Website analysis and competitor comparison…

Giant Shoreham is an independently owned high-end bicycle brand store, operating in Shoreham, West Sussex. Within a 2.5 mile radius of the store there are two key competitors: M’s Cycle and Ebike Sussex. To analyse http://www.giant-shoreham.co.uk/gb, it is necessary to look at: search engine optimisation (SEO), Google positioning and the holistic layout, design and usability of the website.

 

Searching general terms related to the market which Giant Shoreham operates in: Shoreham bicycle shop, bike sales Shoreham or Bike shops near me, Giant Shoreham positioned top of the ‘places’ list, and second on the results list, see Figure 1 & 2. This indicates effective SEO utilising key words, see figure 3 (SimilarWeb, 2018), and a good digital footprint which boosts the Google results position. Fortunately, the link with Giant UK enables Giant Shoreham’s SEO to be implemented effectively, thus, gaining a competitive advantage at no direct additional cost. (Giant Shoreham, 2018)

Figure 1 – Google places results.
Figure 2 – Google search results.
Figure 3 – SimilarWeb SEO analysis.

 

 

When landing on http://www.giant-shoreham.co.uk/gb, the corporate brand image, the professional design and layout are immediately notable, see Figure 4. This gives a profound first impression to the consumer. (Giant Shoreham, 2018)

Figure 4 – Giant Shoreham home page.

http://www.giant-shoreham.co.uk/gb has a diverse target market requiring bicycle related services. When completing a customer analysis, these groups can be broken into specific segments and individual personas for tailoring specific marketing campaigns. (Giant Shoreham, 2018)

 

The website is clear and concise: the company name and logo is prominent; additionally, the key navigation points on the website are easily identifiable such as product information under ‘Bikes’ and the shopping basket identified with the basket image. Furthermore, the website has an e-commerce section offering a range of products for purchasing, reserving or home delivery. (Giant Shoreham, 2018)

A critical requirement for a website is the ease of usability and meeting customers’  expectations. Valachich et al (2007) designed the Online Consumer Hierarchy of Needs (OCHN) Framework which analyses precisely if the website meets customer needs and expectations, see Appendix 1. When applying this Framework, http://www.giant-shoreham.co.uk/gb meets the ‘Zone of Intolerance’ criteria: it is fast, secure, clear for navigation and visually appealing. Giant Shoreham is categorised as having a hybrid website which meets all the required criteria: even focus between the three website characteristics, with each one being met to a high standard. Valacich et al (2007) framework states that meeting all the criteria to a satisfactory standard positively affects the consumer experience. Consequently, Giant Shoreham have increased their competitive edge.

 

 

To gain greater knowledge of the relevant market , understanding the customer persona(s), customer journey and touch points is crucial for marketing and targeting the correct audience (Allen, 2018). See Appendix 2 for a customer persona template. (Allen, 2018)

Two customer personas for Giant Shoreham have been created, see Appendix 3 and 4, and the customer journey with the critical touch points, interactions with the organisation, mapped on the customer journey table below. See Appendix 5 for more details about customer journey table.

 

Example of a retail customer journey, see Appendix 6 for customer journey definition.

 

Customer touch points.

 

 

To clearly compare http://www.giant-shoreham.co.uk/gb to their competitors, analysing the competitors’ websites with the same criteria is critical.

http://www.giant-shoreham.co.uk/gb surpasses its competitors coming out top in all but one criteria: their website is well designed, easy to use and has sufficient amount of information in comparison to their competitors. Furthermore, when applying the academic OCHN Framework it highlighted how the website met important criteria to a high standard. When benchmarking http://www.giant-shoreham.co.uk/gb to their competitors, it surpasses them to an exceptional level.

 

References:

  1. Allen, R. (2018). Dave Chaffey on how to use personas for Digital Marketing.. [online] Smart Insights. Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/persuasion-marketing/marketing-personas/dave-chaffey-use-personas-digital-marketing/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2018].
  2. Giant Shoreham. (2018). Official Giant Store Website – Bike Shop Shoreham, Brighton & Hove, Worthing. [online] Available at: http://giant-shoreham.co.uk [Accessed 9 Dec. 2018].
  3. Valacich, J., Parboteeah, V. and Wells, J. (2007).The Online Consumer Hierarchy of Needs. [ebook] pp.84 – 90. Available at: http://delivery.acm.org.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/10.1145/1290000/1284624/p84-valacich.pdf?ip=194.81.203.94&id=1284624&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&key=BF07A2EE685417C5%2E7748C8603FAAB869%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35&__acm__=1541150409_326c9d1742b6d2a7b384f32746451ef0 [Accessed 2 Dec. 2018].
  4. SimilarWeb. (2018). giant-shoreham.co.uk Traffic Statistics. [online] Available at: https://www.similarweb.com/website/giant-shoreham.co.uk [Accessed 10 Dec. 2018].

 

Appendices:

1. The Online Consumer Hierarchy of Needs theory.

The Online Consumer Hierarchy of Needs (OCHN) theory was developed by researching 483 consumers who were asked to rank website characteristics, specific macro-categories, in order of importance: Structural firmness (SF) which is based on security and performance, Functional convenience (FC) which is based on navigation and Representational delight (RD) which is based on visual and auditory interaction.  (Valacich, Parboteeah and Wells, 2007).

