Description
Using the discussion below respond using the questions on the bottom:
The company that I have selected is Home Depot, a company that has remained a leader in the home improvement and hardware store industry for years under the NACIS code of 444130 and the SIC code 5251. Home Depots top three competitors are Lowes, True Value, and Ace Hardware. Home Depot has a strong online value proposition that they have divided into a value wheel consisting of eight core values, including creating shareholder value, entrepreneurial spirit, taking care of our people, respect for all people, doing the right thing, building strong relationships, giving back, and excellent customer service. These values are a competitive advantage for the company within their industry in the marketplace and that their value proposition to customers is also based heavily around the long-term nature of the engagement that they will have with the products purchased.
The 7S framework, developed by McKinsey and Company consultants in the 1980s, are useful for reviewing an organizations existing and future capabilities to meet the challenges posed by the new digital channels, and it is often referenced when referring to the management of a business (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). The Home Depot uses the McKinsey 7s model to regularly enhance its performance, and implement successful change management processes. One of the 7Ss that The Home Depots website seems to struggle with is structure. When inputted into the HubSpot Website Grader, the performance of the website only received a 9/30 score. It lacked performance mainly in page high page speed and page requests, which causes the website to be slower. The image sizes also appeared to take too long to load. Home Depot could also improve its mobile device performance, as its score is only a 20/30, showing that its tap targets were not mobile-friendly with interactive elements seeming to be too small or too close together. Lastly, its security within secure JavaScript libraries did not pass the HubSpot Website test, which could allow intruders to exploit outdated JavaScript libraries. Two other research tools that can be useful to assess Home Depots digital markets position are Google Analytics, which helps to track page viewers and on which pages theyre spending the most of their time, and Hootsuite, to track performance of website and social media content while calculating ROI, conversions, and public conversations about the brand or a specific subject matter (Tolbert, 2020).
As stated above, it appears that The Home Depot can seek much improvement in its website design in regards to customer accessibility to improve website performance, which is crucial in increasing traffic, improving conversion rates, and so on. In the Excellent Customer Service sector of the companys online value wheel, it explains that along with our quality products, service, price and selection, we must go the extra mile to give customers knowledgeable advice about merchandise and to help them use those products to their maximum benefit (Home Depot). To provide true quality service and accessibility for customers, The Home Depot needs to improve the areas of its website that lack convenience and may cause difficulty for said customers to sift through products online when they are unable to visit in store.
References
Values wheel. The Home Depot. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2021
Chaffey, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2019). Digital marketing, strategy, implementation and practice. Pearson Education Limited.
Tolbert, L. (2020, October 19). The 17 Best Digital Marketing Tools in 2021.
