The
Irish Chocolate Company
5
. Problem Definition
The Irish Chocolate Company had been operating a mail order business
for its chocolates for 15-20 years. Although this operation was on
a very small scale, the company had identified a niche and mail order
provided significant business. The company felt there was a lot more
opportunity in the mail order business and identified the Internet as the best method of exploiting it. They also strived to be the first
Irish handmade chocolate manufacturer selling online.
The journey along the information super highway started in 1997 with
an extensive market research initiative. As there were no existing
manufacturers in Ireland with an Internet presence, the company researched
its international competitors most of which were located in Belgium.
The Irish Chocolate Company looked to see who was selling online,
what kind of service they were offering, where they shipped to, how
the product arrived, how long it took to arrive and what kind of condition
it was in upon receipt. The researcher ordered over 25 products from
online
providers.
They soon discovered that none of their competitors, at that time,
were selling into Ireland. For instance Godiva, a leading Belgian
manufacturer, only shipped to the US.
Research also pointed out that the majority of orders placed were
for gifting purposes opposed to individuals buying for themselves.
Surprisingly gifts arrived packaged in plain brown boxes, labeled
with a plain printed address sticker, accompanied by an invoice. “We
felt the method of shipping and the inclusion of pricing details to
be very inappropriate for the gifting market,” explained Michelle
McBride, “we saw a huge opportunity to design an overall product
acceptable as a gift - concentrating on presentation, package design
and gift cards.” The Irish Chocolate Company felt the area of
mail ordering was potentially a very profitable market and the Internet was the best vehicle for opening up new markets and building a new
customer base. No other Irish manufacture was engaged in online ordering
– they had found a niche product and an untapped market.
6 . Web History
In 1998 the initial web site was launched with an online ordering
facility. Produced by a web design company, the site allowed customers
to view products and to order online. Although the site was housed
internally within the company premises, they had very little control
of its content. They didn’t have the flexibility to add new products
easily or update information without an understanding of Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML). This is the standard code used to describe
how the content of a Web page should be displayed and interacted with.
Each time a change was required the web design company would have
to come to the office and make the changes directly. These limitations
led The Irish Chocolate Company to seek an alternative system allowing
for extended flexibility.
In February of 1999 the company decided to re-think its Internet strategy
and build upon the amazing success of the Butlers brand that was being
heavily promoted via its Butlers Chocolate Cafés. As expertise
of site design was thin on the ground within the organisation, in
March 1999, Butlers decided to employ the services of an Internet consultant, Tony Connolly of Farrell Grant Sparks (www.fgs.ie). The
consultant’s brief was to draw up a highly detailed specification
describing the site requirements and recommend hardware and software.
The specification needed to be highly detailed so that all parties
involved would understand exactly what was required and no surprises
would arise during the development phase. In addition, the document
gave a higher degree of assurance that the quote for the project would
be accurate without the need to extend budgets to accommodate unforeseen
extras.
Although Butlers had an internal IT department with very able staff,
there were no available in-house web design or implementation skills.
Armed with the 50-page specification, they decided to send the specification
out to a selection of six different web design companies within Ireland.
Five companies replied with a quotation whereby Butlers and the consultant
sat down with each company to hear their pitch. From this group of
bidders, Butlers selected Labyrinth (www.labyrinth.ie), based in Dublin.
“We felt Labyrinth were the most professional and demonstrated
great enthusiasm for the project,” remarked Michelle McBride,
“although they were more expensive than some of the others, we
felt their experience, their good track record and their understanding
of our unique problems set them apart.”
One major functional requirement in the design and operation of the
site was Butlers needed to have a high degree of control over the
content and the ability to make changes quickly. The specification
had highlighted the requirement for a tool that would enable anyone
in the company (even with limited technical knowledge) to be able
to update the site’s content. As Labyrinth didn’t have such
a tool in their armoury at the time, they developed one specifically
for Butlers. As Butlers had provided Labyrinth with detailed requirements
for the tool’s functionality, the resulting end product was tailored
and customised to their exact specification. Two tools were created
for Butlers during this development process - Site Manager and Shop
Manager - Site Manager allowed simple updates or modifications to
the site and Shop Manager manages the order process, analysis, reporting
and historical information.
Another requirement of the site was to have three separate sections
targeted at distinct customer types:
- consumer
– the end customer
-
corporate – companies
- trade
– resellers
The
concept for the consumer section of the site had already been tried
in the first version of the site, but the other two areas were new
for Butlers. “We wanted to be a cutting edge company and wanted
to grow the international side of the retail and corporate business,”
explained Michelle McBride, “We didn’t imagine too many
domestic retailers switching to an online facility, but new overseas
customers were being specifically targeted.” At trade shows,
Butlers frequently met potential overseas retail clients who would
sample the product and see the range being exhibited. In addition,
they were then informed they could peruse all products in an interactive
manner and order instantly online.
Corporate customers are also heavily targeted on the site. Specific
ranges tailored for company gifts are promoted, especially around
the festive season. To market this new section, Butlers ran a postal
mail shot to a database of corporates, with return mail specifying
which method they would like to order, online or otherwise. In addition,
Butlers existing client database were sent information electronically
or via the postal service. Each individual customer was now pre-registered
with the site and sent an email with their password. Since its initial
launch in November 1998 and its re-launch in August 2001, Butlers
now have amassed a database of over 300 online corporate customers.
Finally, the site needed to reflect the intricate internal shipping
and pricing procedures without the retail customer being exposed
to these complexities. As chocolates shipments are priced by weight
and are perishable, the existing manufacturing system could automatically
calculate the logistics and pricing required to ship to the retail
customers. This functionality needed to be incorporated into the
site.
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