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The consumer electronic market is changing quickly. Companies, like CoolBlue and MediaMarkt, are forcing local players out of the market. In this Digital Transformation Report we will take a closer look to one of these local players, namely PC Maasland.

PC Maasland business consists of selling different kind of computer related products and offering additional services (Derksen, 2016). As PC Maasland sells products, it only attracts individuals and sometimes companies, which are geographically located nearby. This is a consequence of the fact that PC Maasland performs well against local but not against global competitors, where some other sales companies are far more known and benefit from their brand awareness. Providing IT service helps the company to differentiate itself from competitors. This way, the company attracts another type of customer.

Nowadays selling products through the Internet is becoming a necessity, but is no more a sufficient reason to survival of the company. An advantage of Internet from the viewpoint of the customers is a disadvantage from the viewpoint of PC Maasland, which is price comparison. Because PC Maasland cannot afford to offer the same (low) prices as some big companies in the same sector, they might lose their customers. So in order retain current customers and to attract new ones, a new technology is needed to help the company to differentiate itself from local as well as from global competitors.

To overcome the challenge presented in the previous section, PC Maasland should take another approach regarding the sale of computers. Therefore, we suggest PC Maasland to offer a leasing option for both type of customer: individuals and companies. This will provide the possibility to retain current customers, to attract new customers and to gain market share. Some companies already offer a leasing system of computers, but it is still a market that has not been very developed. Furthermore, by investing in such a technology PC Maasland could overcome competitors.

The technological solution that we propose is thus the leasing of computers, which would take the same form as the one for the cars. Leasing prices should be different regarding a purchase option and regarding the duration of the leasing contract. A first motive for PC Maasland to launch offering leasing is the fact that they could offer bundles. This allows them to offer, in addition to their leasing offer, some additional services such as home/company delivery, installation of the computer, advice, maintenance and assistance. Bundling provides several potential advantages to the seller, including reduced production costs, reduced transaction costs, complementarities among bundle components and increased profits. Furthermore, there are also some advantages for customer for which bundling can appeal, because of its potential to reduce search, transaction and installation costs. A second motive for PC Maasland to shift from the traditional sales to a leasing system, is to potentially attract more customers, especially business customers. This is a consequence of the fact that leasing would be more interesting than buying a new computer from the viewpoint of the customer.

Source:
Derksen, F. (2016, September 20). Interview Derksen PC Maasland.

Link video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SpBrfr-BrI

Group 90:
David Wiegel – 372473
Mathieu Romers – 461113
Ewoud de Ronde – 355536
Michael Aarts – 373714

5/5 (3)

More and more people and companies are buying and offering their products online. The electronic markets and auctions are growing, but how do they keep their customers satisfied? We analyzed and compared Amazon and eBay and we provide them with some recommendations in order to improve their customer satisfaction.

Most people assume that both companies are very similar. They are globally active, sell products online well-known because of their websites and accumulate revenues of more than a couple of billion dollars. However, although their businesses might look like the same, there are huge differences in the way both companies operate.

eBay is an electronic auction in which buyers and retailers globally buy and sell products. The business of eBay consists of three main parts. Firstly, each individual that wants to sell a product on eBay has to pay a 10% fee on the final value. Furthermore, eBay upsells its fees by offering enhanced auction features in order to increase the visibility of the offers. Finally, eBay sells advertising every year, with a net worth of $2.8 billion. (McFarlane, 2015)

Amazon is an electronic marketplace and is the world’s-largest internet-based retailer. The business model of Amazon also consists of three main parts. Firstly, Amazon’s business consists of direct sales, so Amazon sells its own products. Secondly, Amazon provides a platform for third-party retailers to sell to buyers for a small fee, which makes up for almost 50% of all sales on Amazon.com. Finally, Amazon offers customers an additional service which provides shipment services and economies of scale, called Amazon Prime. (Bhasin, 2015)

To satisfy customers, eBay invests in great deals, security, safety, convenience and variety, while Amazon invests in fast delivery, quality assurance and customer service. However, when we look at customer satisfaction, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Amazon scores better than eBay. Amazon has an index of 83, compared to an index of 75 for eBay, while the internet retail average is 80 (ACSI, 2016).

