Week 10

For this weeks blog we again had to visit Google Analytics. We then had to create our own segments this week. We again used the TRAIL report and changed the date to 15 June 2010 to 15 Novmber 2010. We had to got to Advanced Segments to create our custo segment. The segment had to include Visitors froms Town/City called Belfast who use the Internet Explorer Browser. bellow shows the screen shots of this.

We then had to test our search and see what results we got.

The screen shot above shows the results of the testing segment. Belfast received 122 visits and Internet Explorer received 428 visits and 58 of the visits were variables.

The shot above compares the two segments together. the blue line shows the total visits and the orange line shows my segment visits.

As a second part of our task this week we had to create our own segment. bellow shows my segment.

I searched The count of visits which were 85 visits. The language for eng-gb was 173 visits and the region for Northern Ireland visits was 161 and together these had 8 total visits.

Finally Below the screen shot shows the graph showing my new segment and the total number of visits.

Week 9

A) – During the 5 month period o 15 June 2010 to 15 November 2010 there has been the total of 929 visits to the TRAIL website. This is shown in the picture below.

B) – What is meant by bounce rate?

This is when a total is calculated on how many viewers move on to other websites after looking at just one page of the previous website.  When a viewer doesn’t take time to look at the other pages of the website they usually change to a different website.  This is what Bounce Rate means.

What is the Bounce Rate for the TRAIL site in the last 5 months?

For the past 5 months the TRAIL website has a Bounce Rate of 67.81%. This is also shown in the Picture above. This is a very high percentage and this percentage shows that many people who visit the website usually leave it immediately.

Should the website try to lower or raise the Bounce Rate?

A Bounce Rate should be relatively low on a website as these shows that more people are taking interest in the website and taking time out to read through the website. Therefore, the TRAIL website should try to lower its Bounce Rate.

C) – According to Google Analytics the main majority of its viewers come from search engines. In total 55.76% of its viewers appear from search engines. 28.63% of its viewers are from referring sites. this means that other sites are providing links to the TRAIL website.  However, 12.59% of TRAILS viewers are from direct traffic where they immediately go to the website instead of going through a search engine or referring sites. This is all illustrated in the image below.

D) – In the last 5 months the most popular Key word that has viewers has been “Trail living lab”. This would be used by people who understand and acknowledge the company but don’t remember the website address.  This phrase alone has achieved 61 visits. On its own the key word “Trail” has only achieved 13 views and is the third highest key word used.

E) – During the date period of 15 June 2010 to the 15 November 2010  there has been a large number of referring sites. The main referring site was Brain-project.org. This received 31 visits.

F)-  In the last 5 months Belgium has been the 6^th most popular country of origin of visitors for the site. It has a total of 17 visits from this country.

G) – There has been a total of 11 visits from mobile devices in the last 5 months to the TRAIL website. The most popular of these visits came from an iphone which provided 8 visits in total.

H)– The table below show the statistics of how many time people view the website between the periods of 15 June 2010 to 15 November 2010. The first column explains the count of visits from this visitor including current.  This explains how many times the website would have been viewed by different viewers. For example if one person only viewed it once it will appear on the chart as 1 time if they have viewed TRAIL 3 times the is will be marked on the chart as 3 times. And this continues for the rest of the data. The chart show that 754 visiters of TRAIL have only viewed it once. 46 of the viewers viewed the website twice. The chart also shows that 57 of the viewers viewed the website 51-100 times. This explains that TRAIL is also regularly viewed by many viewers and proves that there is an interest in the website.

Week 8

As part of week 8’s task I had to explain what the opportunities Randox offers with an online site. I have to explain whether or not they can run an online business effectively or not. Randox is a website which offers a personal health screening service.  They are provided with a sample of blood from their patients. With this small amount of blood the company performs scans to check if the patient sick.  For example if the blood detects that if there is cancer in the patients system then it allows the disease to be detected early and allows treatment to begin early.  With this possible it gives the patient better health.

However, there are many problems this form of health check. This is because most clients are not close to the Randox Company and therefore it is required for the patient’s blood sample to be sent to the company. For blood to be taken, patients require an experienced person. If the patient takes their own blood and they are not experienced then they could do harm to their own body.  Another issue that stands is that how will the blood be transported to the company. If the blood is not sent securely then it could be damaged or even destroyed.  It would also cost too much to send out medical staff from the company to take blood samples and bring them back to the company.

