E-Commerce Ocado

E-commerce is the method of purchasing and selling products and services through an electronic network (Laudon & Traver 2). The business transaction is carried out through business-to-customer or consumer-to-consumer channels. Ocado is one of the world's leading British online retailers, with no shop chain and all home deliveries made straight from its factory, in contrast to its biggest rivals. It is the best online retailer and has held the top spot since 2010. (Almehairi &Bhatti 1). Jason Gissing, Tim Steiner, and Jonathan Faiman formed the firm. Its products include its brand groceries that come from the Waitrose supermarket chain and their brand. Ocado has launched Amazon Alexa voice assistant app that will allow its users to add products to its basket through voice command. It has been delivering online groceries products to Morrison supermarket that is its main grocery rival through its nationwide network depots to their online customers.
Eight Unique Features of E-commerce Technology within the Ocado Supermarket

The eight unique features of the e-commerce include Ubiquity, which refers to something that occurs in every part of the world. E-commerce has blossomed since the inception of the internet enabling it to grow exponentially (Andam 2). Ocado internet can be accessed by business people through their cell phones because it is available everywhere. Everyone is allowed to access it free of charge, and if they have to pay for it, it is quite cheap (Huang & Benyoucef 248). The internet, therefore, enables Ocado to trade globally unlike before the internet, when businesses were conducted traditionally through the global reach. Since the marketplace is online and it incorporates every type of business, Ocado supermarket can sell its items to its focused customers.
Global reach is another feature that enables the supermarket to reach to its retailers as well as sell to other side of the world where it could not sell before. In addition, it connects other able and big sellers with new opportunities to be in the market. The E-commerce has made the marketplace to be alive than ever (Kim, Yeolib &Peterson 42). Hence, the supermarket can reach out to many interested customers.
The universal standard is the third feature that promotes operations of the supermarket and implies that its internet is in accordance with global standards of information presentation (Turban, et al). In this case, Ocado supermarket performs all its businesses in a manner that allows access to information required by consumers interested in purchasing its products and the prices of items sold. Any interested party can easily open the marketing site and check the cost of the commodities through typing the brand they are interested in and searching to get all the options of they could be in need. In this case, customers can get online prices and other features related to the supermarket.
Information richness is another important feature in Ocado that facilitates successful trade. E-commerce also encouraged a trend of information availability in Ocado Supermarket as a feature of E-commerce because the company management is aware that most of the internet users can get bored quickly when they read through too much print (Awa, Ojiabo& Emecheta 78). Online innovation by the supermarket is necessary due to the ability to produce large amount of information so quickly. To avoid the monotony of reading only texts, the supermarket has come up with a new idea of adding video ads, the audio messages as well as the interactive text methods. In this case, the management can reach the attention of their potential buyers. One example of sites used for advertising is the Facebook. Once one is logged into the account one’s account, it becomes easy to monitor the activities of the supermarket, and by tailoring the ads on the right side of the screen, somebody can analyse the content and items posted (Hameed, Khawar, et al 277). It is therefore easy to purchase the commodities of interest because the company is also aware of what people are looking for.


Interactivity is another feature of the E-commerce that ensures the customers feel that they are much valued. Clients get frustrated when they visit the stores to find what they are interested in and find that there is nobody ready to interact with them for assistance (Almehairi, Mira and Bhatti 2). E-commerce has set a new standard for interacting with buyers in the Ocado supermarket. There are always online agents who are ready to chat with the clients anytime they feel they need assistance with the issue of the items on sale. People can get feedback on the issues they raise concerning the products, the billing, or even the shipping and they can decide if they want to spend their money for items present in their supermarket (Wang, Wang and Liu 628). The company also offers a chance for every client to rate their experience every time they purchase their product and for the person who attended them. In this case, the future customer is the guarantee of the fair pricing quick shipping as well as getting intact products.
Information Denseness is another factor that is equally important to interactivity although they are slightly unrelated. A lot of pricing information do floating all around the cyberspace making things very complicated for Ocado supermarket to decide on how to price their products fairly. However, pricing has become so easy because of information Denseness that has been facilitated by the E-commerce. The supermarket can easily access their competitor’s, manufacturers, as well as the information that concern their delivery services. The supermarket allows their clients to save on information processing, storage as well as the communication costs (Wang, Wang & Liu 632). It helps to drive the cost down, and it speeds up the process of getting the information that contributes to making customers happy with better and increased services.
Personalization factor ensures that the clients get exactly what they want. Other than getting the products promptly, the clients get satisfied when they receive the kind of the products they are looking for. The Ocado supermarket allows their clients to specify precisely the kind of the products they need through customizing it online so that it can fit the idea of their perfection. Lastly, E-commerce has played a very important role in social technology by offering sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to collect information that concern Ocado supermarkets and their products (Awa, Ojiabo & Emecheta 80). In this case, it means that social networking has transformed E-commerce in that it is allowing people to start networking and sharing their interests hence, Ocado supermarket can easily target the bases of their clients.
Social technology is therefore used to increase and to improve the interaction of Ocado customers to build a strong and lasting relationship (Saarijärvi, Hannu, Lasse Mitronen &Yrjölä 4) The social sites also change the customer experiences for better because they help to turn a regular customer into a brand advocate. It means that the Ocado supermarket knows the market space very well such that they are aware of what their clients need.

