E-business has become a commodity for a number of companies all around the world. It has become an essential part of daily business. The reason accountable for its success and wide acceptation rate can be explained by its strategic potential by which it enables new business models, Increases efficiency and influences value chains. It is very essential to keep in mind that E-business is not about systems and technology it is about managing relationships with major stakeholders optimally. Managing relationships with suppliers, customers, and business partners in a very competitive and tough global environment is very crucial for companies to survive.
Challenges
Sporting goods market is highly influenced by the outdoor recreation participation rate which determines the growth and trend in the demand for sporting goods. Participation in outdoor recreation by Americans, for instance, was marked by growth in core outdoor segments of sports activities with decline in the youth participation. (Outdoor Recreation Participation Report 2009)
The market trends and analysis of online sports industry reveals tough competition, demand or innovation and differentiation. There is continuous pressure on innovation, differentiation and focus on quickly changing consumer life style and requirements. Companies are increasing paying attention to issues of controlling fixed costs, reducing time to market and optimisation of production processes.
Overview of the Market
The current trend in online E-business websites for sports equipment can be interpreted as e-friendly as underlying computer and information infrastructure has matured and E-business is contributing to growth and innovation. ( Mohini Singh, Dianne Waddell 2004)
When considering the five forces analysis of sports market, it is revealed that the industry is marked by a number of niche markets. There are different areas of different sporting goods which are branched out anywhere from tennis balls to men and women apparel for tennis.
Sports market is a consolidated market and has achieved the level of maturity in its life cycle and there is a challenge before manufacturers to differentiate their products. Large corporations have undergone forward integrations to enhance their market efficacy and market share for instance Nike has focused on a niche such as golf industry. The companies compete against each other by supplying customized products to the final customers. The power of suppliers is generally strong as there are no readily available substitutes which can ease it down.
Structure of Market
Viewers from United States have the largest traffic percentage of nearly 67.6 while those from Greece, Singapore, Italy, Germany, Canada, Mexico etc form only a fraction of 1- 2.
In terms of demographic structural analysis, Midwest sports, Inc attracts mostly male audience aged 25-34 and those aged more than 65 years. The target market of Midwest sports, Inc is consisted of college students or those professionals who access Midwestsports.com while at work.
For Tennis Express, United States is on the top with 50.2 in terms of site traffic while Japan is placed at the second position with 6.1 site traffic. This data is the evidence of the fact that Tennis Express has lower site traffic rate than Midwest Sports, Inc. The conventional visitor of Tennis Express is male graduate or college student aged between 25-34, having no children and browsing from work. The difference in the demographic characteristics of the average visitor of Tennis Express differs from Midwest Sports, Inc in terms of upper age limit where Tennis Express is able to attract audience aged between 45-54 rather than 65 plus viewers of Midwest Sports, Inc.
Audience demographics of the audience for Tennis warehouse match well with that of Tennis Expresss but in terms of site traffic it surpasses both Tennis Express and Midwest Sports, Inc with 68.1 site traffic where United States viewers are on top while those from Qatar are ranked second with 5.1 site traffic. In this regards, the competitive analysis of Midwest Sports, Inc is crucial before delving into available options.
Porters Five ForcesBarriers to entry
Barriers to entry for online sports selling companies are low as firms can easily control their costs to gain performance advantage over competitors in a short time interval. Websites of the companies are user-friendly, enticing to browse and sophisticated. However, website development requires high capital injection and needs frequent updating with the help of discounts, promotions and attractive features for online shoppers. Barriers to entry in selling footwear online are quite low which makes it highly competitive. Setting up online sporting items shop requires less capital. Also, the switching cost is quite low for users and is highly dependent on the buying preference of the consumers.
However the online sports selling market faces threats from hackers who can sneak into sensitive data of consumer profile, credit card numbers and other information.
Bargaining power of buyers
Bargaining power of buyers is high as online sports market attracts large number of buyers therefore companies like Midwest Sports, Inc, Tennis Express and Tennis Warehouse market large number of items and differentiate the products through customization and customers preferences. Online shoppers of sports are very price sensitive and switching cost for them is low therefore there is increased tendency among customers to select the most convenient and user-friendly website. Demand from customers to improve services is enormous.