Even though there are problems yet within the company, these are problems which could be fixed easily. They could set up a program that if the patient wants to give a sample of blood then they could go to their local nurse or chemist. With their experience they could take the patients blood and send it to the Randox Company. This would be the cheapest solution to the problem they are obtaining.

Week 7

For Week 7 of my blog i had to assess how easy it is to find my chosen website using a search engine. One of the main search engines used daily by people across the UK is Google. Because of this reason i am going to review how easy it is to find the website DFS.co.uk through the Google search engine.

To begin with I searched ‘DFS’ in the Google search bar. The very first result I received with this search was a paid advertisement from DFS, www.dfs.co.uk.  This allowed me to understand that DFS like to display their homepage immediately.  At this time of the year DFS are displaying the DFS winter collection advertisement. The next result I received was from www.google.co.uk/finance. This was checking the finance for Discover Financial Services (NYSE), this is a credit card issuer in the United States. The next two advertisements was again for DFS. One on the links was advertising the homepage and the other was advertising Leather sofa’s in DFS, www.dfs.co.uk/sofas/leather-sofas.

 

 

I then entered ‘sofas’ in the Google search bar. For this result i received three paid advertisements. The first paid advertisement was Sofa Clearance Sale, www.nabru.co.uk/sofas.  The second paid advertisement was www.sofasworld.co.uk/sale_on and the third paid advertisement was www.dfs.co.uk.  The first two websites are competitors .  The next result that appeared after the paid advertisements was www.dfs.co.uk.  The next four results were www.ikea.com/gb/en , www.argos.co.uk , www.tesco.com and www.furniturevillage.co.uk/sofas-and-chairs .  These again are competitors of the DFS Company.

 

 

For my final search I entered a specific type of sofa that is available from DFS. I entered ‘Baretta 3 Seater Leather Sofa’ into the Google search bar. Immediately Google recognised that this sofa was available at DFS. The first three results were linked to the DFS website. www.dfs.co.uk/sofas/half-price/baretta , www.dfs.co.uk/sofas/christmas-delivery/baretta/7595/large-image and www.dfs.co.uk/sofas/leather-sofas . From this, it is easy to acknowledge that DFS is an easily found website through the Google search engine. The search engine will always provided the competitor’s sites but DFS is a site which will usually appear first on the Google search page.

Week 6

 

	Online tools and techniques (if any)	Recommendations for improvement (if any)
Operational	DFS.co.uk contains a Need Help section which contains 5 sections which the user can enquire about. 1.     Contact Us – This section allows users to contact their local store. They provide the numbers for the local stores around the UK. This section also provides e-mails so that the customer can contact the store for customer service’s reasons. Or if the customer has any problems with their order then the customer can email or call about this order. 2. Order Direct – This section brings up the link where the customer can call and place an order which they like. 3. Find Your Nearest Store – This section allows the customer to find the nearest store they have to them. If provides a map so that they know exactly how to get to that store. 4.     FAQ’s – In this section DFS provide many questions which are asked frequently by their customers all the time. With these questions they provide answers that help the customer understand that question. 5.     4 Years Free Credit – The section jus explains the interest free credit option. This section contains a few FAQ’s about the years interest free credit.	The recommendation that DFS could uses for improvement would be that they should allow customers to buy online and not just through phone. This will save them a lot of time and it will keep customers very happy.
Analytical	DFS allows the customer to register online. This is not a compulsory option as an order is taken from a phone call. But registering online allows DFS to acknowledge their customers and give them updates through email about their store.
Collaborative		I would recommend that DFS should provide more offers for existing customers. The customers who are loyal and buy a lot of products from their store.  This would allow them to spread the word of DFS so that the customer status would increase. With this they should also include a suggestions page so that the customers can tell DFS their opinions on how to improve the store.

 

DFS.co.uk send weekly personalised emails to their registered online customers so that they can let the customers acknowledge all the updates and offers they have to offer.  This is a way which DFS keeps in regular contact with their customers and helps keep the customers interested in their products. DFS keeps their customers as all their products are high quality and are competitive prices.

