Importance of Copyright

Copyright is a branch of Intellectual Property Rights and an exclusive legal right given by the judiciary to the creator on his creation. As a creator (he/she/group) has rights to enjoy financial and other benefits associated as per the law over the creation. Violation of copyright law would lead to several judiciary consequences. On the other hand law permits libraries to use copyrighted material for research and academic purpose without any permission from the copyright holder. Further, any violation or an infringement of fair use of library resources is punishable under copyright act. Here an attempt has been made to understand copyright issues in relation to library resources, also highlight protection, infringement, fair dealings, and limitations under the Indian copyright act 1957. Besides, pointing out on the roles and respons
(PDF) Understanding Copyright Laws: Infringement, Protection and Exceptions. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301890434_Understanding_Copyright_Laws_Infringement_Protection_and_Exceptions[accessed Nov 07 2018].

Executive Summary

Data, more importantly its availability and ease of dissemination has been the key driver of the digital revolution that has swept the world over the past two decades. As with any other subject, the rapid expanse of data sharing brought with it a sea of conflicting opinions and ownership dilemmas. ‘How much freedom is too much freedom?’ is a question worth asking when ideas and creations that had an element of ownership attached to it started getting shared globally at the touch of a button. The case of Megaupload, a Hong Kong based online data sharing service, is just a mere link in the long chain of privacy invasion and copyright violation incidents that were driven by online data sharing.

As students of digital business, our group of four has delved deep into the events and background of the copyright infringement charges against Megaupload. The facts of the case are analysed in the light U.S Copyright laws under which the corporation was tried, and are then compared with similar charges raised against two other companies, VK.com and Kickass torrents. Following a brief background of the organizations, a comparative study helps us understand the various angles of copyrights and data protection laws and how it is practically applicable in the context of real world online businesses.

In the lines of international and prominent US laws, these offences are then put into context within the New Zealand copyright laws which helps the reader understand the implication of the actions in a national context. The study also undertakes a visualization of two aligned concepts in the data ownership dimension, namely the cloud based data storage and ownership of sensitive user data, an analysis that throws light on the hidden pitfalls and consequences that are involved in these new age concepts or practice.

The study has been conducted in the order of ‘event, findings, implications, comparison and related/aligned concepts. We believe that this helps the reader develop an understanding that is in line with the expectation from this exercise, which is to relate and balance the theory and practical implications of copyright laws in the light of the Megaupload case. All the information has been sourced from academic articles and public journals and have been cited for reference, and we hope it helps the readers grasp the concepts as well as we did.

Background of Megaupload & Prosecution of Megaupload by US DOJ for breach of Copyright Laws:

Fig.1.0: Megaupload Website Business Services. Source: Managing Intellectual Property, 2011

Megaupload Ltd., established in 2005 by Kim Dotcom and is headquartered in Hong-Kong. Megaupload provides online services for file storage and viewing. The company’s website business includes multiple online services as depicted in the below table;

Two additional services—Megabackup and Megamovie—were in development before their closure.

Key Business Statistics of Megaupload:

1. Megaupload was the 13th most visited site on the Internet with a Unique visitors count of 82,764,913 and over 1 billion Page-View History.
2. During its peak, Megaupload had 180 million registered members and 50 million active users per day.
3. Megaupload generated more than US$175 million since 2005 and the main source of income generation was from premium paid membership and online-advertising (Tsukayama, 2012).
4. By February’ 2012, Megaupload was officially hosting 12 billion unique files with over 100 million users.
5. Megaupload accounted 1% of the web-traffic in North America (Sandvine, 2012).

 

Did Megaupload breach U.S. copyright laws (copyright infringement)?

(Refer Appendix 1.0 Copyright Infringement Charges on Megaupload)

Copyright Infringement in the electronic format has been breached by numerous companies such as; Megaupload, Rapid Share, Hotfile, and 4Shared.

Megaupload self-claimed themselves to be “cyberlockers,” but that is a misnomer, as a true locker is private and secure (it is locked). To the contrary, Megaupload facilitate the distribution of files on a massive scale.

Megaupload was charged under 5 counts and 44 General Allegations but the charges rely either directly or indirectly to criminal copyright infringement (Megaupload Indictment, 2012);

Fig. 2.0: Megaupload’s Legal Indictment. Source: (Megaupload Indictment, 2012)

 

Megaupload business was considered unlawful for the following reasons:

1. Megaupload’s business-model which offered ‘cash-rewards’ as incentives to users based on number of times other users downloaded their content, was against the business model of Data Locker.
2. Megaupload did not obliterate the user’s account, contents or links which infringed intellectual property law (Telecommunication Report, 2012).
3. Megaupload did not inspect neither hold accountability of any files being uploaded on its website (Managing Intellectual Property, 2011)
4. Megaupload generated profits from the files stored on their web-server, also, deleted files which were not downloaded after 90-days of upload (Parloff, 2012).
5. 91% of the users never uploaded any official or personal files and 90% of the download and upload was of illegal files and infringing materials (Parloff, 2012).

 

Latest Updates on Kim Dotcom and Megaupload’s Copyright Infringement Case;

Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom loses New Zealand appeal to avoid extradition to US. On 5^th July’ 2018, NZ Court of Appeal dis-regarded Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom appeal to avoid extradition to US. Kim Dotcom, to appeal to Supreme Court for reconsidering his appeal (Bloomberg and Associated Press, 2018)

Vk.com Background:

 

Vk.com, previously known as ‘vkontakte.com’ – one of the largest Social Networking Website, headquartered in Saint Petersburg, Russia founded in 2004. As a social media website, Vk.com offered an online community platform to its users to interact with friends & relatives, co-workers and classmates.

By the end of November’ 2014, Vk.com;

• accounted 280 million active users base
• more than 70 million daily user-logins
• third most visited website after Facebook and Twitter (Marie, 2014)

Being a social media and social networking site, Vk.com provides a platform for its users to share multimedia files including photos, videos and audio recording. It also, allows access to its user to search and manage online friends and communities.

The reason for Vk.com being the most visited website in some of the Eurasian countries because it offers a large digital library of unlicensed sound recordings.

Copyright Infringement by VK.com

 

Sony Music & Universal Music Russia & Warner Music UK- the three largest company from the recording industry, filed a legal suite against VK.com in April’ 2014, demanding VK.com to remove the infringing contents from their file-sharing services (Marie, 2014).

