The efforts of the E-Business digitalization consultant are defined to transform the offline business into online aspects
In this part of my assignment “The efforts of the E-Business digitalization consultant are defined to transform the offline business into online aspects”, I am required to give information on the report and the background of the selected company. I have been promoted within the company as the E-Business consultant in the family-owned firm.
My mission is to analyze the current digital situation of the company and make a report with recommendations. The selected family-owned company is the Costco Wholesale Corporation which is shortened say that, Costo. It is the fifth largest retailing company in the whole world that has less presence in online media.
Aims and objectives:
Aim:
- this report aims to analyze the current digital situation of the company in particular as well as the industry in general for making recommendations.
Objectives:
- To investigate the current digital situation of the company as promoting the core operations.
- To utilize the responsibilities of an E-Business consultant for asset the existing business from physical to online operations.
Scope:
In this report, the overview of the industry, details of the company, and the analysis of digital marketing, digitalization strategy, digitalization plan, and the legal as well as ethical issues of the company are analyzed or defined in this report. At the end of the report, the conclusion of the whole project is defined.
Body of the report:
Industry overview:
Digital transformation is the process that helps businesses to improve their operations and the current practices that directly raise the business’s success. By improving the current progress and maintaining valuable strengths, business practices can be strongly held. Digitalization in the industry directly impacts the business values and overall strengths.
Costco company is a retail firm that relates to the industry of retail. So, the operations and functions of the business directly express in the given terms as is required to encourage the valuable brand.
In the retail industry, digital transformation helps to create more shopping experiences for customers by leveraging data analytics as well as artificial intelligence. So, the operations of the business can allow customized offerings based on the behavior and preferences of the customers.
A retail business model follows the approach of direct to consumer which is known as the B2C approach. Where the firm sells the products directly to the customers as the proceeded or finished product.
It is the model that implies the most locally based and carries a higher level of margins through the costs as well as the risk distributions. The retail chain, retail funding, and retail cooperatives are also business models that improve business performance and transform the broad planning that can be required in the future. There is a clear analysis of network marketing exists that improve broad decisions and generate the most funding activities.
Costco Company is a Retailer business that runs its operations in a multinational market but the strategies and operations of the business can be classified to get the detailed values. Digitalization improves the process of retailing and the activities of buying merchandise from wholesalers.
So, the functions and operations of the company that can be classified will be obtained or organized in the future that will directly operate as the learning strengths. at the low price or selling in small quantities to the general public at a higher price, the management will obtain stronger functions.
Company details and internal digital marketing analysis:
Brief description of the chosen company and how digitalization impacted them?
The selected company where I was promoted as the E-Business digitalization consultant is Costco Wholesale Corporatization which is also known as Costco. It is an American multinational company that operates the chain of membership only as the big box retail stores or the warehouses club.
As of year 2022, Costco Company is the 5th largest retailer in the whole world and retailer of choice and prime beef. The analysis of organic foods and chicken as of 2016 also deals with the operations of Costco company.
It is ranked 11 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. It is a public company that traded on the Nasdaq and S&P. The operations of the company are related to the retail industry.
The company was founded in the year 1983 almost 39 years ago. James Senegal and Jeffrey Broman is the founder of the company that served the operations of more than eight hundred and fifty 850 locations in the year 2023. Australia, Canada, China, France, Iceland, Japan, and various other related areas are served by the Costco company.
In the year 2022, the annual revenue of the company is about 226.95 billion dollars exist. The company has more than 304000 employees in the year 2022 which changes the business capabilities and generates the best activities related to the clear plans.
Digitalization directly impacts the performance of the industry. It improves the services offered and elevates the level of satisfaction of the customers. Customers can analyze the quality and overall abilities of the business through the use of advanced digital networks.
Choosing the best route of digitalization and laying the foundation of social media platforms, digitalization directly affects the performance and progress of the business. Through better tracking and planning of the logistics, the current resources of the business can be examined in the future.
Vision and objectives of digitalization:
The vision of the company or make their business a place where efficient buying, as well as operating practices, gives access to the members as unmatched savings.
- The objectives of the implementation of digitalization in the retail industry are to make data more structured, easily accessible, and organized form.
- To create the help as a more personalized experience of shopping.
- To access the valuable insights of the market and build strong engagement with the customers.
