Companies and other organizations utilize web sites for various purposes. In essence, a web site offers an interface, while the Internet presents economical communication capabilities.
Our analysis for this project assignment focuses on Nike Corporation’s expertise in information technology. Nike is renowned for its global scale design, development, and promotion of high-quality footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories. Being the leading seller of athletic footwear and apparel worldwide, our investigation centers on the website at www.
nike.com. The content below will be divided into five sections: Company Information, Web Site Description, Web Site Analysis, Completing A System, Web Site/Internet Expansion. It was easy and user friendly to search and find company information on the web-site (as will be further discussed).
Nike has a mission statement that focuses on corporate responsibility and emphasizes the importance of caring for various stakeholders, including the world family of Nike, teammates, consumers, and service providers. They have over 500 contract factories in approximately 45 countries across Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Australia. The website provides extensive information on how Nike is working towards achieving its mission statement.
The company addresses various issues related to age limits in factories, environmental health and safety, independent monitoring, education, research, and community affairs. They also mention the recent changes they have made to achieve their mission statement and satisfy their customers. Besides using external sources, the company’s website provides information such as annual reports, earnings releases, historical revenue, live stock quotes, and dividend and stock information. This makes the website even better. Nike operates in the Textile-Apparel/Footwear/Accessories Industry. To understand the company’s size, customer base, and market, one can simply look at the fiscal statistics of 1999 and 2000.
Nike Corporation reported worldwide total revenues of approximately $9 billion last year. While the exact number of customers who purchased Nike products is not disclosed, the substantial revenue suggests a significantly large customer base. This impressive financial success is noteworthy, especially considering the loss of their key endorsee, Michael Jordan, who retired. Additionally, sales were greatly impacted by the NBA’s shortened season resulting from labor disputes.
The web site also provided this information under their fiscal year in review. To understand the size and power of Nike Corp., one can compare its Market Cap on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange). Market Cap represents the value of a company to investors in the stock market.
The Market Cap for Nike is calculated by taking the number of common shares outstanding and multiplying it by the price per share. In million dollar increments, Nike’s Market Cap was approximately $10,664.63, which significantly surpassed their competitors in the industry.
Guinness World Records holds the top position in their industry, with their nearest competitor, Gucci Group, Inc., falling just half a million behind. None of the other industry competitors, including well-known brands like Timberland, Reebok, Kenneth Cole, Justin Industries, Sketchers, Wolverine, and Velcro, can come close to their success.
According to their fiscal report on their website, Nike Corporation provided interesting data on total shareholder returns. The report revealed that if one had invested $100 in Nike Corporation ten years ago, it would be worth $1,432 as of May 31 this year. Comparatively, the S&P (Standard and Poor’s) 500 would have only amounted to a meager $527 on the same date. After examining this financial information from the website, it became clear just how substantial the Nike Corporation truly is.
The purpose of this website is to serve as an e-commerce platform, enabling the purchase and sale of goods and services via the Internet, networks, and other digital technologies. The site provides the convenience of buying premium sports and fitness products directly from nike.com or locating a nearby Nike dealer through our Store Locator.
Nike effectively practices the concept of disintermediation, which is mentioned in the text. Disintermediation involves eliminating intermediary steps within the value chain that are carried out by organizations or business processes. In simpler terms, Nike’s website eliminates the need for a middleman (such as a wholesaler or retailer) when consumers make purchases. This allows for earlier availability of new shoes, resulting in higher customer satisfaction and sales. Hence, the website successfully achieves its goal of facilitating electronic commerce.
They also mention that “regardless of which option you choose, you will still benefit from the excellent design and performance of Nike products.” In addition to its main purpose, the website also offers other intriguing features. It includes a store finder, mentioned earlier, as well as other specialized sites dedicated to specific sports like football and soccer.
) to buy footwear, apparel, and accessories. The website offers a product finder that locates desired products and provides information on price, available sizes, and availability. Three notable sections on the website are nikebiz, which allows users to explore Nike’s business history, transactions, and current activities.
