Our group assignment chooses Argos as the organisation of choice reflecting on its e-business strategy. This essay content three question parts and has been answered accordingly. Technology according to Mullins (2007) is the information or data, tools and actions that have been used to change inputs into outputs. Technology has been changing and moving rapidly.
This rapid change has dramatically affected the organisation-working environment. Internet is one of the tools that have been influenced with this fast changes.The Internet was a mean for organisation to deliver information and communicate to their subordinate, their customers and shareholders. But business is giving another dimension to the Internet by making it as a market place; we are talking about E-business and E-commerce. They are a lot of organisation and customers that are connecting themselves in the online shopping business. Argos is one of the modern organisations that have also followed the changes in business environment.
Richard Tompkins is the founder of Argos. He has formerly launched green shield stamp in the United Kingdom.He came up later with the idea of people buying with cash as a substitute of stamp. Argos shop and catalogue began in 1973 in Shurry Road Canterbury. (http//:www. argos.
co. uk/static/staticDisplay/includeName/AboutArgos. htm/about) In March 1999, GUS acquired Argos. During this time Argos was only making business through catalogue. Argos took over Home base in 2002. The acquisition allows the company to offer more choices and opportunities of products to their customers.
Argos has now 700 stores all over the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.They are also offering the online and over the phone services. The organisation employs about 33,000 people around the business. At the moment, Argos is known as one of the UK’s best-know retail brand name and most important for home products and wide-ranging goods retailer.
It is one of the organisations that are giving to their customers a lot of choices, opportunities, and convenience, which make them unique and different from their competitors. Argos customers will have to go through the catalogue to make their choice, look for a store and purchase the item they want.They will be using their time to look for the item in the catalogue and then they will have time to go to the store make a long queue to buy and collect the stuff. If the item they are looking for is not on the store, they will have to go to another store and repeat the same scenario. That is lot of time wasted for buying an item.
Argos will organise the products by unit on the catalogue, that will give opportunity to customers to choose what they want, but it did not give them the assurance that the product is available on store. Customers can only go to the store to collect it.If the store is closed then you will have to wait for the following day to be able to have it. If you need any information concerning the item, you will have to go into the store and ask a shop assistant to give you this information.
If they are busy or there is queue, you will just have to take the item home. Marketing of a certain product that the store is offering to their customers will be done through advertisement. The store will have to pay for some money for the advertisement to be done. If they want their customers to know about their products, the company send them information via post or e-mail.This way of shopping will be wasting customers’ time and will be asking him to put a lot of effort into it. They are no business when customers are not there.
The organisation will have to find a way to make easy and simple for their customers. Argos is now doing business online and over the phone. They are now supplying over 130 million customers a years throughout their store and are getting 26% of sales in the Internet channel only. The organisation has 4 millions customers that are buying both online or over the phone. Argos website was the mainly checked high street trade website in the United Kingdom in 2008.
