Since the creation of humans, business has been established. For example, People around the world have long been selling merchandise in exchange for gold, and they have long been driving to stores to purchase goods. With the technological evolution, this practice has changed. Today, people don’t even have to go to the store to buy what they want because they have the possibility of having the market virtually present in the comfort of their own home. In regard to this, any business that expands its market online will basically profit in expansion moving from a local to a global market. In this case, the income will be largely intensified. Home Dress’n X is a company that specializes in selling clothes, shoes, home accents, bed and bath products, and luggage. It opened its doors in 1982, selling its merchandise with bargain prices. Nowadays, it is well-known among the S&P, Fortune 500, and Nasdaq 100. Although Home Dress’n X has high ranges in the brick-and-mortar market, its website shows otherwise in the virtual market. The store has been very successful due its great prices as opposed to its competitors. However, when taking a look at the Home Dress’n X website, one can visibly see not much marketing there. Additionally, the website, as opposed to the store, is very dull and not enough diversity is shown. For instance, the store has a variety of merchandise, some brand names, and new trends. The merchandise are arranged according to sexes, sizes, genres, and new arrivals. Due to the high demands of established customers, though, according to Mr. Allendi, who is the sales manager of one of the Home Dress’n X stores, it would make a great impact on the store’s income/sales if there were great improvements on the website with better options for purchasing. How can improvements be made to the Home Dress’n X website so that it attracts and drives more people to the site? As described in Online Marketing Inside Out, “a key ingredient missing, one very important consideration that will ultimately influence all other aspects of your marketing mix … people” (Fley & Tilley, 2009). Hence, the customers’ feedback is paramount to sustaining the business. Indeed, it does make great sense for any business to go online to enhance its market and take the business to the global market where it can be viewed and accessed worldwide. It will be a great step towards more success to move Home Dress’n X forward, so it would bring more profit. Instead of having a website that only focuses on what is being sold, it would be best for Home Dress’n X to show the variety of styles of clothes that are in the stores, show the different patterns and the different colors according to their arrivals. Also, it would be beneficial for Home Dress’n X to give its customers the option to buy online. Consequently, this will attract more customers to the site and promote more sales. The products that Home Dress’n X offers will be sustainable in an online market due to the market demands for new trends at reasonable prices. Home Dress’n X has some good quality and brand name products that are sold up to 60% off their value at competitors’ department stores. Among the big competitors Home Dress’n X faces are Macy’s, JcPenney, and Kmart. These three stores have been in business for a long time and are known for the brands they sell.
The SWOT Analysis, a structured study that identifies an organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses, along with its external opportunities and threats, is used in the chart below to show the contents of the competitors’ websites, the graphics, load time, ease of use, and ecommerce options.

The SWOT Analysis of the Competitors:
Competition Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
Macy’s • The graphics are colorful and eye catching

• 18,812 sites link to Macy’s website

• Ease of use

• Can add a “Pin it” button to the product type pages, allowing shoppers to share articles through Pinterest • Load time: 3.067seconds • Macy’s annual revenue growth rate from 2008 to October 2011 is only 0.5% • Focused on email offers derived from consumers’ shopping history

• More Internet transactions have been made; Macy’s Internet business rose 40% from the last quarter of 2011

• Launch of new iPhone and Android apps from Macy’s • 79% of sites faster

• Competition: JcPenney, reducing the price of its merchandise JcPenney • The graphics are colorful, attractive, eye catching, and trendy.

• 10,103 sites link to JcPenney’s website

• Ease of use • Load time: 1.897 seconds

• Cut inventory revenue • A 24.8% annual recorded growth in 2012

• Cyber Monday

• Shifting internationally could positively impact the online market

• Enhanced online retail expenditure • 57% of sites are faster

• Competition: Kohl’s, Macy’s, Sears

Kmart • The graphics are well presented in size, colors, and languages

• Ease of use

• 6546 sites link to Kmart.com • Load time: 2.162 seconds • Low marketing budget • A 2.0% annual recorded growth in 2012