The importance of mobile-commerce (M-Commerce) technology to create and sustain competitive advantage
The M-commerce provides Ocado clients with easy store access. Customers could have been taking a lot of time to drive or walk to the store to have access to the products in they are offering (Nanehkaran 92). Though it could have been so enjoyable to walk around the stores, people have tied schedules such that they have no time to visit these stores. In this case, they have to access these stores through their mobile devices. The website of Ocado supermarket is mobile optimized and has a very high chance that its mobile shoppers are always browsing it to get to order for their goods.
The supermarket is constantly be making updates to make better sites through checking the traffic that is coming from their site and determining the percentage that is coming from the mobile phones. Use of M-Commerce enables the supermarket to attract new customers (Dinh et al 1590). The system does not only retain the older customers but also attract new customers who come from all over the world by accessing the store in their mobile and find it appealing. Since its site is more optimized, they gain more clients who are enticed by the display adds hence have to go back and purchase items that they find useful to their needs (Desai 2)Besides, it has created a new marketing channel. I beacons sensors are placed on shelves and products displays and interacts with nearby mobile devices. The devices have an important in offering a personalized shopping experience to their clients. In this case, signals deliver deals as well as promotions that can combine the world of online shopping with the real retail store (Saarijärvi, Hannu, Lasse Mitronen, and Mika Yrjölä. The device also provides push notification to their clients that remind them to incase they left their products in their carts and had not been checked. Moreover, the devices let the customers know whenever the new products arrive so that they may be interested in purchasing them.

M-Commerce helps with traditional retails sales by providing all the details of the products that are available in the store. The management reduces the number of the employees who have to update the information in the supermarket manually. Most of the customers do online shopping because is enough information of the products that are related to what they are searching. However, these customers do not purchase these items until they do their research and are sure that the products are of high quality (Desai 6). In this case, Ocado store has allowed their clients to have inventory connected with their products that are available online so that they can access them all and get the information they need which in turn encourages them to purchase more goods. The customers have all their time to research the goods before they are buying them and also the access the offers, promotions, and the discount offered to every commodity which they could not have to access if they were to visit the store (Ström, Roger, Martin Vendel, and John Bredican 1110). Having able to access these deals, the customer is encouraged to buy the product whether it is the one they see online or not hence more money for the store. For example in Ocado supermarket, some green vegetables can be posted online as they cook on a cooker making it more enticing that advertising it while on the shelves. Another advantage f the M-Commerce is that the market is overgrowing. Ocado supermarket has been optimizing its sites for mobile users hence rapid growth of their users. It has been ahead of other stores that do not encourage M-commerce use (Bilgihan, Anil, Kandampully &Zhang120). High percentages of people are now shopping their products online from Ocado sites. Millions of people have been buying online through their phones, and these people do increase each day. Customers especially who have ever tried to shop from Ocado do encourage each other to purchase from their sites.

The relative significance of medial social marketing when introducing a new product or service on the company

The social media increases brand awareness in the store. Ocado store has been using social media to advertise its new products since it is the most cost-efficient digital marketing method that is increasing their visibility (Ashley, Christy & Tuten 24). Social media is raising brand recognition because the store is engaging with a broad audience f consumers. The process starts by creating a social media profile for the store where it starts interacting with the employees as well as the business partners who like and sponsors the page (Harrigan, Paul, et al 28). By doing this, people interact with the contents as they increase the brand awareness hence building the reputation of Ocado supermarket as a business. In this case, each posted details of the store are shared to a new network of people who ends up to be potential customers (Solomon 4) Creating social media, therefore, gives a benefit to the brands because it generates a broad audience for Ocado store. Also, there is more inbound traffic for using social media because without marketing the products through it means that only the usual customers are aware of them (Constantinides 46) . Ocado supermarket utilizes the social media as part of their marketing strategy to reach customers that are more loyal. Social media profile that Ocado use in their market has been used as a gateway to their website. Every piece of the content they post gives an opportunity to acquire a new client since it is where people of different behaviors and background meets. Moreover, they have different needs as well as different ways of thinking and would reach the platforms of the Ocado store easily. In other words, Ocado has been marketing on social media and has opened efficiently its business to a wider variety of versatile customers globally.