Bargaining power of suppliers
Bargaining power of suppliers is very high as there are no readily available substitutes. Suppliers provide with the sports products and apparel. In terms of differentiation in supplier power, there is no difference in supplied brands. For example, Nike and Adidas are the most popular brands and supplier of sporting products but they supply products to the distributors mostly without any differentiation. The brand image and brand loyalty adds to the higher bargaining power of suppliers. Thus online sports companies depend on suppliers to provide them with the products quickly, cheaply and readily.
Threats of substitutes
There are no readily available substitutes which makes the threats of substitutes very low. There is low propensity among buyers to substitute as there are very few alternatives to switch. Also, consumers do not switch to substitutes due to brand loyalty, performance specifications and individual preferences. Although, there are trade journals and review press they cannot be a favorite option to shoppers due to convenient features of online shopping.Rivalry among existing competitors
Rivalry among competitors is high as the online sports market has entered its maturity in life cycle. Online sports selling has enlarged the global reach of companies permitting them to raise their sales and revenues while keeping the operating costs low and ensuring convenience for the consumers. There are small competitors like tennisboom.com which sell tennis equipment exclusively but the competition from them is low due to specialized services that large websites provide. Also, Google and Alexa are coming up with equally tough competition with their powerful advertising and reviews.
Competitive analysis of Midwest Sports, Inc
A comparison of Midwest Sports, Inc with Tennis Express shows that Midwest is mostly targeting sports goods and apparel while Tennis Express has diversified itself into other products such as DVD and videos, books, gifts and other accessories. Thus in terms of marketing strategy, Midwest is catering to a niche market of sporting goods and apparel while Tennis Express has penetrated into the market of accessories too.
Comparison of Midwest Sports, Inc with Tennis warehouse elaborates that Tennis warehouse is also focusing on diversifying its portfolio of products. Tennis warehouse offers grips, videos and books relating to sports apart from its niche in sporting goods and apparel.
Midwest Sports, Inc website is ranked lowest among the other two rivals. As revealed by Alexa, Midwest Sports, Inc has the lowest daily traffic rank while Tennis Warehouse is at the top with highest daily traffic. This will determine the number of pages that a number of visitors they visit.
The results are consistent not only in a global perspective, but also within United States where Midwest has lowest ranking with Tennis Warehouse leading the competition. The reasons can range from slow speed of Midwest in comparison to other websites to extent of diversified products. The slow speed of Midwest is the major problem for the todays consumers who have less time for such activities. Preferences for high speed service is high as the 47 per cent of web visitors expect a web page to load in just 2 seconds or less (0.5 secs faster than in 2006). (UK fast 2010)
Tennis Warehouse provides the fastest service which reasons out its popularity among online shoppers.
Also in terms of target market strategy, the reason for low rank for Midwest Sports can be identified by the fact that it has not diversified its portfolio of products and has not concentrated on the younger market which makes the largest proportion of the target audience. The history and trends in sports goods industry show that youth are the largest buyers of the sporting goods and are highly influenced by discounts and promotions. (Richard 2006)
On the contrary to the other websites, Tennis Warehouse and Tennis Express perhaps have the competitive advantage with more viewers as it appeals to a younger audience aged 25-34. However, Tennis Warehouse is above these websites as it also appeals to 45-54 who are quite popular users of the Internet.
Also, in terms of Google rank Tennis Express is ranked highest with the greater number of results linking to the parent website of Tennis Express while Midwest Sports, Inc is ranked lowest .(Google 2010)
This factor can be explained the speed and viewership of the websites. However, according to AltaVista, the pages that link to the relevant websites of these three companies are greater for Midwest Sports, Inc rather than other two rivals. (AltaVista, 2010)
Options to develop value added services
The comparison between Midwest Sports, Inc with Tennis Express and Tennis warehouse has elaborated that companies in sports market are facing tough competition as corporations are constantly trying to improve their products. Tennis warehouse is focusing on diversifying its portfolio of products by offering grips, videos and books relating to sports apart from its niche in sporting goods and apparel. Tennis Express has also diversified itself into other products such as DVD and videos, books, gifts and other accessories. Keeping the tough competition in view, it is crucial for Midwest Sports, Inc to focus on options to develop value added services to the final consumer. (Richard, 2006)
Midwest Sports, Inc needs to target the main opportunity and option of accelerating the information flow along its value chain to shorten the lead time, time to market and development cycle. It can look into ways to improve its links with the stakeholders including supply and distribution channels.
