Problems and Solutions to Business Website Creation
Contents
How I found problems on the website
Introduction
The business report discusses the problems and solutions that could be implemented to benefit The Cake Merchant’s business website. This research consists of the website problems, how I located the websites problems, and solutions to better the business website … . The analysis of the businesses website would be covered throughout the report. The information provided in the report, will benefit the business majority as it is suffering to maintain its customers due to the business website not being up to par compared to its competitors, hence influencing the business to fall behind its competitors. Thus, the strategies included in the report will benefit the business to gain competitive advantage, generate profits, customer satisfaction, and innovation.
Reference 1 – Business Book
Using the Business Studies HSC Course book, the strategies that The Cake Merchant could implement within its business to gain competitive advantage, customer satisfaction, repeated sales … are to continuously update the website monthly so that the customers are up to date with the business and not mislead with previous data. This will allow customers to have a successful purchase without having to go through the hassles and troubles of not being able to locate and contact the business. In addition, by having the website constantly updated it’ll result in customers being satisfied with the business hence, resulting the business to gain repeated sales through their customers. Thus, allowing The Cake Merchant to generate more profits. Furhtermore, by introducing the online feature of allowing customers to customise their cakes online, is that it’ll allow customers to express their creative side and also to create a cake that satisfies the customer. In result of the cake customisation feature on the website it’ll allow the Cake Merchant to be on par with it’s competitor ‘The Cheesecake Shop’, as they’ve already introduced the feature. Hence, allow The Cake Merchant to innovate and satisfy their customers wants of having their imagination on a cake. The benefits of implementing the online cake feature would outweigh the costs and generate more profits to the business.
How I gathered the information
I’ll choose to gather the data from my previous HSC Business book as it covers a really good subheading of how a business could improve it’s online market and maximise it’s profits. Using the Western Sydney University Library’s of e-resources to choose from online texts as there is a variety of books, articles, magzines etc. that perfectly explore the importance for a business to benefit its website by constantly updating the website and introducing features that’ll cause the business to stand out amongst it’s competitors.
Reference
Website: Shah, A. (2006). The cake merchant. Retrieved from http://www.thecakemerchant.com.au
Owner … (2016). The Cheesecake Shop. Retrieved from https://www.cheesecake.com.au
Business Studies HSC book: Chapman, S., Devinish, N., Dhall, M., Norris, C. (2011) Business studies in action HSC course. (4th ed.). Milton, Australia: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
Newspaper: What makes a good website? (2010, Sep 12). University Wire Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/docview/1439826965?accountid=36155
Annotated Bibliography
Problem and Solutions
After evaluating The Cake Merchants (TCM) website it seems to be that there are problems with the website that doesn’t make the website effective to its business. The problems consist of; the website not being updated (new cakes not showing up on the website but available in-store and menu not being easily visible), customise cakes online, menu subheadings not being eye catchy, incorrect grammar, and ingredients not available online.
Updating menu and Font
The Cake Merchant should consider hiring a website developer to apply changes to the business so that the businesses problems will be executed. The Cake Merchants menu isn’t clearly visibly as the font is very small and in italics which is easy to skip if exploring the site. By changing the subheadings font to a size 20 and making it bold. It’ll rather catch the user attention and allow them to further explore the cakes sold online and in-store. In addition, by updating the menu and adding the newer cakes sold in-store and online, it’ll allow the audience of TCM’s website to be notified that The Cake Merchant has introduced a new cake.
Customise cakes
A definite innovation that should have been implemented within the businesses website is the option to allow customers to customise their own cakes online. By having an online feature that allows customers to customise cakes, customers will be able to design cakes to their personal preference. Correspondingly having a customisation cake feature on the website. It’ll allow the business to be on par with its competitor ‘The Cheesecake Store’. Customise cake feature on the website will generate more profits to the business as the cost of producing a customised cake costs more than the mass-produced cakes sold in-store.
Incorrect grammar
Having the correct grammar on a website is metaphoric to having a catchy book cover to a book. As customers read the website and if they see any misspelling or mispunctuation customers will see the business to be unprofessional. Hence, customers will not prefer purchase cakes from the business and choose The Cake Merchant’s competitors. Thus, leading TCM with less profits.
Ingredients
Having the ingredients of each cake on the website is a must to every food industry. Since customers have allergies and religious beliefs that’s best for them to not consume certain cakes that might be at harm to the customer. By having the ingredients on the website, it’ll prevent customers from having allergic reactions and in worst case scenarios, suing the business. Which could be complete downfall to the business. Thus, having the ingredients on the website and in-store will allow the business to survive in the long term and also allow the business to be open with its customers as they are being honest on the ingredients for each cake. Hence, the customers will gain a strong relationship with the business and it’ll result in more profits to the business.
In conclusion, by improving the businesses website, the Cake Merchant CEO should consider improving its menu by increasing the font size since it’s easily skipped while exploring the website and to also the menu hasn’t been updated, which could mislead customers on the new cakes. By adding a feature on the website that’ll allow customers to customise their own cake, it’ll result in customer satisfaction as they get to make a cake to their own preference. The grammar on the website is import as it gives the business the first impression of being professional or unqualified. Furthermore, by including the ingredient of each cake, it’ll allow customers to be informed if the cake is suitable for them hence, creating an open relationship with the customer and business. Thus, by improving the business it’ll cost the business, however the benefits will outweigh the costs and generate a stronger business reputation as customers feel connected with the business, hence leading to repeated sales and more profits.
