Personalisation involves using technology to accommodate the differences between individuals, for example, many users have accounts with amazon.co.uk, however all these users are individuals and their characteristics show, based upon what they like and purchase. The web pages are personalised based on the characteristics of these individuals and the personalisation may well be done via the user, the website or perhaps even both.

Web personalisation is frequently used to enhance customer service or e-commerce sales and is occasionally referred to as one-to-one marketing, as the enterprise’s web page is customized to target each individual buyer. By using personalisation, customer’s needs are met more effectively and efficiently, meaning faster transactions and customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is extremely important to a business, as there is a greater likelihood of repeat visitors to their website.

When I visit Amazon.com, before logging in, I am immediately swamped with what other individuals have bought and what the best sellers are etc. As someone who works in retail, I am very aware of what competition there is and what pressure companies are under in order to make a profit, therefore I am uncertain as to whether or not I am for it or against it? I can see from amazons point of view as to why they do this, its simple, there just trying to encourage their sales, yet, on the other hand, from a consumers point of view, it is very annoying as the first thing I thought was, I am not interested in what other people have purchased. The screenshot below shows exactly what was on screen when I went to Amazon.com

As I went to log into Amazon.com I noticed straight away that Amazon was keen for me to sign in to get “personalised recommendations”. Not only would I be logging in to search for what I wanted to search for, but I would also be logging in so that a website could tell me what they think I would like.

When I logged in I was first of all greeted with recommendations based on what has already been purchased using this account. From Amazons point of view, it is a good idea incase the user may actually be shown an item that they don’t have and would be interested to buy, however from the buyers point of view, this can be quite annoying, especially if you are someone who cannot resist a bargain or would just simply buy something that you would like but do not necessarily need.

I thoroughly looked through some recommended items and I am aware that these have been viewed in the past however not all have been purchased. When I viewed the list of items which have already been purchased, I was familiar with all of them and all are correct in terms of what has been bought. I don’t feel that there is much point in Amazon providing customers with a list of items that they have already purchased, I’m sure customers are very aware of what they own and do not own.

I decided to look a little further than Amazon.com and I visited riverisland.co.uk. River Island is a very popular fashion retailer and from my own personal opinion and experience I feel that their website is excellent. Like any other company trying to make a profit where they can, they use personalisation, however they also use personalisation to help those customers who maybe do not know what top goes with the right jeans or what shoes go with their perfect dress. River Island have designed their website in such a way that when a customer clicks on for example, a dress like the one shown in the screenshot below, they can also see what shoes, coat and tights are recommended to wear with this dress. Customers do not feel annoyed by such recommendations; some may find these type of recommendations quite useful infact. The difference with Amazon and River Island is that Amazon have recommendations to a rather high extent where as River Island keep them to a minimum and keep them smaller than the actual item the customer wishes to view. Amazon throw recommendations at the customer that are of no use whatsoever, whereas River Island’s recommendations can be valid and appropriate to the customer.

Overall, I do believe I am for personalisation as it can have many benefits to customers and I consider it to be more useful than annoying. On the other hand, as I have proven from comparing two separate websites, it can all depend on the company and how they decide to use personalisation on their website. Personally, if I were to use Amazon on a very regular basis I may start to find it irritating when they show me items I have no interest in, rather than the item I actually need. However, as a dedicated clothes lover I wouldn’t mind if River Island showed me masses of recommendations, I am sure I would love everyone of them!

If I were to own a company such as Amazon or River Island I would use web personalisation, mainly to help my customers and increase my profits, however I would not overload the customers with invalid information and I may also consider providing them with the option as to whether or not they would wish to view these recommendations.

From this the following results were shown. By clicking on the blue link titled cheap airlines UK, the user is automatically taken to the Google page below. Taking into consideration at this moment, easyjet’s competitors, ryanair are a close second to easyjets first place spot at this particular time. This is heartening to see as in previous researches ryanair were usually placed before easyjet. “Cheap airlines UK” is most certainly a key phrase which I plan to use.

