Introduction
Internet marketing is an important aspect of business in the modern world. The effectiveness is influenced by a number of factors like easier of usability of the website, how interactive it is, the enjoyment driven from the usage of the service, and the quality of service. In this paper, the cases chosen are wayn.com and cottageholidays.co.uk.
The cottageholidays.co.uk carries a name that has a meaning of its functions and this can quickly help customers seeking information on cottage services, and who do not have any particular website to use. Wayn.com whose word way is an acronym for ‘where are you now’, is a website that is designed for people who are traveling all over the world or have plans to travel, and would like to share information. The website provides a variety of services some of which are closely linked in function or in use. It is targeted at those people who are traveling and would like to spend holidays outside their usual place. This website has information with great ideas covering a throughout the whole world and therefore can be used by people from various places throughout the world. People can find friends and even meet them from anywhere in the world. The website provides other related information such as information on flights and accommodation and restaurants. If a person wants to find information on a flight, he can choose to search the flight by the nearest city or town to see the airport which is nearest. One seeking accommodation can get to search by the desired destination, check-in and check-out time, the number of rooms for children and adults. In addition, one can choose an option for finding a hotel or hostels to use. On searching using the relevant information, the website can avail a list of hotels and hostels registered in it or in their database and other information can be a searched-for example the price. The person can therefore book in any of the places he would like, as some information may be provided on the location of the hotel for example. It is also possible to find the most used hotels or mostly visited hotels. This would help someone to plan for the trip. The idea of finding people and meeting them can help in creating new friends. There are also photos that are uploaded for people to see and hence providing an avenue where people do not only write to one another but can also share photos. People can also share information while at their destination.
Cottageholidays.co.uk is a website that targets those that aim to have accommodation services which could be through renting on holiday travels or sales. The customer is provided with a listing of the apartments. The website can provide apartments and hotels available for letting and renting in different countries, for example, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire and Hampshire among other places. The website avails a variety of apartments for renting or letting together with their prices and therefore customers can choose depending on their preferences and ability to pay. The customer can search the cottages stored on the website by entering information-name of the town, capacity, star rating, and country selection.
Payment methods
Payment methods over the website have been an innovation used by companies and the accruing benefits include a short time of transactions (Wyckoff & Colecchia, 1999), reduced costs after elimination of the need for having marketing agents, reduced chances of inconveniences such as bounced cheques, and the difficulties related to the distance between the customer and the seller. Companies need to invest in payment innovations that are secure because the services involve the exchange of information and remittance of personal innovation by the customers. This information may become prone to hackers and other people who organize internet crime to companies to steal important data and information for their own benefit. Internet innovations include the usage of At wayn.com can be done through electronic cards- either the American Express, Discover, Visa, and MasterCard. Customers would provide information on the type of the card, the expiry date, card number and the CCV Code. The card is charged electronically. The information is encrypted using 128-bit Encryption. The customers are made aware or reminded on this web page that their card details are not stored in the servers and would not be used without their prior permission and authorization.
At cottageholidays.co.uk, customers wishing to have their cottages rented or let can pay for entries using a credit card or through a check.
The companies have not said about how to deal with internal data breaches which have been indicated as causing problems and responsible for data losses and customer violations. The companies need to address this issue on their websites to ensure that the customers get some kind of assurance that their personal information is safe and secure. One of the reasons why the companies may violate themselves is the failure to understand the security protocols in the digital world. Internal and external data breaches may become therefore hard to deal with.
Second, the cottageholidays.co.uk website uses a RSA cryptosystem with a key that can resist access to passwords and other important card information which are transported through TCP/IP communications. The system can be weaker however in dealing with data breaches through the brutal-force technique where the violator uses a malicious program to encrypt the information he will be “trying” to gain access with (either the customers’ website or stored data) by trying outmatching the customer’s credential information (for example passwords and username) through the usage of several combinations of the information used for “trying out” breakage or illegal entry. The information which the malicious person uses to access is encrypted by an algorithm that was used to encrypt the customer’s credential information, for example, the RSA system with 128 bit and 1024 keys being used at wayn.com. In order to block the possibility of automated trials for entry by using possible combinations of the credential information, the company should make sure that there is fixed a maximum number of trials one can have before the blockage of an account. Unblocking of the account can be achieved through the customer requesting a password change and receiving a link through their email.
