la Recherche en Supply Chain et Logistique (RIRL).

Seetharaman, A., Niranjan, I., Saravanan, A.S. and Balaji, D., 2017. A Study of the Moderate Growth of Online Retailing (Ecommerce) In the UAE. The Journal of Developing Areas, 51(4), pp.397-412.

Verma, V., Sharma, D. and Sheth, J., 2016. Does relationship marketing matter in online retailing? A meta-analytic approach. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 44(2), pp.206-217.

Webdesignref.com. 2017. Web Design – The Complete Reference: Chapter 5: Evaluating Web Sites – Introduction. (2017)Webdesignref.com. Retrieved 5 September 2017, from https://webdesignref.com/chapters/ch05.htm