As we are now suffering in the winter weather I thought that a key phrase such as “winter seats” or “winter flights” would be appropriate for someone looking to get away for a winter break. By typing this into the Google keyword tool, I was not returned phrases which related to this search, however, it did recognise the search winter seats for particular flights during this season, therefore I have decided to use the phrase “Winter Flights to Europe”, and when the user clicks on the link they will be taken to easyjet’s website where they could book their winter break hassle free. The link which appeared for this search was a sponsored link.

Following this search, I continued to investigate via the “Google Insights for Search” tool. I chose 4 random key phrases which I thought most users would consider when looking for an airline that could provide them with a cheap flight. The 4 phrases which I used were, “low cost airlines UK”, “cheap flights to Europe”, “budget flights”, and “UK cheap flights”. I did a UK based search and each key phrase is separated into a regional interest. Overall, “UK Cheap Flights” is the most popular key phrase used in all regions. Notice it is the green line shown below.

Rather than using only Google, to search for key words and phrases I went on a hunt searching for various other websites related to finding keywords which would help me find words related to easyjet.  From the 2 websites which I used, the first is, http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ and the second is http://www.keywordspy.co.uk/.  Both these websites distributed different keywords which helped to improve my own ideas.

The following table shows the list of 12 keywords/phrases which I have chosen as I feel these are the best keywords best to describe my e-commerce site, easyjet.

KEY: Sponsored Link/Unsponsored Link

I started this week’s assignment by first of all typing the word “easyjet” into the search engine, “Google”. As shown from the screen shot below, there are about 3,320,000 pages related to easyjet in some way. However, some websites use easyjet as a tag for their own website so that the many people surfing the net for easyjets services will perhaps view their sites also. Users must be careful though as some of these websites could cause harm to their computers with viruses etc.

When searching for easyjet on the internet it is very easy to retrieve your results. Below in the Google screenshot I am showing the first two links which both direct customers to the website. When selecting either of the two links from Google, I was directed straight to easyjet.com with no hassle whatsoever. The very first link on the Google webpage (easyjet Official Site) is paid for as it is a sponsored link and each time this link is clicked, easyjet are charged a sum of money. Also to the right hand side of the screenshot below, is another sponsored link where easyjet are featured via directline-flights. When this link is selected I am able to book a flight with easyjet through this website. As shown below, easyjet require the user to select which language they prefer to view their website in. Once chosen, your computer will remember this and you will not have to select this again. Following this, customers are then able to book their flights.

I have proceeded further by typing in key words to Google which I myself would relate with easyjet for example, cheap flights. Results have shown that when typing “Cheap Flights” into Google, it at first returns companies such as cheapflights.co.uk, skyscanner.co.uk and travelsupermarket.com before showing results for actual airline companies like easyjet. Nevertheless, the first thing I noticed when searching for easyjet was that their competition, aerlingus have a sponsored link at the top of the page which is a paid link by the company so that their website is shown before all their competition. Alongside aerlingus who have paid links are cheapflights.co.uk and aircanada.com. Next in line are ryanair who are placed just before easyjet with jet2 following behind, however the links to their websites are not sponsored links, and are just results shown by Google.

Using another key phrase, “cheap UK airlines”, describes easyjet, and also provides results via Google. However, as before, easyjet are not the first airline mentioned, aerlingus are again a paid link and are positioned first. Flybe, ryanair and flybmi are all featured airlines who are mentioned before easyjet. For easyjet it is a positive point that they are mentioned, however with four other airlines being mentioned before them, means that easyjet could be losing customers to the other airlines like ryanair for the simple reason that they are mentioned first.

On discovering this previous information, I decided to use the search engine to type in the names of all easyjets well known UK and Irish competitors. My results showed that when searching for results on aerlingus, easyjet had one paid link to their website, however, when searching this website just a few minutes before hand there was no mention of easyjets paid link, which leads me to believe that some paid links are shown at random on certain websites.

