Circuit City Essay

Circuit City - Internet Business Strategy

Introduction

In the fifty years since Circuit City opened its first store, the company has become one of the best-known sources of consumer electronics in the world. Today Circuit City boasts over 600 stores and more than 50,000 associates. The company consistently strives to offer low, competitive prices, high service standards, and a wide selection of products to meet consumer needs.

Circuit City has long prided itself on the outstanding shopping experience it offers to customers. In the 1990 ’s the company was early to see the value of the Internet for making that experience even better. However, they shunned the then-popular approach that many bricks-and-mortar retailers were adopting,

While other e-commerce sites offered delivery services as the only way to take possession of purchases, Circuit City wanted its customers to be able to pick up merchandise at a nearby outlet if they wished –a unique approach that has since been copied by other firms. In today’s business world most customers want their products “today” whether its for personal use or business purposes. Customers demand choice selection, price information, related product information, easy purchasing options, and most important immediate availability. Circuit City’s web development does precisely that. Www.circuitcity.com is an electronic Superstore, with robust product selection, feature and price comparison capabilities, and inventory links to Circuit City’s nationwide network of stores. The site provides all the advantages of online shopping and convenience while leveraging the local “brick-and-mortar” stores’ inventory and value-added services, including

If a customer is able to completely perform a shopping transaction, to the point that all he/she has to do is pick up the product at the local store, then the need for sales personnel decreases. Most importantly, the site supports the overall business of Circuit City by offering not just an online purchasing option, but also features that boost in-stores sales and improve the over all buying experience for customers.

Circuit City’s Success

Circuit City’s web application has been successful. It experienced increased business flow since it launched in 1999. Despite the substantial effort entailed in this integration, the production site went live just seven months. Customer reaction was so positive that in order to meet demand Circuit City soon replaced the initial configuration. Three factors can definitely be attributed to such success:

Robust Scalability and Extensibility: Circuit City expects and meets heavy traffic of browsers and buyers. BroadVision’s scalable and extensible architecture enables Circuit City’s site to have the best performance possible without compromising on rich and customized features and