Report:

Before we begin, we shall briefly discuss what E-commerce means. It simply stands for electronic commerce which consists of the buying, selling and exchanging of products/services over electronic means such as the Internet and other computer networks. E-commerce can be conducted between business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) or consumer-to-consumer (C2C).



About Symantec

Symantec was founded in 1982 by visionary computer scientists. Today, it is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions (that address risks to security, availability, compliance and performance) to help businesses and consumers secure and manage their information. Symantec is headquartered in Cupertino, California and has operations in 40 countries.


Purpose of the website

http://www.symantec.com/ is an e-commerce website which sells products online to visitors to its site. Visitors include ordinary single users and business representatives buying for company. This website makes it highly convenient for visitors to obtain information with the click of the mouse.

Figure 1: Homepage of the website

Also, visitors can search and know more about the various Norton products, for instance, the key features, specifications, more detailed information and pricing of each product.

Figure 2.1 Product Comparison

Figure 2.2: Comparison Chart

In addition, visitors get to compare the range of products using the "Compare" function provided. From there, they are able to choose the most suitable ones which cater to their needs based on the information reflected in the chart.

Figure 3.1: Upgrades

Figure 3.2: Renewal

Existing individuals and business consumers can upgrade products and renew subscriptions through the website.

Figure 4: Competitive Information

Most importantly, as there is tight competition between competitors in the industry, the website creates awareness to consumers about the existence and capabilities of Symantec.


Business Model

Symantec operates as a B2C virtual storefront. Although its product ranges cater to the needs of both individual consumers and business consumers, both are treated homogeneously as customers, thus a B2C.


Payment Scheme

Figure 5.1: Shopping cart - Customer can choose to buy or download the product

Figure 5.2: Making payment online


Symantec offers different types of payment modes - major types of credit card (MasterCard, Visa, American Express), check, money order or wire transfer. It tries to enhance security via Verisign secured so that consumers will feel more at ease when making online payments.


Key Characteristics & Design

Figure 6: Categories and sub-categories

1) Symantec applies its corporate colors (yellow, black and white) throughout the website to leave a vivid impression of its brand name. Also, the design of the website is neat and well organised with tabs that are straight-forward and easy to understand.

Figure 7.1: Current Promotion

Figure 7.2: Bundle

2) Symantec has special promotions to allow consumers to buy or download certain products and create their own bundle at discounted rates.

Figure 8: Ten seconds product guide

Step1: Click to begin

Step 2: Select activites

Step 3: Recommendations based on the criteria choosen

3) Consumers who have no idea or have not come to a decision as to what products they should get can make use of the "help me choose a product" (also known as the "product guide") option.


Figure 9: Shopping online

4) The two different categories- "For Home" and "For Business", minimise searching time for individual consumers and business consumers, hence bringing the respective parties to the most related and relevant pages.

5) Symantec incorporates "flashes" to make the website more interactive and also includes illustrations of product designs to help beautify the website. The images give consumers an idea of how the products look like.


Figure 10: Product trials

6) The 15 days free trial policy allows customers to try out products to see if they are satisfied with them.

7) Online chat (one-to-one troubleshooting with expert assistance), phone and email services are provided, should resolving of issues be required.


Figure 11: To gain more related IT knowledge

8) As it is an e-commerce website selling security related softwares, it provides a library of articles on current online security related issues and news to help visitors gain more insights of online threats and become more security savvy.

Strengths

1) With a space dedicated for product search, it aids in reducing customers' frustrations to search for a specific product they want.

2) The website is user friendly, keeping to the "three-click-rule".

3) Symantec, being customer driven and service orientated, designs their website and products from the bird's eye view of consumers' perspectives and needs, therefore they are able to retain their customers loyalty.

Weaknesses

1) The 15 days trial given may be too short a time to determine the effectiveness of their products or even guarantee results.

2) Though it tries to enhance the security of its online transactions, it may still be prone to hackers. Hence, it may not be as safe as it seems.

3) The list of most popular products should be placed at a more prominent spot, i.e homepage of Symantec for recommendations to potential customers who are either at a loss of what to get for themselves or still in the process of comparing products.

4) We do not know to what extent the feedbacks and testimonials holds true. Also, there is a possibility the moderator may remove all negative thread. However, we give them the benefit of doubt.


Critical Analysis

We feel that Symantec is one good e-commerce website as it incorporates a lot of useful features that are user-friendly and aid consumers in decision-making. For example, first time buyers can feel more convinced and more at ease to purchase its products based on the testimonials and feedbacks reflected on the forum. In addition, the useful information on its products on the website helps to reduce consumers' search time.

Figure 12: Forum

Symantec encourages employees at all levels to be involved and engaged by giving feedbacks and suggestions via the forum. Thus, the information gathered can be used as suggestions for future improvements.

Figure 13: Links to the different countries' websites

The website's online stores are customized to suit the different product requirements in different countries.

In conclusion, Symantec is so successful because to many consumers, it is reliable as it forges and emphasizes on a customer-driven philosophy. For example, it includes different languages and currencies for different nationalities.

Considered as having good business etiquette, Symantec does not smear other competitors' reputation unnecessarily. Take for instance, it does not mention the names of the competitors it compares its competitive average with. As illustrated in figure 4.

However, as mentioned in the weaknesses, 15 days trial maybe too short a time to see results or effects, hence we suggest having a longer trial period to like 1 or 2 months. Hopefully customers will be more convinced of the products' effectiveness.

Lastly, we feel that as technology advances rapidly, Symantec's e-commerce website must keep improving and incorporates distinctive features so as to differentiate itself from its competitors' online store. Also, hackers always have ways to break the security and hack into the system, therefore Symantec must make sure that it has the latest technologies to secure its website and its online payment scheme so as to maintain their reputation as a well known anti-virus and security protection company.