SWOT Analysis: Macy's vs. Bloomingdale's.

E selling and E-marketing these days is ever changing, always dynamic. Technology is advancing faster

than we can think. As every day more and more consumers decide to do their shopping from home, whether it

be groceries, personal items, or toys, web sites are changing significantly in order to meet their customer's

needs. Being an avid online shopper, I always look for a few things in order to fully trust a website's content

and after purchase resources, which include; estimated time of delivery, estimated shipping price, product

packaging, and their return policies. These are only a few of the many key services a customer can take into

consideration when dealing with an online store, but by no means are the only things that a potential e-customer

should be aware of. Using the SWOT Analysis, as a guideline, I came to the following conclusions when I

visited the Macy's and Bloomingdale's online stores.

An online store's navigability should be very simple and to the point. This all begins on their homepage,

were all the important information is centered. It should use very big links, and buttons in order to facilitate a

customer's shopping experience. It should also provide enough information and a descriptive photo of the item,

so the customer can make the right decision and will be happy with it. In this critique both websites were equal,

making this the strength of their websites.

A weakness that I found for the Macy's website is they did not offer an "About Macy's" link, where

people can retrieve information on their history, press releases, and new stores. A second weakness to the

Macy's online store is in their customer services. It seems that their discount ads are the biggest and the services

they offer are all left on the bottom of the page and in a smaller font size. One weakness that I personally found

for the Bloomingdale's online store is their lessened line of ads, or discount ads. But then again I don't think

Bloomingdale's