E-Commerce Future For Coles Supermarket Australia Pty Ltd

Future of retail stores

Discuss about the E-Commerce Future for Coles Supermarket Australia Pty Ltd.|

The future of retail stores looks grim although not necessarily very bad. Retail stores have dominated the retail industry for the longest time possible. The invention of online shops and e-business through technology advancement is the most significant threat to retail stores. Most of the companies are now focusing on convenience and price rather than the physical distribution of products therefore retail business is under threat (Andam, 2014). Although shopping is an experience, the social aspect of meeting friends when shopping in retail stores cannot be underestimated. Introduction of online shops has given the consumer the necessary leverage to buy at the comfort of their places with a click of a button. This is technology for you.

The retail store in focus is Coles supermarket Australia Pty Ltd. It is headquartered in Melbourne Australia and owned by Wesfarmers. It has a vast network of physical stores amounting to 801 in total in Australia. This is an extensive network of physical retail stores that was founded in 1914 and has more than 100,000 employees.  Coles online is its online shopping company that helps in ease of shopping through digital platforms. Coles online has been growing at the supernormal rate, and it is clear that over the last few years, e-business will take over the Australian markets. Its current operations are all ranges of clothes and food items and all household goods and items (Chakraborty, Lee and Rao, 2016). Together with its main competitor and rival Woolworth, they command 80% of the Australian market.

Cole’s supermarkets has noticed the impact of digital retail to its sales and revenues. The goal is to increase its visibility online so as to tap more on the sales on the electronic platform.

To achieve these goals, the retailer will put digital first, according to Coles management. The company plans to renovate its stores, digital channels and supply chain to work together as a smart grid. For example, the back rooms of Cole’s stores simply will not have any products before moving them to the sales room(Chakraborty, Lee and Rao, 2016). By 2019, all l retailers will double as hyper local distribution centers, from which Cole’s supermarket sends orders. Cole’s plans are a clear signal of the impact that electronic commerce is having on the supply chain. While the impact is more pronounced with companies that deal directly with customers, it is also reaching businesses from business to business. 

Coles

Coles has been using e commerce. In fact a lot of resources has been put into the digital platform for sales and service delivery to customers. Online retail business is the way to go. The emergence of people willing to shop online is the key reason why Coles is determined to create a robust e commerce platform(Chiu, Wang, Fang, and Huang, 2014).  The e commerce solutions serve e-commerce companies by providing data visibility, production science, product traceability, and cost and quality management. It is very likely that the current changes will become even more marked.

The fact is that the comfort of home, the tranquility and delay hours looking for and asking Internet users about products make electronic commerce the option for many to buy articles of any kind. The security, the confidence in the transactions and the volume of operations were factors that determined the choice of the best e-commerce sites by the specialized firm(Wang, Wang, and Liu, 2016). In the same way, the number of unique visitors was taken into account, since this point helps determine the prestige of a page.

Consumers also use social networks to compare and evaluate the different offers of retailers. UPS shipping solutions help retailers grow and improve satisfaction with online sales transactions. Just as retailers adjust their supply chains to consumers who buy online on a frequent basis, also known as “flexible buyers,” they should focus on three key areas: physical stores, stock-outs, and cross-border returns.

If Cole re want to stay competitive, they should keep in mind that the number of people entering physical stores decreases as they grow online, which means that they have to go beyond the traditional purpose of a retail store and use it as part of the inventory and the distribution network.

Cole retailers are struggling to break the organizational silos, as 42% of Cole retailers show, citing this as the biggest challenge.

According to UPS’s latest study on consumer behavior, UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper, 41% of European consumers recognize that they resort to a competing website or mobile application when faced with a situation of lack of stock, while 20% claim to go to a competing store. Only 17% say they are willing to wait to make their purchase.

E-commerce retailers are growing much faster than their competitors who are not in the network. At least that has been the case in recent years. The retail industry is transforming and, in the physical sphere, takes on a new dimension. With digital devices potential customers discover, evaluate, buy, receive, use and return products without having to move from their home or office. In two decades each year, electronic commerce has grown at a rate of 6% per year. In just a decade more, you begin to doubt, the real role of physical stores. 

Coles and e-commerce

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is a process that consists of buying products and services through electronic systems available through the Internet, network systems, and other digital technologies. The amount of e-commerce conducted electronically has grown a lot due to the introduction of the Internet years ago.