Later, Sony Music withdrew from the case, following the signing of the confidential agreement with VK.com, in July’ 2014. However, Universal Music Russia & Warner Music UK, persuaded with battle and won the court case. The Court ordered VK.com to implement and install new technological measures which prevents the illegal copyright on its online file-sharing services (Cookson, 2015).

 

VK.com has been in news for the copyright infringement on many instances;

• RIAA placed VK on the US Trade Representative’s list of pirate websites, for four years since 2014 (RIAA, 2014)
• IIPA, labelled Vk.com as “major infringement hub for illegal film materials” (ERNESTO, 2018)
• In 2012, VK.com was declared guilty and had to pay a fine of $178000 to Russian music label SBA Gala Records (MPAAI, 2015)
• October, 2013, VK.com won a copyright lawsuit filed by record company Soyuz. This time the court considered that VK.com couldn’t be expected to know what will be uploaded by users to its servers (Marie, 2014).

Kickass Torrents Background

Kickass Torrents (KAT) is a file-sharing website and a provisional directory of torrent files and magnet links, using BitTorrent protocols. It was founded in 2008, using the domain names Kickasstorrents.com. KAT was flagged defunct by the U.S. government on 20^th July, 2016 (Alexa, 2014).

 

Key Business Highlights:

• Over 1 million per day active user login as on August’ 2015
• KAT’s estimated net worth was more than $54 million, with estimated annual ad revenue in the range of $12.5 million to $22.3 million
• July’ 2016, U.S. DOJ seized KAT.cr domain and identified its alleged owner Artem Vaulin
• By mid-December 2016, some of the former KAT staff and moderators launched a website with a similar appearance as the original under the domain katcr.co. (Dwilson, 2016).

 

Copyright Infringement by Kickass Torrents

 

Like Megaupload, U.S. DOJ booked Kickass Torrent under 18 U.S.C. § 2 to 17 U.S.C. § 506, stating that Kickass Torrent- a website dedicated to hosting and distributing torrent files, however, Vaulin’s network purportedly downloaded and distributed protected content of movies and other copyright protected media resulting in criminal copyright infringement. (Gardner, 2017)

Fig. 3.0. Legal Indictments against Kickass Torrents. Source: (Kickass Torrent Indictment, 2016)

Fig. 4.0. 5 Facts about Kickass Torrents copyright Infringement case Source: (Kickass Torrent Indictment, 2016)

 

New Zealand copyright laws

 

The New Zealand Copyright Law is governed by the Copyright Act 1994 and amendments thereafter.  The Copyright Act is regulated by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and administered under the Business Law Policy.

Section 21 of the Copyright Act 1994, amended in 2011 states that- ‘the person who authors the work is the copyright owner of the work’.

According to Section 37 of the Copyright Act 1994, copyright infringement by any person other than the author or the pursuant to the copyright license, who-

1. either makes; or
2. imports into New Zealand; or
3. possess in the course of the business or otherwise sells or lets for hire; or
4. otherwise in the due course of business offers or exposes for sale or hire­­­­­­­­-

any content which has been purposely adapted for making illegal copies of the work (New Zealand Legislation, 2014a).

New Zealand ‘‘Three Strikes Legislation’’ file sharing system:

The ‘‘Three Strikes Legislation’’ passed into law in 2010, the motive was to combat violent crimes or ‘strikes’ against people pleaded guilty. As per the ‘‘Three Strikes Legislation’’-

• the First Strike was a warning;
• the Second Strike- the culprit to serve his/her sentence without parole;
• the offender with Three strikes has to serve the maximum sentence without parole, unless the court considers it would be manifestly unjust (Galuszka, 2015).

 

New Zealand Copyright Infringement v/s Megaupload and Kickass Torrent/VK.com.

 

In context to Megaupload, Kim Dotcom and his team offered a clear path to all its users into infringement of copyright content. Megaupload business started as a web-hosting service allowing its user the convenience of online file sharing. Illegal e-contents from outside New Zealand is not considered infringement until any individual-based in New Zealand legally-sues Megaupload and demanded for inspection.

Megaupload’s business model provided cash-based incentive as rewards to all its users based on how many times other people download their contents. This was the copyright infringement and a straightforward contradiction to the ‘cyberlockers’ business model. Megaupload website allowed its user to share links to illegal contents. Copyright Infringement is considered to be a crime in New Zealand as well as in US and this has been the sole reason for Kim Dotcom’s extradition in New Zealand in Megaupload copyright Infringement case (Parloff, 2012).

Also, any user from New Zealand, who downloads a file from VK.com or from Kickass Torrent is considered to be an illegal act for users whose name is on the internet bill- Universities, schools, cafes and even holiday homes (Torrie, 2011).

 

Ownership of Data- Who owns the Data?

 

The defunct of Megaupload website lead to the alarming situation in the digitalised world. Many began to raise concern about the files which were uploaded on the website server by multiple users. Users had serious ambiguity on the ownership of the data stored on Megaupload’s web-server.

The Megaupload policy statement clearly mentioned that users need to maintain copies of all/any files which were uploaded by them on to the website. Further, it states that, no user at any given time and under any circumstances cannot hold any ownership rights on the data or files being uploaded on the Megaupload’s Website and that the website-services can be terminated with or without prior notice (PC Magazine, 2012). The only situation in which the users can have an access to their files was, if, Megaupload wins the case in future, but still there was no guarantee or any assurance to file access (L. Chris, 2012).

Same was the case with VK.com users. All users of VK.com were supposed to upload personal information and data which is a legal content. In case, if any of the content was copied, downloaded or shared, the final responsibility lies with the user and not with VK.com. As per VK.com policy, the website had no-control over the content uploaded or created by its users, but VK.com holds the authority to remove illegitimate contents, either by its own inspection or by request of any of the certified author/s. Currently, VK.com has been exercising the required protocols necessary towards copyright issues for instance, VK.com has removed the online-streaming options of music tracks on Apple devices (Kozlov, 2015).

However, it is difficult to draw a clear bifurcation on the ownership of data. There still prevails higher degree of ambiguity on who will be the owner of the data and what will be the implications of the cloud storage being defunct.

