D1 Unit 3 Business

I have been set the task of (D1)”making a recommendation for a business/organisation considering going online”.
The business that I have chosen is John Lewis.
The aims and objectives of John Lewis are to:
• Make profit to sustain its growth
• Deal with its customers honestly
• Contribute to the community
• Conduct business relationships with integrity
To achieve profit in an online environment they could create a website that allows people to browse through products, to also allow delivery of products to a specified location and to check availability of products. This would allow them to make profit because people will be able to purchase a product from any location with internet access which will increase the amount of sales for John Lewis. The website should also allow customers to check availability and products will help make profit because customers can go purchase the product at the nearest available store. They could also create social networking account (e.g. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube) to post tweets, videos and statuses with information about the latest clothing collections, offers and expansions.
To deal with its customers honestly in an online environment they could provide a contact or customer service section on the website and social networking accounts to allow customers to contact John Lewis about enquires that they have.
When receiving these emails and messages they would need all members of staff to answer these questions with the most suitable answer so that the customer is fully satisfied with the answer. When the customer contacts John Lewis via phone they must ensure that if it is an automated service that they get relayed to a real person to answer the enquires. The website could also provide a FAQ section with relevant and suitable answers for these questions so that they can find the answer immediately if it is a question frequently asked (e.g. do you deliver to my
country).
To contribute to the community in an online environment they could include information about how they help the local community and how customers can get involved with what John Lewis do to help the community (e.g. John Lewis (community matters) - This involves customers in store nominating an organisation to receive a share of money from John Lewis and this happens every three months). John Lewis also helps communities by hosting programmes to help children in primary school experience a wide range of activities (e.g. cooking, Designing and making, storytelling, gardening and etc). John Lewis also has a program where they collect sofas that have been thrown away and if re-usable they are given to less fortunate families who need it and if not re-usable they are recycled responsibly.
To conduct business relationships with integrity in an online environment they could ensure that when selling a product bought in bulk from an external source (iPod touch 5th generation) that they include the name of the manufacturer in the name of the product (e.g. Apple iPod touch 5th generation) so they aren’t breaching any rights. They can also include on their website who they are in partnership with of they are to honour the contract they have signed with another business. When completing a customer’s purchase they must also include all details of the transaction so the customer knows what they are getting with nothing hidden from. They should also provide information about policies relevant to product purchases to customers so they are fully aware of how these policies affect their purchases.