Multiple software’s have been created effective and easy to manage to incorporate strategists in a retail business (Chiu, Wang, Fang, and Huang, 2014). It allows automating the entire process of purchasing goods and services, thus reducing costs and costs of staff, management costs, paper costs, market research costs, etc.

It keeps customers, and potential clients informed continuously, both through the corporate website and through electronic news bulletins (for example e-mails with offers, promotions, etc.), through social networks, etc. This allows the establishment of a closer and direct relationship with customers.

It allows companies to make themselves known among a more significant number of clients and will enable them to open up to new markets (throughout the national territory, export abroad, etc.) without this entailing a substantial additional cost (Wang, Wang, and Liu, 2016)..

The processing of all the information collected during a user’s stay on an e-commerce website allows creating a profile of that user; this profile allows the user to show products or services related to those about which he has shown interest, or related to products or services that he has previously acquired, or send him personalized promotions with offers on those products, thus considerably increasing the probability that this user make a new purchase(Fang, Qureshi, Sun, Ramsey, and Lim, 2014).

The e-commerce stores, when collecting and processing all the information related to the purchase processes carried out by the users, allow easy integration with CRM or ERP type systems.

It allows the client to offer more information, instantly and always correctly updated, better service and better service, allowing to provide support through new communication channels: e-mail, chat, discussion forums, blogs, conferences and video conferences through the internet, social networks, etc. This, in turn, facilitates the loyalty of those customers (Goolsbee, 2001).

It allows the company shorten the purchase cycle, eliminate intermediaries, reduce inventories and organize distribution more efficiently. All this, together with the reduction of costs associated with the use of electronic commerce, allows companies that use electronic commerce to increase their retail margins (Vize, Coughlan, Kennedy and Ellis-Chadwick, 2017).

Hiring a virtual store can be an excellent business opportunity.

Effectiveness in delivery, the most important aspect in the preparation of e-Commerce in Coles supermarket for digital sales

Cole supermarket and e-commerce

Effectiveness in the delivery: Fulfilling the deadlines of birth and that the product is in optimal conditions is always vital for an e-Commerce company. In any case, this premise is especially crucial during digital sales. Customers have, especially at this time, that companies will respect delivery times. The nervousness and the impatience typical of the time are mixed, with the organization against the clock, in many cases, of the clients Leong, (C.M.L, Pan, Newell, and Cui, 2016.)

Available in all formats: While it is true that the computer is still the leader in e-Commerce purchases in Australian, more and more users are making purchases through other devices. In fact, according to a report by The App Date, mobile purchases represent 34% of purchases made in Australian online. Also, users buy three times more when they do it from an app. It is vital that e-Commerce not lose this volume of sales, and more in Digital shopping, for not having an ergonomic interface that adapts to different devices, such as phones, tablets, and even apps (Melis, Campo, Breugelmans, and Lamey, 2015).

The moment of loyalty: Digital shopping is presented as the ideal time for online stores to trust customers and motivate them to buy all year. According to the barometer of Digital shopping 2015 of vente-privee.com, it is estimated that 17% of consumers will buy all their gifts online and 52% will combine physical stores and digital stores. To this end, commercial and marketing strategies can be implemented, such as promotions, free shipping, packaging, and sales support with a campaign on social networks and be emailing. 

– Technology: It is an essential element and different in almost all digital businesses, but there are still problems to find adequate suppliers with sufficient technical training and responsiveness to meet the high demand posed by business incidents.

– Providers: Although the retail stores who participated in the conference are focused on very varied sectors, the coincidence was absolute, pointing out that there is no culture in Australian to serve digital companies. (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson, 2014).

– Banking: Secure means of payment are essential for developing an e-commerce business, but Spanish banks are still little prepared to offer them a platform (POS) for online payment. – Logistics: In the case of logistics, the problem facing retail stores is the costs for products that require special care, such as fragile (bottles) or those that need refrigeration (fresh products). They also become considerably more expensive in shipments to towns or towns far from urban centers where, besides, there is a significant volume of electronic commerce. Insurance on transport, meanwhile, does not cover the price in products of more than 20 Australian dollars.

The effectiveness of E-commerce Coles Supermarket

– Financing: Requires capital intensive resources to place a digital sales platform and Coles will require a lot of capital to finance it.

