Can Go Issues And Solutions

Can Go Issues And Solutions One of CanGo division is an online book store. Best sellers are kept in the warehouse grouped by subject, while other titles are ordered from publishers or other sources. The current process involves pickers getting lists with titles that have been ordered and then picking them from inventory. The issues with this system are that the lists are random and congestion. This is because a picker may have to go from one end of the warehouse to the other and back again when fulfilling an order. In addition, multiple pickers often end up in the same place at the same time causing congestion. If the picking process is improved, it would mean CanGo can carry more inventory and decrease the amount of time it takes to get books to customers. Solution 1 CanGo has presented a proposal to purchase an automatic storage and retrieval system (ASRS) to streamline the picking process. An ASRS is a system that uses technology for depositing and retrieving inventory from a defined storage location. There are several benefits to an ASRS including better use of both space and labor, and it improves the company control of the materials CanGo needs to consider several things when designing a system. These include the material to be moved, numbers of load to be stored, material flow description, description of operations, and architectural consideration for future expansion (ASRS, 1999). It is obvious that CanGo deals with books but it is important to know the weight and the dimensions of the books. Material flow description or flow charts illustrate how the books get from the starting point to the outbound truck, including a description of what the operator does and shows places where a logjam may occur. Architectural consideration means that the size of the building may place limits on what system CanGo uses. There are several manufactures of ASRS systems. One is Cisco Eagle and its mini storage system (Cisco eagle mini load). Material is placed in a tote, a tray or a carton. Storage can be single, double or triple deep. In conclusion a good ASRS system will lower storage costs and enable the work force to be more productive. Problem 2 CanGo continues to strive to increase their sales and to work through their growing pains that are often experienced by new companies. Like many startup companies, CanGo is faced with the prospect of large investments back into the company in order to increase production and streamline the delivery system. One issue that CanGo needs to rectify is the number of abandoned shopping carts that the company is experiencing. According to a recent survey conducted by Comscore, 76% of orders are abandoned. This is because the educated consumer of today continues to comparison shop throughout the checkout process. While CanGo has experienced a smaller percentage of abandoned orders, the problem is still prevalent. Solution 2 East Coast Consulting simulated the purchasing process on CanGos website and offers the following recommendations. Review the pricing of items that are offered. If an item is the same or similar as to what is offered on other sites, the consumer will shop by price alone. Offer a clearance or sale area in order to entice shoppers. Offer free shipping. 76% of consumers rate free shipping as a must for online orders. According to David Bell of Wharton, For whatever reason, a free shipping offer that saves customers 6.99 in shipping is more appealing to many than a discount that cuts the purchase price by $10 Eliminate the need to register in order to check out. This requires too much information from the customer and takes too much time. Provide the option of Guest check out. Remember that in order to follow up on abandoned orders, an email address must be obtained. This should be the first field presented to the customer upon checkout. Build trust and eliminate doubt with customers. This can be accomplished by addressing frequently asked questions, clearly stating the return and privacy policy and a security guarantee. Also, CanGo needs to prominently show the company information including an email and phone number. Implement Live Chat. In a recent survey, 77% of retailers listed Live Chat as critical to converting the shopping cart into sales. Offer more payment options including PayPal and Amazon Checkout. Also provide clear instructions on providing credit card information. Simplify this process as much as possible and make the checkout button a clear call to action. We feel these recommendations will greatly improve the conversion rate at CanGo. Problem 3 One of the main problem that Can Go is facing is making their website user friendly and more appealing, At this point, nearly every company has a website, and for good reason. Potential customers and clients use sites to learn about the company, but also to get a general feeling about service and culture. If Can Go makes their website user friendly and attractive then customer would definitely come back and buy the service. Solution 3 Although a fantastic-looking website can be powerful, design isnt the first place to start when it comes to user experience. Because businesses need to understand their consumers in order to develop products and marketing campaigns that appeal to their target audience, consumer psychologists often spend a great deal of time learning more about what makes shoppers tick. This often involves first figuring out the target audience for a particular product including the gender, age and socioeconomic status of the typical shopper. Next, the consumer psychologist might begin researching the types of products and marketing messages that appeal to these types of buyers. Other consumer psychologists might focus on social marketing, or how ideas and messages spread among groups. Researchers might be interested in getting out information about a product or an important public health message. Learning how beliefs andÂÂ  attitude spread among groups can help organizations learns how to better get their message out and encourage word-of-mouth marketing. Consumer psychologists often conduct research to learn more about buyer behavior. Common research methods used by these professionals include experiments, phone surveys, focus groups, direct observation and questionnaires. Chances are good that you have participated in at least one market research survey in your life. These are often conducted by phone, but may also be done online or through direct mail. In a survey, consumers are often asked to describe their past shopping behavior, factors that influenced their decision-making and their future buying plans. Researchers also typically