According to Yuan Gao, 2005 the online users behavior is very important in terms of web popularity. Users abandon a website if they feel lost or face difficulty in navigation. Fast-loading pages and user-friendly interfaces make website enticing for online consumers. Fast-loading pages require that the data should be reduced with fewer graphic. Following design elements can add value to the website of Midwest Sports, Inc
Presentatio
Attractive animation, text and images appeal to the online consumers. Also, the home page should not be cluttered as it serves as the cover page. A visit to Midwest Sports website resents a cramped look with all the logos posted on the home page which does not present a good look.
Visual appeal
Visual appeal is reflected by the color, text, graphics etc of the website. A website that is aesthetically pleasant with equally good functionality entices online consumers.
Interactivity
The flow of information between the user and the website is important for developing strong relationships online. Increased interactivity caters to increased user satisfaction and perceived effectiveness of the website.
Personalization
Midwest Sports, Inc can offer individual pages tailored to specific needs of customers. It can offer recommendations to consumers according to their prior behavior just in the same way as Amazon is doing. The relevant recommendation increases the conversion rates of web browsers
Navigation
Sequencing between pages is very important to facilitate users movement across the web. Unclear navigation choices drive users away.
New Web features
Midwest Sports, Inc can offer online shoppers with customer reviews and appraisals of different items to help them in the selection of products. Like Amazon.coms customer reviews, Midwest Sports, Inc can offer customer reviews which would prove not only helpful for consumers but also add to the popularity of the website.
Social network
It can also allow consumers make groups and forums to discuss the latest sporting items and apparel thereby making the site more interesting and attractive for online shoppers. Online forums add to the popularity of websites.
Web service
The options available to Midwest Sports, Inc to improve and develop value added service can be its strong Brand image, competitive price, user-friendly Web site design, quick service, and continuous innovation.
It can offer service that will allow consumers to customize and design their own sportswear by permitting them to specify the desired size, colours and the option to personalize sportswear with their name.
Position of supply chain
The customers of Midwest sports, Inc are mostly male aged 25-34 and those aged more than 65 years. They are consisted of college students or those professionals who access Midwestsports.com while at work. The products offered by Midwest Sports, Inc mainly fall in sporting goods and apparel category.
Midwest Sports, Inc ships the demanded sporting items in the consummate form which requires no further modification or service from any other company or supplier. Products are delivered according to the specifications and requirements of the final consumer.
Options available with the Midwest Sports, Inc include linking its supply system to that of suppliers. Thus it can link its software for managing its inventory and supplies internally with the suppliers by directly integrating with them. Such integration would automate the internal flow of materials and information and can be used as a means to communicate with the suppliers. (Richard, 2006)
Advertising
Midwest Sports uses its online business to be promoted across Google, with the use of a sponsored link. Having a sponsored link benefits the company as it the advertisement is reached to the consumers who are of interest in the product presented within the official website. Being at the top of the search engine results is effective as the potential customers search for a keyword and the advert appears at the top of the results page. With the advent of Twitter, the option to send to friend or twitting the link acts as word of mouth marketing.
Midwest Sports, Inc relies heavily on twitter for social networking and promotion while its competitors Tennis warehouse and Tennis Express have used the popular medium of facebook to advertise their companies.
In order to reach younger audience, social networking though facebook is crucial as it is popular networking site among youth.
Midwest is at the lowest position in traffic rank in USA and globally according to Alexa. One reason for this could be lack of any forums. Midwest uses blogs but it is not enough for increasing web traffic. Midwest provides regular content to the search engines so that e-commerce sites get more traffic through blogging. Tennis Warehouse uses message board which is a user generated content and a best way of increasing web traffic.