I have used easyjets slogan, “Come on let’s Fly” to test if it relates to easyjet via the Google search engine. As shown below it has related straight to easyjet as its first link and many links thereafter. I have tested this and it directs users straight to www.easyjet.com.

Using the search engine, “Yahoo”, I have established that there are more paid links along the right hand side than what there are on Google’s search engine. This to me shows that easyjet feel, Yahoo is a search engine which the majority of people use, however I would disagree as I would have thought Google was more popular than any. As Yahoo.co.uk is a UK and Ireland based website, easyjet, being a UK based airline may use Yahoo for this particular reason. What they perhaps do not realise is that when users use google.com, it automatically transfers to google.co.uk. meaning their paid links would still be shown.

www.google.co.uk
www.yahoo.co.uk
www.easyjet.co.uk

• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) “Infrastructure as a Service is a provision model in which an organization outsources the equipment used to support operations, including storage, hardware, servers and networking components.”

• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) “is a model for delivering operating systems and associated services over the Internet without downloads or installation. PaaS is sometimes called “cloudware” because it moves resources from privately owned computers into the Internet “cloud.” ”

• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) “Infrastructure as a Service is a provision model in which an organization outsources the equipment used to support operations, including storage, hardware, servers and networking components. The service provider owns the equipment and is responsible for housing, running and maintaining it. The client typically pays on a per-use basis.

A cloud can either be private or public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the Internet, i.e. Amazon. (Currently, Amazon Web Services is the largest public cloud provider.) A private cloud is a proprietary network or a data centre that supplies hosted services to a restricted number of people. When a service provider uses public cloud resources to create their private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud. Private or public, the goal of cloud computing is to provide easy access to computing resources and IT services.

Cloud Computing has great cost benefits on offer as there is no software, hardware or infrastructure to buy and in most cases it uses a pay as you go system where you simply pay for what you use. The idea of cloud computing being cost effective is centred around peak usage for example, if a company website endures its busiest time of the year during the Christmas season then classically more computing power, more disk storage and more bandwidth would be needed. With the cloud, you only pay for the processing power, storage and bandwidth you need, resulting in that you do not have to pay for times when your business is inactive.

It is possible that within the next five years, almost 90% of all e-commerce businesses will be using some structure of cloud computing to enhance their services. Cloud Computing simply refers to what several e-commerce businesses have been doing for some time. More people are becoming aware of this, therefore more businesses are seriously taking into consideration the changeover.

Potential Benefits of Cloud Computing in E-Commerce

• Speed: Building your application in the cloud is five times faster and you can start taking orders in just a few short weeks.

• Customer Focus: Running your e-commerce business in the cloud helps make it easier to do business with customers by simplifying interactions and driving down transaction costs.

• Pay-as-you-go: This addresses businesses whose websites are busiest at certain times of the year and can work using a pay-as-you-go-approach. Thousands of new users can be added with no additional investment.

Potential Problems

Cloud Computing requires a constant Internet connection and is impossible if you are unable to connect to the Internet. Since the Internet is needed to connect to both, applications and documents, it is essential to have an Internet connection otherwise you can’t access anything, even your own documents. A dead Internet connection means no work and, in areas where Internet connections are few or unreliable, this could be a deal-breaker. When you’re offline, cloud computing simply doesn’t work.

Stored data might not be secure as with cloud computing, all data is stored outside the company. Do we know how secure is the cloud? Can unauthorized users gain access to your confidential data? These are questions that do not have specific answers. Cloud computing companies say that data is secure, but it’s too early to be completely sure of this. Only time will tell if data is secure in the cloud.

Supposedly, data stored in the cloud is unusually safe however stored data can be lost. On the off chance that your data goes missing, you have no physical or local backup. Put simply, relying on the cloud puts you at risk if the cloud lets you down.

www.searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid201_gci1287881,00.html

www.webhostingunleashed.com/features/cloud-computing-benefits/

www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/cloud-computing.htm

Easyjet are a company who mainly use a downstream supply chain. Their main priority is to sell a service to the public in a competitive market whilst still making a profit. The upstream area of easyjets supply chain is the purchasing and renting of planes from Boeing and Airbus.

