Godiva chocolatier is a well-known international company based in New
York. The company had been looking for ways to increase its sales and after
rejecting a CD-ROM catalog in the 90s, it took the courage to try online sales
in 1994. Godiva was a pioneering click-and-mortar e-business that took the
opportunity of online sales before its competitors.
Godiva chocolatier teamed up with Fry multimedia to create the division
of Godiva. The objective of the new division was to sell to both consumers and
other businesses. Godiva.com encountered many problems when it was first
launched when it tested many technologies, but it maintained its commitment to
its online division and Godiva.com became the most successful division of
Godiva. Just like other e-business pioneers, Godiva had to build its website
from scratch without any EC-building tools. Godiva tried to use games and
puzzles to attract consumers but this strategy failed because consumers were
coming to godiva.com to learn about chocolate not to play games. Godiva also
tried to make its website look like one of its retail stores. However, Godiva
realized that different channels should have different looks.
Godiva.com sells both to consumers and businesses. For corporations,
incentive programs are set in place. This includes a list of the employees or
customers to whom the chocolate is to be delivered. This is an example of their
B2B2C EC model.
Godiva.com is a good example that shows how a traditional
brick-and-mortar can turn into a click-and mortar to grow its customer base and obtain a competitive advantage while a new technology is non imitable.
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