New market segments
A comparison of Midwest Sports, Inc with Tennis Express shows that Midwest is mostly targeting sports goods and apparel while Tennis Express has diversified itself into other products such as DVD and videos, books, gifts and other accessories. Thus in terms of marketing strategy, Midwest is catering to a niche market of sporting goods and apparel while Tennis Express has penetrated into the market of accessories too. Midwest can also look for diversifying its portfolio of products to attract lager number of audience.
Globalisation
Tennis Warehouse has additional linkages with international customers while other companies have not managed to find a way to have a relationship with international customers. This could be the reason why Midwest Sport is falling behind in terms of traffic. With increased globalization, it is essential to provide users with the value added services such as currency convertor. Tennis warehouse provides its customers with a currency convertor option while such option is not available with Midwest Sports website. Also, use of generic languages for customers in France, Netherlands etc plays
Moreover, Tennis Express has an offline store which represents offline marketing of brand awareness to customers so they have already seen the company from a tangible view which shows the companies brand to the customer so they know the website is worthy to go online to purchase products. (Richard, 2006)
Partnerships
Midwest can look for partnerships with the suppliers to offer it with quick and cheaper deliveries. On way to achieve efficiency in terms of partnerships is to integrate the internal management of supplies with the external suppliers.
Symbiotic
It is important for Midwest to not only preserve the existing customer base butalso continue differentiating its services.For a successful symbiotic relationship, one company needs to deploy resources through which benefits would be achieved by a single company. (Arnold Picot et al 2008)
It needs to symbiotic and synergies to create new revenue generating solutions and services. For Example, it can offer synergies with search engines such as Google for increasing its traffic.
Acquisition
Midwest can consider buying another website for catering to the similar customer base but it is marked by a number of risks and threats. For example, acquiring a new website would diversify its portfolio of business thus asking for more attention and capital requirement. At this stage, this does not seem as viable option for Midwest sports. Purchasing another site rather than attracting new customers may not be an economic option as it would require increase capital and can dilute the brand image.
Financial appraisal
In terms of financial appraisal, Tennis Express shows healthy outlook with sufficient revenues and growth. Tennis Warehouse is also marked by low leverage and higher profitability. If the NPV is calculated, it reveals that the breakeven is achieved at a lower volume for Tennis Express as compared to Midwest Sports. Achieving breakeven at a lower volume is beneficial as it enables the company to cover fixed costs and variable costs and then profit is spread over the additional volume. In terms of financial appraisal, Midwest offers a bleak picture as the revenues are not growing at a pace with its competitors which can prove a serious problem in the long run.
Midwest needs to offer new services and look for value addition to raise its revenues to compete with the financial performance of its competitors. (Richard, 2006)
Recommendations
Use attractive animation, text and images to appeal to the online consumers. Website that is aesthetically pleasant with equally good functionality entices online consumers thus Midwest needs to focus on esthetic as well as functional aspects of the website.
It needs to allow increased interactivity with its customers to increase user satisfaction and perceived effectiveness of the website. It can offer value added services such as recommendations to consumers according to their prior behavior just in the same way as Amazon is doing. The relevant recommendation increases the conversion rates of web browsers.
It can also provide customer online chat service with an expert who could guide the customers in choosing their best and most suitable tennis products like the way Dell has introduced this feature. By introducing this feature, Midwest would be able to attract more online customers it would be able to analyze the buying patterns of the consumers plus satisfying each customer individually.
In order to cater to global audience, it can focus on features such as currency convertor, use of generic language and localized discussion forums for the customers. Also, it can look for strengthening its brand image by using word of mouth advertising by blogging and Facebook. Since Blogging and Facebook can be more interactive than a website so Midwest should be focusing on its Blogs and Facebook fan pages too simultaneously. These are yet other techniques to get customer inputs and try to satisfy them.
In order to attract traffic to website, it is crucial to focus on online adverts by search engines and symbiotic. Also, the personalisation, navigation, visual appeal etc add to enticing traffic to a website. In order t build strong customer base it is necessary to focus on developing relationships with customers through online forums and popular social networking sites such as facebook. Purchasing another site rather than attracting new customers may not be an economic option as it would require increase capital and can dilute the brand image.
