Bourke Street Bakery - Bench Marking a Website Case Study

Introduction - What the report is about?

The report will facilitate Bourke Street Bakery determine how well the website meets the need of their company and its online visitors; to identify its strengths but also some of the changes required to make their website more effective. The website benchmarking report tells us how well the website compares with the closest 10 direct competitors to Bourke Street Bakery (Herein after BSB). The report tells us if users will find BSB's website intuitive and easy to use and weather it is likely to please or disappoint them. BSB being a growing bakery with majority of their produce being handmade and fresh has an edge over its competitors as we observe the niche market it is catering towards.

This report has been complied to give us an in depth understanding and insight into global best practice while creating websites in the bakery sector. By taking elements of bakery-related online customer experience benchmarks and bringing examples of best practice from current websites, this report should stimulate ideas on how a website can be adapted to provide better customer experience.

The following section titled methodology will describe our approach to the benchmarking report including our testing criteria. The task presented to us was to benchmark websites of companies that operates in the bakery sector of the food service industry. We choose to benchmark against 10 other website including 2 multinational bakery's. We further made a specific benchmarking evaluation by incorporating further elements of the criteria developed to test three website which set the industrial trend.

Methodology - Development of Benchmark Criteria

A range of methodology will be implemented to achieve the highest standard of benchmark against the company's competitors. There are wide range of factors which can help us determine the appropriate standard of BSB' current website presence amongst its competitors. Specific criteria or elements need to be shortlisted that are closely linked to the sector that BSB operates in and those that would help us pin-point the areas which are most crucial for BSB's expansion through its website.

An in-depth analysis and review of the existing website needs to be organized. Furthermore while reviewing the websites - the home page of each website is given a 'wow factor' rating on a scale of 1 - 10. This will help us determine the initial attractiveness and magnetism the homepage has on the webpage visitors. As mentioned earlier specific or niche criteria need to be devised in order to benchmark those factor's which will then help us evaluate the position and further requirements of the website for BSB. Factors or criteria such as appearance, content, navigation, accessibility and functionality are the primary criteria developed in assisting the benchmark. Under these criteria there are further elements, which will help us provide an in-depth benchmark analysis against the competitors and the overall industry trend.

Once all the information was gathered, conclusions were drawn on the quality of the four website including BSB's. Finally, drawing on those conclusions, advice was structured which would facilitate BSB's web site enhancement.

In several cases, website quality has been related to the level of user expectations fulfillment and quality standards (Grigoroudis et al., 2008). These are the following principal quality dimensions listed by Grigoroudis et al. (2008) -

a. Content - Related to the responsiveness of a website to satisfy user inquiry and trust regarding the information offered.

b. Navigation - Reflects the support provided to users when moving in and around a site.

c. Accessibility (Structure) - Examined at the following levels: loading speed, technical aspects, real time information, software requirements, download time frame and browser capabilities.

Along with the criteria mentioned by Grigoroudis, Functionality and Appearance will help us assist benchmark other important elements as well.

d. Appearance - Captures aspects related to a website's look and feel, giving emphasis on state of the art graphics and multimedia effects. Examined at the following levels: graphics representations, first impression, existence and usability of high quality images, and voice and video.

e. Functionality - Depicts the inclusiveness of various tools and other components assisting in making the users browsing experience much effortless. The elements include e-commerce, marketing, multilingual, print friendly, assistance with site features (help), newsletter subscription, online polls and surveys, linkage to social sites.

These are the 5 primary criteria devised for the benchmark analysis. Each of these criteria has its own importance however incase of a retail bakery store considering to expand its presence in the market, benchmarks such as Appearance and Functionality has to be examined in much more detailed manner than the others.

Evaluation - Application of Established Criteria

In the proposal provided earlier our team had mentioned and provided a detailed explanation of the requirement of a website for Bourke street bakery and how it would enhance the customer experience, in turn helping the company in customer retention. The primary purpose of the website in this case is being as informative as possible while providing customer's or visitor's with the highest possible standard of experience in terms of attractiveness and product desire. So areas such as First Impressions, Look and Feel, Location Searcher, Product Listing, Social Presence and E-commerce are highly relevant to the sector BSB operates in and they define the purpose for which there is a necessity to have a website for a local bakery.

The following 10 companise have been shortlisted in order to benchmark against Bourke Street Bakery's existing website -

1. www.bakersdelight.com.au

2. www.beechworthbakery.com

3. www.breadtop.com.au

4. www.brumbys.com.au

5. www.saraleebakery.com.au

6. www.luneburger.com.au

7. www.kerrypinnacle.com.au

8. www.villagebakerycafe.com.au

9. www.chilternbakery.com