This research, combined with other ‘website usability literature’, produced The Online Consumer Hierarchy of Needs theory and frame work (Valacich, Parboteeah and Wells, 2007). This framework is designed to assist web interface developers in making sure the website meets the consumers’ needs and expectations. Not meeting these initial requirements can detrimentally affect the consumer usage and interface time with the website, and they may source an alternative website.  (Valacich, Parboteeah and Wells, 2007)

Figure 4 – OCHN Framework.

See Figure 4: Application of the framework starts at the bottom of the pyramid, one identifies in sequential order if the website meets the minimum acceptable level for each category SF, FC and RD, which are represented horizontally in what is called The Zone of Intolerance. For example, if SF is not met, the consumer is unlikely to stay on the website due to the inadequacy of the performance and security of the website, ultimately sourcing an alternative site. (Valacich, Parboteeah and Wells, 2007).

Figure 5 – Utilitarian-Hedonic continuum

See Figure 5: Application moves on to the upper half of the pyramid where the three categories are represented in ratio vertically according to the website type: Utilitarian (Practical tasks such as paying bills), Hedonic (Sensory aspects such as gaming, films and music) and Hybrid (a combination of the other two: often sales websites which support sensory stimulating features). This identifies how suitable and efficient the website is for its specific purpose and if its characteristic are matching the requirements (Valacich, Parboteeah and Wells, 2007).

2. Customer persona template.

Customer personas are the ‘ideal’ customer to the organisation. Personas cover in depth Who, What, Why and How questions, to be able to meet the customer requirements.

Customer persona template.

 

3. Customer persona A (Darren)

Customer persona – Darren.

 

4. Customer persona B (Sophie)

Customer persona – Sophie.

 

 

5. Customer journey.

A customer journey is the predicted path a persona will take when interacting with the organisation’s touch points; It highlights when the interaction will happen in relation to the pre and post sales activities (Roberts, 2018). This customer journey maps out the expected touch point interactions each of the given personas will make with Giant Shoreham through the pre and post transactional activities. Being aware of the critical touch points a consumer comes into contact with is important as it assists with making enhancements and ensuring the interaction is positive. Identifying the most critical touch points is difficult as it is subjective as to which is most important; it depends on what the target market is but also the opinion of the person designing the customer journey as some people may favour certain marketing platforms over others.  In the customer journey table below each stage within the pre and post transaction interaction is important in enhancing the holistic positive experience, therefore, should be evenly focused on.

 

6. Customer touch points.

Customer touch points are when a consumer makes an interaction with the organisation such as advertising, brochures, sales assistants and email receipts within their customer journey (Roberts, 2018). Identifying the correct ones, and the critical ones is important for target marketing.

 

 7.  Competitor website analysis.

M’s Cycles.

M’s Cycles is the geographically closest competition to Giant Shoreham, being two hundred meters down the road. When analysing the same search criteria, M’s Cycles come in second on the ‘places’ list and first on the search results. This identifies a very good usage of SEO enabling them to rank highest in the search results.

When landing on their website the holistic design seems somewhat more ‘basic’: The company name is in a generic font in very large writing, with the logo off to one side considerably smaller: the logo is harder to identify due to the mixture of dark colours on the website banner and the logo its self. When scrolling down the website, the sizing of each feature on the website seems to change and be quite erratic; the headings across the top seem to be very small, then the first image you come to is the opening time which is extremely big with the word ‘Closed’ repeated twice seeming far too prominent (This is due to them being closed on Monday and Tuesday which is useful information as it could be deemed unusual opening and closing hours. But the position it is located in does not seem to match the importance of the information as there are more relevant and experience enhancing features that could be in its place such as the fantastic range of bicycles or the services they can offer). M’s Cycles website does have an e-commerce element to the site, albeit very basic as you cannot complete purchases on the site but you can see prices, discounts and full product information all in a sleek and modern design. When applying the OCHN framework, it would seem that M’s Cycles do meet all of the criteria for the Zone of Intolerance and then for the hybrid style website, but the criteria is met to a significantly lower level when compared to Giant Shoreham and Ebike Sussex.

Ebike Sussex.

Ebike Sussex is the second geographically close direct competition to Giant Shoreham, being 2.4miles away. When analysing the same search criteria, Ebike Sussex comes in third on the ‘places’ list and four in the search results. This identifies lowest optimisation of SEO out of the three competitors, but the digital footprint of Ebike Sussex must be relatively high as it still shows on Google places.

When landing on their website, the general design seems professional: the company name and logo are easy to identify and the different sections on the website are split clearly with contrasting colours making navigation easier. The website utilises images and animations which makes the site interesting to use. The website does not have any form of e-commerce, it only offers information about them and their services but nothing to in depth When applying the OCHN framework it would seem that Ebike Sussex do meet all of the criteria for the Zone of Intolerance and then for the hybrid style website to a notably higher level than M’s Cycles. The overall design and layout of the website performs well and uses good representational delight features in terms of interactive images and videos.