With increased globalisation, the proportion of international customers is increasing rapidly which requires modifications and adaptation for the diversified customer base. Modifications such as addition of currency convertor, use of generic language and social networking forums can add to the potential to access international customers.
Challenges
Sporting goods market is highly influenced by the outdoor recreation participation rate which determines the growth and trend in the demand for sporting goods. Participation in outdoor recreation by Americans, for instance, was marked by growth in core outdoor segments of sports activities with decline in the youth participation. (Outdoor Recreation Participation Report 2009)
The market trends and analysis of online sports industry reveals tough competition, demand or innovation and differentiation. There is continuous pressure on innovation, differentiation and focus on quickly changing consumer life style and requirements. Companies are increasing paying attention to issues of controlling fixed costs, reducing time to market and optimisation of production processes.
Overview of the Market
The current trend in online E-business websites for sports equipment can be interpreted as e-friendly as underlying computer and information infrastructure has matured and E-business is contributing to growth and innovation. ( Mohini Singh, Dianne Waddell 2004)
When considering the five forces analysis of sports market, it is revealed that the industry is marked by a number of niche markets. There are different areas of different sporting goods which are branched out anywhere from tennis balls to men and women apparel for tennis.
Sports market is a consolidated market and has achieved the level of maturity in its life cycle and there is a challenge before manufacturers to differentiate their products. Large corporations have undergone forward integrations to enhance their market efficacy and market share for instance Nike has focused on a niche such as golf industry. The companies compete against each other by supplying customized products to the final customers. The power of suppliers is generally strong as there are no readily available substitutes which can ease it down.
Structure of Market
Viewers from United States have the largest traffic percentage of nearly 67.6 while those from Greece, Singapore, Italy, Germany, Canada, Mexico etc form only a fraction of 1- 2.
In terms of demographic structural analysis, Midwest sports, Inc attracts mostly male audience aged 25-34 and those aged more than 65 years. The target market of Midwest sports, Inc is consisted of college students or those professionals who access Midwestsports.com while at work.
For Tennis Express, United States is on the top with 50.2 in terms of site traffic while Japan is placed at the second position with 6.1 site traffic. This data is the evidence of the fact that Tennis Express has lower site traffic rate than Midwest Sports, Inc. The conventional visitor of Tennis Express is male graduate or college student aged between 25-34, having no children and browsing from work. The difference in the demographic characteristics of the average visitor of Tennis Express differs from Midwest Sports, Inc in terms of upper age limit where Tennis Express is able to attract audience aged between 45-54 rather than 65 plus viewers of Midwest Sports, Inc.
Audience demographics of the audience for Tennis warehouse match well with that of Tennis Expresss but in terms of site traffic it surpasses both Tennis Express and Midwest Sports, Inc with 68.1 site traffic where United States viewers are on top while those from Qatar are ranked second with 5.1 site traffic. In this regards, the competitive analysis of Midwest Sports, Inc is crucial before delving into available options.
Porters Five ForcesBarriers to entry
Barriers to entry for online sports selling companies are low as firms can easily control their costs to gain performance advantage over competitors in a short time interval. Websites of the companies are user-friendly, enticing to browse and sophisticated. However, website development requires high capital injection and needs frequent updating with the help of discounts, promotions and attractive features for online shoppers. Barriers to entry in selling footwear online are quite low which makes it highly competitive. Setting up online sporting items shop requires less capital. Also, the switching cost is quite low for users and is highly dependent on the buying preference of the consumers.
However the online sports selling market faces threats from hackers who can sneak into sensitive data of consumer profile, credit card numbers and other information.
Bargaining power of buyers
Bargaining power of buyers is high as online sports market attracts large number of buyers therefore companies like Midwest Sports, Inc, Tennis Express and Tennis Warehouse market large number of items and differentiate the products through customization and customers preferences. Online shoppers of sports are very price sensitive and switching cost for them is low therefore there is increased tendency among customers to select the most convenient and user-friendly website. Demand from customers to improve services is enormous.
