7cs Case Study on Amazon

Abstract

The intent of this study aims to examine seven design elements of customer interface on www.amazon.com as a critical review. By means of study of secondary source collection, relevant evidence is selected, evaluated and organised into seven key areas: Context, Content, Community, Customisation, Communication, Connection, and Commerce. In order to analyse the implementation of these seven factors on amazon.com, examples based on private experiences and proposals are suggested, as well as experts' opinions are used. The study clearly defines general concepts of 7Cs and demonstrates how each of 7Cs is conducted on amazon.com. Based on these findings, the study results indicates two minor shortcomings of 7Cs on amazon.com---interactive communication and integration in connection, and some relevant recommendations are tentatively given.

Introduction

As for marketing, at its core, the mission of marketing is to attract and retain customers. To accomplish this goal, a traditional bricks-and-mortar marketer uses a variety of marketing variables—including pricing, advertising, and channel choice—to satisfy current and new customers. With the emergence of the Internet and its associated technology---enabled, screen-to-face interfaces (e.g., mobile phones, interactive television), a new era of marketing has emerged. Rayport and Jaworsky put forward 7Cs Model in 2001, which can be mainly used to analyse the customer interface of e-commerce, and they presented that the customer interface should be laid upon ease of use and pleasing users. (Lee & Benbasat, 2004) Hence, a successful design of a website highly depends on the integration of interface between customer demands, and services that the firm offers. In this article, the author has critically reviewed the presentation of 7Cs on amazon.com, and some proposals based on 7Cs been given.

1. General Concepts of 7Cs

Context. The context captures its aesthetics and functional look-and-feel, in other words, how the web site is delivered. It consists of functionality and aesthetics (look and feel).

Content. The content concentrates on what a site delivers, which comprises offering mix, appeal mix, multimedia mix, and content type.

Community. Community concerns the interaction between users, and between user and firm, including a feeling of membership and a sense of involvement. It can be separated into interactive communication and non-interactive communication.

Customisation. Customisation refers to the site's ability of tailoring or to be tailored by consumers (personalisation).

Communication. Communication is defined as the dialogue between sites and their users.

Connection.