week 10

Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management is an umbrella term for making more efficient use of the human knowledge that exists within an organization. The major focus of knowledge management is to identify and gather content from documents, reports and other sources and to be able to search that content for meaningful relationships. (http://www.findwhitepapers.com)

 

Essentially hmv.com could use knowledge management to help give them a better competitve edge over their main rivals. If knowledge management was unable to improve the business in anyway it would be very suprising.

Recenctly hmv.com used a from of knowledge management to help increase their customer numbers through advertising. In 2001 Hmv.com used a company called eGain. The eGain Campaign is an e-mail marketing and proactive customer service solution that offers functionality based on proven one-on-one marketing techniques for planning, targeting and executing high volume direct marketing programs. Basically this means that hmv took time to target their mailings based on customer preferences to ensure that emails only go to people who would be most interested in them. This means a higher percentage of emails will not be “wasted” on people who are never going to use hmv.com. Therefore more potential customers will recieve the advertising emails and hopefully like what they see and make a purchase.

Another imoportant form of knowledge mangement hmv.com have implemented is thast they allow their customers to rate the items which they have purchased. These ratings are then made available to all customers who can relate much easier to the review than the could to say a coporate review. This may not increase sales but it is a form of customer service and may incourage more customers to be loyal to the business. This may also prevent the customer service departments’ time being wasted by questions that could be answered in these reviews.

Staff employed at hmv stores are more than likely into their music/gaming or both which is probably why they are in the job. Their knowledge of new bands, albums, games and consoles will be plentiful but unfortunately is probably wasted as they probably only get it across to customers who ask questions. An online blog or a few pages on the website could display the staffs thoughts and knowledge of all this for potential and current customers to read. Kind of like the customers reviewing their purchases but more in depth and probably coming from people in a better position to be giving their opinion on the products.

week 4

Terms and Conditions

On reading the terms and conditions of HMV.com nothing stands out as being unreasonable or unusual. As you would expect from any sales website hmv.com clearly lets the customer know that HMV is liable for very little in the transaction between itself in the customer. Comparing HMV terms and conditions with its competition, Play.com, there are very few differences. The terms and conditions of play.com are easier to read and navigate. They have a lot more points than HMV but each point is quite simple and easy to understand. Play.com also has a point on data protection:

 

“Play.com will not pass on your personal or credit or debit card details to any third party except where an additional security check may be deemed necessary. We shall be entitled to process your data in accordance with the terms of our Privacy Policy”

HMV.com’s terms and conditions don’t seem to mention this but it is included in their Privacy Policy, which requires the opening of a different link. This is not a huge difficulty but play.com have made a point of bringing it to the attention of all customers who read the terms and conditions.

 

The returns policy of both sites reads very similar. Pretty much tells all customers that refunds will only be given when the goods have been received in the same condition as when they were sent. However Play.com reserves the right to make a 15% restocking charge for any goods which are not returned in mint condition or to refuse to accept such goods. This gives a little more room for damaged caused possibly by the currier services being used. HMV.com, according to their terms and conditions, will not accept these goods that aren’t in mint condition/condition they were dispatched and refund may be refused. All returns to HMV.com are at the customers own cost and risk. If orders are cancelled before goods have been processed, the amount debited from the account used to purchase the goods will be credited back to the same account ASAP or in any event within 30days of the cancellation date. Now, HMV and Play both have almost identical refund and return policies though in the event of a cancellation with HMV, you, the customer, must confirm notify HMV in writing. In the other hand cancellations made on play.com can be done so by email or by telephone, these two options are significantly easier that the sending of a letter. HMV.com processing their cancellations this way may infact be a little better for business as it may put some customers who were slightly disgruntled off returning their goods.

 

HMV.com follows strict security procedures when it comes to the storage and disclosure of information given to them by the customer when placing an order. This is to prevent unauthorized access or unlawful processing of the customers personal information. Customers information is kept confidential and stored on a secure server which is password protected and hidden from the outside world behind a firewall. HMV.com use encrypting software called SSL (secure socket layer) this is used to encrypt all of the customer’s personal information including credit card number and name and address. This means that the information the customer provides is converted into a code to be sent via the internet to HMV.coms storage where it is then decoded.

 

HMV.com uses cookies to keep track of customer’s visits to our web site. A cookie is a small file that can be stored by your web browser on your computer’s hard drive. HMV.com can use these cookies to recognize repeat users observing users behavior to compile aggregate data in order to improve the website for its customers. Cookies are used to deliver contents specific to your interest and to save your password so that you don’t have to re-enter it every time you visit HMV.com.

 

Cookies help to recognize when the customer next visits the website and note the advertisements displayed to them. This allows HMV.com to tailor the service provided to particular customer’s preferences.

 

 

 

 

 

week 3

HMV.COM

As a website hmv.com is relatively slow, infact 65% of websites load faster than hmv.com’s average of 3.2secs. This slower speed is probably due to the amount of graphics and promotion ads used one their homepage that i mentioned in a previous blog.

When searching for data on hmv.com i came across some remarkable statistics. hmv.com has a traffic ranking of 274,787 in the world according to http://www.alexa.com. That is a drop of 258,118 places in three months. This may not mean anything on its own but when compared to its main competitors today, play.com (globally ranked 909) and zavvi.co.uk (globally ranked 14,898 ) it is quite a shocking fact. Also in the last three months the number of global users who visit the site has dropped 94%! These figures show a significant struggle for hmv.com to compete in this market. However hmv.com.hk, the Hong Kong branch of the business shows i higher level of interest from users around the world. Hmv.com.hk isglobally ranked 3,639 a massive 271,148 places higher than the main site itself. More astonishingly 72.9% of hmv.com.hk users are based in the UK!

Global rankings in the last 6 months

Play.com have a turn over of $100-200 million revenue with employees numbers between 25-100,

compared to hmv.com $0-1million revenue with around 25 employees. As a competitor play.com seems to be miles ahead of hmv.com in the maket. it also has to be taken into consideration that both these sites are uk based.

The technology used when perchasing from a site like hmv.com is relatively common nowadays. Simple home computers with internet access are used to visit the site and navigate it easily. The site uses a “shopping basket” so when buying you can add multiple items to your shopping basket to save you from having to purchase one item at a time. When an item is chosen the website queries its database to see if the item is an stock. if so the sale will continue, if not a message will be displayed telling the uder that the item is out of stock and if/when it will be available again. Once an item is purchased the website then updates the stock level in the database. This is all done automatically by the website itself with no real human interaction apart from the user selecting the item. The user enters their postage and payment details which are process again automatically and stored temporarally. Once the payment is complete the order is passed through to the dispatches department who package the item(s) add the postage labels and post. Various pieces of software are used to create somewhat complex codes in order for the site to work as it does. this requires a team of IT professionals to maintain the site and keep it fully functional. After all if the users cant order products through the site then there will be no sales.

Due to the boom in mobile internet access thanks to technologies such as EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution), used on mobile phones such as the i phone and htc’c touch diamond, and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) internet is almost available everywhere we go.  Shopping via mobile phones would be by far the most convienient form of purchasing today. Certain things will need to be considered though, for instance, The website itself. Trying to open a website designed for a desktop web browser using a moblie phone will no doubt cause problems. A smaller simpler version specifically for use on a mobile phone would have to be devised. Also the payment options may have to be considered. Whipping out your credit card on a packed bus or train for 5mins while you try to type the numbers in isnt exactly the most sensible thing to do. Maybe an online account could be created with a limit so orders could be made without needing to enter payment details. Then accounts could be paid off another time or if the user has credited their account it can be automatically deducted.