Bargaining power of suppliers
Bargaining power of suppliers is very high as there are no readily available substitutes. Suppliers provide with the sports products and apparel. In terms of differentiation in supplier power, there is no difference in supplied brands. For example, Nike and Adidas are the most popular brands and supplier of sporting products but they supply products to the distributors mostly without any differentiation. The brand image and brand loyalty adds to the higher bargaining power of suppliers. Thus online sports companies depend on suppliers to provide them with the products quickly, cheaply and readily.
Threats of substitutes
There are no readily available substitutes which makes the threats of substitutes very low. There is low propensity among buyers to substitute as there are very few alternatives to switch. Also, consumers do not switch to substitutes due to brand loyalty, performance specifications and individual preferences. Although, there are trade journals and review press they cannot be a favorite option to shoppers due to convenient features of online shopping.Rivalry among existing competitors
Rivalry among competitors is high as the online sports market has entered its maturity in life cycle. Online sports selling has enlarged the global reach of companies permitting them to raise their sales and revenues while keeping the operating costs low and ensuring convenience for the consumers. There are small competitors like tennisboom.com which sell tennis equipment exclusively but the competition from them is low due to specialized services that large websites provide. Also, Google and Alexa are coming up with equally tough competition with their powerful advertising and reviews.
Competitive analysis of Midwest Sports, Inc
A comparison of Midwest Sports, Inc with Tennis Express shows that Midwest is mostly targeting sports goods and apparel while Tennis Express has diversified itself into other products such as DVD and videos, books, gifts and other accessories. Thus in terms of marketing strategy, Midwest is catering to a niche market of sporting goods and apparel while Tennis Express has penetrated into the market of accessories too.
Comparison of Midwest Sports, Inc with Tennis warehouse elaborates that Tennis warehouse is also focusing on diversifying its portfolio of products. Tennis warehouse offers grips, videos and books relating to sports apart from its niche in sporting goods and apparel.
Midwest Sports, Inc website is ranked lowest among the other two rivals. As revealed by Alexa, Midwest Sports, Inc has the lowest daily traffic rank while Tennis Warehouse is at the top with highest daily traffic. This will determine the number of pages that a number of visitors they visit.
The results are consistent not only in a global perspective, but also within United States where Midwest has lowest ranking with Tennis Warehouse leading the competition. The reasons can range from slow speed of Midwest in comparison to other websites to extent of diversified products. The slow speed of Midwest is the major problem for the todays consumers who have less time for such activities. Preferences for high speed service is high as the 47 per cent of web visitors expect a web page to load in just 2 seconds or less (0.5 secs faster than in 2006). (UK fast 2010)
Tennis Warehouse provides the fastest service which reasons out its popularity among online shoppers.
Also in terms of target market strategy, the reason for low rank for Midwest Sports can be identified by the fact that it has not diversified its portfolio of products and has not concentrated on the younger market which makes the largest proportion of the target audience. The history and trends in sports goods industry show that youth are the largest buyers of the sporting goods and are highly influenced by discounts and promotions. (Richard 2006)
On the contrary to the other websites, Tennis Warehouse and Tennis Express perhaps have the competitive advantage with more viewers as it appeals to a younger audience aged 25-34. However, Tennis Warehouse is above these websites as it also appeals to 45-54 who are quite popular users of the Internet.
Also, in terms of Google rank Tennis Express is ranked highest with the greater number of results linking to the parent website of Tennis Express while Midwest Sports, Inc is ranked lowest .(Google 2010)
This factor can be explained the speed and viewership of the websites. However, according to AltaVista, the pages that link to the relevant websites of these three companies are greater for Midwest Sports, Inc rather than other two rivals. (AltaVista, 2010)
Options to develop value added services
The comparison between Midwest Sports, Inc with Tennis Express and Tennis warehouse has elaborated that companies in sports market are facing tough competition as corporations are constantly trying to improve their products. Tennis warehouse is focusing on diversifying its portfolio of products by offering grips, videos and books relating to sports apart from its niche in sporting goods and apparel. Tennis Express has also diversified itself into other products such as DVD and videos, books, gifts and other accessories. Keeping the tough competition in view, it is crucial for Midwest Sports, Inc to focus on options to develop value added services to the final consumer. (Richard, 2006)
Midwest Sports, Inc needs to target the main opportunity and option of accelerating the information flow along its value chain to shorten the lead time, time to market and development cycle. It can look into ways to improve its links with the stakeholders including supply and distribution channels.
