FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE ONLY

Project Deliverable

Charles Tinsley

Dr. Mark Cohen

CIS 599

July 14, 2019

Introduction

Home Shopping is one of the leading online retailers that allows consumers to shop for products at the comfort of their homes. Just like the name suggests, Home Shopping allows users to shop for various products without having to visit the stores physically. They place an order of the products, and the products are delivered right at their doorstep. Within the recent developments of technologies, there has been an increasing trend of consumers preferring to carry out online shopping as they have found out that this saves on cost and time as they do not have to physically visit the supermarkets and grocery stores to conduct their shopping activities. Recent studies carried out indicate that over one billion people around the world to purchase goods online (Nguyen, De Leeuw, & Dullaert, 2016). The number is expected to grow tremendously with the increased use of technology around the world. Well, numbers do not lie, and online retailing has been one of the biggest trends and opportunities for entrepreneurs in recent years.

Background Information

Home Shopping was established in the early 2000s in the wake of the dot com generation. It was during this period that the use of the internet started to pick up. With the company’s being located in San Francisco, California, the company has been able to grow to all states in the United States and outside the United States of America. The company first began as an online marketplace for clothing products but later shifted course and included other products ranging from grocery products, books, to electronics. Home Shopping established its first warehouse in San Francisco but later opted to rather collaborate with clothing stores when it changed its business models. The company has collaborated with various stores across the world and acts as the middleman between the consumers and other retailers. It began with five employees but has grown up to 25 employees currently operating in a one-floor office. These employees range from drivers, warehouse employees, and customer care employees that can link up the consumers with the different sellers. In the recent financial year reports released by the company, it is estimated that the company made over $50 million in terms of revenue in the past financial year. To expand its business operations, Home Shopping has opted to merge with a multinational company. This will help expand its customer base and sales in the years to come.

Business Activities

Home Shopping supporting trading community on the internet via the world wide web. It provides a platform for other retailers that it has collaborated with to sell products to buyers. It also sells a variety of items directly to consumers through the company’s online storefront. Most consumers visit the company’s website with the assumptions that the products are less expensive and are readily available for purchase and shipping. In cases where the goods that they are consumers are searching do lack in the company’s warehouse, the customer is referred to a seller with the product. The company deals with a large portfolio of products that range from clothing, kitchenware, electronics, books, jewelry, liquor drinks, to online music and movies streaming. In recent years, the company has introduced grocery products in its products portfolio. It has been able to collaborate with various grocery stores where consumers can order for grocery products and are delivered on the same day. This option has been tested in multiple states across the United States and has proved to be successful, and the company has plans to expand it to other countries in which the company operates. This might be on reality soon with the expected merge with DHL. DHL is a multinational company that offers transportation and courier services. This merger will help the company in its transportation and logistics services. It will help in faster delivery of customer orders. The customers can easily track the progress of their delivery and can be able to estimate the exact time delivery will take. One of the objectives of the company is to improve its delivery time for goods as this is one of the important aspects when it comes to online retailing. The company will also be able to expand some of its business operations too.

Outsourcing and Offshoring Opportunities

Home Shopping has benefited greatly from outsourcing of its inventory management and labor. It has been able to save a lot of costs by outsourcing labor, especially when it comes to some of the human resource activities. It has been able to reduce its employees up to 25 in total, which makes it easy to manage. Outsourcing its inventory management has enabled it to provide its customers with faster delivery from the company directly. Inventory management is a critical process in any business or organization, and Home Shopping has utilized it to be able to operate efficiently. Almost 90% of the company’s sales mainly comprise of third-party sellers. It outsources items that are not regularly ordered and stored in the company’s warehouse. It has been able to offshore outsource its logistics and delivery options in the international markets that it operates. This ensures that product delivery is made in the fastest way possible and ensure that customer satisfaction is at its level best (Yao, Huang, Song, & Mishra, 2018). With the introduction of grocery items in the products portfolio, consumers can receive the grocery products that they make an order.

Current Information System

The company relies heavily on its information system for its day to day business operations. The current system allows users to place an order which is then transferred to the warehouse. At the warehouse, the system checks if the product is in stock and if not advises the customer the best seller to get the product from. If the product is available at the warehouse, it informs the employees the exact location of the product, and this saves time for searching for the product. After locating the product, the system then advises the employees on the type of packaging needed for the product. After packaging the system ticks a green light indicating that the product has left the warehouse and informs the customer. Depending on the location of the customer, the system selects the best delivery option and how long it would take for the order to be shipped to the consumer. The consumer has an opportunity to track the progress of the shipment after the delivery has begun. The current databases store the company’s business operation ranging from inventory to consumer’s data. The database stores inventory about goods that are available in the warehouse. And those that are available with the sellers. It also stores the information is given out by the customers such as their names, locations, and payment methods. These databases are linked up together in the data warehouse. Data warehousing has provided crucial information for analysis for the company’s future trends. The company makes use of cloud computing for storage of the big chunks of data collected every day. The network infrastructure helps link up the company with different outsources. There have been various security challenges facing the current information system. One of the key challenges is that the current system cannot be able to integrate with new technologies and also keep up with the changing technologies. The current system does not fully meet organizational demands.

References

Nguyen, D. H., De Leeuw, S., & Dullaert, W. E. (2016). Consumer Behaviour and Order Fulfilment in Online Retailing: A Systematic Review. International Journal of Management Reviews, 20(2), 255-276. doi:10.1111/ijmr.12129

Yao, X., Huang, R., Song, M., & Mishra, N. (2018). Pre-positioning inventory and service outsourcing of relief material supply chain. International Journal of Production Research, 56(21), 6859-6871. doi:10.1080/00207543.2018.1495853