Encryption of information ensures that data being exchanged and in motion between the customer and the seller is not harmed or stolen through sniffing and phishing by the use of programs and viruses. Encryption of data is, therefore, crucial but it is not an adequate way of securing data because data may be lost or illegally shared using some other means. Those using the services of cottageholidays.co.uk are also informed or reminded through a privacy policy that the financial details will not be disseminated or sold to third parties. This is not enough security for the customers’ information. The organization needs to combine this type of securing information with others such as having a maximum number of entries for passwords when customers are assessing their accounts.
Service variety
Wayn.com appears to have information for services that are closely related to the cottageholidays.co.uk website. This diversity can encourage customers to complete their shopping on one website rather than having to visit different websites and pay different people for different services. The information which is assessable includes flight, accommodation, restaurants and nightlife. In addition, the website makes it possible for the interaction of various people who can connect during traveling. It is, therefore, necessary to ensure that websites do not only provide information on accommodation but can also link customers who assess it, with other websites providing related information for example travel schedules at different locations around the world and holiday bookings information. The cottageholidays.co.uk has provided linkages for other websites with related information such as airtravelgenius.com and belgradebooking.net. In addition, the customer can search these linkages depending on the group of interest-continent groups, such as African, Irish, and English links. However, in addition to linking customers to other websites, the website itself needs to provide primarily different services
Ease of usability and interaction
Wayn.com is a website that is easy to use with lesser information placed on the first page. The customer can still enter a range of information through the first page.
For example, the page where customers can avail their information like name and payment methods has different colors for fonts that make it interactive to use. The words for the classification of the required information (reservation details, payment type, billing details, room preference and special requests classes are written down with green), the actual record data required such as ‘first name, last name, email, card number’ are presented in blue, white background color is also utilized for the ‘Go back’ ‘Book!’ buttons. The details are entered into boxes in the normal automatic font color. The page is simple in appearance and not cumbersome except that it is a bit wider than normal that the customer would use a bottom horizontal scroll bar to access the rest of the page hidden. The first web page for wayn.com consists of much information yet presented in a very smart and short manner. Websites can be designed by allowing customers to find as specific information as possible by visiting different web pages through short-cuts buttons on the first pages. This is an alternative for splashing all or a lot of information on one page, which may discourage the customer from reading the material. This appears to be well applicable in wayn.com where short-cut buttons for assessing information such as ‘friends’, ‘photos’. ‘club’, ‘profile’, ‘search’ and ‘account’, rather than having all the information in prose form and in the full web page. This trick can be used to make the website to be informational, easier to use and at the same time more friendly as compared to the case when a lot of information is thrust on the web page in prose and paragraph form. In addition, customers assessing the facility-wayn.com can find the information they want as quickly as possible because it has been grouped into many classes and is easily visible. Because customers can see these groupings easily and quickly, selection of the group they want is not a very big problem than reading through prose and paragraphs. Even after entry into the subsequent web page, the customers should find group information that is easier to locate and select from. Sometimes customers may search through the search engines like google.com to find companies that offer traveling information or that connect friends for networking. In this case, time may be a very important asset on the internet because customers might have so many options to assess from their search. Hence techniques of ease-of-accessibility for specifically required information becomes important to saving time. Instead of spending time reading prose, customers may tend to look for the website with lesser information presented, and that is easier to locate. For example, information on payments should be given priority in both the selected websites and a ‘payment’ button placed at a visible place can help the visitors assess this important information even before they register. This is because customers would be looking for companies that will suit the methods of payment that are easy, secure and accessible, more than they would be interested in the ‘who’s around’ information in wayn.com. This does not mean that this information is not important, but that priority should be given to more important matters that will influence the buying decision of the customer within a short period. Customers also, for example, can be allowed to assess information about the cost of the cottage services and the trips available before going too far into the web pages.
