COM-425 Week 2

Demon Tweeks are a company who specialise in car and motorcycle modification.  The company was founded in 1973 when the owner recognised the demand for racing products in Britain.  In the mid 1990’s, the company expanded its range to cater for the car modification market and the motorcycling market.  The website was then created in the late 1990’s and since then the company is regarded by motorsport enthusiasts as the leader in motorsport retailing. 

The website has 3 different categories, motorsport, modifying and motorcycling.  A user can select a category and view different products that Demon-Tweeks have in stock.  Products can then selected and placed in a basket where the order can be processed.  The user can then proceed to checkout and purchase the products.  It is laid out in a simple but effective way making it very user friendly. 

The company currently employ 130 people and in 2007, the turnover for the company was £20.5 million.  The business sells products in 3 different ways.  The business has a showroom currently based in Wrexham, Wales.  This was the form the company originally starting selling products and has sold products from their showroom since 1973.  Their main form of selling products is done using the internet.  The website, www.demon-tweeks.co.uk, is heavily advertised in car magazines and motorcycle magazines and often gives out free catalogues to promote the products that Demon Tweeks have available.  Due to the biggest majority of orders the business receives being through the internet, next day delivery to mainland Britain is offered for free.   The company also attend race meetings and car shows where they would set up a stand to sell their products.

COM-425 Week 1

In 2006, the Office for National Statistics first held a survey aiming to find out how many households had access to the internet in the United Kingdom.  When the survey was first held, the number of households in the UK was 25.3 million.  Of this, 57% (14.26 million) of households had access to the internet.  In 2007, this increased to 61% (15.23 million households) and in 2008 it increased to 65% (16.46million households).  This is an average increase of 4% (1.1 million households) per year.  Over the two years, the number of households gaining access to the internet rose by 2.2million. 

 

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=8

When carrying out the survey, the Office for National Statistics also wanted to find out how these households were connected to the internet.  This would be either a dial-up or broadband connection.  In 2006, 10.12 million households were connected to the internet using broadband.  This meant that 70% of all connections to the internet were broadband and only 30% were dial-up connections.  In 2007%, over half the UK’s households were connected to the internet via broadband and 84% of all household connections were broadband connections.  In 2008, this rose again by another 2% meaning that 14.16 million households in the UK were connected to the internet via broadband. 

 
From these statistics we learn that the number of households in the UK without an internet connection has fallen significantly in two years and that the number of broadband users across the UK is increasing on average by 1million each year.  This will make the broadband market very competitive in the next few years with companies looking to grow throughout the UK and also upgrade their connections so they are always one step ahead of their rivals.  It also shows us that the market for dial up has decreased significantly and could soon be non-existent.