Use of social media for marketing the business has a higher rate of conversion. In this case, Ocado's website can increase traffic through posting images, videos, comments or blog post. Marketing through the social media, therefore, gives a positive impression through the factor of humanization. Ocado brands are personified through interaction achieved by sharing the contents, commenting and then posting them on social media (Kiu & Chien-Sing Lee 378). In this case, many consumers prefer to work with other people than instead of the companies. Ocado management has taken their time to develop their relationship with their consumers, which has, in turn, showed positive results in sales. By doing so, they have created a better impression to their clients hence making large volumes of purchases Ocado's products and services (Laudon & Laudon 4). Whenever Ocado's brand is posted online, the clients who follow the brand's accounts improving trust of the credibility of their business. In this case, it shows that by putting any brand in a platform with many people who shares, like and talks about it, can highly improve the conversion rate of the existing traffic.
The key areas Ocado management team needs to address in regards to security legal and ethics issues.
Ocado, management must ensure that business is carried out in a legal, ethical, d sure way. The company has to protect its consumer's online data theft and from security breaches. Since consumers give a lot of sensitive information to the storeowners to complete transactions, the management must be prudent not to disclose data to unauthorized people to avoid theft (Nilashi, Mehrbakhsh, et al 58). Such information includes credit cards numbers, customers address, and their email address together with their password as well as their purchasing history especially when buying sensitive products. The data leaked to the public can lead to great losses thus protecting it is necessary (Rane, & Meshram 1720). Since Ocado does not want to get booted from selling their products online by protecting their customer’s rights through storing only the data they need much (Niranjanamurthy, et al 4). The managers can also protect their client’s data through storing it with extra layers such as using a unique pattern, password, and fingerprint. In addition, it is the responsibility of Ocado management to promote trust among the clients to retain them for a long time.

Ocado should also have accurate product listing to their online consumers (Yasin, Shazia, Haseeb &Qureshi 134) . Ocado management should ensure they give correct information to their consumers because some customers rely on the pictures, videos and the artistic on the packets to find out whether the product is the ideal one. Sometimes, sellers only leave very little description that says very little about the products thus the customers do not get to see the exact item they will receive online wherein store, they pick the items on the shelves and proceed to the register (Tripathy, Biswajit &Mishra 4). For that reason, Ocado, managements need to list their products accurately, honestly, and completely to avoid high expectation from the customer, which may turn out to be false. Online, customers need to be surprised with unexpected high quality and beautifully packaged products. Ocado, supermarket should not supply its clients with low-quality products and services as this can discourage them from buying. Inaccurate products listings usually disappoint the customers, and it might lead to losing them completely (Nagunwa 72). Any negative expectation from the client leads to complaints on social media to friends of the concerned customers and may result in the bad reputation of the store. When client influence one another negatively via the media, the company suffers losses due to low sales. Customers are excited when they see a sealed box delivered to them as they start the process of opening it to see the awesome products delivered to them. However, they get disappointed if the sellers fail to meet their expectations (Trevino & Nelson 4) Ocado's managers should take responsibility and collect feedback from their consumers and listen to what they say and if they indicate inaccuracies in the products listings the managers need to fix them.

Ocado management should ensure they do not sell counterfeit products to their consumers. They should know exactly where their products come from to by contracting trustworthy suppliers that comply with the set laws (Peltier 6). Managers and employees need to assess the products they are delivering to the clients to ensure they are legal to avoid blame game from their clients. Checking items they are regularly selling by physically handling most of the goods, in stock can minimize the issue of selling illegal goods. Ocado management should also verify their goods with the manufactures that can easily identify if a product is fake or original with the use of the serial numbers (Larivière, Bart, et al 268). The company should also work with trusted suppliers from validated organizations and should be extra careful with international suppliers by ensuring the goods they supply are fully regulated. However, it is important to make right with the customers in case of counterfeit products to avoid future misunderstandings.

Conclusion
E-Commerce has positively changed the operations of businesses globally and has a potential to continue to facilitate business for better in generations to come. Buying and selling of goods have been made easier since time spent by consumers visiting one store to another in search of the products as they get them ready in Ocado stores has been reduced. Business owners should take responsibility for taking their firms to the level of using online in their operations since it is very convenient to the current generation. Online shopping has become so popular that it cannot be ignored anymore and companies such as Ocado are benefiting greatly from the tchnology. Business owners should also implement social media into their marketing strategy because it is cost-effective and one has nothing to lose. Businesses that are already marketing with social media do grow very fast by taking all the potential customers. For example, most of Ocado competitors operate through the social media hence they had to operate it to compete smoothly. It becomes easy to access all the information that concerns its competitors. However, social media sites should be appropriately handled to avoid leaking the necessary information that results in fraud and hacking of the customer's email accounts.


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