Case Report – Individual “Estore at Shell Canada Limited”

Executive Summary In 2002, Shell Canada launched its online store called eStore for its customers. The objective was to keep costs low by having a self-service technology so that agricultural customers can buy their products without the need for a sales-representative. The statistics from eStore showed even though the number of customers who signed up for eStore was close to the target, number of customers who actually used eStore remained low. The problem seemed to be mainly due to customers having difficulty with the service. According to customer’s feedbacks, many encountered various technical problems when they tried to place orders. Others just preferred traditional methods of buying what they needed, while the remaining group were simply unaware of eStore. It is evident that the low number of purchases done through eStore is highly related to these issues particularly the technical issues in the website. If prompt actions are not taken to address these issues, Shell Canada would risk decreasing sales and even losing customers. After analyzing the situation and the company, it is determined that assembling a small team of experts to fix the technical issues of eStore and improve its user interface based on customers’ feedbacks is the best alternative. The implementation will take two months and then there will be a month of close monitoring period after the improved version of eStore is launched.

Key Issues
The main problem that Shell Canada needs to address here is low use of its online eStore. Finding the roots of this problem, three issues are identified: technical and user interface problems of the website, unawareness of Shell’s customers about the eStore, and customers’ preference to stick with traditional methods.
As determined by the report from the consultant firm, RareMethod, technical issues and user interface problems are causing the low utilization of the eStore. They realized that customers who tried to sign up and potentially