According to Yuan Gao, 2005 the online users behavior is very important in terms of web popularity. Users abandon a website if they feel lost or face difficulty in navigation. Fast-loading pages and user-friendly interfaces make website enticing for online consumers. Fast-loading pages require that the data should be reduced with fewer graphic. Following design elements can add value to the website of Midwest Sports, Inc
Presentatio
Attractive animation, text and images appeal to the online consumers. Also, the home page should not be cluttered as it serves as the cover page. A visit to Midwest Sports website resents a cramped look with all the logos posted on the home page which does not present a good look.
Visual appeal
Visual appeal is reflected by the color, text, graphics etc of the website. A website that is aesthetically pleasant with equally good functionality entices online consumers.
Interactivity
The flow of information between the user and the website is important for developing strong relationships online. Increased interactivity caters to increased user satisfaction and perceived effectiveness of the website.
Personalization
Midwest Sports, Inc can offer individual pages tailored to specific needs of customers. It can offer recommendations to consumers according to their prior behavior just in the same way as Amazon is doing. The relevant recommendation increases the conversion rates of web browsers
Navigation
Sequencing between pages is very important to facilitate users movement across the web. Unclear navigation choices drive users away.
New Web features
Midwest Sports, Inc can offer online shoppers with customer reviews and appraisals of different items to help them in the selection of products. Like Amazon.coms customer reviews, Midwest Sports, Inc can offer customer reviews which would prove not only helpful for consumers but also add to the popularity of the website.
Social network
It can also allow consumers make groups and forums to discuss the latest sporting items and apparel thereby making the site more interesting and attractive for online shoppers. Online forums add to the popularity of websites.
Web service
The options available to Midwest Sports, Inc to improve and develop value added service can be its strong Brand image, competitive price, user-friendly Web site design, quick service, and continuous innovation.
It can offer service that will allow consumers to customize and design their own sportswear by permitting them to specify the desired size, colours and the option to personalize sportswear with their name.
Position of supply chain
The customers of Midwest sports, Inc are mostly male aged 25-34 and those aged more than 65 years. They are consisted of college students or those professionals who access Midwestsports.com while at work. The products offered by Midwest Sports, Inc mainly fall in sporting goods and apparel category.
Midwest Sports, Inc ships the demanded sporting items in the consummate form which requires no further modification or service from any other company or supplier. Products are delivered according to the specifications and requirements of the final consumer.
Options available with the Midwest Sports, Inc include linking its supply system to that of suppliers. Thus it can link its software for managing its inventory and supplies internally with the suppliers by directly integrating with them. Such integration would automate the internal flow of materials and information and can be used as a means to communicate with the suppliers. (Richard, 2006)
Advertising
Midwest Sports uses its online business to be promoted across Google, with the use of a sponsored link. Having a sponsored link benefits the company as it the advertisement is reached to the consumers who are of interest in the product presented within the official website. Being at the top of the search engine results is effective as the potential customers search for a keyword and the advert appears at the top of the results page. With the advent of Twitter, the option to send to friend or twitting the link acts as word of mouth marketing.
Midwest Sports, Inc relies heavily on twitter for social networking and promotion while its competitors Tennis warehouse and Tennis Express have used the popular medium of facebook to advertise their companies.
In order to reach younger audience, social networking though facebook is crucial as it is popular networking site among youth.
Midwest is at the lowest position in traffic rank in USA and globally according to Alexa. One reason for this could be lack of any forums. Midwest uses blogs but it is not enough for increasing web traffic. Midwest provides regular content to the search engines so that e-commerce sites get more traffic through blogging. Tennis Warehouse uses message board which is a user generated content and a best way of increasing web traffic.
New market segments
A comparison of Midwest Sports, Inc with Tennis Express shows that Midwest is mostly targeting sports goods and apparel while Tennis Express has diversified itself into other products such as DVD and videos, books, gifts and other accessories. Thus in terms of marketing strategy, Midwest is catering to a niche market of sporting goods and apparel while Tennis Express has penetrated into the market of accessories too. Midwest can also look for diversifying its portfolio of products to attract lager number of audience.
