4 Chris Jones is Managing Director of Supaserve, a medium－sized supermarket chain faced wi

Question

4 Chris Jones is Managing Director of Supaserve, a medium-sized supermarket chain faced with intense competition

from larger competitors in their core food and drink markets. They are also finding it hard to respond to these

competitors moving into the sale of clothing and household goods. Supaserve has a reputation for friendly customer

care and is looking at the feasibility of introducing an online shopping service, from which customers can order goods

from the comfort of their home and have them delivered, for a small charge, to their home.

Chris recognises that the move to develop an online shopping service will require significant investment in new

technology and support systems. He hopes a significant proportion of existing and most importantly, new customers,

will be attracted to the new service.

Required:

(a) What bases for segmenting this new market would you recommend and what criteria will help determine

whether this segment is sufficiently attractive to commit to the necessary investment? (10 marks)

Answer 1

正确答案：
(a) E-commerce is transforming many of the traditional relationshps between supplier and customer and retailing is no exception.
In broad terms, electronic commerce is defined as ‘the use of electronic networks to facilitate commercial transactions’. In
terms of tangible goods, such as supermarket shopping, it enables online ordering and delivery direct to the customer and
represents a significant move away from the well-established retail formats. Benefits to companies using electronic commerce
have seen companies increase their sales by 10–20% and reduce costs by 20–45%. However, in a significant sized business
like Supaserve the investment costs are high, affecting profit margins and making for more intense competition.
Business-to-consumer electronic commerce is argued to face more barriers to growth than its business-to-business equivalent
and is at an earlier stage in its lifecycle. Issues surrounding the potential for fraud, security of payments, privacy of personal
data and difficulties in accessing electronic retailers, explain this slower start for the retailing side of electronic commerce.
Clearly, for the move to be successful in Supaserve there needs to be a sufficiently large number of customers who can be
persuaded to use the service. This, in turn, will reflect the number of homes with computers and online capabilities. However,
the traditional retailer with a trusted brand and reputation is often in a better position than the specialist online retailer with
no physical stores.
Assessing the size and defining characteristics or attributes of the customer segment likely to use the online shopping service
is an interesting task. There is evidence to suggest that age may be a key factor, with electronic retailing appealing to younger
customers familiar with using information technology. Income may be an important way of segmenting the market, with online
shopping appealing to those families with high disposable income, access to computers and a lifestyle. where leisure time
is valued. Chris’s knowledge of his current customer base will be important in positioning them at various stages of their
lifecycle – does the company appeal to young families with heavy shopping demands? Further insight into buying behaviour
will come from geodemographic segmentation where the combination of where a customer lives and the stage in their
particular shopping lifecycle will give real insights into their buying behaviour and willingness or otherwise to use electronic
shopping.
Essentially, Chris has to come to a decision on whether there is a combination of characteristics that form. a significant
segment willing to use online shopping. This will enable him to decide how it can be measured, whether it is big enough to
make the investment in online shopping worthwhile, can it be accessed and whether it is sufficiently distinct to cater for itsparticular needs.