Digital marketing resources of the company including SEO efforts:
As an E-Business digitalis consultant, I analyze that HubSpot, Canva, Google Analytics, and the Search Engine Journal are the main resources of digitalization that improve the performance of the business and expand activities into the future. The best practices of marketing change the scenario of the business and it raises the current values as entitled to get the changes.
Different functions of the business are used to improve the greater decisions and maintain the best functions; the firm’s decisions can be classified. Social media marketing activities help to improve the greater practices and observe valuable actions in the future.
Budget, people, supplies, and the technology which required to ensure the business actions are also the search engine optimization of the Costco company. Orienting the website of Costco to rank higher on the search engine results page as SERP, the company received more traffic.
Digitalization strategy:
Digitalization strategy of the company, main objectives trying to achieve, and aligned with general goals:
Digitalization strategy:
Digitalization is the process to provide convenience to the customers and the target market. Costco company is a warehousing retailer firm that served different types of products with less presence of online media. As the E-commerce or E-Business digitalization consultant, I give recommendations to the company about how to promote the operations of the firm through the use of digital marketing.
Digitalization is the process that helps to get the change and boost the overall planning relating to broad decisions. For the success of Costco company as a retailer industry in the global market, the use of online media is important.
Through the development of online media and channels, the company can promote its products and operations in the international market. Digitalization strategies directly improve business decisions and observe a greater number of success techniques as required in the future.
Digital advertising is the main strategy that helps the company to improve its performance and promote its products across the whole world. As the company’s entire objectives generate better decisions, the firm’s core competencies become valuable.
For the success of Costco company, digital advertising is one of the best strategies of digitalization that is recommended according to the nature of the company. It provides attraction and awareness to the customers about the entire products and services of the business related to the convenient terms. Digital strategies can get higher success and generate the presence of the company since the online reputation.
Objectives to achieve:
After implementing an effective digital strategy in the business and generating the proper success, the Costco company can achieve various objectives. Firstly, the digital strategy which is digital advertising that is perfect for the retail industry to show its appearance as online in the global market directly allowing the customers to define their needs and requirements. To gain strong competition, reduce the cost, build proper agility, and improve communication certain objectives can be achieved.
- To get a strong competitive advantage and reduce the overall cost of the business operations.
- To develop the agility of the business and improve the collaboration with the customers.
- To increase productivity and generate new business models for a better experience for the customers.
S.M.A.R.T goals:
| Specific. | To improve customer interaction through appearing as an online platform. |
| Measurable. | To comply with the secrecy of data and protect the information of the customers as the digital strategy. |
| Achievable. | To enhance the performance as well as practices of working of the employees that are working in different locations of the business. |
| Result focused. | To generate a better experience for the customers through implementing E-Business activities. |
| Timebound. | To increase the productivity of the employees and the attraction of the customers for the success of the company. |
SWOT analysis:
Here is the SWOT analysis of the company that provides a detailed plan and certain practices of the business through implementing the E-Business channels.
| Strengths: Prime location of the company.Innovative sales techniques for the digital strategy.Agreement on supply chain and relationship marketing. | Weaknesses: Limited experience in online marketing.Not recognized the brand name.Smal sizes of the stores and the technical resources. |
| Opportunities: Increment of demographic.Changing the trends of E-commerce.Geographic expansion through the digital strategy of advertising. | Threats: Changing fashion emergence of the new competitor.The unfavorable policies of tax.Enhancement in the raw material prices. |
Identification of top 2 competitors and their journey:
Walmart and Target Corporation TGT are the main competitors of the Costco company. Both of these competitors directly affect the performance of the business and generate broad decisions through specific tasks. In this modern world, the trend of the consumer goods industry becomes increased because it is a demanding business that fulfills the convenient needs of the customers. Customers of the business are the essential part that is analyzed by the business’s success.
Here is the analysis of the competitors of Costco company that affect the business progress and the entire valuable terms to generate the best and most sustainable decisions. To encourage business growth and organize better changes, Walmart and Target Corporation analysis must be considered. The number of employees, location, head waiter, and the type with revenue are the key factors to analyze the competitor’s role in the business.
| Companies. | Employees | Revenue in the year 2022. | Headquarter. | Type. | Founded. | No. of locations in the year 2023. |
| Costco. | 30400 | US$ 226.95 billion. | Issaquah, Washington, U.S. | Public | 1983 | 855 |
| Walmart (WMT). | 2300000 | US$ 611.3 billion. | Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S. | Public. | 1962. | 10586 |
| Target Corporation (TGT). | 440000 | US$ 109.1 billions | Target Plaza Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. | Public. | 1902. | 1848 |
Provide the reasoning as to why are the competitors in the digitalization journey:
The main reason for the digitalization of Walmart and Target Corporation as the competitors of the Costco company is to promote the process of automation. In the retailing business, automation helps to reduce manpower and save time.