Push VS Pull

Easyjet use the push and pull strategy in their supply chain management. The push strategy is the communication between the seller and the buyer i.e. easyjet and its consumers who are Airbus and Boeing. The push model represents easyjet advertising their services to its consumers and as they use interactive communication, for example, phone or internet, then easyjet customers raise their possibilities to interact with easyjet themselves. By advertising their product, easyjet are making customers aware of their services. The pull model within easyjet highlights the importance of producing this demanding service to its customers however problems do arise such as bad weather forecasts which ultimately affects the airline and its passengers. Such problems are related to both the push and pull strategy.

Vertical Integration VS Disintegration VS Virtual Integration Supply Model

Vertical Integration is where a company owns many aspects of making, selling and delivering a product or service. (Its upstream and downstream buyers) Easyjet do not own any of their suppliers however anything else that takes place within the company, Easyjet will sort. Easyjet will provide their own marketing ideas, update their website and offers, create their flight timetables and deliver the all important service to its customers.
Disintegration is the outsourcing of suppliers. I.e. easyjet would rely on outsourcing in order to book and arrange a coach/taxi transfer for its customers, to and from the airport.

Virtual Integration is where easyjet relies on 3rd parties, i.e. temp agencies, to hire airport staff who can work at the easyjet desks, whether it be at customer service or checking in customer baggage. All over the world, easyjet fly to and from many airports thus need employees for this vacancy.

Evidence of Value Networks

Value networks are important within a company such as Easyjet, due to their growing number of facilities provided to their customers. For example, on the Easyjet website, customers can not only book a flight with easyjet, but they can book their entire holiday. Whether the customer wants a flight and hotel, or a flight and hire car, Easyjet work alongside other companies who help them provide this service. I.e. hotels where easyjet send their customers to, or Hertz car hire who easyjet are in conjunction with.

Evidence of efficiencies in the Supply Chain

Easyjet are now an e-commerce website which provides fast and safe efficiency to its customers. Not only are easyjet scrapping a lot of paper work, but they are also reducing their wage costs by not having a telephone service for customers to phone and book flights. By booking flights online, customers can avail of a hassle free visit to the website, and instead of waiting on tickets or hiding them away so they do not become lost, easyjet are now a ticketless airline. When confirmation of flights is granted, the consumer should print off a copy ofbusiness their receipt and itinerary and take this with them to the airport. An e-commerce website reduces a backlog in any paperwork that may take place using other methods to book a flight.

businessteacher.org.uk

easyjet.co.uk

1. The threat of substitute products

In a company such as easyjet, their main threat of a substitute product is other forms of transport. These include travelling on the road by car/bus, using trains or even boats. As a budget airline, easyjet faces low rail substitution threat as the majority of their domestic flights cost less than the train and are less time consuming for the customer. However, some passengers who are perhaps travelling to France for example, may wish to use the Eurostar which I personally feel would be easyjets main threat to their London to Paris route. This service offers various advantages such as;

• Railway stations can be accessed easier than an airport as they are local

• More convenient for customers who may have to travel miles to get to an airport

• Customers can enjoy the scenery whilst they are travelling

The only disadvantage to customers is that it is more time consuming to travel by train than it is to travel with easyjet.

2. The threat of entry of new competitors

Anyone can set up an airline company however a good credit rating is needed to lease some of the planes or else good capital to purchase the aircraft. The cost of entry to the business however is high and this can cause setback to anyone wishing to start a new airline. Due to this, easyjet have little threat of new competitors. Nevertheless, if and when any new airline comes to light, they would have to operate as a low cost airline and compete with the likes of easyjet and ryanair. Easyjet revealed that on a regular basis they review the routes on which they fly and don’t fly and consider which are and could be profitable opportunities. It is important that easyjet fulfil this task as their competitors also carry out this research.

