Critique of Competitors, Term Paper Example

Ranked 1-Bit 30

The Hurricane Island Competitor Analysis would be the number one ranked paper. The author wrote about the comparison of L.L. Bean, REI, and Orvis. The theme of the paper was to illustrate their current hold on the market as well as suggest some opportunities for improvement. The paper was an excellent business comparison of three outdoor and apparel companies using detailed analysis and quality research. The author presented each company based on their community initiatives, quality of websites, product comparisons, and recommendations. The author’s presentation of the arguments were clear concerning the differences and similarities between all three companies. The paper was very well-written and well-organized in the chronological order of importance. The essay was written in simple format which kept the reader interested in the arguments the author was presenting. The arguments were organized and concise using an excellent choice of grammar, pace and structure.  The subject matter is outdoor and apparel which may not be exciting however, the author did a good job at speaking to the reader. The paper pulls the reader into the story creating a genuine interest in the comparison of each store.

The author used an even distribution of historical information on all three stores that reflected the author’s unbiased opinions concerning the outdoor and apparel companies. The grammar used by the author was done perfectly along with excellent use of colons and commas. Finally, the author clearly reflected a high level of understanding concerning the outdoor and apparel industry. The specific knowledge of the products allow the reader to follow the presentation with ease. The outline sections titles of Bricks & Mortar, Navigation, Mobile, Social, Community, Search Engine Capabilities, Visibility, Security, and Return Polices. The Brick & Mortar section explained how the e-Commerce stores can work in conjunction with the e-commerce stores. The navigation section provide the importance for consumers to have user friendly tools to search the website. The primary social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook show that the simpler the website the more the consumers will continue to patronized the website.

The mobile section indicated that the author understand the market because in the technology society environment, people shop online just as much as brick and mortar stores. The feature is mobile stores applications because the mobile phone is the center of everyday interactions such as banking, texting, surfing the net, phone calls, order food, and searching for any items on the mobile phone. This sections provides the foundation for HI to ensure they included mobile options on their website.

The community section shows the organizations are concerned about the welfare of communities near and around the stores. The search engine capabilities is crucial for a customer to be able to find their product. It has been proven that the more difficult to maneuver on a website, the more consumer will leave the website. The security section brought about the primary point about protecting a consumer’s data. The return police can help a company branded their product and make the company more visible and noticed by consumers. The best example is Macy’s will take back any item that was purchased at their store with or without a receipt. The return policies is important. These sections addressed all the areas needed by HI to build their own e-Commerce website based on the detail information provided by the author. The HI organization has a foundation that can measure the best practices and segments to enter the market without resistance.

Rank 2^th Bit 17

This paper could have been ranked 1, but it was a close decision. The author did an excellent job at listing the evaluation criteria. The evaluation criteria made it easy to understand the points, themes, and overall flow of the paper. The author discussed the positives and negatives about each store along with what can be improved for the future. One of the most important recommendations for the HI store was the need for branding: “When it comes to a strategy to have unique products for HI is HI should start work with existing brands to create a specialized product just for HI that can be sold solely in HI’s store. If it’s well received from the customer, the next step is to produce its own branded product”. The strength of the paper is making that distinction about branded a product regardless brick and mortar or ecommerce. The delivery of this paper was precise along with excellent presentation of the ideas. In some books, the author forgets about the audience using big words, uncommon quotes, and subject matter that is not common knowledge. The author did an excellent job making sure the paper flowed with ease so the reader could follow the meanings and facts.

Rank 3rd Bit 31

The introduction was precise to the point” The purpose of this paper is to recognize the market on which Hurricane Island (HI) wishes to embark and potentially gain a competitive advantage over the three current dominating companies”. The website section was very narrow in explaining the differences and similarities of each company. As an investor, it would be difficult to make a decision on which product has the best success with ecommerce. The best part about the paper was the recommendations for HI using the website as a tool to increase exposure and sales. However, the strategies were concerning the best practices for the website ecommerce however, the website section was not in-depth enough to make that type of website choices.

Rank 4 Bit 7

The Analysis of E-Commerce Competitors paper was my original number one choice however, the last chart that was showing the different areas of scalability of each company fell short. The check marks indicated what areas the stores used online to compare the differences. However, all the check marks were almost identical for each store. There was no difference in design, purchasing, searching, personalization, customer service, and technical implementation. The paper lost credibility because all three stores cannot have all the same features online. It was a fantastic chart visual but the actual explanation of differences was not good.

The paper had an excellent outline but the discussion for each section was not enough to make strategic and logical recommendations for the HI organization. The point and click check-out is an excellent tool for ecommerce but for those that are not familiar on how this can increase sales need more historical information. The author explained how quickly the Amazon’s 1-Click would increase the speed of processing, however the author did not address some of the problems with Amazon’s 1-Click such as saving all the customers information which has the potential for hackers. In 2013, Target stores had thousands of customer’s personal and credit card information stolen. The author should have shared more about how to protect the customer’s data which is on the forefront of every newspaper concerning breaches of consumer’s information. The hackers are constantly taking the consumers information illegally.

Rank 5^th Bit 27

The author completed a comparison of the outdoors and apparel industry company’s websites, which are LL Bean, REI and Orvis website review. The goal of this paper from the thesis statement was “The objectives of this review is to explore LL Bean, REI and Orvis websites against given e-commerce criteria/questions to determine; how easy the sites are to navigate, what the sites do well, where they are deficient, how could they be improved”. One the more important about navigation is how much traffic is generated because it can reflect how people are visiting and returning because of the ease of navigation and the products. As result, the paper was scored and rank last in 5^th place because of this critical missing piece of data. The answers is in the numbers because the changes to the website will be reflected in how many people visit the website. The best example is the search box does not work for finding different products, as result the number of visitors decreased by 30%. The paper should have included some statistical information about consumer’s best practices when they visit a new website.

This analysis lack several important issues when comparing the website such as how much traffic visited each store. The number of persons that are visiting the store can provide valuable information concerning existing and new customers, user friendly application, style, and delivery of the web sites. The question that was not answered is” How much revenue did each apparel store make in the last three to five years. The presentation audience was investors who always want to see the financials for performance. The primary goal of the website is to bring new customers from different types of marketing avenues. In addition, the comparison between the brick and mortar to the e-Commerce websites. The final missing part is the success levels of market penetration or the market best practices should have been included in the paper. The paper did not have a good outline which led to the paper not providing a good presentation. In addition, the author did not provide the information in-depth to support the arguments. In order to make a business decision on the best way to deliver a product, the investor will need an in-depth analysis to make a good business decisions. This paper did not talk about the integration between the brick and mortar store and the website. This is critical for HI before they make a decision on integrating these two elements. For example, the store trends to only offer some items online has backfired with loyal customers. The loyal customers wants immediate satisfaction with the purchase, therefore if they cannot walk into the store to buy the product they will shop elsewhere. Walmart is guilty of offering products online but not in the store which many customers stop shopping on line with Walmart for that reason. There are important factors that should be discussed to help HI make a solid decision on integrating the brick and mortar stores in conjunction with the website.