Business Analysis of an E Commerce shop

We will use Chow Sang Sang E-shop to assess the company’s different aspects. Advantages from E-commerce strategy and information technologies architecture. The Company’s Background. Chow Sang Sang E-shop is a Chow Sang Sang Holdings International Limited subsidiary named after a famous jeweler who worked in the 1930s (DBS Vickers Securities 2013, p.5). The name of this firm refers to his blessing to the business to revitalize itself in infinite cycles. The idea behind Chow Sang Sang Strategies for the development of their brand is that the company should own and operate every one shop itself, which implies that they will never enter into any licensing or franchising agreement on its name. Chow Sang Sang first engaged in E-commerce business by operating their E-shop website entitled eshop. Chowsangsang.com, which is fully owned by its mother company Chow Sang Sang Holdings and the trading on sites such as JD.com and vipshop.com recent years. The E-shop they are targeting most likely on some corporate clients by providing them with customized service on their needs for corporate gifts and mementos.

Company’s operation

E-shop of Chow Sang Sang owns two groups of specialists. One group of sales team specialist are not only keen on finding some B2B business order on fitting companies corporate gifts and souvenirs, but also promote their gold products as well as their jewelry products to the end user (consumer) through receiving online payment and deliver the products to corresponding address for those online customers. For another group of specialist they are quality assurance specialist on its jeweler product. For examples, they have their own laboratories both in Hong Kong and Mainland China, so as to equipping with highest testing standards which can deliver high quality of goods to customers by guarantee customers with getting controlled and monitoring under Hong Kong Laboratory Accrediting Scheme to provide testing of fineness on gold and platinum.

Chow Sang Sang is a company facing the issues of providing customized services to their clients. Without coming up with services that are customized, the business can lose customers and its competitiveness in the online market. Customized products will boost the company’s presence online by allowing clients to have variety of what they need before making a purchasing decision.

Analysis

This section analyzes the various aspects of online presence of Chow Sang Sang e-shop including the ease of use of the company’s website, applications the company is using in its online presence, the marketing strategies used, supply chain strategy, security strategies and IT architecture.

The ease of use of the company’s ecommerce site. The Chow Sang Sang e-shop website is easy to use. A visitor to the site can have a quick view of what that company has to offer to its clients. By scrolling up and down the website, a customer can see all the items that the company displays in its website. After opening the Chow Sang Sang online store, consumers have a variety of products and services that the company is selling. Looking at the display, there are various options that the online user of the store can navigate to identify more items from the store. For example, one can navigate and see prices for the products, different products and services for upcoming events or days such as the Valentines Day (Chow Sang Sang Holdings International Limited, 2017, p.1).

However, the Chow Sang Sang jewelery website poses the difficult in navigation. It is displaying the website information in Chinese and this may not be easy to read for every consumer. The jewelry items including bangles, necklaces and rings are given a unison name “love” at the top of the website (Empasis.com n.d, p.1). Even though a person can understand what the seller intends to say, a consumer will have challenges in reading the descriptions of the products as they are only in Chinese language. One needs to translate in case they do not know how to read Chinese. This is cumbersome for clients and one may stop at that point and navigate away from the website.

E-business applications currently used at Chow Sang Sang e-shop. The applications used by the Chow Sang Sang e-shop are effectively functioning. The company website has developed various buttons that the user can click to see different services and products available in the store. For example, there are product segments on the website and to access each section a consumer will click on the provided buttons such as wedding, jewelry, collections, gifts, what’s new/new arrivals, returns and exchanges, gold and rings among others (Chow Sang Sang Holdings International Limited 2017, p.1). A consumer can access the price of products and the terms of purchase such as commission, after sales services, star shopper (a reward program) and shipping. This makes it easy for the client to make a buying decision. There are shortcomings with the applications used by the Chow Sang Sang e-shop. For example, a customer cannot access how to make payments for the purchased products. This requires the client to contact the office for more information. Not all customers have that time or patience of following such a procedure. Also, the website does not show the discounts available for online shoppers.

Marketing Strategies

Digital marketing is a highly embraced technique by Chow Sang Sang e-shop. Chow Sang Sang works with other agencies in marketing its products and services and ensuring that they reach as many customers as possible. They also collaborate with these agencies to post information about Chow Sang Sang. The online marketing strategies are integrated with the offline strategies to ensure that clients can access the company information anytime. The company does its marketing promotions in the website and social media channels where creative content is posted to encourage customers in buying the products.

