Thomas Cook Travel Inc.

Case Study #1: E-Commerce

Prepared by: Joe Doe

Student Number: 0100111
Fanshawe College

BUSI - Business Information Systems (SYST-3002-20LC)

Professor: Laura DeLanger

November 16, 2012

The purpose is to reinforce the important concepts of E-commerce by evaluating a company’s approach to it and articulating what
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makes them successful or unsuccessful in their e-commerce market.

Business background Information

The introduction of E-Commerce in the travel and tourism industry brings a lot of benefits and convenience to Thomas Cook Group plc Their E-
commerce presence is attained through their web site called Thomascook.ca. It did not only aid in boosting the overall performance in terms of
revenue and efficiency of customer service but it also improved their management operations. The most significant improvement of all is that it is
less time consuming and uses less manpower compared to the physical shop front.

Thomas Cook Group, PLC - is one of the world's leading leisure travel groups with sales of more than CAD$15 billion and 22.1 million customers
from across the globe. They operate under five geographic segments in 21 countries, including Canada and the United States, and are number
one or number two in all of our core markets. Their business is supported by 31,000 employees, a fleet of 95 aircraft and a network of over 3,400
owned and franchised travel stores.

Their strategy is to focus on strengthening their core mainstream business and invest in areas of future growth, primarily independent, travel-
related financial services and other opportunities via mergers, acquisitions and partnerships.

Thomas Cook North America - is a division of Thomas Cook Group plc. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, and is comprised of market leading
travel brands located in Canada and the United States. i

Strengths
 Thomas Cook does not only engage itself in travel and tourism but
also in hospitality businesses that gives them the strength to have
a natural transformation
 The website offers various attractive promotions and holiday
packages to attract customers as well as accommodate their
expectations.
 They provide responsive and convenient customer services by
creating a site that is rich in information, hence giving customers
good reasons to visit and return to their website.
Weaknesses
 They have to fulfill their promise to their customer when things do
not go as planned
 A travel sign in account that will keep customer preferences and
travel plans
 More advertising to the general public through internet and media
will benefit the company as North America market has room to
grow.
 The company did not embrace the mobile market yet.

 The company offers planning and booking travel, online, over the
phone or in person through one of their knowledgeable travel
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experts.
 They also offer full-service travel-related financial services - from
currency exchange to travel insurance
 By keeping their prices at rock bottom rates, the company is
focused on online customers through an online self-service model.
 Access to thousands of vacation packages from their major tour
operator partners
 Prices change frequently as the database is constantly being
updated with the latest price changes

Opportunities
 The company has the opportunity of making a high profit because
it is international and linked to major central reservation systems
with access to airlines and hotels worldwide.
 The company is optimistic of penetrating and retaining new and
existing markets on the global platform, thus quickly building up a
critical mass of loyal customers.
 End-users will respond to new ideas like improvements and
attractiveness of the web site.
 The company can embrace the mobile market.
Threats
 Since they do not live up to their promises, they are threatened to
lose their customers and business.
 Market changes could impact the travel business.
 Market demand is very seasonal.
 Retention of satisfied customers is critical.
 Vulnerable to reactive attack by other major competitors.

Benefits of E-commerce for business/market

This is a Business to Customer (B2C) E-Commerce Company. In order to be a successful E-Commerce company, the main aspect to be
considered is the terms of customer relationship management. It is a customer service approach that focuses on building long-term and
sustainable customer relationships that add value for the customer and the company.

In the business context, doing well ethically corresponds closely with good business in the sense that ethically developed products and services
are more likely to please consumers. There are many legal and web site regulatory issues involved when it comes to e-Business websites.
Electronic copyright, e-commerce, credit/cash policies, international trade, tariffs, privacy, digital media offers, and security are just a few of the
items to be considered.
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A prominently displayed "Contact Us" page is critical for full customer satisfaction. To create trust with the merchant, for customers still
squeamish about ordering over the net, Thomas Cook web site provides a method to process phone orders by calling a phone number, emailing
or visiting a physical location from the listing provided for in person customer care.
Also, customers might fear that the web site could be a hoax if it does not inspire trust. They might fear that their personal information may be
exposed or used wrongly, or even the payment and transaction information may not be secured. It is a fact that electronic commerce has a very
competitive market. Because at the end of the day: if a site does not look secure to a consumer, the consumer will not trust it.
Established web sites have adopted search engine optimization techniques (SEO) to increase their site's relevance and popularity. As such,
Thomas Cook needs to stand out among its competitors and prove that they are able to provide something unique to attract their customers. ii

Infrastructure investment required

When an eCommerce store is created it needs to build and configure the hardware, purchase software and create other resources in order to
perform the required IT-related functions. All those will require a website designing services with Internet connection, Web hosting server,
modems, routers, switches, bridges and gateways. It also requires Server Licenses that can be used on all Windows based operating systems.
Software required for Server (i.e.NT 4 Server- Win2000 Server- Win2000 Advanced Server) that has HTML/XML/visual Web page editor, including
firewall that has packet filtering software built to protect Windows-based servers. This will ensure that all web traffic is scanned for malicious
activity, and is blocked upon detection. An AntiVirus protection system software for server that is designed to block all forms of computer viruses
and monitor every drive on the computer as well as all incoming email, browser, file transfer protocol, and compressed files; hence it is able to
defend against every method of virus delivery.

The web site also has a search driven database that will display a report as results with links to different travel options based on the search criteria
specified. It has a lot of images that fairly and accurately reflect the product or service provided allowing the consumer to view the product from
multiple angles. It also associates products with related and complimentary products and services. These associations are displayed automatically
on the same page. A robust promotional engine ties the purchase of one service to a discounted service or product ( i.e. travel insurance, hotel,
car booking, etc)

The company has to ensure that the web site employs strong encryption for payment processes and customer data retention in a decentralized
processing system with an online transaction processing (OLTP) that will process the transaction without delays. The web site has a visible
running total of purchases prominently displayed during the customer experience and it has the payment processor secure through an online
payment and billing system using 128 bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. It sends a secure email confirmation along with e-Tickets and all
the travel documents to the customer at the end of the transaction. It probably has a typical Transaction Processing Application (TPS) that
includes order processing system, accounting system and purchasing system.iii
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Conclusion
Good web design is a balance between looking professional and maintaining usability. A significant barrier to any online retailer is attaining both a
professional look and achieving a good, useable layout as well as customer satisfaction. Poor layout is the equivalent of an unkempt brick-and-
mortar store. It subtly cues the customer that goods, services and order fulfillment will be substandard.

This web site should improve it’s overall appearance and advertise through cost free search engines, email campaigns, low cost banner ads, or
other online promotional schemes like Google AdWords in order to attract more customers

Finally, all web sites are facing the barrier presented by consumer psychology that needs to be changed in order to attract them to their web
stores.

References

1. http://www.thomascook.ca/EN/Home.aspx
2. http://www.voloper.com/documents/white-papers/ecommerce_white_paper.pdf - Copyright 2008 Voloper Creations Inc.
3. http://www.voloper.com
i
http://www.thomascook.ca/EN/Home.aspx

ii
http://www.voloper.com/documents/white-papers/ecommerce_white_paper.pdf - Copyright
2008 Voloper Creations Inc.

iii
http://www.voloper.com