The cottageholidays.co.uk is a bit, not welcome website because it appears in many colors used somewhat inconsistently. Usage of the many colors would require keener consideration than was given. The first page consists of much information that makes the web pages not so attractive. The information provided includes an explanation of the natural resources and location of cottages available for rent or let available assets and history of some cottages which lead to usage a lot of information that one has to spend time reading. In addition, the sections of the website pages do not appear well designed for attraction. At least the middle, left and right columns are close to being proportionate with each other, but that is not the case with the lowest column that carries information on self-catering cottages and apartments to rent in various places, which appears to be bigger. The lower or base section carries a lot of information as the middle column The color used for the font in the lower section is poorly distributed as red and green are used. On the top of the page, the green background is used and red font color is used for writing on this background. Green and red colors are used in different places on the same page without order and consistency as seen in wayn.com where a certain group of information would have a certain color, consistently.
Rectifications and improvements
Use of search tool
Both of the websites do have a search tool for the facilities which have a variety to enable the customer to search for what he already knows. However, since the companies provide a wide range of products or the products are located at specific places, the power of the search tool should be extended to enable customers not only to start with the information that they know and must be in the database, but also for general usage. This search button is available at wayn.com but needs to be placed at a very strategic point to make sure that it is quickly visible. This can be done by placing it for example at the middle of the first webpage and using a striking font color. This is so that the customers who want to quickly find the information using the search tool can do so, without having to move through the various groupings for information to find the choice group. Again, the search tool can be used by customers in cases of in-familiarity with the grouping provided where the customer may be familiar with a certain name and is not aware of other names used in the website. Searches for words that are familiar to the grouping names may be supported, therefore. For example, a customer wishing to search for payment methods directly in wayne.com may not succeed until he begins with the searches for the products and/or the services he wants and then books them. This is a limitation to the people for example who had prior knowledge of the commodity and do not want to spend more time but to pay directly.
Customers wanting to pay at cottageholidays.co.uk may not even have this opportunity because the service cannot be searched for nor is it available. It is easier for people visiting the website to conclude that the company does not have an internet payment option. The websites therefore should be modified such that the ‘inner’ services not shown on the first page can be assessed by searching on the first webpage through a web search tool. This would also help improve the speed of service needed.
Security issues
Security of payment systems should be a key focus and not merely a means to executing payments through the internet while the company focuses on other matters it considers more important. It has been shown that security was one of the handles facing small businesses while adopting technology, in a survey conducted by Riemenschneider and McKinney (2001-2002 qt. in Bharadwaj et al., 2007) involving owners of 184 small business entities. In addition, customers are more aware of data breaches than before, and as indicated in a privacy study carried out by IBM and involving 3000 IBM’s customer participants from Germany, Great Britain and the United States of America; customers may be warier of internet security issues because 63% of the interviewees would not exchange personal information in insecure websites (Johnson, 2001).
In order to raise the level of the security of the internet, encryption of the information is not enough. This is because the following attacks may still be launched against the seller.
First, internal data losses and violations may occur due to the employees’ actions-deliberate or not. Internal fraud has been indicated to cause about Sometimes, companies may incur losses due to internal violations on data handling and protection. The results of a survey carried out by Deloitte in 2006 (Global Security Survey) showed that internal data breaches occurred in 28% in 2005 out of those that were surveyed (49%). Data loss amounted to I8%. Actions such as data theft, illegal carrying away of information from the database, irresponsible data handling such as deletion of information must be checked through very strict regulation and technology. The employee, however, needs to be taught the need for taking care of information and customer data and ensuring that maximum security for data at their end, or data in motion does not fall into wrong hands. To deal with this, the company should have a very strict policy that outlines the penalties of violators. In addition, the company can use a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) system to block or give alerts in case of any internal communications that contribute to loss of data or data breaches. The DLP programs can be used to monitor data in motion, at the endpoint and data at rest in order to avoid internet attacks (by programs and viruses) at insecure connections. An example of a DLP is the Ironport system that prevents data breaches by delivering unparallel data through anti-spam, antivirus and anti-spyware. Neither of the two companies sampled indicates the company’s compliance to such regulations as the PCI-Payment Card Industry although they subscribe to the technology of using online card payments. Compliance with regulations established can ensure that the company is continually committed to making sure that there is security for customer information by making sure that they comply with these regulations from time to time.
Wayn.com needs to invest in a method that ensures the incorporation of those people who do not have bank accounts but still would want to use their services. This could be the usage of the check remittance as the case with cottageholidays.co.uk or by an electronic method. According to Jankowski, the companies should invest in technology that seeks to achieve customer focus, expertise, is unique and under strong management, if they want to stay ahead in payment investment (n.d.).