So, Walmart and Target corporation builds digitalization strategies that can improve business decisions and organize the most specific tasks. Human errors can be avoided by implementing large digitalization models. So, the operations and the broad activities that help business to deal with a greater number of activities directly ensure the best plans.
Costco can improve the efficiency of its operations and make the possible automation process through digitalization activities. Fewer errors of the human and reduction of the cost are the entire ways that integrate the best and most sustainable trends.
The operational cost also reduces through the process of implementing the digital strategies and the promotion of advertising the elements. Digital transformation puts advanced technology at the core of the business strategy and evaluates the approach that can change the course of the business as a unified model.
Digitalization Plan:
Plan:
In the future, different social media applications and digital transformation tools are used by the business to promote its operations and expand its functions as a geographic trend. Digitalization is the business activity that directly improves the firm’s decisions and organizes the number of activities through appropriate and valuable plans.
Digitalization will help the company to expand its operations and manage the broad categories that can be valued or updated in the future. The business capabilities can be strongly admired to express organizational success and maintain broad responsibilities. In the process of developing digitalization plans and organizing the most convened categories, the firm’s decisions will be sustained.
In the future in 06 months, Costco will raise awareness in the minds of the customers that are strongly associated with and generate higher success. The digitalization process depends on certain tools and applications that build a strong brand image and the reliable activities of the firm.
To implement the strong activities and transform the broad decisions, the operational activities can be considered in the future. Digitalization will improve the firm’s operations and observe the cleared techniques. Facebook, Instagram, Website, and different other social media networks will use by Costco company to promote its operations and raise awareness of the business.
Define KPIs:
Costco company has goals as well as objectives that are usually tough in the areas like financial performance, the satisfaction of the customers, and operational efficiencies. The key performance indicators of Costco’s digitalization strategies are set up to track the overall satisfaction of the customers, generate the operational plan, and boost the valuable decisions as recorded in the future.
Key performance indicators are set up to track the greater efficiency of the goals. Return on the digital investment, higher level of productivity of the employees, adoption and the metrics of performance, customer experience, percentage of artificial intelligence-enabled metrics, reliability and availability, and the cost-benefit analysis is the main key performance indicators that impact the areas of financial, customer experiences, and others.
To raise the organizational values and generate the best practices, the organizational activities can be transformed and generated in the future. Key performance indicators of the businesses evaluate certain activities and observed the most sustainable plans through the given or valuable practices.
The key performance indicators motivate the company’s activities and observe the greater decisions. For the success of the digitalization plan, the key performance indicators evaluate certain practices and organize the most specific operations as leading the best and greater activities.
All the operations and the core functions of the Costco company can be raising the higher interest and attraction of the customers through implementing the digitalization plan. digital marketing uses to evaluate the greater practices and observed the most specific operations related to the better and greater sources.
Legal and ethical issues:
Any ethical privacy, or security issues the business sight face while consulting E-Business or applying digitalization strategy:
Costco is an offline warehousing retailer company with little online media presence. To implement the digital strategy and generate E-Business activities, different ethical, privacy, and security issues affect the performance of the firm.
Online piracy, vulnerable data, web tracking, cyber-squatting, and web spoofing are the main issues that affect the business progress and the entire processes of the firm’s activities. To investigate the business decisions and activate certain plans, the firm’s overall values can be updated. Leaking personal data and online piracy are the major threats that can impact the business values and its overall decisions through the given terms.
As the electronic deception and creating the fake websites, the Costco customers also affect the business’s bad image. So, the analysis of online piracy can be sustained through the given operations. On the other hand, while implementing digital advertising as a digital strategy false advertising, misusing the data of consumers, and misleading pricing strategies are the ethical issues that affect the performance of the businesses. To experience the greater plan and motivate the best tools, the organizational decisions can be classified.
Conclusion of the report:
Aim or context of the assignment:
The context of this report aims to analyze and investigate the current digital situation of the company in a particular manner as the industry to make the report of recommendations. Investigating the impact of digital strategy and digitalization on the retail industry as becoming the E-Business is analyzed in the report.