Nikebiz provides a range of information about the company, including its history, notable dates in Nike Corp.’s history, corporate responsibility news and bylaws, global community news, environment news, financial reports, and job listings and overviews for each region with Nike factories. Another interesting feature of the website is the “ask nike” section where visitors can ask any question about the company, and ask nike will research and provide answers about any aspect of the company.
Nike’s website prominently showcases its standout feature, which allows users to create their own unique shoe designs. Not only does Nike manufacture these customized shoes, but they also handle the delivery process, showcasing their dedication to fulfilling every consumer’s wants and requirements.
They have made significant progress in customer compliance and also achieved great strides in customer satisfaction. This is accomplished by enabling consumers to customize and personalize their shoes, including selecting colors, sizes, fits, textures, and more. Ultimately, this choice concerning information systems will result in considerable revenue growth.
When analyzing this website, one word that comes to mind is “thorough”. It is extremely suitable and user-friendly for both occasional browsers and permanent consumers. The website is very in-depth, leaving little missing (as mentioned earlier). Additionally, it includes financial and historical information about the company, which adds great convenience for research purposes.
The ask nike and product finder functionalities offer extra convenience for users seeking specific information. Nonetheless, the website’s standout feature is the ability to customize and design one’s own shoes, which makes it exceptional. While some customers may not find suitable options in Nike’s existing market offerings, their loyalty to the brand prompts them to still choose Nike shoes. By incorporating this feature, Nike empowers consumers to have complete control over their purchasing decisions, resulting in substantial revenue and sales growth.
Nike has developed a chat room to enhance the custom shoe building process. Customers can now discuss the details with employees, making the process less cumbersome. This website is nearly comprehensive, but there is one potential suggestion to complete the initial step. However, a significant problem does arise.
To address the issue of customers encountering difficulties while customizing and building their shoes, the current solution of contacting a 1-800-number requires going offline, thereby undoing any progress made. In order to achieve all of Nike’s objectives, my recommendation is to integrate state-of-the-art technology into the customization process to provide additional customer support.
I propose that Nike add www.zapdata.com to their homepage as a link. At www.zapdata.com, customers can engage in real-time text-chat with Nike using their hosted text-chat software.
At liveperson.com, customers can easily have their questions answered by clicking on a text-chat button that opens a new window. They are able to browse Nike’s website while a support representative addresses their inquiries.
With LivePerson, your service representatives can send you pages as a customer. If you are having trouble finding information after asking a question, Nike’s online representative can easily send you the specific page you need. This may initially be expensive for Nike, but I assure you that it will ultimately lead to further increased sales. Nike has invested in efficiency early on in their customized shoe site, which has resulted in improved customer support and satisfaction. Additionally, Nike can enhance their website by adding more activities to make it more appealing and interesting, thereby increasing business from the website.
Nike Corporations takes pride in its sales of sports/athletic apparel, footwear, and accessories. Furthermore, Nike has effectively enhanced its brand recognition by collaborating with renowned athletes like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Barry Sanders, Kobe Bryant, and Ken Griffey Jr. Given Nike’s dedication to sports products, utilizing their website as a medium for bolstering customers’ perception of athletes donning Nike gear is logical. To heighten customer satisfaction and ultimately enhance online sales performance, I suggest integrating two supplementary activities into their website.
My first suggestion is to add a constant sports ticker on the web page. This will allow consumers to stay updated on their favorite teams while shopping. Having this convenience and interesting feature will likely boost sales as customers will have sports to think about while purchasing Nike gear. Additionally, I recommend adding more links on the website to specific places like www.espn.
There are websites like go.com or www.cnnsi.com which focus primarily on sports.
The inclusion of multiple “sports” websites will boost daily visitor counts and ultimately attract more customers to Nike Corporation. This integration will reinforce the association between sports and Nike products like apparel, footwear, and accessories, ultimately satisfying and expanding the customer base.