Important recommendations which can be considered to retain to the ownership rights of your data while using cloud-based file-sharing servers;

Fig. 5.0: Steps to Retain Ownership of Data. Source: (Techradar, 2014)

 

Implication on Apples Cloud

 

The defunct of Megaupload had a negative impact on the cloud-storage business worldwide. Prominent service providers like iCloud, Rapid Share etc. have adopted the ‘prevention is better than cure’ policy and have been implementing and installing the necessary policies and features into their websites which will help them adhere to the governance of their business in the ethical direction avoiding any legal implication which may arise (Cohn, 2012). Many of the known cloud servers including iCloud have permanently removed certain file-sharing features from their web-servers to avoid legal-turmoil like Megaupload (PC Magazine, 2012).

iCloud has been successful in creating a goodwill and brand of its own and holds a great reputation of conducting ethical business even during difficult tides (Leonhard, 2012). The Apple copyright act, clearly mentions in section (V) under “Content and Your conduct” (F. Copyright Notice -DCMA), that iCloud, at its sole discretion has the authority to suspend or terminate services of infringer’s account. Moreover, under section (VI) (B)” illegal use of apple software or unauthorised use of any part of the iCloud services under the copyright law may lead to civil and criminal penalties.

iCloud’s legal policy further emphasizes on the legal terms and conditions which govern the online file-sharing services and all users must agree and accept the terms and conditions before accessing the iCloud host (iCloud Terms and

Post the defunct of Megaupload, people did become sceptical of using cloud storage, but did not stopped using it. The went a step forward and choose the best available alternatives in the market making iCloud and 4shared.com, the largest online file-sharing web-servers (Van, 2012).

Further, the launch of Mega- online file sharing web-server is considered to be the comeback of Kim Dotcom in the cloud sharing business. It is more law-proof and more than just a flimsy ‘term and conditions’ page. Mega, follows the process of encryption of data before uploading and further generates a second unique encryption before the download. Also, the user’s data can be accessed only by the file’s subscriber and not by anyone including Mega (Booker, 2013).

Conclusion

 

General cloud storage service providers and Megaupload in particular has raised a controversial issue on the ownership of data uploaded by users. In today’s digital era it is an irrefutable fact to maintain a balance between author copyright and users’ creativity on file uploads. These service providers must have a responsibility to protect copyrights and rights of the author.

The copyright infringement charges against Megaupload and the other co-defendants including Kim Dotcom still going on outside U.S. Government borders. This showcase the gaps in the legal framework of copyright infringement between countries. The Megaupload case reveals the fact that the conflicting cross-border laws of copyright, provides higher scope for infringement.

The Web-surfers attitude and the lack of understanding on the intellectual property rights; which are the root problems leading to infringements is over-looked by many countries.

As a responsible world-citizen, its high-time that we raise our levels of self-awareness and working knowledge on the ongoing copyright infringement issues and became more ‘Ethical Web-surfers’.

References:

 

Alexa. (2014). Top 500 Global Sites. Retrieved from https://www.alexa.com/topsites/global;0

Booker, L. (2013). How to use Megaupload’s successor, Mega. Lifehacker. Retrieved from http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/01/mega-megauploads-successor-is-open-for-business-heres-how-it-works/

Cohn, C. (2012, October 31. Megaupload and the Government’s attack on cloud computing. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/governments-attack-cloud-computing

Cookson, R. (2015, September 29). Universal and Warner groups win case against VKontakte. Retrieved from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9c8a32aa-669a-11e5-97d0-1456a776a4f5.html#axzz3nNzRVb5o

Copyright Council of New Zealand. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.copyright.org.nz/basics.php

Copyright Law of the United States. (2017). DMCA designated agent directory, Service provider designation of agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement. Retrieved from https://www.copyright.gov/dmca-directory/

Department of Justice. (2012, January 19). Justice Department Charges Leaders of Megaupload with widespread Copyright Infringement. Retrieved from http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-charges-leaders-megaupload-widespread-online-copyright-infringement

Department of Justice. (2016, July 08). Justice Department Charges Leaders of Kickass Torrents with widespread Copyright Infringement. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/877691/download

Dwilson, S. (2016). Kickass Torrents Sued by United States: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know. Retrieved from https://heavy.com/tech/2016/07/kickass-torrents-sued-lawsuit-us-mpaa-shut-down-copyright-infringement-domains-broken-kickasstorrents-com-kat-ph-artem-vaulin/

Galuszka, J. (2015, June 2). Three-strikes law changes unlikely after five years. Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/69006542/threestrikes-law-changes-unlikely-after-five-years

Gardner, E. (2017). Judge Rules Kickass Torrents Founder Properly Charged With Criminal Copyright Conspiracy Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/judge-rules-kickasstorrents-founder-properly-charged-criminal-copyright-conspiracy-1026890

Gross, D. (2012, January 21). What’s the controversial site Megaupload.com all about? Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/20/tech/web/what-is-megaupload/

iCloud Terms and Conditions. (2017). Legal, Internet services. Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/nz/legal/internet-services/icloud/en/terms.html

Kozlov, V. (2015, February 16). Russia’s Vkontakte Takes Baby Steps Toward Copyright Respect. Retrieved from http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6472992/russias-vkontakte-takes-baby-steps-toward-copyright-respect

L, Chris. (2012, December 9). Seizure of Megaupload. University of San Fransisco – School of Law. Retrieved from http://lawblog.usfca.edu/internetjustice/2012/the-seizure-of-megaupload/

Leonhard, W. (2012, April 26). Cloud storage booming, but trouble brewing. Infoworld Techwatch. Retrieved from http://www.infoworld.com/article/2617056/cloud-storage/cloud-storage-booming–but-trouble-brewing.html?page=2

Managing Intellectual Property. (2011). Perfect 10 Targets Megaupload (206), p. 87.

Marie, A. (2014). The court battle begins for vKontakte (VK.com) against Russia Sony, Warner and Universal. Retrieved from http://www.slyck.com/story2453_The_Court_Battle_Begins_for_vKontakte_VKcom_Against_Russia_Labels_Sony_Warner_and_Universal

Megaupload wins. (2013, 31 May). Megaupload wins access to data seized in police raid. BBC. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-22716718

New York Post (2012, January 19). FBI shuts down Megaupload.com, charges seven with online piracy. Retrieved from http://nypost.com/2012/01/19/fbi-shuts-down-megaupload-com-charges-seven-with-online-piracy/

New Zealand Legislation. (2014a). Copyright Act 1994. Retrieved from http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1994/0143/latest/DLM345634.html?search=ts_act_copyright+act&sr=1

New Zealand legislation. (2014b). Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011. Retrieved from http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2011/0011/latest/DLM2764312.html?search=ts_act%40bill%40regulation%40deemedreg_copyright+%28infringing+file+sharing%29_resel_25_a&p=1

Parloff, R. (2012). Megaupload and the twilight of copyright. (cover story). Fortune, 166(2), 130-140.

