Relationship of Organization Principals: Retail v. E-Tail
Retail: Andronico’s Organizing Systems
The observable organization
principals of Andronico’s derive from its business model housing both the
display and sale of physical goods in one space. Both the retail products and associated
services are organized into sections. For example, product groups have been created
such as “Baking Needs” and “Pet Food” and then placed in specific locations on
the enumerated aisles. Furthermore services
where the customer interfaces with staff are also located in sections as with
the “deli counter” or the “checkstands.” These section organize one of the most
important resources a store has: its floor space. Moreover, in the case of the services, the
sections organize the resource of human capital. Housed within this system of organization is
another layer of organizing principals. Functionally related sections are categories: Aisle 9 houses “Beverages” along
with the other sealed non-perishable drinks section “Beer”. Categories occurs across
the network of aisles as well with Aisle 7 by housing another beverage section,
“wine & spirits” as well as the related section of items used to make
beverages: Coffee, Tea, and cocoa.
E-Tail: Amazon.com Organizing Systems
The Amazon.com
directory page also is divided into several sections. These section
include the directory, “Earth’s Biggest Selection”, “Your Recent History,” and
related websites found at the bottom of the page. The resource in this case is
page location. The directory is located “above
the fold” whereas the related websites are tucked at the bottom of the
page. Within the directory section exist
categories of good and services offered by Amazon.com. These categories are arranged from the most
ephemeral services offered “Instant Videos” in the top left of the section down
to the most tangible of goods “Automotive & Industrial Goods” in the bottom
right column.
Retail v. E-Tail
Both business map
their sections into linear columns
and rows. Again, each businesses co-locates
related section into categories. Where as Andronico’s is
utilizing the resource of the square footage of their retail floor space to
organize, Amazon.com is using its page space as a resource. Andronico’s and Amazon both place the checkout
sections in high-visibility locations: Andronico’s near the entry points and
Amazon.com at the top-right of the page.
Sections and categories with less
relevance to their respective core businesses are located on the periphery of
their respective spaces: Firewood is the furthest item from the checkout at
Andronico’s and the related web-sties are in the footer of the Amazon.com Directory.
Flexibility of Design
Due to the different
business models, each business has certain restrictions to how it
organizes. Because Andronico’s is
dealing with physical products that have specific limitations, the categories of
related goods can not always have the same level of adjacency as with those
found in the Amazon directory. The
requirement to keep physical products refrigerated, like milk, supersedes the
organizing principal of co-locating all beverage section. That said, both business have created
organizing schema’s that display sections
and categories of related goods in a
logical order within the constraints of their limiting factors (floor and page
space). Ultimately they have the same
goal in organizing--maximize the limiting resources in such a manner that guides
both the new and long-time customer through their products and services in a
comfortable fashion that prevents them from trying an alternative store and
thereby maximizing sales and profits.
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