Business Case Study 1: Zappos Online Retailer Company

* From the e-Activity, analyze the role that customer service plays and determine the service management skills at Zappos. Evaluate the different way(s) that Zappos creates a superior customer service.

The observation companies in this paper would be Verizon Wireless and Time Warner Cable. Both of the companies are in the similar industry, both of them are telecommunication providers. I am currently a customer of Verizon Wireless and Time Warner Cable for four and three years respectively. The customer service is a critical part of any business operation that involves customer as they need to keep customer’s satisfaction to ensure that they are able to make revenue. The observation of customer service in this paper is based on the experience with dealing both of the company’s customer service over the phone, and over the social media. The customer service through the social media is popular in the past few years. The paper will discuss

To increase the e-commerce dominance, J.C.Penney needs to focus on improving the user experience and the quality of its website and app. At the same time, J.C.Penney should bring up more sale events and exclusive products online to attract more customers. We recommend J.C.Penney to use the SWOT analysis. It can help J.C.Penney clearly identify its strengths, opportunities, at the same time find out the weaknesses and threats. J.C.Penney’s e-commerce strategies can be made or modified based on the SWOT analysis.

The diverse business line model that Nordstrom applies gives them a competitive edge over their competitors. Unlike many of their competitors, Nordstrom operates in several retail categories such as: clothing, furniture, bedding, footwear, beauty products, jewelry, house wear and cafes (Nordstrom Inc, n.d). Operating in multi retail categories gives consumers an incentive to shop at their shop, over the competitors because the consumer can satisfy all their specific needs and wants in one store instead of having to visit several. The divergent product line also broadens Nordstrom 's target market by offering different products that attract new market segments and reach the different demographic and purchasing needs of each consumer. Nordstrom’s wide product range helped them to increase their “Total Revenue in the 3 quarter 2014 by 8.88 % year on year, while most of its competitors have experienced contraction in revenues by -0.17 %” (CSI Market, 2014) . As Nordstrom continues to constantly add in new products-or line extensions to their product mix, they can expect to maintain a steady growth and competitive advantage over their competitors.

Their brand and how loyal their customers are is what they are known for. They have a very unique operating strategy where they offer premium choices made by the customers themselves. They eliminated the middleman of Fresh Direct and suppliers. They can provide high quality at lower costs which has positively affected the revenues.

Have you ever went to a grocery store or a retail shop and received bad services? Did you want to go back to the store after they treated you so poorly? One thing I have learned from working in a grocery store is that no business can be successful without the support of their customers. In this paper, I will be comparing and contrasting two major companies, Hot Topic and Nike. By comparing these two successful companies, I will prove that companies have no chance of success unless they take care of their customers. I will compare their missions and history. These comparisons will prove that good customer care is the key to any company's success.

To begin with, online shopping has become the new thing. With thousands of apps at ones fingertips, one can shop anywhere, and at any time. According to the article, analysts say that online shopping is one of the reasons for the drastic decline in sales. Piper Jaffray, conducted a survey of teenagers, and this survey showed that more than three-fourths of teenagers shopped online. Not only can you find better prices while shopping online, but you can get it conveniently and fast as Mr. Matthew McClintock pointed out. However, online shopping is not the only culprit to the decreasing profits for the suffering clothing companies, for unemployment rates factor in there as well.

The author is pleased to have brought you this case study about Walmart Stores Inc. From the organisational profile of the company, the magnitude of Walmart was revealed since it basically operates all over the globe with a number of stores in different variety. The retailing Giants carry a vast array of products to cater for all customers. In terms of Walmart’s vision and mission statements - the company endeavours to sell at very economical prices while being as efficient as possible in terms of expenditure. In terms of the literature review that was undertaken, this emphasised Walmart’s direction in comparison to that of Target Corporation and Costco Wholesale Corporation. From this, an appreciation was gathered that Walmart’s offerings

Zappos consider themselves “a service company that happens to sell shoes”. The main core competency of the company is its customer service. Hsieh considered customer service to be one of the most important aspects of the business. If a business has excellent customer service, then customers are more likely to return to purchase from the business again. Hsieh saw that excelling in customer service and trusting the word of mouth of their customers would build up their customer base and their sales. A 24hour call centre and a toll-free

Volatility of financial position, declining in company’s income compared with last fiscal year, increasing debts as well as operating costs

This case study analysis is based on the 2009 case study from Stanford Graduate School of Business titled Zappos.com: Developing a supply chain to deliver WOW! It begins with the general overview of the background, philosophies and current problems faced by Zappos. This is followed by a hierarchal ranking of the four major presenting problems for the company, which are: maintaining the “wow” image without overspending, inventory management/distribution problems, transportation efficiency problems and customer behavior problems.

What are the major limitations on the growth of e-commence? Which is potentially the toughest to overcome?

As Zappos faces the challenge of determining next steps in regards to maintaining the existing business unit or to enter a new business venture, the SWOT analysis will provide clarity in the firms Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This is an extremely suitable

SWOT analysis relies upon a conspicuous verification of the association's interior qualities and deficiencies and what are more the outside conditions and potential threats inside the working condition. Zara is a strong brand inside the overall clothing retail industry on account of its ability to develop new diagrams and advantage them to the stores inside a concise traverse. Zara has an altogether vertical composed structure which engages rapid fundamental authority, brisk spread of new diagrams and cost minimization (Dutta 2002). Zara's strategy similarly makes enables it to extend the business, enhance customer immovability and to influence a noteworthy customer to regard…

Within the company itself, employees, morale had decrease and their job satisfaction was very low and thus they lost their sense of identification with the company as well. Internally, upper management staff and the board of directors are having conflicts as well. All these issues affected how the customers feel; feedback had shown that AF’s customers are unhappy with AF’s staff service and their product knowledge.