Case Study Description of Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping
Academics and practitioners alike have been arguing about whether the Internet brings a revolutionary change in the fundamental way we do business or whether it simply offers a new distribution channel and communication medium. Regardless of the answer to that debate, one thing is certain: the Internet provides managers with an enormous amount of customer information that was previously unavailable. Thus, the new struggle has been to manage this information and to use it accurately and efficiently to measure customers, trends, and performance. However, the volume of this data has overwhelmed many e-commerce managers. As a result, e-commerce managers have been focusing on aggregate-level summary statistics rather than fully leveraging their data. Using commonly available clickstream data, this article discusses the benefits of separating an individual customer's buying behavior into simple patterns of visits and purchasing conversion. This analysis of the buying process allows us to examine more carefully the relationship between store visits and purchasing behavior.
Swot Analysis of "Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping" written by Wendy W. Moe, Peter S. Fader includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Visits Patterns facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption,
increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Visits Patterns, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Visits Patterns operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Visits Patterns
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Visits Patterns
Strengths Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Visits Patterns in Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Visits Patterns in the sector have low bargaining power. Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Visits Patterns to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Visits Patterns in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Visits Patterns has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Visits Patterns is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Organizational Resilience of Visits Patterns
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Visits Patterns does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Visits Patterns to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Visits Patterns to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Visits Patterns has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Visits Patterns to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Visits Patterns is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Wendy W. Moe, Peter S. Fader can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Learning organization
- Visits Patterns is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Visits Patterns is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Visits Patterns has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Visits Patterns is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Visits Patterns is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Visits Patterns needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping HBR case study mentions - Visits Patterns takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Visits Patterns has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Visits Patterns has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Visits Patterns has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Visits Patterns is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Visits Patterns 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Visits Patterns is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Visits Patterns needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Visits Patterns to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping, is just above the industry average. Visits Patterns needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Visits Patterns supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Visits Patterns vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Visits Patterns can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Buying journey improvements
– Visits Patterns can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Visits Patterns to increase its market reach. Visits Patterns will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Visits Patterns can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Visits Patterns can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Visits Patterns has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Visits Patterns can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Visits Patterns to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Visits Patterns can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Visits Patterns can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Visits Patterns operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Visits Patterns can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Visits Patterns can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Visits Patterns to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Threats Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Visits Patterns has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Visits Patterns needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Visits Patterns will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Visits Patterns demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Visits Patterns high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Increasing wage structure of Visits Patterns
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Visits Patterns.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Visits Patterns with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Visits Patterns in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Visits Patterns business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Visits Patterns is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Visits Patterns in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping, Visits Patterns may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Visits Patterns can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping .
Environmental challenges
– Visits Patterns needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Visits Patterns can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Uncovering Patterns in Cybershopping is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Visits Patterns needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