COM425 – Week 5

The threat of substitute products:

In everyday life a business will face many treats and scares. With these to take into consideration a company has to be built to face these factors. A treat that a company like DFS could face is Substitute Products. DFS need to maintain a high standard of products and services if they are not to lose trade to other companies like Homebase or Harvey’s. Customers could find better furniture products at the other competing stores at better prices and therefore lose existing customers. DFS will have to reduce prices and provide high quality products if they are to stay in competition with the other business’s.

 

The threat of the entry of new competitors:

Over a number of years a company starts to become acknowledged and the customer status begins to grow. The reason for this growth in customers is because these customers stay loyal and spread the word to other customers. When a company has a large customer rating then it is well established. However, overtime new companies begin to develop and start to affect the other company in that field of business.  This will take away from the profit the existing companies have.

New companies put out a great advertisement for their products and this leaves that customers will be attracted and therefore will try out these new companies.  DFS is in competition every day with new competitors and other existing competitors because their field of business is very popular.

 

The intensity of competitive rivalry:

In today’s market the product which is the cheapest and of the highest standard will always take preference. Business names mean nothing anymore and the bigger companies are finding more and more competition every day from the lesser companies. DFS has continually a half-price sale on which seems to never end as they are trying to keep their status up there with the bigger companies. Another factor which keeps DFS a good furniture dealer is that they provide great quality products and deliver them to your door without making the customer make any effort. They perform these duties cheap and efficiently which helps keep their customer ratings high and keeps them stable in the market.

 

The bargaining power of customers:

Customers have so much power when it comes to buying furniture. Furniture is such a big section in the market as so many people buy new products daily to enhance the look of their home. So if the customers find that they can get the product cheaper somewhere other than DFS then they will not fail to go to that store and purchase that product. Because of the furniture market being so big, DFS is at risk regularly on losing customers. In order for DFS to keep their customers they have to keep their prices competitive. If DFS was a company who had no competitors then they could rise their price range because they would know the customers would buy as they would have no other company to turn to for cheaper products.

 

The bargaining power of suppliers:

Supplier’s power can be high or low compared to the sort of market they are supplying. If there is a high demand for the use of a certain supplier because they are to the only one to supply certain products then they can charge companies whatever they like and the company would not take their custom elsewhere. But if there are a lot of suppliers they would have to fight among themselves to receive the most companies and keep their prices low.  DFS could have a few suppliers so the supplier they have must keep their prices reasonable so that DFS will not change.

COM425 – Week 4

DFS has 14 different sections in their terms and conditions. DFS goes through all their section accurately and makes sure that you understand what they provide from their company and try to make it as user friendly as possible. They tell you everything they provide before you make and order until you are waiting to receive an order.  The terms and conditions remind the customer to make sure that their doors in their house are wide enough for the furniture to fit into.  On buying the furniture they send the customer out the paperwork about the order and this allows the customer to make sure all the order details are accurate. DFS requires the customer to return the details as soon as they can so that they can deliver the product. DFS charges a fee of £35 to deliver their products.. When it comes to payment they accept any forms of payment however they strongly suggest that the customer does not send cash as they don’t take responsibly if cash is lost. . DFS provide 2 years of replacement and repair of their products if anything should happen to them. In my opinion I feel that the customer terms and conditions are provided for the customer. The terms and conditions are very reasonable and they could compete with any company. In some cases DFS would be more reasonable that other competing company’s, as other company’s may not provide replacement or repair over the period of 2 years.

Social media is a form of technology for a company to be advertised. Everyday more and more people join a social network e.g. Facebook. With millions of people nationally and globally on social networks, it would be a excellent place to advertise a company. It would allow customers and viewers to share their opinions and pictures of their products they have purchased from DFS. With this benefit it would attract other viewers to buying a product of their choice. With this in mind it will improve the company’s online viewers and also their sales status. It does not cost a huge amount to advertise on social networks so this is found as a cheap source of advertisement.

The use of a cookie in a website is to store small pieces of information that does not require the user to enter every time they visit the website. These small pieces of information are stored on the users hard drive.  Dfs.co.uk does obtain cookies. These are when the user logs in to the website and the website can recognise the user and the information they have provided in the past, e.g. home address and telephone number.