Parloff. (2012). Megaupload and the twilight of Copyright (cover story). 166(2), 133-140.

PC Magazine (2012). “Recovering Legitimate Megaupload Files? Good Luck with That”. Retrieved from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399162,00.asp

PC Magazine (2012). “After Megaupload, storage sites shutter services.” Retrieved from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399238,00.asp

PC Magazine (2012). “Megaupload Files: Delted By Thursday?” Retrieved from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399525,00.asp

RIAA. (2015). Megaupload: The Real Story. Retrieved from https://www.riaa.com/news_room.php?content_selector=riaa-news-mega-upload-news-real-story

Techfleece (2013). FBI take down Mega Search Engine Mega-Search.me. Retrieved from http://www.techfleece.com/2013/04/01/fbi-take-down-mega-search-engine-mega-search-me/

Techradar. (2014). The Cloud conundrum: Who Actually owns your data? Retrieved from http://www.techradar.com/us/news/internet/cloud-services/the-cloud-conundrum-who-actually-owns-your-data–1260464/2

Telecommunication Report. (2012). Megaupload domains seized in copyright infringement case. 78(3), p. 7-8.

Torrie, B. (2011, September 4). Where you stand under new copyright law. Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/5558008/Where-you-stand-under-new-copyright-law

Van, E. (2012, January 26). Megaupload alternatives see surge in traffic after shutdown. Torrentfreak. Retrieved from https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-alternatives-see-surge-in-traffic-after-shutdown-120126/

White, K. (2012). More notes on Federal Criminal Law and the Megaupload case. Retrieved from https://popehat.com/2012/01/24/more-notes-on-federal-criminal-law-and-the-megaupload-case

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendices:

Appendix 1.0 Copyright Infringement Charges on Megaupload

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 steps to an effective customer journey map

Revisiting Complexity in the Digital Age

Until now, managing business complexity has usually involved a trade-off. This trade-off forced companies to compromise between creating value from complexity and benefiting from the efficiencies of simplicity.

However, with today’s increased digitization, companies can finesse this trade-off; they can increase value-adding complexity in their product offerings while keeping processes for customers and employees simple.

Executive Summary

Mayajaal Holdings, a New Zealand based supply, distribution and retail business, have been
making inroads into the leisure and beverages industry over the last decade, in the B2B as well
as B2C channels. The company has been operating and growing steadily, and as for any
business in the technology era, entering the digital bandwagon was an inevitable step for
business development. As Mayajaal looks to grow further by executing its digital strategy, a study of its business model is crucial to identify the strengths and weaknesses, and this report aims to analyse the various aspects of Mayajaal’s structure and operations in the commercial and digital space.
The analysis starts off by taking a brief look at the company’s ownership and operations, and putting this into context based on the national and international industry environment. This is followed by dissecting the business model around the KPMG digital model – identifying the digital tribe targeted by the business and how it can position itself to appeal to the customer base, the revenue model and how it nets off the cost, and the value proposition offered in the process. The business model is further branched out into various building blocks, mapping it on a canvas with identifies the streams, structure and inter-relationships. The outcome of this review is used to suggest a business plan for the upcoming years that complements Mayajaal’s growth aspirations. This is extended into a study to identify the sweet spot for the business per
the MIT model.
The report thus aims to provide an all-round evaluation of the operations model compared to the aspired digital business model and the value enhancement achieved in the process. The information used have been sourced directly from the organization with complete ethical consideration, and have been introspected in the light of academic theory as well as knowledge obtained from the public domain. Our team of four had several rounds of discussion on the topic where we studied the business as a whole, identified the dynamics of the industry and way of working of the business, and then mapped and worded the report based on our area of focus.
We hope the information provides relevant insight into the effectiveness and efficiency of the business model and provide a pathway to a developed understanding of the concepts on digital enterprising and digital business structure.

Global Liquor Industry and New Zealand
As an ambitious business, Mayajaal is keen to understand how the global alcohol industry functions, especially in countries with demographics similar to New Zealand, as well as the local industry. Liquor sales in New Zealand continue to grow through 2018, hitting a total sales value of $1.6 billion (Stuff, 2018). This has been attributed to the increase in per capita disposable income versus a hold on alcohol prices since 2012.
New Zealand’s growth in the market is highly attributable to the success of its wine industry that grew into a billion-dollar industry (exports) in less than 20 years. Other drivers are the production of whey alcohol – a by-product of the dairy industry, signature flavours such as manuka honey and feijoa, as well as its reputation as an environment friendly producer of soft foods (Coreolis, 2012).
A recent study shows that consumer preferences around alcohol consumption is changing and the on premise (bar and restaurants) consumption is being widely replaced by off premise (home and outdoor) consumption – a clear indicator of a shift in supply dynamics (Smith,2017). And Pernod Ricard’s CFO clearly foresees a future where e-commerce is going to create a massive wave of transformation, all a clear indicator why Mayajaal should adapt to the digital business sooner than later to stay competitive (Taylor, 2016). Mayajaal Holdings Limited- Business Background and Structure,
Shareholders Mayajaal Holdings Limited is a New Zealand based company in the Liquor Industry, trading as ‘Maya Enterprises’ in the B2B segment and as ‘Gift-A-Bottle’ and ‘TopShelf Liquor’ in B2C segment. The group has over 2 warehouses and their headquarters situated in Auckland and distribution channels all over New Zealand with 25 team members in business. ‘Maya Enterprises’ is a wholesale alcohol distributor-servicing bottle stores, distributors, bars and restaurants across the nation. Maya Enterprises is a bulk supplier of all major local and imported brands at competitive wholesale prices. Incorporated in September’ 2010, Maya enterprises distribute over 80 different products all over New Zealand and Australia. Mayajaal Holdings Limited, launched its online liquor business with ‘Gift-A-Bottle’ in 2016,
‘Gift-A-Bottle’, believes in saying ‘Thank you’ in style with a bottle of Wine or ChampagneA perfect gift for birthdays, anniversaries, for clients or for any occasion. In April’ 2017, Mayajaal, acquired the e-commerce business of TopShelf Liquor to strengthen its online business and expand its online customer base for ‘Gift-A-Bottle’. Top Shelf currently has an active base of over 21000 retail consumers all over New Zealand and Australia. Mayajaal, aims to merge both the B2C e-commerce businesses under a single brand name ‘Gift-A-Bottle’, by the end of December’ 2018. Stakeholders:
Mayajaal Holdings Limited, has stakeholder over all the New Zealand and Australian market:
• Maya Enterprises has an active list of over 750 B2B clients including bottle stores,
distributors, bars and restaurants all over New Zealand.
• ‘Gift-A-Bottle ‘has an active base of over 500 retail customer all over New Zealand
and Australia.
• With the acquisition of TopShelf Liquor, the company has increased its online B2C
clients list to over 20,000 active members all over New Zealand and Australia.
The company’s share is held by;
Shareholders Details % of Share holding
Maya Trustees Limited 98%
Priya Ramchandran 1%
Nagrajan Natarajan 1%

