Team Carbon : Silver Team

Web Analysis of www.intlhotelsupply.com by Ahmad Rabah

Company Overview

International Hospitality Suppliers (IHS) specializes since 1998 in furnishing hotels with a large selection of supplies and offers a variety of services to hotels locally and internationally.

Value Proposition and E-Commerce Category

IHS maintains a B2B E-commerece category, giving companies the ability to purchase large quantities at discounted prices or signle item products for competitive prices. Unlike their competitors, IHS does not only offer a large selection of products. It also provides a variety of services such as interior design, procurement management, logistics management, warehousing services, export services and FF&E (furniture, fixture and equipment) installation services. In addition, IHS expands its services worldwide and offers its site in multiple languages.


Primary Competitors and Revenue Model

Revenue model is based on retailing products and offering services.

International Hospitality Suppliers competitors are:


Integration

IHS integrates multiple channels to offer it products and services. The company is located in West Palm Beach, FL with a call center to accept orders and service customer needs. Web presence (website) with a catalog and social channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, a mailing list for customers to receive special offers and news about new products and Link Exchange, which is page on the companies site allowing its customers who purchased products from IHS to advertise their hotels.


Intended Customers

IHS accepts orders from companies, interior design firms, hotels, resorts, motels, time shares, bed & breakfasts, restaurants, government agencies, educational institutions and other corporations.


Attract - Market and advertise in order to attract consumer interest

The site utilizes several marketing tools such as maintaining a mailing list to send customers offers and updates on products and social media links such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The site provides a Link Exchange functionality allowing customers to advertise on the site and informing new customers which hotels are using IHS products. Also, the site appears within the top 10 results on Google when trying to search for hospitality sites.


Attract - impulsive, patient and analytical buyers

The site is not setup to attract Impulsive buyers. There are no menus, tabs or quick access buttons that indicate the addition of new products. The mailing list could help with that, but only works with registered buyers. The site is also extensive and does not highlight most popular products or best sellers.

The site is more designed for patient buyers that would like place items on wish lists or wait until sales are available, there is a button on the main page for those items, or products listed on the clearance list. And analytical buyers that are more interested in searching and comparing specific products while keeping a close look on prices. Unfortunately, the site does not provide the option to write a review about a products.


Interact - Enhancing the Customer Experience

The site has multiple ways to lookup its products and services. The user can navigate through the products using the drop down menus at the top of the page, searching the site for specific products by using the search box, using the quick access button on the front page or using the site map providing a complete list of the site products.

The site has recently added a shopping cart to make the purchasing experience easier, especially, when trying to purchase multiple products at the same. The cart has some useful features such as showing all the products that are currently in the cart at all times and the cart total as the user navigates through the site looking for other products and caching items in the cart for later checkout. Since, the cart is new, it still has its limitations.


Act - Order Placement and Payment

Orders can be placed in several different ways, via phone, fax, email, regular mail or the web. The order placement and payment placed via the company’s site is handled through the shopping cart implemented in the site. The users must be registered to place an order. Registration can happen at the time of checkout. After products and quantities are selected, the cart provides the customer with a subtotal and tax/shipping costs depending on where the products are being shipped. The cart allows customer to modify their selection by adding and removing items and adjusting quantities before finalizing the purchase. As orders cannot be canceled or modified once production has started or if items have shipped. Major credit cards or checks/money orders are accepted as payment methods. Once the customer has entered all the necessary information, the ordered can be submitted and processed immediately.


Act - Delivery, Shipping and Returns

The cart has some useful features such as adding multiple shipping addresses incase the purchaser wants to ship some of the products to one location and the rest to another location. The shopping cart also determines if the products can be shipped via regular mailing services (Fedex, UPS, etc…) or if the items are too big and requires a freight carrier. And approximate delivery times are provided depending on the manufacturer’s estimate as all products are shipped directly from the manufacturer. IHS provides weekly tracking information on the products via email until orders are shipped.

The site does not have the capabilities to handle returns. Customers must call customer service to process a return and obtaining a Return Authorization number before returning the products. Returns are accepted up to 30 days after the date of delivery only on defective and damaged products. All other returnable items that do not fall into those two categories will be charged a 30% restocking fee. Some items such as custom ordered products cannot be returned. Refunds are processed within 20 days after the items are returned excluding any additional costs such as shipping, taxes, freight costs, customs, etc…


React - Customer Service and Support

Customers can contact IHS via phone or email for any concerns, inquires, billing issues, or questions


Interface and Arrangement of Content

The current site for IHS is outdated and requires a complete overhaul in terms of design, content and features. The main page contains redundant links which does not help customers in placing their purchases in quick an efficient matter. Content is scattered and requires better organization. Links, menus and buttons need to be arranged for easy access to product information and also content needs to be restructured to provide the best possible information of the product.


Utilitarian and Hedonic Shopping

The site offers a more utilitarian shopping experience then Hedonic shopping. The site provides a list of products with their details. It does not offer any reviews or ranks to be posted by customers and does not allow sharing products of interest with other colleagues or people of interest. The only Hedonic items on the sites are images of products and Link Exchange which allows customers and suppliers to advertise on their site and share some information.


Improvements

The current site for IHS is functional and is able to handle customer orders. But as customers demands develop and competition is more furious than before. IHS needs to consider enhancing their site. Here are some main improvements IHS should consider when redesigning their site

  • The main page has redundant links to products, menus such as my cart and others are not clear to the user.
  • Search tool is not comprehensive enough to handle the size and content of the site and also it does not offer any options that can help users find products quicker.
  • The content is not organized in a way to allow users find what they are looking for faster.
  • Enhanced pictures. Provide customers with the ability to enlarge picture and even the ability to rotate them to get a better idea of the product since the return policy is somewhat strict.
  • Providing a better comparison tools which gives a quick summary of differences instead of posting the description of each item.
  • Enhancing colors and fonts for better visual appearance.
  • Allowing customer to write reviews about products and also being able to rank an item.
  • Adding FAQs to help customers with general questions.
  • Adding more help tools such as chat and call back services.
  • Adding automated tracking tools for shipments.
  • Maintaining history of purchased items so customers can easily reselect previously purchased items and checkout faster.
  • Adding tools that show suggest similar products to customers while browsing.
  • Providing more information to customers on available services and how to order them.
  • Adding more marketing and social channels to the site.
  • Enhancements to shopping cart such as the ability to checkout as a guest.
  • Adding functionalities to handle returns.

References