A specific example of the investments, is Amazon’s fulfilment centers, which helps customers scale their business (Amazon, 2016) An example for eBay is eBay Guarantee, which is used to arm their customers against fraudsters. As a weakness, Amazon spends a lot of money on their centers and eBay is unable to measure illegal activity.

When comparing data, we see that the bounce rates are equal, 75% of shoppers view more than one page. Secondly, the user base of Amazon equals 244 million, compared to an amount of 157 million for eBay. Thirdly, shoppers browse the marketplaces for astounding lengths, 11 minutes and 32 seconds Amazon and 13 minutes and 10 seconds on eBay. (Haselden, 2015)

To conclude, both of them are able to increase the customer satisfaction. First of all, they should build trust of their customers by giving reliable information. Secondly, they should give the customers benefits. Finally, an outstanding 24/7-hour customer service is essential.

 

Bibliography

ACSI. (2016). Benchmarks by Company. Retrieved from The ACSI: http://www.theacsi.org/?option=com_content&view=article&id=149&catid=&Itemid=214&c=Amazon

Amazon. (2016). Amazon. Retrieved from Fullfillment by Amazon: https://services.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon/how-it-works.htm

Bhasin, H. (2015, April 18). SWOT analysis of Amazon . Retrieved from Marketing91: http://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-of-amazon/

Haselden, J. (2015, May 5). A Comparison of eBay vs Amazon Selling. Retrieved from Nchannel: https://www.nchannel.com/blog/ebay-vs-amazon-selling-comparison/#infographic

McFarlane, G. (2015, April 28). How eBay makes it money. Retrieved from Investopedia: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/042815/how-ebay-makes-its-money-ebay.asp

 

Videolink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak4H6Xvv3ys

 

Group 90

David Wiegel

Mathieu Romers

Michael Aarts

Ewoud de Ronde

1/5 (1)

 

Almost every person has bought a fly ticket online. It is an electronic market with customers all over the world and the prices in the market change all the time.  It is almost impossible for a customer to guess the ticket price. Sometimes a customer is looking for a ticket, but the customer is not sure yet to buy the ticket. The next day the customer wants to buy the ticket and then the ticket shows the price is doubled. Why do these prices change all the time?

 

Airlines want their flights to be profitable. So every flight should sell as many tickets as possible and all costs should be covered in the tickets. A part of the price depends on the location, flight time and date.

Popular areas have higher prices than the non-popular places and day flights are more expensive than night flights. Furthermore some days are more expensive than other days. If you travel on Monday, Friday or Sunday, the prices will be higher due to business travelers and if you fly during holidays tickets will be higher as well.

 

Another part of the price depends on the moment of buying the tickets. Each flight has a maximum number of seats, but not every seat has the same price. Airlines are selling the same seats of a flight for different prices. The first twenty seats are the cheapest and when these tickets are sold, the next seats are more expensive. In this case the last available seats have the highest prices, but the seats are exact the same as the cheapest tickets.

 

Besides the seat availability, there are more factors that influence the moment of buying. The system counts the number of customers that is searching for the tickets. The more customers are looking for the tickets of the flight, the more chance there is the price will increase. The system will think the tickets are popular, so the prices will go up.

 

Furthermore airlines are using several sites to let the customer choose from different tickets. Some tickets have baggage included, while other tickets include nothing. At first the customer only sees different prices and when they click on a ticket they will be ask to add baggage. Few customers return and most of them go on buying the tickets. At the end most of the tickets are the same, but the airlines are selling more.

 

Any moment customers are buying tickets, so it is almost impossible to guess the ticket price. What we do know, is that there are several ways that influence the price. It depends on which day you want to fly, on what time you want to leave and on the moment you bought the ticket. Be sure you buy the ticket long before the flight, choose the right airports and don’t fly on popular times.

 

Sources:

 

https://flightfox.com/tradecraft/how-do-airlines-set-prices

 

https://www.cheapair.com/blog/travel-tips/air-fares-101-why-do-fares-change-all-the-time/

 

https://www.smartertravel.com/2015/09/01/how-do-airlines-set-prices-for-airfare/