gather details about each respondents sex, age, race, educational history and current financial situation. This type of information can be very useful, since it allows researchers to look for patterns and learn more about who buys certain products. For example, using a survey might allow researchers to discover that women between the ages of 30 and 45 who have a household income between $50,000 to $100,000 are most likely to buy a particular product or service. By knowing this, they can then begin designing marketing campaigns aimed at this target audience. Learning these aspects will definitely help Can Go to help better their business. Problem 4 CanGo has spent a lot of time trying to meet the needs of their current customers and have done very well at that. Recently, CanGo began research to understand their current customers purchasing habits and the changing and evolving ecommerce market. For CanGo to remain successful, they must understand the new target market. It is very well known that customer retention is imperative to be successful and without doing the proper research, CanGo will not be effective at holding on to their current customers or gaining new ones. This will ultimately make them a failure with the new product and it could cause them to go under for a lack of being able to gain new customers for the current market. Solution 4 CanGo needs to take a look at it current customers first. Then they need to understand what the age group of its current shoppers is and what they are purchasing. Then CanGo can identify any buying habits. This will help CanGo with their advertising and marketing. This can also help with planning so that their customers will not be impacted by a lack of product. CanGo will also need to identify the target market for online gaming. Doing market research will help CanGo by answering certain questions. What age group of people likes to play games online? What time of day do they like to play these games and how often. How much do online gamers pay for this service? What does the current competition offer? This way they can better understand the new target market as well as the old one. Problem 5 CanGo recently experienced an increase in orders from Japan. When the company received the occasional order from Japan, it was economical to send via UPS. Now, with the increase in sales to Japan, it makes sense to look into companies that specialize in business shipments to Japan. CanGo also should learn all it can about Japanese shipping regulations. Solution 5 CanGo should seek to partner with several companies that specialize in business shipments to Japan. One company is Best Shipping (Best shipping). According to their website, Best Shipping not only accepts imports, but they are licensed customer brokers. They are able to navigate the Japanese shipping rules and regulations and have its own fleet of trucks. This means that one company will have control of the shipment from the time merchandise leaves CanGo until it arrives at the customers door. Another company that specializes in shipping to Japan is Yamato Transport Inc. There office is located in Secaucus, New Jersey and specialize in air and ocean freight, international moving and import and export custom clearing services in the US. The company has several businesses that specialize in door to door shipments in a particular region of Japan. Large American based shipping companies like UPS and Fed Ex have experience serving the Japanese market and should be part of CanGos rotation of Japanese shippers. Although the shipping companies are experts in Japanese shipping rules and will handle most of the details, it is helpful to know the basics. Jetro.org, Japans external trade organization, offers useful information for US companies doing business in Japan. Problem 6 CanGo is spending time to fix all of the things that are not currently working. In doing so there has not been any update on what they are going to do to get the new product line off the ground. Has research been done to see if there is a competitor out in the online gaming market? What type of computer system is needed to handle online gamers? Is CanGos security tight enough to handle the hackers? What is needed to get the online gaming up and running? Does CanGo have enough capital to make this happen? These are all questions that have not been answered. CanGo has not assigned any specific people to the new project. This is going to be a lot of work and take a lot of time. The marketing department also needs to focus on who they are marketing to and how they are going to market to them. Solution 6 So that the team stays focused at a time like this there should be weekly meeting on what is going on with the new project what needs to be done. Deadlines need to be set. This way it is clear that CanGo has not decided not to do the project and that this needs to be done in addition to the corrections to the current process. This way it is clear to all what the goal is. This will help the workers not lose sight of what is important and what needs to be done. CanGo need to make a Gantt chart so the time line of what needs to be done. This will also help assign people to specific task. When CanGo does this it will make it clear to all what needs to be done and who is going to do it. Once it is clear to everyone who is doing what, CanGo needs to look at what they are looking to sell. A Gantt chart would be beneficial to help assign people to specific task and provide clear goals and time frame for completion. In Closing it is important for CanGo to focus on now and the future. That means looking at what is happening to maintain the current customers and drive new ones. East Coast Consulting has provided 6 problems and 6 solutions that will allow CanGo to get once set closer to getting where they want to be. References ASRS. (1999, May 27). Consideration for planning an automated storage retrieval system. Retrieved Feburary 1, 2013, from https://www.cirrelt.ca/mhmultimediabank/ApplicationGuide%5CMHIA%20-%20ASRS%20considerations.pdf Best shipping. (n.d.). Best shipping/ services. Retrieved January 30, 2013, from Best shipping: http://www.bestshipping.co.jp/english/service/index.html Cisco eagle mini load. (n.d.). Retrieved Feburary 1, 2013, from Cisco eagle: http://www.cisco-eagle.com/material-handling-systems/asrs-systems/mini_load Japanese external trade organization. (n.d.). Jetro.go.jp. Retrieved January 31, 2013, from http://www.jetro.go.jp/ Yamato transport inc. (n.d.). about us Yamato transport inc. Retrieved January 31, 2013, from Yamato transport inc: http://www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/en/corporate/