COM425 – Week 3

For week 3 I had to research the internet to find out information about the website DFS. The website that I used to find out the information about the www.dfs.co.uk was www.alexa.com.  The image below shows clearly that DFS is UK based company and is visited mainly within the United Kingdom.

www.dfs.co.uk has an estimated 440,000 monthly visits. According to Alexa, dfs.co.uk has a worldwide rank of 50,484, and has 162 external websites linking to it.

Compete.com shows that homebase.co.uk is the best competitor between dfs.co.uk and Harvey’s. DFS is not one of the biggest competing furniture company but maybe over time DFS can begin to pick-up like Homebase who are exceedingly more popular to the nation than DFS.

Dfs.co.uk is not like any other purchasing website.  DFS allows the customer to view all the different types of furniture they have to offer but they require that the customer places their order over the phone rather than online. The image below allows the customer to select what sort of furniture they would like to choose.

Once the customer has chosen what furniture they like then they are given the option to order direct. This means that they can ring up about the furniture if they want to buy it or to ask DFS to ring the customer at a time that suits the customer. This is illustrated in the image below.

DFS uses all forms of media that attract the intended audience. They use internet, radio and television to advertise all their products. However if DFS was to use the option of selling their products online instead of making their customers call the company then they would realise that their viewers rating through their website would dramatically increase.

COM425 – Week 2

The website that I have chosen for the Module COM 425 is www.DFS.co.uk. This is a company which sells top quality furniture. They are a national furniture retailer in the UK.  Blow is an image of the company’s website homepage.

The DFS website allows you to select the different types of furniture that takes your fancy.  DFS allows the customer to select different categories which takes their fancy. Everything in the DFS website is very well structure and easy for the customer to find. For example if the customer would like to view the Christmas deals, contact information or even if they just want to find a local store.

Since DFS was found the company has had significant rises and some falls in the stock market.  However, in 1993 they were valued at £271 million in the stock market.  By 1998 DFS had to come to terms with a drop in profit. It was the first in 28 years. Because of this they have to change their advertising so that they could feature younger models in their collection. By 2000 they had a 79% increase in profit. On the 23^rd of April 2010 DFS had sold to Advent International, a private equity firm, for £500million

Unique Visitors:

Source: http://siteanalytics.compete.com/dfs.co.uk/

The chart above show how over the last year the views for this site have consistently dropped. This is because there is more competition for furniture now. Other companies that are in competition with DFS are Harvey’s and Homebase. Below is a chart that shows the difference in the competition between the companies.

Source: Google Trends

Internet Access In The UK 2009 – 2010 – Week 1

As part of my COM425 module for week 1 i was asked to research statistics on internet usage in the UK. It requires me to search for recent 2009-2010 reports on the internet usage and write a short blog report. 

Research shows that in 2010 that 60% of adults access the internet every day. This means that 30.1 million adults use the internet every day. Over time it is significantly noticeable how the internet is growing stronger and stronger every year. In 2006 it was estimated that only 16.5 million of adults accessed the internet. This shows that over the period of four years the internet access of adults has nearly doubled. When comparing these statistics to those who don’t access the internet is significantly different. From the period of a year 2009 – 2010 those who never accessed the internet decreased by a million, dropping from 10.2 million to 9.2 million.  These statistics on their own state how strongly dependant the human population in the UK is on internet access. It is a fact now that no household should be without an internet connection as nearly any mechanical device can now connect to the internet. The statistics above are displayed in the chart below.

It is extremely noticeable the older generation would not access the internet as much as the younger generation. This is because of the significant increase in improvement and availability of the internet. When the older generation was younger internet was hardly or not even ever available to them so they would have a great understanding of how it is use. However, the younger generation is growing up with such great availability of internet and therefore they are using it regularly. The younger generation would daily use the internet to socialize with all their friends. Internet is also growing within companies and this is why internet is becoming a very demanding feature in everybody’s life.

From the research i have done it is obvious the internet access in the UK has gained dramatically over the years and also from 2009 – 2010. I would also expect internet access to continue to increase over the next few years.

Source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=8