Business Model Analysis:
The Business Model is analysed using the KPMG digital Model.
Mayajaal Holdings Limited- Current Business Plan Canvas:

➢ Key Partners: No business can run without partners, that commonly require you to
exchange with other entities to sell your product. Mayajaal key partnership lies with the
local bottlers, bars and restaurants and distributors on the B2B market segment. The
B2C online business purely depends on the online retail customer across New Zealand
and Australia.
➢ Key Activities: The main business activities of Mayajaal Holdings revolve around
stocking of products, managing supply chain and logistics, customer interaction on the
B2B and B2C platform and business development.
➢ Key Resources: The heart of business or elements which keeps the business running.
Warehouse and Website are the 2 key elements which is truly important for Mayajaal
Holdings to run daily operations and identify opportunities and risk factors.
➢ Customer Relationship: Email Marketing, Social Media, Community and Website
interactions helps nurture a strong customer engagement and retention base, Mayajaal
over the years have been able to achieve strong customer support and relationship.
➢ Channels: Reaching the right audience at the right time is the key for a successful
business, Currently Mayajaal holdings has been able to effectively communicate with
the target customer, but there is a long way to go with new improved communication
tools available in the market.
➢ Customer Segments: Mayajaal operates in both B2B and B2C market segments. It
covers a niche market of Indian beer and Spirit consumers, locavores, local bars and
restaurants in New Zealand in the B2B segment. On the B2C platform, it caters to videspectre
of consumers including boomers, millenniums, single and joint families, local
and urban population in New Zealand and Australia.
➢ Cost Structure: The current B2B business model, attracts a huge cost of
warehousing and store maintenance. The online B2C segment i.e. ‘Gift-A-Bottle and
‘TopShelf Liquor’ has helped reduce the burden of fixed cost incurred. However, the
additional online business costs include setting up a technology platform (website,
mobile-site, etc.) and its maintenance. The Cost Structure for Mayajaal is divided into
2 parts; Fixed and Variable Cost.
• **Cost of Goods Sold includes;
o Purchase cost
o Exchange Rates
o Import Duty & Taxes
o Shipping and Logistics
• **Operational Cost includes;
o Warehousing
o Delivery Charges
o Maintenance
Mayajaal Holdings Limited- Cost: Source Annual Report’ 2017
Particulars FY’ 2017(NZD.)
(In Millions)
% Contribution
Cost of Goods Sold** 6.75 57.01
Salary Cost 1.21 10.22
Operational Cost** 2.93 24.75
Advertising & Marketing Cost 0.95 8.02
Total Cost 11.84 100.00
➢ Revenue Structure: To analyze the source of revenue of any business, it is useful
to ask the question: “What jobs are customers want to be done for them and done
conveniently, easily and affordably?” (Christensen, Wessel, 2012) In case of Mayajaal
Holdings, the sources of revenue are from the B2B and B2C segment. According to Mr.
Raj Natarajan- Chairman & Managing Director, the B2C online business has shown
promising revenue last year and sees a great potential in improving the revenue from ecommerce business in coming years. With over 20,000 active consumer bases on the
online B2C platform generated sales revenue of NZ$5.47 million in 2017, contributing
nearly 39% of the total business revenue. Online business transaction recorded over
75000 purchases in 2017, with an average transaction amount of NZ$72.34 per
transaction. Mayajaal Holding Limited- Revenue: Source Annual Report’ 2017
Particulars FY’ 2017(NZD.) (In Millions) % Contribution
Maya Enterprises 8.56 61.01
Gift-A-Bottle 1.62 11.55
TopShelf Liquor 3.85 27.44
Total Sales 14.03 100.00

➢ Value Proposition: There is much Liquor outside! You can’t just have a wait-and watch
strategy, Mayajaal, need to create value in their products over others through
Quality, Participation, Gifting and Variety. Mayajaal has managed to garner
considerable lead in the B2B market in New Zealand and in B2C market segment in
New Zealand and Australia.
Following Digital Convergence Equalizer reveals Mayajaal Holdings value creation
analysis:
➢ Compelling Content: Though content / products are Mayajaal Holdings main forte it
needs to further improve in its online product assortment. Connection, Impression and
Fusion missing.
➢ Context: Mayajaal Holdings has a long way to go when it comes to personalizing
websites and logins in order to enhance their online experience.
➢ Coverage: Need for effective Mobile App and Mobile website providing coverage
across different devices.
➢ Convenience: it’s the main reason why online Liquor is catching up. Delivery cost and
fixed schedule for product delivery is adversely hampering its popularity.
➢ Control: Mayajaal Holdings needs to devise a model which gives better control over its
distribution channel and customer engagement processes.
➢ Choice: Internet allows a wide choice which may not be available in physical space but
currently Mayajaal Holdings provides the same product assortment as B2B business
segment.
➢ Connectivity: Currently Mayajaal reaches customers in New Zealand and Australia.
Rest of the World market is left behind.
➢ Community: Online community is missing for Mayajaal B2C business segment.
➢ Comments: Mayajaal Holdings currently does have option to comment on its website
but can further improve on the same.
➢ Consolidation: Do not have any aggregator services for B2C and B2B customer
experience.
➢ Customization: Ability to personalize individual online experience especially in the
online world is the USP for Mayajaal Holdings. Currently provides customisation but
to limited extent.
➢ Combination: For customer convenience Mayajaal Holdings needs to provide option
combining products in the same consumption range.
➢ Conversations: This is a weak point for Mayajaal Holdings as there is no online chat
option for customers to talk to any customer service agent nor can customers interact.
➢ Compliance: Currently, Mayajaal comply with all the legal and social requirements of
Liquor Business
➢ Customer Experience: Though customers use website to order they surely won’t enjoy.
➢ Customer Review and compensation: Product wise review or usage pattern is not
available.
Digital Tribe:
Currently Mayajaal Holdings digital customers are mainly family with double income and no kids, singles younger than 40 or high income with children, Boomers in the age group of 20-
26 years and Millenniums in the age group of 38 years and above. These customers also fall into the Digital Media Junkies or the On-the-go workers category as per the i-consumer survey attached below.