• Cyber Monday • 64% of sites are faster

• Filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection

• Competition: Kohl’s, Target, and Wal-Mart As shown above, Macy’s, JcPenney, and Kmart’s online strengths are ease of use, due to strong graphics and variety of colors, print sizes, and easy to read languages. According to Alexa (2013a,c), Macy’s has 18,812 sites linked to its website in contrast to JcPenney that has 10103 sites, and Kmart that has 6546 sites. These sites give Macy’s the upper hand over the other two with a 40% annual revenue increase compared to 24.8% growth for JcPenney and 2% for Kmart. Threats and weaknesses that all of the three sites seem to share are their load times and their speeds, which appear to be slower than the average sites. In the opportunities section, Cyber Monday is noted as an opportunity for Macy’s, JcPenney, and Kmart to expand their sales on electronics and bring in more financial profits. Macy’s has recently launched a new iPhone and Android App to aid customers with their online purchases. Additionally, Macy’s is focusing on consumers’ shopping history to send them email offers. As for Kmart, according to Alexa (2013b), the company’s weakness consists of the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection filed in 2002, causing the closing of numerous stores and diminishing its strong presence online. Therefore, Kmart is unable to fully compete with its competitor, such as Kohl’s, Wal-Mart, and Target, which are discount stores like Kmart that have multiple physical locations and can offer site-to-store options to their customers. JcPenney, with its lower inventory revenue is facing Kohl’s, Macy’s, and Sears as its competitors. However, with the opportunity to increase its online retail pay out, JcPenney may overcome its competitors.
Indeed, competitors exist, but with a SWOT analysis, Home Dress’n X may tackle the competition and rise above them if it considers the organizations’ internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as their external opportunities and threats. Home Dress’n X would benefit best if the company incorporated of all the customers’ specific feedback and worked with the competitors’ strengths and opportunities in mind to ameliorate its online presence. For example, Home Dress’n X’s graphics comprise two to three images per page, showing the category of merchandise being sold at the store. If incorporated colorful, attractive, eye catching, and trendy graphics as Macy’s, JCPenney, and Kmart’s, Home Dress’n X may attract more customers to its website. Those graphics are colorful and trendy according to the genres and variety of the products being advertised. Also, Home Dress’n X may learn from the competitors’ weaknesses and threats to avoid such failings. For instance, YouTube, one of the fastest sites on the internet, has a time load of 1.186 seconds; i.e., 68% of sites are slower than YouTube’s. The graphics are believed to be the source of the websites slowing down. Home Dress’n X is projected to hire new IT personnel to tackle this existing slow speed dilemma, which also exists at mega ecommerce sites like Macy’s and JCPenney. Home Dress’n X’s goal is to have a similar load time as YouTube in order to execute more transactions and strengthen its online presence.

Online marketing strategies that Home Dress’n X could use to direct its target audience are: 1) Banner ads, 2) Online newsletters, and 3) Email blasts.
Banner ads:
This type of online advertising involves setting a commercial into a webpage. The banner ads are to be used by Home Dress’n X to drive traffic to its website. Its banner ads will appear on all sorts of web pages. Once a customer clicks on one of the ads, the customer’s internet browser will take him or her immediately to Home Dress’n X’s website. Both banner ads and traditional advertisements inform customers about the merchandise and motivate them to choose the merchandise in question. The only difference that exists between them is that banner ads are considered to be instantaneous and may specifically target the viewer’s interests because it can be determined what sites the customer has visited. Home Dress’n X’s website may have a great deal of success using banner ads as they will, most likely, drive traffic to the company’s website.
Online newsletters:
Online newsletters help a business bond with its customers. They build credibility, establish expectations, and authority. Online newsletters consist of an email distribution program that sends out e-newsletters to subscribers to keep them updated on the company’s happenings. In order to receive the online newsletters, customers have to sign up for them; then, they will be sent out to the customers through email. Online newsletters will be sent out by Home Dress’n X on a weekly basis, and then linked on its website with Facebook links and tweets directing people to them. The principal goal of Home Dress’n X having an online newsletter is to keep its customers posted on news and upcoming events and sales, along with providing contact information for common questions. Additionally, online newsletters are rewarding for Home Dress’n X to have because they are known for increasing a company’s current sales numbers, followers, future customers, subscriber lists, and friends. Therefore, through the use of online newsletters, Home Dress’n X should drive tremendous traffic to its website.
Email blast:
Similar to online newsletters, email blasts are to be sent out to people who subscribe to them. A great email blast consists of an engaging subject line that captures the interest of the readers. The content of the email blast should be relevant and abide to policies pertaining to spam. Home Dress’n X will use an email marketing software to handle its email blast. The message of the email blast must be direct and brief, as well as provide basic details with links throughout the body of the email that may lead the readers to Home Dress’n X’s website to proceed with the reading of an article of interest on fashion or to buy products. Furthermore, the company will use email blasts to offer its subscribers coupon codes to persuade them to buy its products. Home Dress’n X’s email blasts are to be formatted in a way that avoids the email subscriber from marking and rejecting its emails as spam. In order to avoid being rejected as spam, the company will refrain from using all caps, from placing several exclamation marks at the end of a sentence, and from adding too many links in the message body. Furthermore, if customers feel bothered by the email blast, they can unsubscribe at anytime. In short, an email blast is another way for Home Dress’n X to keep up with its supporters and its prospects, which may lead to an increase in sales.