3. The intensity of competitive rivalry

Easyjet has a huge competitive advantage over its competitors due to their strong financial status. With a rise in fuel prices, many airlines are struggling to make a profit whereas easyjet is earning enough money in order to sustain a profit and still pay for the fuel costs. If the airline industry cannot pass on these soaring fuel costs, we are going to see a lot of weaker competitors disappearing. There are many factors which easyjet must incorporate into their business in order to make it successful against its rivals. For example;

• Taking note of how many competitors they have and not only taking note of changes they must make to improve their business but seeing out they can out better other airlines.

• Being aware of the growth in the industry

• The diversity of its competitors

• The level of expense as to what easyjet are prepared to go to in order to make people aware of their company

• Being aware of the routes that they operate and do not operate on. Easyjet cater for the majority of routes however I do feel that there are some routes which could be added to their schedules that would make them a profit.

• Easyjet’s main concern when it comes to competitive rivalry is the cost in what they sell each of their seats on the flights. If another airline i.e. ryanair are selling seats for £29.99 and Easyjet are flying the same route, on the same day and charging £49.99, easyjet will lose a significant number of customers, therefore it is important that easyjet operate with cheaper or the same prices.

4. The bargaining power of customers

Easyjet’s most important aspect of their business is their customers. Without their customers, easyjet would not make the profit that they do. Nowadays, customers are not flying with airlines because of their name and who they are, but because of the price and the routes on which they fly. Customers bargain with airlines without the realisation that they are actually doing so. Airlines are highly aware that price discrepancies can be easily found and exploited by the consumer, meaning that the operator must keep a regular check on prices. If easyjet do not keep their seat prices at a low and reasonable fare, customers will not avail of their service and will take their custom elsewhere. Many airlines tend to fly the same routes however easyjet do fly more routes than the likes of BMI which is a great advantage to easyjet who are more likely to snatch the custom.

5. The bargaining power of suppliers

Again, due to the price of fuel being directly related to the cost of oil, Easyjet as a company are unable to alter this in anyway due to our current climate. Boeing and airbus are the 2 main manufacturers in the industry providing the easyjet’s planes. Until recently, easyjet only operated with Boeing and their new deal with airbus shows that constructive decisions can still be made. If a problem ever rose between easyjet and the suppliers, this would cause great concern to easyjet if they ever lost their contract with the manufacturers. Without their suppliers they have no planes. However, the more easyjet expands, the more power it has over its suppliers, and it is very unlikely that the manufacturers would want to lose easyjet’s business or any other airline for that matter. There is very little room to bargain with the two suppliers as they are both in immense competition with each other.

“With many organisations competing in a fiercer commercial environment – driven by many factors such as global competition, currency strength, commoditisation of their product or great buying transparency brought about by the internet – the issue of supplier management becomes of greater concern to many organisations.”

The image below shows the five forces working in conjunction with one another.

www.books.google.co.uk

www.stirmedia.booke.com/1415635.html

www.johnkay.com/business/245

]]> http://colette3010.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/week-5-e-business-strategy/feed/ 0 colette3010 5forces http://colette3010.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/week-4-e-environment/ http://colette3010.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/week-4-e-environment/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:16:55 +0000 colette3010 http://colette3010.wordpress.com/?p=92 ]]> After thoroughly reviewing easyjets terms and conditions via their “help” link, I feel that the majority of these are fair and serve the needs and safety of its passengers. (These terms and conditions can also be found when passengers book their flights, as they are to confirm that they have read and understood them before making a payment.) If for example, easyjet must cancel a flight; all customers will receive a full refund, if the airline is unable to provide transfers onto another flight. Any cancellations or changes made, the airline ensures contact with its passengers to inform of any alterations.

