ANALYSIS OF E-COMMERCE TRANSACTION BROKER

ZUJI.COM

BACKGROUND

The world is now experiencing globalization and have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of exchange. The rapid growth of information

systems has led to an increase in interaction between people, processes and technology. An information system is not only the technology that an organization uses, but also the way in which the people in the organization interact with the technology and the way the technology works with the organization’s business and processes. A very good example is the technology of Internet.

As the world is moving towards a ‘global village’, there are many business organizations that adopt an e-commerce business. An e-commerce business consists selling and buying products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet. E-commerce business has become more popular nowadays among people and has become a leading trend for all. Among the popular e-commerce business, transaction broker websites has been a great pick for most people who wants to have a getaway from their busy lives. A good example of such websites would be Zuji.com.

PURPOSE

The main purpose of Zuji is to let consumers facilitate and interact with the different choice of travel leisure they offer, communicate with the agents, buy and pay for their picks. Zuji is an online travel agent dedicated to bringing great value travel choices to travelers in Asia Pacific. Their website offer inspiring holidays at great rates online. It enables consumers to find information to reach faraway locations. This means that it helps consumers reduce their search time and cost. Almost all information that is needed by a consumer can be found in their site.

FEATURES

Zuji is an e-commerce transaction broker site for consumers to book flights, hotels and holiday packages, purchase insurance and completes the transactions online. It represents neither party as an agent, but works to facilitate the transaction and deals with both parties, meaning the supplier and consumer on the same level of trust. Zuji is a B2C and B2B business. Zuji also provides a convenient way to handle transactions as they act as an intermediary between the customer and the hotels, flights, cruises and many other companies.

As a business to consumer (B2C) firm, Zuji target individual consumers who wants to have a great deal in booking travel packages online, at the same time, reducing the consumer’s search cost and time. On the other hand, as a business to business (B2B) firm, Zuji target in selling their services to other business.

STRENGTH

Zuji has a strong network of global partners, including 400 airlines, 77,000 hotels, 50 transportation companies, and over 3000 attractions all over the world, which will accomodate any travelers, even for those travelling into foreign lands for the first time. Zuji even helps to connect flights for their customers, acting as a bridge between different flight operators,

helping to ease their customers in finding a suitable connecting flight to their desired destination. It was first open in July 2002 in Singapore, and then soon it

opened its second market in Australia. Since become a major player in the online ticketing business in Asia Pacific, it has received numerous awards over the past few years,

including being Asia's leader in online ticketing in 2008.

Aside Zuji’s success reputation, the site provides complete information and the latest online travel technology and tools to travellers in Asia Pacific. In order to make it simple, safe and easy for consumers to plan and book a great value trip online, Zuji provide consumers with the knowledge that they need.

DESIGNS

First impressions are important and Zuji.com definitely makes a good one.

First of all, the website has a mostly blue colour scheme and this may seem unimportant but studies have shown that the colour blue is calming and easy on the eyes and is also

associated with relaxation. It also makes the orange or red font used stand out which is good for catching the eye of the potential customer in ord

er to highlight certain features or packages provided.

Zuji.com also utilizes colourful graphics which make the front page look cheerful at first glance. This serves to catch the eye of potential customers.

Both the colour scheme and the use of interesting graphics are to set the tone of a person’s visit to the page. The atmosphere of fun and relaxation sets the right note for the patron’s exploration of a travel site.

Another thing that makes Zuji stand out is the clean and organized layout of the front page. Some similar sites have taken the age old adage of a picture painting a thousand words too far and overloads the visitor’s sense with colourful pictures. This only serves to overwhelm the visitor.

Zuji has adopted a plain white background with clear partitions organizing their internal

search engine, tabs for details on destinations, packages provided, hotels and flights etc, as well as listing attractive packaged specials. This makes for easy navigation and is very user friendly.

The name Zuji itself is derived from the mandarin hanyu pinyin for footprint. The name was chosen to denote a start of a journey, and hence a footprint maybe used in their newsletters etc. A green foot print is also used when there are eco-friendly options available.

WEAKNESSES, PITFALLS, PROBLEMS AND COMPLAINTS

As most travel sites do, Zuji only provides price comparisons, information and booking for a select number of Airline companies and hotels etc, neglecting most budget airlines and cheaper hotels. Choosing to focus on the bigger more established hotels as well as

regular Airline companies allows Zuji to make a higher turnover.

However, most people who plan and book their holidays online are looking for budget friendly options. Which is why sites such as Zuji, which serve as a middle man between various airline companies and hotels, are so attractive as they reduce search costs.