Cottageholidays.co.uk needs to rectify the issues discussed for the manner of presentation of its website information because it plays an important role in marketing the company’s products. The customers may be influenced by the appearance of the website and want to use better facilities on this matter. Information presented on the first page needs to be brief and to the point, well distributed on the page, easy visibility of the most important information that the customer is seeking for example by using brighter font colors for the more important information. Although usage of graphics is necessary for the apartments offered for rental or letting services, the photos or images need to be placed in an orderly and if possible a consistent manner, systematic and attractive manner for example placing them all in a line column in all the pages other than placing them at different places without order in all the pages. In addition, although the company has used different font colors, the most effective way would be using different font colors in a consistent manner for the various groups of information; for example, all description for the hotel is written in white color without any mixture.
Usage of various groups of information
This target for rectification is supposed to be mainly for cottageholidays.co.uk. Grouping information makes it easier to use, and quicker to find with little difficulty, and is a means of avoiding writing too much information in prose and paragraph form on every webpage. The technique seems well accomplished in wayn.com where, for example, all information is grouped into various groups and the information can be assessed by clicking the appropriate button. Some groups such as ‘messages’ consist of other sub-groups such as ‘gifts’, ‘SMS’, ‘Notifications’, ‘Interaction options’ and ‘contacts’ buttons, that are visible by placing the cursor over the main group ‘messages’ button still on the first web page. Customers willing to find travel guides can see the ‘travel guide’ button when they place the cursor on the ‘travel’ button as carrying the rest of the subgroups-‘travel guide’, ‘trips’, ‘places’ etc buttons. To make the sub-group buttons visible, a different background color has been utilized; the normal-appearing is blue for the major groups but changes to green when a cursor is placed on top of the group. The green color is also used for the sub-group buttons that do not appear until the cursor is placed on the main group. Such kind of usage of striking differences between the content at various operations makes the website interactive from the appearance.
Instead of putting the description for the apartments or cottages in prose form, the company could have used short groupings for information on different cottage locations like North Wales, Pentland Hills Scotland and The South Downs presented. For example, cottageholidays.co.uk can link customers to further descriptions of the locations after providing shorter descriptions about them on the first page. For example, it can have the group topic, ‘The South Downs’ and below this subtitles buttons ‘location’ where the location would just be stated by few words say for example ’10 minutes from the hubbub of Brighton’ then the rest information like the history of the location for the cottages can be linked through the usage of a link button ‘read more’, and another subtitle button ‘visitors here’ where the customer can be provided with information about the people who visit the place where they come from, what they say and what they like, for example. This style has partly been exploited in the presentation of information for the cottages advertised on the right-hand side of the first web page where partial description has been given besides the image of the cottage and the button ‘more’ links the rest of the information. This kind of grouping of information and linkages can help saving space for more and different types of information such as payment information, and inclusion of information for other services added in the company in the future. The buttons for various groups and sub-groups can be given different font colors or backgrounds. Grouping and linkages with ‘read more’ buttons can also help eliminate some information that is not a priority focus to the visitor or customer, for example, the history of the location for the cottages, and bring other information that is more important to the visitor, such as information on methods of payments supported in the website. The type of color utilized in the first page for the grouping buttons can be maintained throughout the website for consistency, for example, for all groupings in the ‘main’ and ‘sub-groups’ category, buttons can have a background of blue and green respectively throughout the website, and red font color used for the ‘read more’ buttons.
References and bibliography
- Holiday cottages in England Ireland Scotland Wales Isle of Man Channel Islands to let. Book and rent self-catering accommodation direct.
- Jankowski, Carrie. “Investing in payment innovations: Risks and rewards”. Chicago Fed Letter. FindArticles.com.
- Johnson Andrew. Data Protection and E-commerce; the case for new law, in the information age. 2001.
- Jones, Del. 2000, Businesses Battle over Intellectual Property. USA Today. Final Edition. 2000, B1
- Sawma Victor and Probert Robert. E-commerce Authentication: An Effective Countermeasures Design Model.
- WAYN: WHERE ARE YOU NOW?Web.
- Wyckoff Andrew & Alessandra Colecchia. 1999, The Economic and Social Impact of Electronic Commerce: Preliminary Findings and Research Agenda. Paris; OECD Publications