Business documents Unit 5: A report

Petersen Music Sales

Feasibility Report

Introduction

Our two major competitors have recently introduced animated sales reps to their web sites. This report examines the marketing, technical and financial issues involved, and outlines the benefits we could expect to gain from using this technology.

Summary

Studies show that conversational agents can increase sales by 30% by converting browsers to customers. Easytail, our application service provider, have made a proposal to design and install a conversational agent; the system could be operational in two months, and the cost represents an increase of approximately 12% over our current e-tailing overhead. Results from focus groups show that 20% of visitors to our site would appreciate the help of an animated sales rep, 55% are not sure of the benefits, and 25% would definitely not use the service.

Conclusions

Installing a conversational agent will ensure that we do not fall further behind the N. American market leaders. It will also give us a competitive advantage over our smaller, European competitors. Even without achieving the objective of a 30% increase in turnover, a small increase of 6 to 7% in sales will be sufficient to cover investment and running costs.

Recommendations

We should install the conversational agent as soon as possible. However, we should insist that Easytail ensure that interactive help is only offered to those customers who have expressed an interest in the service, in order not to intrude on our customers’ privacy.

Emily Hansen

E-sales manager

22 February 2007

Appendices

Marketing Background

Our existing e-tailing business

The proposed new service, design & costs

Focus group results

Summary table

This page has been downloaded from The Business Intermediate DVD-ROM.

It is photocopiable, but all copies must be complete pages.

 Macmillan Publishers Limited 2007