Globalisation
Tennis Warehouse has additional linkages with international customers while other companies have not managed to find a way to have a relationship with international customers. This could be the reason why Midwest Sport is falling behind in terms of traffic. With increased globalization, it is essential to provide users with the value added services such as currency convertor. Tennis warehouse provides its customers with a currency convertor option while such option is not available with Midwest Sports website. Also, use of generic languages for customers in France, Netherlands etc plays
Moreover, Tennis Express has an offline store which represents offline marketing of brand awareness to customers so they have already seen the company from a tangible view which shows the companies brand to the customer so they know the website is worthy to go online to purchase products. (Richard, 2006)
Partnerships
Midwest can look for partnerships with the suppliers to offer it with quick and cheaper deliveries. On way to achieve efficiency in terms of partnerships is to integrate the internal management of supplies with the external suppliers.
Symbiotic
It is important for Midwest to not only preserve the existing customer base butalso continue differentiating its services.For a successful symbiotic relationship, one company needs to deploy resources through which benefits would be achieved by a single company. (Arnold Picot et al 2008)
It needs to symbiotic and synergies to create new revenue generating solutions and services. For Example, it can offer synergies with search engines such as Google for increasing its traffic.
Acquisition
Midwest can consider buying another website for catering to the similar customer base but it is marked by a number of risks and threats. For example, acquiring a new website would diversify its portfolio of business thus asking for more attention and capital requirement. At this stage, this does not seem as viable option for Midwest sports. Purchasing another site rather than attracting new customers may not be an economic option as it would require increase capital and can dilute the brand image.
Financial appraisal
In terms of financial appraisal, Tennis Express shows healthy outlook with sufficient revenues and growth. Tennis Warehouse is also marked by low leverage and higher profitability. If the NPV is calculated, it reveals that the breakeven is achieved at a lower volume for Tennis Express as compared to Midwest Sports. Achieving breakeven at a lower volume is beneficial as it enables the company to cover fixed costs and variable costs and then profit is spread over the additional volume. In terms of financial appraisal, Midwest offers a bleak picture as the revenues are not growing at a pace with its competitors which can prove a serious problem in the long run.
Midwest needs to offer new services and look for value addition to raise its revenues to compete with the financial performance of its competitors. (Richard, 2006)
Recommendations
Use attractive animation, text and images to appeal to the online consumers. Website that is aesthetically pleasant with equally good functionality entices online consumers thus Midwest needs to focus on esthetic as well as functional aspects of the website.
It needs to allow increased interactivity with its customers to increase user satisfaction and perceived effectiveness of the website. It can offer value added services such as recommendations to consumers according to their prior behavior just in the same way as Amazon is doing. The relevant recommendation increases the conversion rates of web browsers.
It can also provide customer online chat service with an expert who could guide the customers in choosing their best and most suitable tennis products like the way Dell has introduced this feature. By introducing this feature, Midwest would be able to attract more online customers it would be able to analyze the buying patterns of the consumers plus satisfying each customer individually.
In order to cater to global audience, it can focus on features such as currency convertor, use of generic language and localized discussion forums for the customers. Also, it can look for strengthening its brand image by using word of mouth advertising by blogging and Facebook. Since Blogging and Facebook can be more interactive than a website so Midwest should be focusing on its Blogs and Facebook fan pages too simultaneously. These are yet other techniques to get customer inputs and try to satisfy them.
In order to attract traffic to website, it is crucial to focus on online adverts by search engines and symbiotic. Also, the personalisation, navigation, visual appeal etc add to enticing traffic to a website. In order t build strong customer base it is necessary to focus on developing relationships with customers through online forums and popular social networking sites such as facebook. Purchasing another site rather than attracting new customers may not be an economic option as it would require increase capital and can dilute the brand image.
With increased globalisation, the proportion of international customers is increasing rapidly which requires modifications and adaptation for the diversified customer base. Modifications such as addition of currency convertor, use of generic language and social networking forums can add to the potential to access international customers.
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