1. What is the value proposition to the customer of Web-based shopping? How does it compare to th... more 1. What is the value proposition to the customer of Web-based shopping? How does it compare to the other innovations in customer service that Ives mentions at the end of the case? For customers who are using Web-based shopping, they believe that online shopping provides them more flexibility and it is more convenient and time saving to shop online compared to shop in a real store. Online shopping keeps people away from the rush time of grocery stores during the weekends, and goods are directly go to the homes. When compared to the other innovations in customer service that Ives mentions at the end of the case, like bank clerks, gas jockey and pay telephones have same goal as the online shopping, that they intends to provide convenience to customers. 2. What new capabilities do the following innovations bring to customer service in the grocery industry: 2.a. Scanner data: Scanner data are assigned to all different goods and they are stored in the information system, and when a customer shops online, scanner data will be accessed and stores will receiving those scanner data instead of a list of products' name. 2.b.Loyalty card data: it provides a secure way for stores to identify customers and it also keeps records of shopping histories of each customers. In some way, it may differentiates one customer from others based on the amount of money spend by the customers. 2.c. Web Shopping: Web shopping allows customers to customize its orders by adding notes to the employers of the stores. 3. What would you do if you were Ives? Should Upscale Markets implement online grocery shopping in the Dallas, TX market? How similar, or different, should it be from the Rice Epicurean initiative in Houston, TX? If I were Ives, I would not implement online grocery shopping in the Dallas, TX market now. Firstly, I need to analyze my customer purchases in each store and their buying power based on their incomes; traffic would be a another important thing that we need to plan and design in order to be cost effective; a budget of implementing online grocery shopping is needed and it includes incremental costs of hiring drivers, pickers, and maintenance of website. I could try to implement the online shopping in just a few stores, but it would not be exactly identical to the Rice Epicurean initiative. During the testing window of the online shopping, customer reviews will be valuable to me and it helps to improve the future development of online grocery shopping in case that we earn more profit. 4. How sustainable is any competitive advantage for Rice Epicurean? For MyWebGrocer? The competitive advantage for Rice Epicurean is that they have good reputation as an online provider which has a large number of loyalty customers. People get used to things they are familiar with, and once they find it is a better place to shop, it is not easy to change them because everyone has a habit. For My WebGrocer, it provides both online and real stores, and it has pretty the same competitive advantage as the Rice does, and it continues to be profit if without a tremendous change in their provided products. 5. Identify and describe at least one (1) new technology innovation (not listed in this case) which may have an impact on web-based shopping. In most families, people are buying pretty the same goods and foods each time, like bread, drinks, paper towels, etc. They have to select all things they need in order to fulfill the needs of daily lives each time they are shopping online, and in some cases mother probably forget to put bread in the shopping bag because she is just too busy. An automatically order will be convenient for families to shop online, people can list a group of products and request automatically order per week or longer, so they don't need to select a lot of things at one time and it prevents them from forgetting buying a particular good. All you need to do is assign your payment information, and such automatic order will credit your balance each time when the order is delivered.
1. What is the value proposition to the customer of Web-based shopping? How does it compare to th... more 1. What is the value proposition to the customer of Web-based shopping? How does it compare to the other innovations in customer service that Ives mentions at the end of the case? For customers who are using Web-based shopping, they believe that online shopping provides them more flexibility and it is more convenient and time saving to shop online compared to shop in a real store. Online shopping keeps people away from the rush time of grocery stores during the weekends, and goods are directly go to the homes. When compared to the other innovations in customer service that Ives mentions at the end of the case, like bank clerks, gas jockey and pay telephones have same goal as the online shopping, that they intends to provide convenience to customers. 2. What new capabilities do the following innovations bring to customer service in the grocery industry: 2.a. Scanner data: Scanner data are assigned to all different goods and they are stored in the information system, and when a customer shops online, scanner data will be accessed and stores will receiving those scanner data instead of a list of products' name. 2.b.Loyalty card data: it provides a secure way for stores to identify customers and it also keeps records of shopping histories of each customers. In some way, it may differentiates one customer from others based on the amount of money spend by the customers. 2.c. Web Shopping: Web shopping allows customers to customize its orders by adding notes to the employers of the stores. 3. What would you do if you were Ives? Should Upscale Markets implement online grocery shopping in the Dallas, TX market? How similar, or different, should it be from the Rice Epicurean initiative in Houston, TX? If I were Ives, I would not implement online grocery shopping in the Dallas, TX market now. Firstly, I need to analyze my customer purchases in each store and their buying power based on their incomes; traffic would be a another important thing that we need to plan and design in order to be cost effective; a budget of implementing online grocery shopping is needed and it includes incremental costs of hiring drivers, pickers, and maintenance of website. I could try to implement the online shopping in just a few stores, but it would not be exactly identical to the Rice Epicurean initiative. During the testing window of the online shopping, customer reviews will be valuable to me and it helps to improve the future development of online grocery shopping in case that we earn more profit. 4. How sustainable is any competitive advantage for Rice Epicurean? For MyWebGrocer? The competitive advantage for Rice Epicurean is that they have good reputation as an online provider which has a large number of loyalty customers. People get used to things they are familiar with, and once they find it is a better place to shop, it is not easy to change them because everyone has a habit. For My WebGrocer, it provides both online and real stores, and it has pretty the same competitive advantage as the Rice does, and it continues to be profit if without a tremendous change in their provided products. 5. Identify and describe at least one (1) new technology innovation (not listed in this case) which may have an impact on web-based shopping. In most families, people are buying pretty the same goods and foods each time, like bread, drinks, paper towels, etc. They have to select all things they need in order to fulfill the needs of daily lives each time they are shopping online, and in some cases mother probably forget to put bread in the shopping bag because she is just too busy. An automatically order will be convenient for families to shop online, people can list a group of products and request automatically order per week or longer, so they don't need to select a lot of things at one time and it prevents them from forgetting buying a particular good. All you need to do is assign your payment information, and such automatic order will credit your balance each time when the order is delivered.
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