Hence by neglecting this group of people, they are cutting out a sizable number of potential customers.

It had also been observed that airplane tickets and room prices were not the cheapest and if they were, it was at a great sacrifice of convenience.

For an example, the relatively cheap plane ticket to the United States of America involves red-eye flights and long layovers. This sometimes almost negates the benefits of the cheaper flight.

Complaints users had of the site included the lack of information on room availability when searching for a preferred hotel. Such information is only provided after user’s details such as name and contact information have been submitted as well as a payment of down payment.

Customer service has also been sorely lacking. Although FAQs email addresses and various telephone numbers were provided, many users complained that calls were not picked up or if they were, it’s quickly obvious that calls are routed to a call centre in India where call officers are not well informed and are unable to answer queries and even rude.

Although Zuji is a mainly e-commerce business, customer service has to be backed by physical manpower to handle enquiries, as well as to inform customers of any change to their travel plans such a flight cancellation or delay.

Another complaint was that Zuji was charging exorbitant fees and booking charges especially when people booked from Australia.

Zuji however has, as of September 2009, announced that they will be removing all booking charges from bookings from Australia.

Another feature Zuji was lacking that it’s competitor (Agoda.com) had is a guarantee to beat or match the price if one were to find a cheaper flight or hotel room under the same conditions.

Agoda.com also provides customer care 24/7 as they have an someone on call.

Zuji also lacks a customer loyalty scheme which would be an excellent marketing strategy as it increases the chance of repeat custom.

A modified version of an adage has even been used to describe Zuji's customer service

amongst some seasoned travellers who've booked and org

anised their holidays online- 'Better safe than sorry, avoid Zuji'.

SECURITY

A truly secure webpage system is expected to satisfy confidentiality, authentication,

integrity and non-repudiation. In the case of Zuji, they have the assurance that only the intended consumer can read the message, the assurance that the consumer is who it is claiming to be, the assurance that the message has not been altered and the assurance that the consumer cannot falsely deny sending a message. Their secure server software encrypts all of the consumer’s personal information, including credit card information. The process of encryption takes the information they enter and converts it into bits of

code that are securely transmitted over the Internet. This scrambled data cannot be read as the information travels over the Internet. When Zuji’s secure server receives their encrypted personal information, it is translated back into its original form and stored in their off-line database. Customer’s credit card information is also encrypted for transmission over the Internet.

Zuji takes Internet security and personal privacy, very seriously. In order to ensure this, they adhere to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) and have privacy and security policies available as links from their homepage. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards is a set of comprehensive requirements for enhanc

ing payment account data security to help facilitate the broad adoption of consistent data

security measures on a global basis.

When handling payment transactions, Zuji uses several different payments method. One is the online method, which is making payments via visa online. Zuji utilizes ‘Verified by VISA’ and they are payment certified by VeriSign. Second, is by having the consumer

to call up the Zuji hotline to provide details of their credit card and lastly, if the customer is afraid of being cheated online, they also allows their customers to pay via walk-in at the Zuji ticketing counter. Hence, consumers may choose whichever payment method they prefer. Upon successful payment, Zuji will deliver the tickets straight to their customer via mail.

In addition to implementing highly secure online protection methods, Zuji also has a dedicated risk-management team who regularly and randomly counter-check credit card purchases made on Zuji to ensure their authenticity, and verify that credit cards have not been used for making unauthorised purchases. At times, phone contact is made with Zuji customers as part of this process.

PRIVACY

ZUJI Travel Pte Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of ZUJI Pte Ltd and operates using ZUJI’s Privacy Policy. Zuji has set provision of privacy policy for consumers to agree which can be found in their privacy policy homepage. They are committed to protecting consumers’ privacy in accordance with the highest consumer protection standards.

Zuji is the owner of the information collected on their site. They do not sell or rent individual personal information to third parties. It has implemented technology and security features to safeguard the privacy of consumer’s personal information. A sec

ure server protects consumer’s personal information. Additionally consumers can be

assured that the information provided is transmitted using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encry

ption.

CONCLUSION

Travelling has now become a common activity for everyone. And with globalization, it is essential that we make travelling arrangements, be it for leisure or business, with ZUJI, it can be done with no or little hassle as possible, and so with ZUJI’s extensive international network of lodgings and transportations, we can make our customizable travelling arrangements in an instant. What’s more is that ZUJI is able to provide a very tight security and confidentiality of their customers. With this, it would be a very good choice to choose ZUJI as the preferred partner to aid in our travelling arrangements.