Context:
The aim of the forum participation assessment is to provide a framework to encourage student engagement, to encourage collaboration and foster valuable perspectives gained from shared learning experiences. These assessed forums promote critical thinking in the application of theory into practice. Students will be able to reflect on their own efforts, and extend and enrich this reflection by exchanging feedback on their peers’ work.
Instructions:
1. Visit a website for a major retailer (e.g. Harvey Norman, Myer etc.,)
2. Identify services, processes and communications available through the website that are designed to facilitate consumer decision-making. Identify and discuss what step in the consumer decision making process (CDMP) model each service, process or communication covers. The steps are
- Problem recognition
- Information Search
- Evaluation of Alternatives 4. Purchase 5. Post-purchase – is there a service, process or communication for each step?
3. Provide any recommendations of any additional communications /services that would assist consumers in their decision-making that are not being offered. Try and justify your recommendation by linking it to the stages of the CDMP it addresses.
Answer 1
Website of Harvey Norman is selected for this analysis.
Answer 2
Services, Communication and Process for Each Step of Consumer Decision Making Process:
Need Recognition/ Problem Recognition
This is the first step in which the consumer identifies the need or the problem which the retail company has to satisfy (Ferrell, Niininen, Lukas, Schembri, & Pride, 2014). The teasers and advertising banners, huge discount offers can cause the consumers to identify their need or problem (Schiffman, O’Cass, Paladino, D’Alessandro, & Bendall, 2014). In terms of Harvey Norman website, the first page shows a big banner of “12 Days of Big Deals” inducing the consumers to look for the products which are on the discount that could be of the need for the consumer. For the consumers who are looking for any specific product or service which has brought them to the website of Harvey Norman, the website enlists all product categories so that the consumers may find their product right away. Similarly, the front tab shows the option for “Store Finder” for the potential consumers who are only looking to locate the stores near them.
Information Search
The next step of the consumer decision-making process is related to searching of information related to the product (Foxall, 2014). The front list of products offers the categories of the products the consumer is looking for. Furthermore, a search tab gives room for finding the product on the website. Harvey Norman offers information about the product features, its price, pictures, associated services of product care options (company’s own facility for product replacements guarantee for 1, 2 or 3 years), payment options, information on the product availability in-store, through delivery, trough 1 hour clock and collect facility, return policy, product reviews are all shown. FAQs related to each of the products, delivery service, payment options and other related services are also present.
Similarly, the front tab shows the option for “Store Finder” for the potential consumers who are only looking to locate the stores near them. Moreover, after clicking the option of “Store Finder”, the website brings the potential consumers to the map where stores near them could be located. An additional feature of “filters” with options of the products that retailers sell is given to identify the stores which currently have the filtered products in their store (Harvey Norman, 2019). Other than that, there are options for live chat on WhatsApp and Face book Messenger available for any queries. The official blog of Harvey Norman also provides information to the consumers on the product experiences and other deals and related information.
Alternative Evaluation
The company offers the compare option on each of its products for evaluating the various products in terms of their comparison of features and their prices (Ling, D’Alessandro, & Winzar, 2015). Other than this, the company has started to offer a new service of Price Guarantee which offers the consumers to provide proof of a lower price than mentioned in the website for any product advertised by the competing retailers, they want to or have purchased, and the company would compensate them with the difference or sell it at the lower price. Live chatting and calling options are published for any further queries and evaluation of the product.
Purchase Decision
The website of Harvey Norman shows several helping aids and services which offers free information to help in the decision-making process. The wish list options, or reserve option is also provided to delay the purchase decision until some later time. However, factors like poor online experience, frustrating experience, or long purchase cycle can lead the consumer to leave the cart abandoned and do not complete the cycle. The website of Harvey Norman offers aid to help ease the purchase cycle and make it as smooth as possible.
Post Purchase Behavior/ Evaluation of Decision
The website offers the option of submitting a review, refund policies, and guarantees information and lowest price guarantee for giving the consumers help in making their purchase experience beneficial even after the purchase is completed.
Answer 3
Recommendations:
Harvey Norman, who has been awarded numerous times for their excellent online service, is evidently offering services which aid in each step of the consumer decision-making process. The only recommendation that can be made is to improve the web layout so that the first page of the website allows room for more product features.
References:
Ferrell, O. C., Niininen, O., Lukas, B., Schembri, S., & Pride, W. M. (2014). Marketing Principles (2 ed.). Cengage Learning Australia.
Foxall, G. R. (2014). Consumer Behaviour (RLE Consumer Behaviour): A Practical Guide (Vol. 3). Routledge.
Harvey Norman. (2019). Contact Us. Retrieved September 28, 2019, from Harvey Norman: https://www.harveynorman.com.au/contact-us
Ling, P., D’Alessandro, S., & Winzar, H. (2015). Consumer Behaviour in Action. Oxford University Press.
Schiffman, L., O’Cass, A., Paladino, A., D’Alessandro, S., & Bendall, D. S. (2014). Consumer behaviour (6 ed.). Pearson Education.