Chow Sang Sang embraces CNY promotion as part of its marketing strategies which is integrated in the digital display of the store (Chow Sang Sang Holdings International Limited 2014, p.31). They have capitalized on the CRM database and revamping of the VM at the digital store as a way of drawing more customers to visit and purchase from those stores (p.24). Digital social media is highly used on marketing Valentine’s Day products and romance on the e-shop display (p.32). Digital display is also used to market mother’s gifts on mother’s day (p.33). Digital engagement campaign is used to market bridal themes through online display of Chinese wedding collection, Infini love, La Pelle and Promessa at the e-shop.

The problem with the marketing strategies for the company is that they are not yet accessible in the mobile. Consumers can only access through the company website. There is the need for advancing the marketing strategies that enable the use of mobile devices to access the information about the company products.

Supply Chain Strategy

Chow Sang Sang e-shop utilizes an omni channel strategy to supply its products online. The new software expands the omni-channel strategy of the retail shop online and reaches the customers who are technology savvy in new ways. The omni-channel strategy has helped the company in enhancing customer loyalty as well as improving inventory management (Miller 2014, p.1). The e-shop does not widely use engage with other companies or agencies online to assist in supplying its products. It means that since it is the only store that makes supplies, there may be challenges of meeting customer orders for items when the demand is high. There is the need for involving other companies online in the supply of items.

Security Strategies

To enhance security in the e-shop, technology adopted by Chow Sand Sang has played a huge role. Majorly, security is given on the inventory and this has been assured by the utilization of the hybrid software that monitors the supply of items, displayed, sold and remaining ones in the online store. It also monitors customer purchases and payments. There is a problem with communication and Chow Sang Sand e-shop has not established a centralized way of communicating to customers for personalized services. This hinders clients from expressing more personal concerns when in need.

IT Infrastructure

The company uses hybrid software which is a SAP company for creating an ecommerce experience. There is also a B2C Commerce Suite created for the company online as a solution for competing globally (Questex Asia Ltd 2014, p.).). Technology application as well as connectedness of the e-shop gives consumers a new experience in shopping, browsing and purchasing of goods. The company embraces an In-store technology tie to the e-shop including Charme Touch and Magic Mirror (Hybris AG 2014, p.1). These IT Infrastructures empower clients in designing, trying and sharing jewelry from the online brand. Shoppers can view the store online, reserve items, make orders online, pick their products and have them delivered to their respective addresses. The new hybrid software has created a new shopping experience of online-to-offline services (Miller 2014, p.1). Chow Sang Sang has a virtual fitting solution that incorporates Intel RealSense F200 3D camera technology as well as Samsung OLED mirror screens (Yim 2016, p.1).

Recommendations

To become more effective in using internet technologies, Chow Sang Sang need to use English as the language for its website. English is a universal language and understood by almost all countries of the world. It is a sure way of ensuring all consumers can understand the products. There is the need for including online payment details and options available for clients. The applications should also present information about discounts offered by the business to its customers. Chow Sang Sang e-shop also needs to improve its marketing strategies to enable be accessible through mobile devices. The company needs to engage other agencies or companies to assist in marketing and supply more products. Communication needs to be revamped for improving security for the online store.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the use of internet technologies by Chow Sang Sang e-shop is a sure way of increasing the company sales and popularity in the market. By improving on the few named areas, Chow Sang Sang is a company whose online presence will help the business achieve most of its benefits.

References

Chow Sang Sang Holdings International Limited. (2017). Read my Romance. Chow Sang Sang eShop. Online < http://hkeshop.chowsangsang.com/>

Chow Sang Sang Holdings International Limited. (2014). 2014 Interim Results Presentation. Groups Reports. Online

DBS Vickers Securities. (2013). China Hong Kong Company Focus: Chow Sang Sang. Bloomberg. Online < http://pg.jrj.com.cn/acc/Res/HK_RES/STOCK/2013/3/11/bfd866bb-ee31-4071-8b3d-f869f92d17ad.pdf>

Emphasis.com. (n.d). Services. E-shop. Online

Hybris AG. (2014). Chow Sang Sang Launches eShop to Embrace Innovative Omni-Channel Retail Business Model. HongKong. Online < https://www.hybris.com/en/news-events/press-releases/141205-chowsangsang >

Miller, J. (2014). Chow Sang Sang Expands Omnichannel Strategy With eShop Revamp. Online < http://www.diamonds.net/News/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=48790 >

Questex Asia Ltd. (2014). Chow Sang Sang upgrades eShop with hybris suite. ComputerWorld. Online < http://cw.com.hk/news/chow-sang-sang-upgrades-eshop-hybris-suite >

Yim, C. (2016). Redfining Retail Experiences through Virtual Reality in-stores with Intel RealSenseTM 3D Technology. Intel Corporations: Case Study. Online < http://www.intel.my/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/case-studies/redefining-retail-experiences-with-realsense-technology-study.pdf>