Introduction
This study involves a multinational U.K company that operates in the United States. The company deals in gardening tools and has subsidiary companies in the American market to aid in its operations. The key markets for this company are the United States and Great Britain.
The company is currently on an expansion program, and it has made several attempts to capture global markets. Recent attempts have been made in Singapore and Frankfurt through regional trade fairs where the company managed to make substantial sales. The positive response from the trade fairs fueled the drive towards global expansion.
The common strategy that is used by large corporations during their expansion campaigns is the use of subsidiary branches in the target markets. However this method is fast being replaced by online portals that enable companies to penetrate new markets. This has been encouraged by the global financial crisis as many firms want to minimize cost and maximize gains and the advancement of technology through out the world (Traver, 2008).
These subsidiaries will take up the roles of:
- Penetration and adaptation activities of new markets
- Provide support materials and services for new markets
This study attempts to outline and provide a clear understanding of the steps that are to be taken so as to produce a global website. The global website is required to take up the roles of subsidiaries and fulfill these roles in an effective manner. The benefits and potential risks of the project will also be appropriately highlighted.
Production of a Global Website
The first step in the creation of the global website is planning. Planning of the website design, features, countries of coverage and customer support portals are just but a few of the requirements of the project. To make appropriate website designs a few factors should be considered.
Website layout
The preparation of a web layout is done to simplify the website. The importance of a simplified website is to enable the users to reach data easily and effectively. Websites are like virtual supermarkets and if a client can’t find something, he / she will tend to give up and look somewhere else. It is due to this fact that a skeleton structure of the website will be prepared and then assessed for simplicity and reachability of data. The layout of a website can be improved using simple menus that are easy to read (single to double words are preferred for menus), use of tab keys, a site map to help guide the user and links to various pages of the website. Links are clickable words that can lead the user to a specific page of the website. A help button with a set of related questions and answers will also be useful for stranded users (Traver, 2008).
Security
If online payments are to be made via the website, security measures and protocols have to be put in place. These measures will ensure the security of the website’s users and the company. This will be done using encryption software that will encode and decode client details. Such a measure will protect the company and the users from being defrauded by malicious intruders. The security protocols will protect the global website system from being hacked into and being altered, tempered with by unauthorized personnel. Viruses and other unwanted software intrusions are also prevented from entering and modifying the website’s operations (Ellis, 2003).
Merchant accounts
Due to the nature of the global website, payments have to made and received between the company and the users. In global business merchant accounts are used as middlemen who act between the buyer and the seller. Merchant accounts ease the burden of processing individual orders and they help save time and resources for the company. The merchant accounts deal with credit card companies and financial institutions. Merchant accounts help reduce fraud and payment errors as they carry out intensive scrutiny on all payments that have been made / received. Invitations will be made to the merchant operators to make bids for the opportunity to partner with the company. Once they have made bids the most appealing offers will be selected, and their respective logos and terms stored for integration into the website (Ghosh, 2010).
Live chat and support functions
Since the website will be global in nature a good proportion of clients would want to chat to a company representative through the website. This is particularly true when the clients need clarification or have unique questions in which they need immediate answers. In the initial phase of the project a survey will be done so as to establish an estimate of expected visitors to the website. This will enable the company to set up a live chat and support facility to tend to the needs of the users. A common trend in modern business is to outsource call and support facilities to other companies. Indian companies have curved a name for themselves in the outsourcing industry and they would be good partners in such a venture. A select group of reliable Indian companies will be short listed and necessary negotiations made so as to find the best offer. Once an outsourcing company has been identified their details will be integrated into the website and all calls and chat requests will automatically be redirected to the outsourcing company (Turban and Volonino, 2009).
Shipping of products worldwide
The site will facilitate the sale and delivery of goods to various clients from all over the world. The global website will have a shopping cart facility where prospective buyers can select the types of garden tools that they are interested in. The facility will have a discount option whereby clients who have made purchases exceeding a set amount will be given discounts.
Such a facility in the global website would enable the company to market its promotions at peak seasons; especially during holiday seasons when the company can post gift packs and tool assortments (Turban and king, 2003).
The site will display the respective prices for various goods. The client after selecting the desired tools will have the option of selecting his desired country of destination. The website will then make automated calculations and display the amounts needed to ship the product to the client. The client will then have an option of proceeding with the transaction or selecting another destination of shipping. If the client accepts the transaction the shipping charges are then added to the purchase price of the commodities.