– Fraud: Fraud in electronic commerce in Australian has an increasingly smaller incidence: it had dropped to between 1 and 2%, when until recently it was between 4 and 5% of orders, at the same level as in off-line (traditional) commerce. (Rutherford, Dagher,and Wankmueller, Mastercard International Inc, 2016).

Recommendations on Coles Supermarket E-Commerce Business and Conclusion

All the information generated during the purchase process carried out in an e-commerce store is registered electronically. A subsequent analysis of this information allows, in a simple way: conducting market studies, observing the behavior of customers and potential customers, improving the effectiveness of the e-commerce website with the aim of increasing sales, etc. Furthermore, since all the information on products and services is stored in some Database, the need to carry out an inventory and the management of stock is eliminated (Singhal, 2017).

The complexity of today’s business leads companies to consider new ways of acting around information and communication technologies (ICTs). The so-called rebellion of ICTs has led to changing the variables that govern the current socioeconomic environment. There are two fundamental elements of this fact: the personal computer and the Internet. For this, it is essential that the interface of the web page is intuitive and easy to navigate, that the payment is comfortable and safe, and that the client finds easily what he is looking for.

Parallel to this change in the social conception of communication with the world, the business nature has experienced some critical changes in the business processes and the administration and operations of companies (Terzi, 2016). Nowadays, consumers and companies have exponentially increased their business possibilities thanks to the options offered by the Internet.

It is important to mention that E-Commerce when innovating and installing new models of information technologies, must consider the personnel that will develop and maintain the trade programs and likewise introduces new projects with other companies (Turban, Outland, and Turban, 2018).

References

Andam, Z.R., 2014. e-Commerce and e-Business.

Chakraborty, R., Lee, J., Bagchi-Sen, S., Upadhyaya, S. and Rao, H.R., 2016. Online shopping intention in the context of data breach in online retail stores: An examination of older and younger adults. Decision Support Systems, 83, pp.47-56.

Chiu, C.M., Wang, E.T., Fang, Y.H. and Huang, H.Y., 2014. Understanding customers’ repeat purchase intentions in B2C e?commerce: the roles of utilitarian value, hedonic value and perceived risk. Information Systems Journal, 24(1), pp.85-114.

Fang, Y., Qureshi, I., Sun, H., McCole, P., Ramsey, E. and Lim, K.H., 2014. Trust, Satisfaction, and Online Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Perceived Effectiveness of E-Commerce Institutional Mechanisms. Mis Quarterly, 38(2).

Goolsbee, A., 2001. Competition in the computer industry: Online versus retail. The Journal of Industrial Economics, 49(4), pp.487-499.

Leong, C.M.L., Pan, S.L., Newell, S. and Cui, L., 2016. The Emergence of Self-Organizing E-Commerce Ecosystems in Remote Villages of China: A Tale of Digital Empowerment for Rural Development. Mis Quarterly, 40(2), pp.475-484.

Melis, K., Campo, K., Breugelmans, E. and Lamey, L., 2015. The impact of the multi-channel retail mix on online store choice: does online experience matter?. Journal of Retailing, 91(2), pp.272-288.

Piotrowicz, W. and Cuthbertson, R., 2014. Introduction to the special issue information technology in retail: Toward omnichannel retailing. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 18(4), pp.5-16.

Rutherford, B., Dagher, A., Wiseman, M., Paie, D.J.M.C., Rans, J.P.E., Ates, F. and Wankmueller, J., Mastercard International Inc, 2016. Customer authentication in E-commerce transactions. U.S. Patent 9,514,458.

Singhal, V., 2017. Framework to analyse the impact of horizontal collaboration in supply chain of online grocery retail business.

Terzi, N., 2016. The impact of e-commerce on international trade and employment. In Encyclopedia of E-Commerce Development, Implementation, and Management (pp. 2271-2287). IGI Global.

Turban, E., Outland, J., King, D., Lee, J.K., Liang, T.P. and Turban, D.C., 2018. Marketing and Advertising in E-Commerce. In Electronic Commerce 2018 (pp. 361-401). Springer, Cham.

Vize, R., Coughlan, J., Kennedy, A. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2017. Relationship quality: an online retail perspective. QUIS.

Wang, W.T., Wang, Y.S. and Liu, E.R., 2016. The stickiness intention of group-buying websites: The integration of the commitment–trust theory and e-commerce success model. Information & Management, 53(5), pp.625-642.