However, aside from this, if passengers cancel, fail to show for a flight, or arrive late at the airport they will not receive a refund or a free transfer. In some cases such as bereavement, easyjet may issue a credit note for unused flights. The credit note is only valid for 6 months which I personally do not think is long enough, however it can be used by the passenger or their family members and friends. To obtain this credit note, the death certificate of the diseased must be sent to easyjet, along with the passenger’s reference number and D.O.B.

Easyjet provide customer support for all its passengers. On their website customers can find contact details and 221 FAQ’s, which I’m sure will answer all queries that passengers have. A link in article 15 within terms and conditions will allow passengers to view each of these.

Easyjets competition, Ryanair, support the same terms and conditions and show very little difference, however, Ryanair have come across a slightly better. For example, in the event of bereavement within 14days of travel, Ryanair will provide a full refund and if a passenger has already started travel, Ryanair will help in making arrangements for a return journey for the bereaved and any travel companions.

When booking a flight with easyjet all new customers must create an account so that they can view or amend bookings if necessary. Those who already have an account can log in where their contact details are already present. All information collected by easyjet is protected by the Data Protection Acts of 1984 and 1998. Strict procedures are followed in the storage and disclosure of information which is provided to easyjet by its customers. Easyjet also pass on customer’s information and details to Civil Aviation Authority for the purposes of ensuring compliance with and the enforcement of ATOL regulations. ATOL is a license that easyjet holds to sell flights in compliance with the law. This license obligates easyjet to comply with certain regulations. There is no yellow padlock on the easyjet website which raises concerns that it is not an encrypted website. However, it is possible for the company to protect all data using javascript or a similar language to encrypt it. Easyjet will hold information for as long as the law requires.

Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive. Easyjet use cookies as it enables them to provide features such as remembering aspects of your last flight search to make subsequent searches faster. For example; if I select Belfast International as my departure airport and Barcelona as my destination and then close the webpage, I can return to the easyjet website and these airports will already be showing automatically. Easyjet cookies do not contain any personally identifying information, as when I want to log into my easyjet account to pay for flights, it does not remember my email address or password.

www.easyjet.com
www.googleguide.com/glossary.html
www.ryanair.com
www.atol.org.uk/

The graph below shows the percentage of global internet users who visit easyjet, aerlingus and ryanair within the past month. According to this graph, Ryanair have more visitors to their site than easyjet has.

Although easyjet may not have as many visitors to their site the following graph shows that ryanair have a high number of people visiting their page and leaving again. Easyjet and aerlingus have relatively few people doing this compared to ryanair.

Steps to Booking Online

Step1: Type www.easyjet.com into your address bar.
Step2: From the drop down menus select your departure airport and destination.
Step3: From the drop down menus choose the dates which you wish to fly out and return. You can also tick a box as to whether your dates are flexible, i.e if you can fly on another date.
Step4: Choose how many adults, children or infants will be travelling and click on show flights.
Step5: Select the outbound and inbound flights you require. Click next step.
Step6: Your flight itinery is shown and options of speedy boarding, hold baggage, insurance can all be added to the cost of your flight. Your total cost will be shown at the bottom and you should select next step.
Step7: Customers can now book hotels or rent a car. If you do not wish to do so, you may proceed. Frequent customers can log in and new customers can continue without logging in.
Step8: The customer is now required to enter their email address and choose a password. Their contact details must be given along with the passengers name and the cardholders details. Book now.
Step9: Now go to your emails and print out your itinery and take this with you to the airport to confirm their booking. Easyjet is a ticketless airline.