The global website will be created in such a way as to allow the clients to make payments for their purchases. Various payments options will be availed for the clients to make payments such as western union, wire transfer, gold account and cheque. Verification of the payments will be done by the help of merchant services so as to avoid fraudulent payments (Tassabehji, 2003).
The company will partner with a global shipping company that will make all the global deliveries on behalf of the company. The global website will then be linked to the company’s stores and all purchases made via the website will be packaged for shipment. The company’s clearing agents will then forward the products to the shipping company with the full details of the client. The client is then be notified that his goods have been sent for shipment.
Website currency and language
The website is expected to serve visitors from all over the world. This brings the need for the creation of understanding and of making it easy for the clients to make payments for their purchases.
The first page of the global website will have an option for the client to select his country/region of origin. Various versions of the website will be created in different languages. The languages displayed will depend on the client’s country of origin. This language will be displayed automatically but the user will have an option of reverting to English that will be the default language (Schenk, 2000).
When a user decides to make purchases, the website will ask for a desired currency. Once the user selects the currency the website will automatically convert the currencies from one to another using the exchange rates of the time. For this feature to operate the website will have to be linked to a live update on global exchange rates. This will allow it to make accurate conversions of currencies.
Organisational structure
The management of the website will be done by teams of specialists. At the top of the management there will managers for each region and its affiliated pages. There will be programmers who will carry out the routine maintenance on the websites, change the pages, adjust the themes, add new pages, and sort any technical difficulties that may arise. A public relations department will also be needed, and this will be responsible for assisting website users when needed. This department will oversee customer care and live chat activities of the company. A designs team will also be needed, and they will be solely responsible for the aesthetic appeal and look of the website (Nag, 2005). Lastly personnel knowledgeable in accounting will be needed as they will carry out money related activities of the website. This included currency conversions and assisting the programmers in making accounting and calculation software for the website.
Budget
An elaborate budget of the globalization campaign will be made. This will be a comprehensive budget that will involve all stages of the project from planning to implementation. When preparing a budget, the planner should consider factors such as the number / types of gardening tools to be featured in the website, the mode of processing for orders and the marketing functions to be carried out by the website (Schenk, 2000).
In the budget all associated costs to the project will be considered:
- Programming charges
- Text preparation charges
- Graphic design charges
- Photo and image editing charges
- The cost of purchasing a domain name
- The costs of hosting a website
- Outsourcing charges
- Website maintenance charges
E-Commerce
The term e-commerce is used to mean the sale and purchase of goods and services over the internet. According to analysts, e-commerce is expected to growth by three times in the next three years. This has been brought about by the advancement in internet technologies and the reduction in cost of the technology that has encouraged many people to participate in it (Traver, 2008).
There are various aspects of ecommerce such as the management of supply chains, online marketing, management of inventories and records and transaction processing.
There are two types of ecommerce namely B2B and B2C. B2B refers to business to business and B2C refers to business to customer.
Business to Business (B2B)
Business to business e-commerce refers to online transactions between two businesses. Such a transaction is usually open to all interested partners. Most B2B transactions are done between manufacturers of products and their consumers or vice versa (Kraemer, 2006).
Most online transactions that exist are B2B’s and the main reason is because such transactions are involved in the sourcing of raw materials and purchasing of commodities.
Business to Customer (B2C)
Business to customer e-commerce refers to online transactions between a business and its customers. B2C relies on a ‘first come, first served basis’ and is freer and more open to new entrants unlike B2B that is done between two business partners bound by a contract.
A successful example of B2C is Amazon.com. Amazon is a merchant who links prospective buyers to their respective clients.
Successful Implementation
Nissan-global website
Nissan is a company that specializes in the sales of motor vehicles and other related accessories. The company’s headquarters are based in Japan, but it has subsidiaries in over 180 countries all over the world.
The company has subsidiary offices in every country plus a global website that supports the system. This is beneficial as buyers or other interested parties from countries that do not have subsidiary offices can order goods online. A support system for Nissan owners is also available and includes, how to guides on how to fix problems on you motor vehicle and user manuals for their vehicles.
The global website also has a showcase of the company’s vehicles, and this serves as an online showroom where potential buyers can view the available vehicles, their prices and be able to make orders.
The website also has customized pages for each country of the world. This enables the website to suit the specific needs of the users and display the types of vehicles that are available for each country. The first page gives the user an option of selecting his / her country and the user is later directed to a page that has been designed to suit each specific market (Anderson, 1998).
