Our Mini-Research Project

This research is carried out in conjunction with the recommendations of the UOL-ISORG study guide. This is a group research to investigate into the nature and operations of one e-commerce TRANSACTION BROKER website.

What is e-Transaction all about?

e-Transaction is a quickname for Electronic Transaction. As the name suggests, it is the buying and selling of goods and services via the Internet.

Hence, a transaction broker is an intermediary who facilitates these procurements and ideally earns a commission for each successful transaction. In another word, it acts as a middleman to provide the business link between a buyer and a host of sellers. Transaction brokers own neither the end products nor services transacted. They are not wholesaler or retailers in brick-and-mortar. Apart from coordinating, it also does follow up in many stages of the transaction, e.g. search, contract, regulation stages to ensure that transaction proceeds on smoothly.

Our Case Study: MisaTravel

Purpose

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step ......"
-MisaTravel

The purpose underlying all virtual travel sites is to associate their customers with their desired destinations with the click of their mouse; MisaTravel is no exception.

The homepage of the website offers a bird's eyeview over the wide range of services it offers. This expedites the search and most importantly, it saves alot time when the consumer is able to locate the service in a glance.

MisaTravel is also essential in bridging contracts between consumers and the host of sellers. Regardless of confirmations with hotels, airlines or even cruises, the user-friendly booking systems operates 24/7 through a virtual network around the globe with the designated end-users.

Once the consumer has his eyes on a destination, he is able to do due diligence as easily as ABC. The wonderful thing about online travel sites, including MisaTravel, is that they allow comparisons to be made by providing offers from different competing firms in a nutshell.

Features

Apart from key functional online services, MisaTravel has quite a number of features which make it distinctive from fellow brokers:

1. Not only does MisaTravel have www.airfare.com.sg as its main web address, it has also 2 other sub-addresses as its affliations, namely www.hotel.com.sg and www.cruises.com.sg

2. The website offers a comprehensive selection of choices for a good holiday. From land to air to sea, you name it, they have it. Admirably, they have deals even for car rentals and rail passes for selected countries.

3. Privileges are catered for special groups like students and maids where air tickets can be brought at discounted price.

4. Complimentary giftaways for selected buys.

5. Frequent updates on Airline Industry News, as well as Airlines Fuel Surcharge Alert.

6. A special section of Travel Resources especially meant for travellers. This includes travel checklist, currency converter, world time, weather, health and many more.

Design

The site uses too many boxes in their presentation, rendering the site messy and might cause visitors to the site to lose focus with too many things to look out for.

The main page is cluttered with too many boxes of information that might be difficult to digest and absorb.

The use of too many colours makes it unpleasant to the eye. In our opinion, the colours chosen should be simple and just a few tones should suffice.

Strengths

MisaTravel users can compare prices between flight carriers, choose between direct flights or those which require stopovers and also their preferred class of service( economy, business or first-class.) The site also gives users the option to book hotels, purchase AIG insurance, or book a car from AVIS car rental to go along with their flight bookings.

The people at MisaTravel are easily contactable at their Sales Office and even provide 2 emergency contact numbers to solve any urgent issues. This gives customers peace-of-mind when dealing with MisaTravel. This interactive communication via various contact points such as email and by phone and a good FAQ page enables MisaTravel to build customer loyalty by providing immediate communication and feedback to and from customers.

The site has a little bit of something for every kind of traveller from air, rail, land and sea travel. The ability of MisaTravel to tie up with other companies such as Contiki Tours, Trafalgar Escorted Tours, Insight Vacations, Club Med and Star Cruises helps it to reach out to a wider customer base.

These online partnerships, like co-branding with Citibank for card promotions and with AIG Insurance helps to garner more customers looking out for these brand names.

The promise of updated deals every day helps to draw in customers who may prefer to make comparisons before deciding on the kind of holiday they desire.

Weaknesses

Too much choice could also make the final decision tough for the customer.

The layout could be better to allow for easier navigation of the site's main page. The site could be more user-friendly. The correct combination of colour, photographs, animation and font may help to attract users.

MisaTravel seems to be adding too many items on to their main page. Their users have to plough through too much infomation that they might not be able to handle. For example, those users who require just air travel for example may find many of the other infomation unnecessary.

When this happens, it might take a long time for users to find just what they require during their session on the MisaTravel site. For users in a hurry, this can be time-consuming and frustrating and might eventually drive them away.

Security

The MisaTravel site should include a security notice to assure users of the site's reliability regarding the use of credit card payment, especially when most users would use their credit cards to pay for their bookings. Concerned users may still be skeptical about using online methods of payment.