Australian e-commerce website analysis and evaluation

Australian E-Commerce Website Evaluation

Evaluation of an Australian E-Commerce Website

For purposes of this analysis the Australian e-commerce website, Angus & Robertson (http://www.angusrobertson.com.au/b2c/init.do),aleading e-commerce website dedicated to reselling books throughout Australia and New Zealand is analyzed. This website successfully intermediates knowledge and content management features and applications including sophisticated search functionality in conjunction with a design that is aimed at intuitive navigation. As the site is focused on selling books over the Internet, the distributed order management integration to book wholesalers for purchasing in bulk then breaking down the inbound shipments to single unit shipment requires an intensive level of supply chain expertise and supply chain management expertise managed over the Internet (Kaarst-Brown & Evaristo 2004).

Core Components of e-Commerce

The content management system that the website is based on requires a high degree of integration between the supplier, publisher, pricing, and Angus & Robertson accounting systems to make sure an accurate financial reporting of all transactions are captured from the website. Supply chain management and the ability to integrate distributed order management systems with multiple wholesalers, automating the order, returns and pricing processes to support real-time transactions need to be the catalyst of the entire e-commerce strategy of Angus & Robertson (Gunasekaran, Lai, Cheng 2008). Integral to any website's infrastructure that ensures a high level of integration to suppliers, which in this case are book distributors, there is the corresponding need for making sure there is an enterprise-wide content management system as well. Enterprise content management systems form the foundation of online catalogs that provide the specifics of the products offered on the websites (SMR Editors 2007). The combining of supply chain integration and enterprise content management systems driving online catalogs is an exponential increase in the number of books which can be offered (Goldstein & Goldstein 2006). Online catalogs need to have the integration links built directly into the content management systems of the online retailer to ensure the products shown on the website are in fact priced correctly, described correctly, or taken off the website when they are discounted. The triad set of integrations between supply chains, content management systems, and the online catalos form the foundation of any successful e-commerce website (Kaarst-Brown & Evaristo 2004). Once this foundation is in place, companies pursuing e-commerce strategies begin to concentrate on the breadth of books and ancillary products to attract the smaller yet highly profitable products that the website makes accessible to smaller audiences globally (Goldstein & Goldstein 2006). Once these components are in place, the priority shifts to the graphical user interface and its efficient design including the development and launch of user interfaces that are intuitive yet powerful enough to manage search, ordering, order capture, and return process workflows (Zou, Zhang, Zhao, 2007). In addition to these factors, the development of a secure online ordering set of applications is essential as this aspect of any e-commerce site leads to higher levels of trust over time (Jones & Leonard 2008). Enterprise content management is also integrated to the transaction and order management systems to ensure that the part numbers, product descriptions, and the pricing as defined within the catalos are accurate. In the broader e-commerce workflow, knowledge management and enterprise content management are critical for the functioning of the website and the ability to also provide insights into how best to serve customers by developing a knowledge base that can be used to teach new service representatives (Keblis & Chen 2006).

Evaluation of Angus & Robertson

With the above concepts in mind, the website for Angus & Robertson is evaluated. The graphical user interface and catalog are well-designed and have successfully created intuitively used search, ordering and order status applications. In addition, navigation of the site is well defined and intuitive. The greatest strength of this website is its tight integration of supply chain partners, book wholesalers, and the tight integration of supplier information on a per-book basis to the sites' content management system. This is exemplified with the depth of search options available on the site including options to find a book by title, author, description, or ISBN. The site has also been designed to allow for browsing through a content-based taxonomy that makes the task of finding book areas of interest easily accomplished. This site also works to create a multichannel selling strategy by listing local bookstores retrieved when a visitor types in their postal code, and lists book signing in their area as well. What differentiates this site from many other book-selling sites throughout Australia is the support for features that include enhanced content by areas of interest, in addition to content relevant to specific books of interest. These areas of content include radio interviews, downloadable PDFs, and book reviews are on the website as well. The site also provides one of the most comprehensive lists of best-selling books from any site in Australia as well. Finally, the use of content management systems in the website to enable greater levels of support is also evident in the help desk facility on the website.