The website contains corporate information on the company, company news, a section for investors, a section on corporate responsibility and Nissan technologies.
The global website has a clean and tidy design that enables the users to operate the site easily. The menus, tabs and links facilitate easy movement through the website. A site map has also been produced and this facilitates easy access to pages by the users. The domain name (www.nissan-global.com) is simple and has been search engine optimized. The website appears as the first entry in the search engines.
Heinz-global websites
Heinz is a company that produces packaged food products. The company is based in the United Kingdom. The company has a main global site that has links to its secondary websites all over the world. Heinz has a network in 20 countries. The network mainly focuses on Europe as this is where majority of its clients are based in (Nag, 2005).
One unique characteristic of this global website is that for every country it has several links to the specific products that the company specializes in. For example, in Australia there are four websites namely, Greenseas Australia, Heinz Australia, Heinz Australia Foodservice, Heinz for baby and Heinz Nurture. Each of the above website caters for a specific commodity that belongs to Heinz in Australia.
The global website has a page for the company information, a section on ethics and compliance, a section on corporate governance, a page for those interested in working for Heinz, a section for those interested in investing in Heinz and a newsroom where stories on the company are posted (Tassabehji, 2003).
Them Heinz global website also has pages where its products and services are showcased. Photographs and brief descriptions of the products are availed, and this gives the user as much information as he / she was in a supermarket or local store.
The domain of the Nissan website is short and easy to remember; www.heinz-global.com and has also been search engine optimized.
The above diagram represents the Heinz network. Dark green colour represents heavy consumption of Heinz products, while the lighter the colour the lower the consumption. Africa has the lowest consumption of Heinz products.
Mitsubishi global
Mitsubishi is a vehicle manufacturing company owned by a Chinese company. However, it has operations in over 150 countries of the world. It is due to this reason that a global website is crucial for this company (Anderson, 1998).
Just like all global sites the Mitsubishi site has unique pages; that show case different products and services for different regions of the earth. This is since cars designed for Africa may not do well in Canada and vice versa. The website has an attractive white background that has been well blended with red, the company’s colour. An appealing and artistic presentation where texts, fonts, colours and photos are blended is used in the website.
The domain name is not very simple; www.global-mitsubishielectric.com but fairs well in the search engine optimization performance.
Potential Risks
This global website venture just like any other business venture has its own inherent risks. For the project to be a success, the project implementer should try and tame these risks so as to gain from the expected returns of the project.
For the project to be successful the below risks must be taken into consideration:
- Competitors may copy the global marketing strategy
- A suitable domain name may not be found
- The initial investment needed may be high
- A global website may not be able to penetrate new markets
- Language and cultural barriers may not be easily broken
- The website if not properly structured may not be attractive and easy to use
- Loss of finances due to fraudulent intruders into the system
- Important data may be lost from the company data base
- Viruses and malicious software may harm the system
Conclusion
This study shows that a global website would be a major booster for the U.K firm. If the project is well implemented the company will be able to penetrate frontier markets. Various guidelines on the preparation of a suitable website have been given in the study.
The various aspects that are to be involved in the production of a global website have been highlighted in the work. Every aspect has been covered in detail and this serves as a guide to the production process. A few successful samples have been reviewed and their features noted.
The risks of the project have been covered and this serves as a precaution and not a declaration to the impossibility of the project. The idea of a global website for the company is a very good one as it will open new doors for the company.
Works Cited
Anderson, Roberts. E-Commerce: a revolution in the making for consumers, firms, and nations. California: University of California, 1998. Print.
Ellis, James. The E-commerce book: building the E-empire. New York: Morgan Kaufmann, 2003. Print.
Ghosh, Alex. E-commerce security and privacy. New York: Springer, 2010. Print.
Kraemer, Kraal. Global e-commerce: impacts of national environment and policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print.
Nag, Dickson. E-Commerce. London: Mc Graw, 2005. Print.
Schenk, Michael. E-commerce: a platform for integrated marketing ; case study on U.S. retailing. Berlin: LIT Verlag Münster, 2000. Print.
Tassabehji, Richards. Applying e-commerce in business. London: Sage, 2003. Print.
Traver, Charles. E-commerce: business, technology, society. Washington: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
Turban, and King David. Introduction to e-commerce: International Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003. Print.
Turban, and Volonino Louis. Information Technology for Management: Transforming Organisations in the Digital Economy. Asia: John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Print.