How is it used and what kinds of problems does it aim to address?
How do you know there is a problem with the current system/website?
How do you think you will go about investigating this: what method(s) will you use?
You will write this up in half-Âthree quarters of a page and include a screenshot of the website or
graphic of the technology.
Website Problems
The Cake Merchant website hasn’t been updated since the publishment of their business in January 2006. The problems in the website consist of incorrect grammar, no ingredients, non-updated numbers, store locations and cakes. The incorrect grammar is found in the sub heading ‘About Us’. The incorrect grammar consists of the commas being placed before the next word rather than after the word. By having the incorrect grammar on the businesses website, it portrays that the business is unprofessional as a simple mistake has been caused the businesses reputation to be impacted. In addition, due to the website not being update for over eleven years it has impacted in customers being misled of the business as they store locations and store contact number has been changed and non-updated. By not updating the website, The Cake Merchant suffers as they’re customers will not know where the business is located as the store location hasn’t been updated. Also, by not updating the businesses contact number it’ll impact the business by losing customers as the customers wouldn’t be able to contact the business and to ask questions concerning their cakes. If The Cake Merchant has taken the consideration of benefiting their business website it’ll only influence the business positivity as customers will view the business as professional and as a business that cares about their customers, as there are doing everything in their power to help new customers locate and contact the business. Furthermore, due to progression of time The Cake Merchant has created new cakes and haven’t updated their website to notify their customers that view their online website that they have a new cake. This would cause customers to feel excluded as they are not notified about the businesses latest releases. Hence, impacting in the customer’s relationship with the business to fall apart. A continuous concern of every consumer is that they want know what ingredients are in their cake. However, on The Cake Merchant website it doesn’t consist of the ingredients in the cakes which could have a negative impact on the business as customers have religious beliefs that don’t allow them to consume rum or alcohol which could go against their religious beliefs and some customers have allergic reactions to nuts and certain ingredients. In addition, by including the ingredients of each cake it could prevent customers from being unsatisfied from the business and being sued for causing harm to customers.
How I found problems on the website
Through continuous navigation of the Cake Merchant website, the issues found consist of incorrect grammar, no ingredients, non-updated numbers, store locations and cakes. These problems on the website were found by comparing The Cake Merchant website to it’s competitors website ‘The Cheesecake Shop’
The Cake Merchant Revamp
Websites should be updated monthly so that customers could be aware of new cakes and if the businesses location has been moved or the contact number has been changed. By constantly updating The Cake Merchant Website it’ll allow for a well organised and structured business as, the business and customers up to date as websites are the first point of customers choosing The Cake Merchant over its competitors.
The improvements that The Cake Merchant could implement to its business to have competitive advantage over its competitors. By updating the businesses ‘About Us’ and fixing the grammar it would give the business a professional outlook as the business has sophisticated and correct grammar in it’s About Us. The Cake Merchant should create an online cake stock availability. So that customers would be notified if the cake is unavailable, so that they don’t waste their time travelling to the store to later be notified that they are out of the cake that the customer requested. By having the cake stock availability on the Cake Merchant website it’ll lead to customer satisfaction and repeated sales, as customers are informed of the availability of the cakes and which stores still have stock. In addition, The Cake Merchant should shift it’s business online as the present and future consists of many benefits on e-commerce. By The Cake Merchant implementing E-Commerce in their business it’ll allow customers to purchase cakes online hence, allowing customers to buy cakes before they are out of stock. This will allow the business to stay up to date with technology and customers and other businesses will appreciate the businesses sincerity with it’s customers by constantly updating its website to allow customers to feel welcomed and feel part of the business.
Furthermore, by updating The Cake Merchant website and appraising their store location and contact details, it’ll allow for customers to easily contact and find the business without any hassle. By updating the website it’ll show that the business cares about its brand and image that it works to maximum potential to maintain a positive business outlook. Hence, resulting in repeated sales as customers would keep buying from the business as the business cares for its customers. Also, by satisfying customers it’ll result in word of mouth, which is the most powerful advertisement for any business as customers of The Cake Merchant will notify others about the business, which will grow the business and grow the businesses reputation as customers are fulfilled with the businesses service, and products.
Having an online feature that’ll allow the customers to customize and create their own cakes online will introduce a creative introduction to the website. As it’ll allow customers to express their imagination by designing a cake that’ll better suit the occasion. Hence, by having the online cake customizer, the customers that choose to buy customised cakes, it’ll allow the business to generate more profits as they are creating a single cake to suit their customers wants. By introducing the online cake customization it’ll allow for the business to compete with its competitors and stay above its competitors with competitive advantage. As performed by The Cheesecake Shop, they’ve already introduced online cake customization. In which, The Cake Merchant should follow its competitor to stay within competition and not fall back and cause the business to decline. By staying on par with competitors, it’ll allow The Cake Merchant to stay innovative and customers will be impressed and willing to use The Cake Merchants innovations as their past experiences with The Cake Merchant was successful.
The Cake Merchant website was last updated in 2015, and the update was just to include their new store location in Campbelltown and their contact information. However, the website doesn’t include all the cakes that are sold in the store. By having the cakes available on the website it’ll allow the customers to have an outlook of the cakes in the store which will prevent the customers from travelling to the store to notice that they don’t sell the cake that the customer is looking for.
- Not updated
- Not visually appealing
- Broken links
- Spelling mistakes
In addition, if The Cake Merchant included a live stock updater it’ll allow the customers to be notified on which cakes are in stock, so that the customers