Transactional Websites. Strengths and weaknesses of the site (Essay Sample)

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Transactional Web sites
Introduction
Transactional websites give a platform for which the sale and purchase of goods and services takes place. The websites give connections between the consumers and the companies that are online so as to enable the bridging of the gap of the goods or services in question. The websites automate the interactions for which an organization makes business convenient without having the customers travel to the exact locations of the companies (Kornum 279). These websites reach a wide assortment of people transversely in the globe. This paper shall specifically evaluate transactional websites that are within the vicinity of Qatar. One of the websites shall be one that is representative of a company that sells products or services directly to consumers. The other website shall also represent a company selling services to the consumers though in competition with the first.
Analysis of the website /qa/en/homepage.page
General description of the site
This website is an online platform that provides the customers with the transaction of the booking of flights from Qatar to various other destinations. The website also offers the service of the bookings of holidays and gives offers to the customers across the world. This website is a cyber mediary that offers the clientele an unconventional to the direct purchase of the services from the airline. The site offers the option of convenience to the consumers. The pricing for the site is in Qatar’s riyal for the offers that are given on the site. The services of the flight booking as well as holiday booking are offered through online ticketing procedures (Qatar airlines website). According to the layout of the page, the services being actively promoted are the flights as well as the holiday destinations from Qatar to various locations for instance London, Dubai and Istanbul.
Target market
This website targets all the population in the country of Qatar as well as in other countries. In this case the flights have been arranged to fit the business people as well as the economy and luxury class of people. The customers have been given the privilege to choose the type of flights that they wish to take up from the website. The luxurious packages are priced differently from the economy packages so as to fit all calibers of customers (Qatar airlines website). The target market thus is almost all the people across the nation of Qatar as well as all others in the world who have got an access of the airline at any one time.
Strengths and weaknesses of the site
One of the sturdy points of this site is the ability to capture a myriad of people. This is through the ease of booking that the site provides. The site has got easy to find menu for the specific booking that a customer requires. The logos and the color scheme used in the site gives a clear and complete personality of the company. The information on this Qatar airways website also has been put in a language that can be comprehended by many people across the world (Diffily 18). The instance of visiting the website gives the visitors an impression of exactly what the webpage is about without having to keep on navigating to identify with it. Again, the website does not have an extreme sophisticated online display of their service.
The perception of the services on the site could be perceived in a low manner by the visitors on the site especially new visitors. Again, another weakness of the site is that a visitor on the site may seem not to view the interactive excursion of the journey classes. Some of the computers may not be in a position to show these classes in a way that is interactive. This navigation problem of the site may especially be experienced when the visitors use various web browsers to access the site. The browsers stand out as the blocks to access some of the aspects of the site.
Recommendations for improvements of the site
The site requires to be more interactive to the customers visiting it so as to enable improved traffic to the site alongside an efficient navigation. In this case, the site requires a menu aspect that gives a frequently asked question addition so as to enable the visitors to have answers to the difficulties they may encounter on the site. Again, another recommendation is that of ensuring that the site gives an interactive nature of the various classes of services on offer. The site should also be refurbished into having a sophisticated show of the products at hand. This can be done through the use of graphics that are of a higher quality than those that are on the site currently. This improvement will bring the site as one of the most preferred among the consumers. The business model of the company requires to be in a more interactive manner that captures more of the customers in Qatar (Qatar airlines website). This is since many of the consumers prefer travelling on the airline due to its convenience as well as its attractive services (Fojt 25).
Conversely, the company is making high market segments in the world that enable its revenue especially in the online feature where the clientele are able to reserve their holidays and flights without necessarily going to the airline personally to do so. The fact that the company targets the people of business as well as ordinary caliber gives it an edge in the industry. However, the company should expand the website through the offering of other products on sale. These products could be those that compliment the services. For instance the promotion of the site through the sale of tourist antiques on the website (Qatar airlines website). The company should try to expand more into the global market through the opening of branches and web pages that cover other countries. So far it has covered a number of countries, but other highly business oriented countries should be included. Countries in Africa should also be included in a wide range so as to promote its holiday booking aspect to the company. This is since tourism is highly established in the African countries as compared to the other countries.
Other improvements should also be in the incentives offered on the site for the various classes of flights and holidays. This should be in a way to attract the visitors to keep choosing the products and services offered online so as to improve the competitive advantage of the company through the site.
Analysis of the website /qa/english/index.aspx
General description of the site
This website just like the previous one provides a gateway for which the booking of flights takes place to the visitors of the site. The site is an intermediary that stands out as a cybermediary that covers the services of booking of flights as well as the renting of cars from the convenience of the consumers. This site offers the luxury of booking of flights online with the prompt delivery of the tickets. The renting of cars is also one of the best services presented by the corporation through the website (Emirates airline website). The pricing on the site is also through the Qatar riyal that is converted into the United States dollars for ease of transactions. The services are distributed across the world from the heart of Qatar and are also inclusive of the hotel bookings so as to enable the full package to the consumers.
According to the layout of the page, the website seeks to promote its full package of the flight bookings as well as the car hire and hotel on destination bookings (Emirates airline website). This makes it easy for the consumers while travelling so as to enable the navigation once landed on destination. This is since the graphics on the homepage as well as the data provided directly points out to the bookings without having the customer to figure them out on their own.
Target market
The emirates Qatar website has it target market laid mostly on the families. The website has given incentives to the families encouraging the children and the parents to fly on the airline. This is especially so as to ensure that the people can use the services as a whole. The website also targets the business persons in Qatar and gives classes to its flights. It provides the business as well as the first class alongside the economy class flights (Emirates airline website). The car rentals and the hotels also are a strategy that targets the business men in a global dimension. The strategic placement of the company in a Muslim community enhances its target market even on its website thus bringing its sales on a high edge.
Strengths and weaknesses of the site
The site provides highly interactive features of the services that are on disposal. This is especially through the graphics that have been used on the site. This is somewhat in contrast with the Qatar airways webpage that is less interactive graphically. This is a strong point since the visitors of the site are attracted to know more of the services even without necessarily wishing to book a flight or even a hotel. The site offers a sophisticated format of the services in pictorial format that enables the ease of navigation of the site.
The color and logo used as well as the statement of mission on the website are profoundly placed so as to ensure proper and comprehensive understanding of the services offered. This is a constructive point since the transactional WebPages require to be informative in an instance so as to enable the procession of access of services on the sites. The site also provides incentives to certain flights. For instance, the people who fly on the first class as well as the business class get free stays in hotels of high rank in Dubai (Emirates airline website). Such an incentive on the site offers an advantage of creating traffic to the site. In this case this site’s offers create a high traffic for various bookings of flights so as to enjoy...