Easyjet is a very marketable airline and everyone knows who they are. New channels are being used more and more and digital television is one that easyjet could take advantage of. They could have their own live page advertising their flights and hotels/carhire on teletext travel. Customers could press the red button on their remote which could then take them to their website on the tv. Easyjet however would have to consider some strategic choices. Will they hire new staff so as customers can ring and make a payment or will they let it out to teletext and save money by not recruiting. On the other hand they could consider customer being able to pay via their tv? Easyjet have many routes which they can take to increase their income.

www.easyjet.com
www.ryanair.com
www.aerlingus.com
www.alexa.com

• Book cheap flights

• Book hotels

• Car rental

• Airport parking

• Travel insurance

• Online check-in

• Create an online account

• View booked flights

Over the years easyjet have grew incredibly. They have 166 aircraft, 400 routes operating from 107 airports over 28 countries and 19 bases. Easyjet employs 6,100 staff, 5,000 of which are UK based.

On an annual basis they have over 43million passengers and between June 2008 and June 2009, easyjet had an increase of 2.8% passengers. In June 2008, the total revenue was £641m whilst in June 2009 it had risen to £721m, an increase of 12.4%.

Whilst other airlines reported losses due to escalating fuel prices, easyjet reported an increase in their profits, which made these soaring fuel prices a little easier to overcome. From March 2007 to March 2008, easyjets total turnover was £1,970.4million.

As the UK’s second biggest airline, easyjet use many advertising channels to market their business. Although easyjet has raised its awareness through the ITV documentary “Airline”, the company does not advertise through television. Aside from the internet, it relies profoundly on newspapers and magazines, radio and on such places as billboards, airports, bus-stops and on the back of buses. Easyjet provides promotional fares to their customers however they must go online to take advantage of these. Customers who have accounts with easyjet can receive emails about these latest promotions. On board an easyjet flight, the airline continues to make profit by advertising goods such as foods, accessories, perfumes etc. through their inflight magazine. The majority of easyjet’s business is via www.easyjet.com where 82% of sales are sold directly through this website.

http://www.easyjet.co.uk

http://www.corporateeasyjet.com

http://www.employeebenefits.co.uk/item/8565/23/305/3

http://www.aatl.net/publications/easyjet.htm

]]> http://colette3010.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/week-2-e-commerce-fundamentals/feed/ 0 colette3010 easyjetwebsite easyjetflightmap easyjettable http://colette3010.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/internet-usage-statistics-2006-2008/ http://colette3010.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/internet-usage-statistics-2006-2008/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:12:28 +0000 colette3010 http://colette3010.wordpress.com/?p=3 ]]> As part of my E-commerce coursework I carried out research on internet usage in the UK, using Google to search for statistics between 2006 and 2008.

In 2006, 60% of households within the UK were connected to the internet and the following year later this increased to 61%.  By 2008, almost 16.5million households (69%) were part of the “world wide web”, showing a soaring rise of 1.3million from 2007.  These numbers are rapidly increasing each year and it is highly unlikely that internet users will ever stop surfing the net in years to come.

49% of households who had access to the internet in 2006 used a broadband internet connection.  In London, 78% of households had a Broadband connection whereas in Northern Ireland, only 28% of households had Broadband.

Individuals use the internet for various things.  Some use it to run their business, whilst others use it to shop or socialise with friends.  Figures show that 59% of men avail of the internet to check scores and information compared to 27% of women.  59% of young internet users tend to use this service to keep in touch with friends on live messenger as opposed to 33% of people over the age of 30.

E-mail is proven to be the most common internet activity with people of all ages.  90% of all users claim to benefit from this service, whether it is in their jobs or private lives.

E-commerce is an increasingly popular activity where many people shop online for countless reasons such as pleasure, perhaps a disability that makes it difficult for users to shop, for the lack of stress it provides or possibly because they are unable to find what they are looking for in the shops.  Online you can purchase your groceries, clothes, games/DVD, flights, holidays and much more.  63% of online shoppers are women and 20% of people shop online at least once a week.  Users like to shop online so that they can;

• Beat the crowds

• Compare prices online

• Save time if they have chaotic schedules

• Receive parcels in the post

A significant 21% rise shows that from 2006-2008, older and retired adults who have never used a computer and have no interest or need to become involved with the internet, do not want the internet in their homes.

http://itvibe.com/news/4431/

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=8

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/inta0806.pdf