Do your homework
I recently had the opportunity to review www.dicksmith.com.au from an outsiders perspective and I'm really glad I made the effort to do my research as it seemed they appreciated my efforts as well 
Preliminary Website Analysis
This brief analysis was put together to serve as a preliminary assessment on ways Dick Smith Electronics can improve its existing ecommerce solution. As the techxperts is it crucially important for Dick Smith Electronics to stay up to date with existing technological trends in its product range and marketing strategy. With today’s market trends online presence is one of the main point of connection with a brand.
Current Market Position
Based on the current market analysis it seems that Dick Smith Electronics has recently migrated to a new domains and have successfully adopted a new branding strategy. Since late 2010 Dick Smith has moved away from www.dse.com.au to www.dicksmith.com.au and that does create some confusion for consumers during the domain migration but it has not affected the website traffic too dramatically.
For the purpose of this report we will consider the following candidates as Dicks Smith’s Major Competitors and use them as the current market benchmark.
It is evident that Dick Smith Electronics shares a reasonable amount of traffic with the Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi however kogan is starting to get a fair amount of market share and traction. While the difference between JB Hi-Fi and Dick Smith Electronics is not a great deal it is still reasonable for us to say that JB Hi-Fi does have a better position in the market compared to the other Consumer Electronics Retailers.
Search Engine Status
| Dick Smith | JB Hi-Fi | Harvey Norman | Kogan | |
| Traffic Rank | 275 | 236 | 243 | 663 |
| Google Page Rank | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| Sites Linking in | 155 | 331 | 418 | 393 |
| Load Time | (2.255 Seconds), 73% of sites are faster. | (0.994 Seconds), 70% of sites are slower | (0.994 Seconds), 70% of sites are slower. | (0.908 Seconds), 74% of sites are slower. |
After doing several generic searches I could not find dick smith in the organic or the paid search listings however I was able to find Dick Smith with more specific search terms.
Below gives you an example of the search result you get when searching for LCD TV, as you can see both manufactures and retailers are bidding & working for this position.
Recommendations:
- Missing Meta description & keywords on most pages.
- Choice of SEO words should be more optimized
<title>Great deals on Apple ipods, laptops, notebooks, 3D TV, LCD and Plasma | Dick Smith Online Shopping</title>
- Better Use of header tags across the website and especially the landing page <h2>Your Cart</h2>
- Optimizing and reducing the number of images been loaded on the home page, while visually the website does look great there are a lot of images been loaded in the background that can slow down the user experience. It is recommended that Dick Smith should reconsider 277 images been loaded on the homepage to improve site performance.
Social Media Status
| Dick Smith | JB Hi-Fi | Kogan | Digital Rev | |
| Facebook Likes | 2,637 | 41,259 | 7,398 | 29,531 |
| YouTube Subscribers
|
11 | NA | 90 | 77,482 |
| Twitter Followers | 2,445 | NA | 2,902 | 12,078 |
Marketing Avenues to consider
- YouTube videos & product reviews in coordination with manufacturers (talk to the techxperts)
- Implementing a stackoverflow.com style community for consumer electronics
- Google adsense and Youtube Self Service Ads
- Marking RSS feeds more accessible for shopping comparison websites
- Getting listings on Google Shopping (JB Hi-Fi currently on there)
- Promotional microsites coordinated with manufacturers (redemption offers)
- Creating iphone catalogue app or photo app similar to Harvey Norman