Emerging Digital Business Model; Mayajaal Holdings Limited in next 5-
years:
In order to improve its digital value proposition Mayajaal Holdings needs to improve on
various aspects of its value proposition as per the KPMG 20c’s.
➢ It needs to increase its assortment of online products in order to cater to a larger segment
of customers.
➢ Individual personalization, location-based service, GPS tracking etc. are important
features that every digital business must cater to.
➢ It’s time to launch the full-fledged Mobile application for both the B2B and B2C
segment.
➢ In order to improve sales and generate more profits better control and planning of its
distribution channel is the key.
➢ It needs to cater to point of views of its customers by allowing customers to comment
and converse on its website.
➢ Personalised Login Web-page
These improvements will surely lead to a better customer experience.

Comparative Digital Value Proposition of Mayajaal Holdings Limited;
Current vs. 5 years later
Digital Customer Segment and Revenue Model:
Mayajaal Holdings Limited, need to adopt to a top-up or stock-up strategy approach for both the B2B and B2C business segment. In the next 5 years or so, Mayajaal Holdings, need to have 75% on Stock-up to stabilize the business operations in terms of revenue over cost. Currently Mayajaal Holdings Limited is using one size fits all strategy by providing the same value proposition in both B2B and B2C business segments. It can segment its business as depicted in the following diagram:
Customer Segment & Revenue Model Figure

Finding Profits in Complexity Sweet Spots – (MIT, 2014)
Mayajaal Holdings, to leverage the ‘Sweet-Spot’ of its business, need to follow a reverse
observation process.
➢ Identify the current complexity position- To decide, if to work out a simplified process
for customers or to provide new less complicated product in the market. Mayajaal
Holdings need to have a mixed approached towards the identification process to
stabilise its sweet-spot in the next 5 years.
➢ Select the Path- There are 3 paths ‘Sweet-Spot Complexity’ as depicted below in the
Figure.
o More process simplification- Arrow A
o Very Low Product Complexity- Arrow B
o Zigzagging path- Arrow C.
Currently, with all the planned initiatives, Mayajaal can adapt to the ‘zigzagging’ which
has an advantage of avoiding the high risk of big-bang change projects.
References
Coreolis. (2012). Investment Opportunities in the New Zealand Alcoholic Spirits Industry.
KPMG. (2009). Emerging Business Models to Help Serve Tomorrow’s Digital Tribes.
Retrieved from
https://www.kpmg.com/CN/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/em
erging-business-models-O-0906.pdf
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology. (2014). Revisiting Complexity in the Digital Age.
Retrieved from http://mitsmr.com/1pcP4Kn
Mayajaal Holdings Limited. (2017). Annual Report 2017. Retrieved from
https://app.companiesoffice.govt.nz/companies/app/service/services/documents/85F2
B7E26654E64EB3D8245ACE74568B/CoyExtract_3149490_09September2018.pdf
Strategyzer. (2015). The Business Model Canvas. Retrieved from
http://businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas/bmc?_ga=1.213998992.645013967.1441
919694
Stuff. (2018). NZ alcohol sales continue to climb. Retrieved from
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/104316756/nz-alcohol-sales-continuecontinue-to-climb
Smith, G. (2017). Taking the lead in liquor. What New Zealand can learn from U.S. Trends.
Nielsen.
Taylor, K. (2016). The liquor industry is experiencing 3 seismic changes. Business Insider.
The Guardian. (2009). Digital Tribes. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/digitaltribes/interactive/digital-equaliser

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Briscoe Group, a retail chain that has 90 homeware stores in all of New Zealand, as well as a significant share of the homeware industry due to its wide reach, brand recognition and competitive pricing due to their access to import certain brands. Their expansion into the e-commerce market was a natural response to its growth.

This report begins by exploring the background information of Briscoes Homeware, follows to explore its industry and market and describes it stakeholders and shareholders.

It outlines their consumer experience, its antecedents and consequences and their behaviour prior and following the experience. The consumer virtual experience gathered with the help of three interviews showing people’s experience with Virtual reality and e-commerce.

Comparing various such factors this report correlates real finding with consumer experience hypothesis to portray the position of Briscoes in the current e-commerce market, and its perception towards its customers, and their perception of Briscoes in terms of physical and online retail environments.

 

 

 

3. Business Background Key Findings

3.1 Industry & Market

Briscoe Group Limited (BG), a New Zealand-based retail company, celebrating its 150 years of business in the market of homeware products. The company began its journey by supplying hardware retails in 1860’s. It became one of the first businesses to build a presence in New Zealand. Today it operates within two retail sectors i.e. homeware and sporting goods, under three different brand names (Hunter, 2018).

 

• Started as a small company has now grown into 90 stores all around the NZ
• It supplied the government with construction materials.
• It faced multitude of troubles because of changing management, business transformation and continuous losses.
• Rod Duke took control of the position of managing director of the company in 1988 and finally bought it via his trust in 1990.

 

The times of rapid growth change in the retail market has passed. The retailers think of operational productivity to achieve competitive benefits, being compelled not only by promotional planning and an expanding online platform, but also by cost control strategies (Fisher, 2018). The business functions in challenging situations, closely related to the product options offered and the experience provided to customers. Following is the profit margin for BG retail:

• Briscoes’ business revenue for the year 2017 2018 states as; $683,086 thousands as compared to $582,840 thousands of the previous year (Briscoes Group Limited, 2018).
• Additionally, their gross profit also increased from $239,357 thousands (2017) to $244,172 thousands (2018). The company attributes this 3.2% growth in the revenue to focusing more closely on inventory management.
• According to a Radio NZ interview with Rod Duke, ever since Briscoes started working with e-Star Online their online sales have doubled compared to any of their physical stores.
• According to BG, an in-store experience complemented by an efficient online offering, helps maintain a competitive advantage over big companies like Amazon and Alibaba.

