Website Analysis

1. What are the value proposition and business model for these sites? Who are their competitions? How does the website integrate to other channels for this company? (NOTE: A channel can be a retail store, a catalog, direct mailing campaign, etc.)

JCPenney is a chain of mid range department stores. It offers all sorts of merchandise to customers, such as apparel/shoes for women, men, teens and kids, home decoration, and furniture, etc. Its value proposition is to offer customers what they need and what they like.

Its competition comes from big box retailer stores, such as Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Target, also from other chains of department stores, such as Kohl’s.

JCPenney has brick and Mortar stores nationwide and also distribute printed catalogs. Its commercial website started in 1998 and becomes one more channel to shop JCPenney products.

2. Who are intended customers for the websites? (ATTRACT)

JCPenney targets wide range of customers, women and man, children and seniors. Mainly middle-income society, who seeks value in the merchandise that they purchase.

There are Brick and Mortar users, who may be probably not quite comfortable of online transaction, but browsing the site for product and price information.

There are online shoppers, who are shopping merchandise online to enjoy the convenience of online shopping.

3. How does these sites market and advertise themselves to attract consumer interest? (Attract)

JCPenney uses multiple advertising channels. Catalogs, ads and coupons are distributed directly to households. It has banner/flash ads on its own site and other sites. It also shows on TV ads periodically, especially during shopping seasons.

4. How does this site present its content/catalogue to attract different types of users/shoppers? How does this site support different types of online purchasing behaviors? What tools for advice does this site use? (Interact)

JCPenney site provides variety methods for users to browse its online items.

Search function

When first open the JCPenney website, there is search function on the top right hand corner. It also appears on the same position on almost every page. Users can enter keywords or item # to search items. This is handy for users who know exactly what item they want to buy.

Find a store

This function is also on almost every page. Brick and Mortar users can go to the web site to locate the closest store and store hours. Users, who like the online items but don’t want to pay the shipment fee, can also choose to ship to a nearby store.

Browse item by category

JCPenney manages its items by category. The high level categories are displayed on the horizontal navigation bar. Detailed categories are displayed on the left site navigation menu. Items are displayed in grid view for easy selection and comparison.

Check Item Detail Information

When users find an item that they are interested in, they can click on the grid view icon to dig into item’s detail information, such as the brand, the specific feature, texture and material. Users can select the available size and color. For some items, users can also check if the same item is available at nearby stores. However, this function is not available for all items.

Tools for Advice

For each item, the site provides review and rating. Customers usually are interested in and trust the comments provided by previous shoppers. The detail item specifications are also the guidance for online shoppers.

5. How do these sites process order placement and payment? (Act)

There are several methods to check out online shopping items. Users can check out directly or check out with promotion code, and then users can choose to use standard check out or express check out. The website collects and stores customer information. So after the first time shopping, users do not need to retype in their credit card and shipping information unless they want to change. After place the payment, and email confirmation will be sent to users.

6. How do these sites handle delivery, shipping and return? (Act)

For shipping and delivery, users can choose to ship to their address directly, or to ship to a store and then pick up at the store. The second method does not charge shipping fee. Each purchase will have an order number. Users can use the order number to track shipping. If users are not satisfied with the merchandise, they can return the items. They can bring the items to a store to return, which is free of return shipping and handling fee. They can also mail the item back to JCPenney, however, online shoppers will be responsible for the postage.

7. How responsive are their customer services? (React)

JCPenney provides a comprehensive list of customer services. They have an 800 number which customers can all 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Customers can also email to ask product and service information. Customers can even write a letter and mail to JCPenney.

8. How useful are each site's special interface feature and arrangement of content?

JCPenney’s product filter is quite handy and helpful for online shoppers. For example, when shopping women’s apparel, it returns more than 300 items, by filtering by size, color, brand and style can quickly help shoppers narrow down to the items that fit.

JCPenney’s advantage is that it has run its stores nationwide and builds up a trust worthy brand name. Its stores are at every corner. Its website tries to leverage the benefit of store and online shopping. Instead of making both channels to compete with each other, they make both channels compliment to each other. For example, online shopping can order online and pickup at store; store shoppers, if can’t find certain item, they can ask staff to order from online for them.

9. Are these sites well organized, easy to navigate, visually appealing? (Usability)

The overall usability level is just-so-so. For the first time shopper, it probably will be a little bit overwhelming of where to search items. The website is organized; however some category labels are not straight forward. Some items displayed on the website are neither available at warehouses nor at store, especially at hot shopping season. This is quite frustrated to shoppers. They should remove items that are not on stock.

Overall the site is visually appealing. But some ads images are too large.

10. What are some possible improvements or enhancements you would recommend for the site?

Check out button only appears immediately after an item is added to the shopping cart and then it just disappears. Shopping bag only displays as a small icon under the horizontal bar. Shoppers cannot see what’s in the shopping cart easily. Recommend adding a small section on the right hand side to display items in the shopping cart on every page.

Its front page of each category usually features a large size picture for a particular promoted item. This method may work in brick and mortar stores, but not on online shopping. On web, users are trained to skip ads. Those ads-like images are usually filtered out by users. Also online shoppers seldom target particular item but enjoy wide range of selection. Recommend use such a noticeable and precious space to display a series of promotions in smaller images, or to display a series of smaller images of subcategories to guide users to narrow their search of items.