As Home Dress’n X is located in Miami, the target customers in this case will evidently be the South Floridians with an intention by the company to advance in the global market. The store will launch a big sale promoting the renovation of its website. There will be a surplus discount when purchases are made online as opposed to the store. Consequently, this will probably attract more customers to visit Home Dress’n X’s website to buy as they will save more through that means. Other ways that Home Dress’n X will drive more customers to its site is by sponsoring major events, such as Calle Ocho, the annual Caribbean festival, and national sporting events (NBA, NFL, and MLB). Throughout these events, there will be quite a few commercials about Home Dress’n X’s big sale events in tandem with the renovation of its website. Also, Home Dress’n X can promote its website through advertising on Telemundo, which is a renowned Spanish television network, headquartered in Miami with more than 1900 employees worldwide.

Telemundo Digital Media, which distributes original programming content across digital and mobile networks, and the telemundo.com and mun2.tv websites; Puerto Rico television station WKAQ-TV, whose signal reaches 99% of all television households in the U.S. territory; and Telemundo Internacional, the international distribution arm. Telemundo is the second-largest provider of Spanish-language content worldwide, with its content syndicated to more than 100 countries in over 35 languages. (Telemundo, n.d) Consequently, having a network such as Telemundo where the company can advertise its website would expose the company to the local Hispanic and global market. The other television network to be used for advertising is WSVN (also known as the local Fox channel). This channel covers all of South Florida. Then, there is the Miami Herald, “Founded in 1903, it is the largest newspaper in South Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward County, and Monroe County. It also circulates throughout Latin America and the Caribbean” (The Miami Herald, n.d.). When using these media outlets to advertise Home Dress’n X’s website, the company could dominate the local market. Telemundo, specifically, will help with the global market.. Nowadays, social media is being used to advertise businesses and has been very successful with that due to the variety of people who are exposed to the ads daily. The consideration of using Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to propagate Home Dress’n X will be very beneficial to its online marketing and drive more customers to its site for purchase. Facebook is a well-known, free networking website that gives access to people around the world to create profiles. Once these people become members, they can interact with friends, send messages to each other, upload photos and videos, and chat with one another.
Facebook is enormously accessible in 37 languages and displays some public countenances such as the Market place, which permits its users “to post, read, and respond to classified ads” (Rouse & Dean, 2009). Besides, Groups permits users with similar interests to get to know each other and keep up with their everyday life, Events lets users announce and promote an event, send out an invitation to guests and keep up with who is coming, then, Pages permits users to put together and propagandize a public page about a certain subject, and last, but not least, Presence technology gives access to the users to view contacts that are available online and to start a chat (Rouse & Dean, 2009). Having Facebook will benefit Home Dress’n X’s customers greatly. Facebook has the “like” icon. Once you like the business, it will appear to all your contacts as an announcement so that they can do the same or search the business to find out what it is about. On Facebook, the advertising sometimes displays in a little box on the side or in the middle of the page. The contacts can just “like” the page and have access to new trends. In return, this could increase the sales for Home Dress’n X. Home Dress’n X should use Facebook as a way to communicate with its community of clients and fans and advertise special sales/events. Through Facebook, customers will be kept informed about promotions, events, and activities going on. Home Dress’n X will be financially benefiting from this kind of social media support by enabling a two-way interchange and unlimited consumer engagement.
The next social media to be used to promote Home Dress’n X is LinkedIn, which is a professional networking site that lets registered users keep a contact list, termed Connections. Members can invite other people even if they are not registered members to join a connection. It is available in 20 different languages. According to LinkedIn, (n.d.), “It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.” The last social media to be used to advertise Home Dress’n X is Twitter. Twitter is a free public network that permits registered users to write short posts also known as tweets, basically consisting of microblogs. When using Twitter, differently from LinkedIn and Facebook, members must approve another member’s friend request, allowing networking between members; i.e., “anyone can follow anyone on public Twitter. To weave tweets into a conversation thread or connect them to a general topic, members can add hashtags to a keyword in their post” (Rouse & McMahon, 2010). Home Dress’n X should show interest to listen to microbloggers on Twitter and respond using the same medium. This will possibly secure a following with the community.
Social media tools should be used to expand any online business, for they are the greatest and fastest way to carry a company’s message and to sell products to customers in the global market. There are so many social media tools available for advertising online. However, having Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter as your promoting tools could gradually expand the business to another level. Consequently, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter work in expanding online businesses, not just nationally but worldwide.

References Alexa. (2013a). JcPenney. Retrieved from http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/jcpenney.com
Alexa. (2013b). Kmart. Retrieved from http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/kmart.com
Alexa. (2013c). Macy’s. Retrieved from http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/macys.com
Fley, B., & Tilley, S., (2009). Online marketing inside out (1st ed.).
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