3.2 Stakeholders & Shareholders

Listed below are the prominent stakeholders:

• Although majority of the shares are held by the RA Duke trust, Briscoes Group is a publicly traded company. The majority shares account for 77.3 % of equity while other stakeholders include Gerald Harvey and Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd.
• With respect to one of the largest stakeholders, BG employees approximately 1,100 permanent full time and permanent part time team members adding approximately 300 more during peak periods. Briscoes Homeware stores typically employees between 15 and 25 employees at the smaller branches and between 25 and 40 at the larger branches.
• Another important stakeholder of BG is the Cure Kids foundation, a not for profit organization that has been partnering with BG since 2008.
• Briscoes has a lot of partners both international and national that are also stakeholders of the corporations. Currently it is in business with over 61 supplier brands.

As per January 2018’s Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income, the net income attributed to stakeholders has improved from 72,430 thousand (2017) to $80,071 (2018).

 

4.      Consumer Experience Map & Key Findings

Customer experience mapping is a procedure for recognising how the potential customers or new consumers feel as they interact with your product or service’s sales funnel touchpoints (Broadbent, 2018). It’s the research that is prepare and scrutinized, a journey of sorts, from the beginning to the end of the potential customer’s engagement with the company. The brand, regardless of how many branches it has and products or services it provides, must create a customer first or centric mission, if it is hoping to have any control over the customer’s overall experience.

In this case, Customer experience mapping is a diagrammatic depiction of the steps that a consumer experiences prior to purchasing a product from Briscoes, to other interactions like buying online, on-call queries, and sharing feedback on social media. Not only does this help in building a long-term customer relationship, but also setting a base for required changes in the business to cater to the needs of customers (Rose, Hair & Clark, 2011). Other aims of the customer experience mapping (Brodbent, 2016) are:

• Information flow designed to increase customer satisfaction
• Identifying opportunities in the market or within the company to create brand loyalty
• Identifying touch points and experiences in-context that lead to loss of customers
• Disclosing opportunities to enhance customer retention
• Taking note of where the user or customer experience is already strong

4.1 Online brand experience

In physical retail, good customer experience is a simple result of a smart clerk, a store that is well organized and cashiers that assist customers to their cars. When accessing Briscoes online the website attempts to maximize the sales potential of online ordering by using incentives such as a cheap delivery fee of only $5, making it really tempting for customers by providing very easy access to products while satisfying the need for “real” products by giving customers access to large amounts of product detail making it easy for the customer to choose what they want. The latest catalogue with the latest deals and a visually stimulating buying guide allows the customer to simulate the experience they prefer. Other benefits such as price guarantees and electronic receipts give customers a sense of security from the discomfort that one may feel from the lack of a physical product (Gatesman, 2018).

 

4.2 Consumer experience

Key stages of the Customer Experience:

 

Information Processing:

A customer evaluates their experience while comparing various websites, detailed information provided on the products and range of features including information of services provided such as security, privacy, navigation, payments and the risk involved (Jaillet et al. 2002). Knowing about the product and previous experiences help the customer make the right decision for a current purchase and BG makes information easily accessible to the customer. It even has buying guides available for products across various categories.  If a customer is not sure about which product to buy, they can easily browse through the buying guides and make purchasing decisions accordingly Karr, D. (2018).

 

Perceived Ease of Use & Perceived Usefulness:

As per the TAM theory on online customer experience Perceived Ease Of Use has influenced the behaviour & PU combine plays an important role to continue the online shopping process and BG’s website is fairly easy to use in terms of the customer being able to search for and find exactly what they’re looking for, and be able to complete a purchase transaction (Davis et al. 1989); (Teo et al. 1999).

 

Skill & Perceived Control:

Coming to the third group of expected antecedents of OCE pertains to skill and perceived control. Skill acquisitions are the consumer’s capability to use the Internet skilfully (Klein and Ford, 2002). This has been particularly analysed as the capacity to navigate and communicate with the website/ links that appeal strongly to the psychological state of the consumer. BG’s website is user-responsive i.e. it gives feedback whenever the user clicks on a link or an image, giving the user control over how they want to browse.

 

Benefits & Enjoyment:

Positive online shopping experience is closely associated with attitude towards the Internet as a shopping medium and its recognized benefits. There is a strong association between perceived benefits and likelihood of shopping online (Corner et al. 2005). This

area of research is valuable as it provides evidence to link perceived benefits to brand commitment, mediated through brand trust and involvement. The first benefit a customer can enjoy is that if they sign up to BG’s mailing list, they become eligible to win a $500 voucher to spend at Briscoes. They also have a price guarantee where if the customer finds the same item anywhere else for fewer prices, Briscoes will beat that price by 10%. This is one of their competitive advantages as this brings those sales that they would have otherwise lost to a competitor, and the customer gets the benefit of competitive prices.

 

 

Risk & Trust:

There is always a certain amount of risk involved when purchasing something online – not only do users trust the website with their contact details, but also they’re entering their credit card information. BG makes it very clear that any personal information will only be used to create and process orders and respond to queries. In addition, any personal information will only be added to their database to inform customers of specials, promotions, offers and events. They have made it very clear that they will not share personal information with any other third parties, except when required or authorised by law. This alleviates some of the risk involved with sharing personal information. They are also conscious of the need for privacy and security of the online shopping experience, and as such they use sophisticated encryption technology at the checkout, on their servers, as well as on customers’ PC. Because it is encrypted, other computers will not be able to hack this information. This provides the required level of trust customers need in order to shop online in today’s age.

5.      Consumer Virtual Experience

The idea of e-customer satisfaction is unmistakable, from experiences and characterised as ‘the customer’s psychological evaluation of accumulated purchase process experience and product usage experience’ (Kim et al., 2011). Literature of this kind demonstrates not only a distinction but also a practical test of the original relationship between the operators of online experiences and e-customer fulfilment. Definitions and reasoning analyse CE as a cognitive state, thereby experience can be presumed to be vastly varied and individual to each consumer Gentile et al., 2007

An important conceptual example of OCE should analyse the essential features that constitute an experience. For instance, an appealing homeware products.

 

 

 

Below is the basic information on the 3 customers interviewed, along with a table of the observation of their interview: –

Customer Online Purchase Experience/ Behaviour:

	Female-22 yrs.	Male-34 yrs.	Female-48 yrs.
Web Design	OK	Can be improved	Lacks content
Order Fulfilment	Seamless Process	Better	Can be improved
Communication	Reasonable information provided	Need more clarity	Too much information
Merchandising	Variety of goods	Need to have more	Satisfied
Security/ Privacy	No concern	Satisfied	Satisfied
Promotion	No use	Not on all products	Great promotion and discounts

 

 

 

First Customer: Female, full time working, married

Age:  22 years

Uses website every now and then to check the best offers and finds It’s easy and efficient. She finds the website little cluttered but easy to process. Coming from the design background she feels the free contact phone number is not useful for her and would prefer using an online chat to communicate with the company.

 

Second Customer: Male, Full Time Working, Married

Age: 34 years

Uses the website thrice a week for homeware products shopping, checking if the products he requires are available/ in stock. Looks/ shops on behalf of his wife. Coming from a sales background he feels that the branding could be done a little better but otherwise is at ease with the website and relies on the company’s products.

 

Third Customer: Female- Full Time Working/ Married

Age: 48 years

Uses the website once a week, is fairly new to the online purchasing as compared to the previous to customers. Was hesitant to do online shopping at first but now is comfortable with the process. Has been shopping at the company since she can remember, believes it has the best quality products, can be classified as one of the most loyal customers.

6.      Compare Real Finding

Theoretical implications:

The purpose of a consumer experience map, for e-marketers is that not only is it essential to comprehend the experiential condition of consumers and their probable responses, but also the website’s working response (Karr, 2018). Value Segments are vital factors to drive customer online experience. Trust and Loyalty are key elements to measure brand loyalty and vital for business success and growth. Customer Retention brings in higher customer volume and drive new sales.

 

Managerial Implications:

Managerial effort is more likely to aim on Briscoe’s website’s performance, in terms of growth. Customer research should target on analysing the psychological and emotional condition of mind, all the way from trailing the online buying process to understanding how to accommodate the features of the website. In addition to that, there could be changes in the relevance of varying experiences, relying upon the service or product which is delivered through Briscoe Group Ltd. It is easier to use the online website of BG group as compare to the physical store, however sales can be improved from the managerial point of view by implementing the following:

• Search-engine optimisation (SEO). Their website currently doesn’t come up in the top three results when searching for ‘homeware’ and this can be improved upon.
• They can Offer something more online to attract elderly people
• Chat option
• Guest user shopping
• Mobile App
• Better social media presence
• NZ is a multilingual country and having a language option on the website can be beneficial.

References:

Kim, SeungHyun, Cha JaeMin, Knutson, Bonnie J. & Beck, Jeffrey A. (2011). Development and testing of the Consumer Experience Index (CEI). Managing Service Quality. Vol 21 Iss:2. (p.112-132).

Karr, D. (2018). 20 Key Factors Impacting E-Commerce Consumer Behavior | MarTech. Retrieved from https://martech.zone/e-commerce-consumer-behavior/

Briscoes Group Limited. (2018). Annual Report. Briscoes Group Limited. Retrieved from http://briscoegroup.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/BGP-2018-Annual-Report.pdf

Briscoes Homeware.(n.d.).Retrieved from http://www.briscoegroup.co.nz/

Davis, R., Oliver, M., and Brodie, R. (2000). Retail Branding in Electronic Commerce Environment. Journal of Service Research volume 3, No.2. Doi 10.1177/109467050032006

Doolin, B., Dillon, S., Thompson, F., & Corner, J. (2005). Perceived Risk, the Internet Shopping Experience and Online Purchasing Behavior. Journal Of Global Information Management, 13(2), 66-88. doi: 10.4018/jgim.2005040104

Brodbent, A. (2016). Customer Experience Mapping: What Is It and How To Do It? [Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.startupgrind.com/blog/customer-experience-mapping-what-is-it-and-how-to-do-it/

Fisher, S. (2018). Technology And Retail. Retail NZ. Retrieved from http://www.retail.kiwi/about/future-retail/technology-and-retail

Gentile Chiara, Spiller Nicola, Noci Giulano How to sustain the Customer Experience: An Overview of experience Components that Co-create Value with the Customer European Management Journal, 25 (5.) (2007) (p.395-410)

Jaillet (2002); Rosa and Malter (2003); Zeng and Reinartz (2003); Cheung et al. (2005); Lehto et al. (2006)

Rose, S., Hair, N., & Clark, M. (2011). Online Customer Experience: A Review of the Business-to-Consumer Online Purchase Context. International Journal Of Management Reviews, 13(1), 24-39. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2370.2010.00280.x

Davis, R., Oliver, M., and Brodie, R. (2000). Retail Branding in Electronic Commerce Environment. Journal of Service Research volume 3, No.2. Doi 10.1177/109467050032006

Hunter, D. (2018). History | Briscoe Group Limited. Retrieved from http://briscoegroup.co.nz/about-us/history/History | Briscoe Group Limited. (2018). Retrieved from http://briscoegroup.co.nz/about-us/history/

Customer Experience Mapping: What Is It And How To Do It?. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.startupgrind.com/blog/customer-experience-mapping-what-is-it-and-how-to-do-it/

Ultimate Guide to Customer Experience Mapping: How to Map the CX from Start to Finish – NGDATA. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.ngdata.com/creating-a-customer-experience-map/

Customer Experience Mapping: What Is It And How To Do It?. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.startupgrind.com/blog/customer-experience-mapping-what-is-it-and-how-to-do-it/

Gatesman, B. (2018). How to Create a Great Customer Experience Online. Retrieved from https://www.privy.com/blog/2018/2/how-to-create-a-great-customer-experience-online

Retail market in New Zealand an analysis 2013. (2018, may). Retrieved from http://www.retail.org.nz/downloads/2013 Retail Market in NZ.pdf

 

Homeware. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.briscoegroup.co.nz/ Code of conduct.(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.briscoegroup.co.nz/content.asp?cont=code Director profile. (n.d.).Retrievedfromhttp://www.briscoegroup.co.nz/content.asp?cont=directors

History. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.briscoegroup.co.nz/content.asp?cont=history

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton