COVENTRY UNIVERSITY

Individual Report
Course: Digital Marketing (DM)
Name: Dong Xuanhe

Market analysis of Sheng Siong Supermarket

Propose digital marketing plan and strategy
1.0 summary
This article discusses related literature and research issues, then research relevant

factors based on relevant literature, and analyzes and summarizes the performance of

the organization's digital marketing activities in conjunction with the contemporary

environment, as well as limitations and future directions. The study identified six key

dimensions of online retail service quality perceived by online customers:

reliable/timely response, access, ease of use, attention, security, and credibility.

Among them are the reliable/prompt responses, tangibility and reliability, which have

a significant impact on the overall quality of service and satisfaction perceived by the

customer.

2.0 Introduction
The Lim brothers were founded Sheng Siong Supermarket in 1985 which is one of the

largest retailers in Singapore. In 2014, it launched an online shopping platform,

allforyou.sg. key customer are those customers who prefer lower prices. Therefore,

Sheng Siong's extremely competitive prices provide a competitive advantage. They

are mission is providing quality products and services at a reasonable price in a

convenient and comfortable shopping environment. And vision is to be the preferred

retailer in the market, and then further ashore. After the launch of the online store, the

focus of the strategy is transformed into e-commerce. Improving e-service quality can

not only effectively increase the attractiveness, click rate, customer retention rate and

positive word of mouth, but also can maximize the online competitive advantage of e-

commerce (Jessica, 2003). This paper will according to digital marketing strategy,

discuss how the company is benefiting from online servqual, Advise on future

marketing plans and strategies to make the company more competitive.

3.0 Literature review and research questions

Digital marketing is defined as "Achieving marketing objectives through applying

digital technologies and media" wrote Dave (2018). This is combined with online

communication technologies, including search engine, social media, email marketing

and cooperative arrangements with other websites, etc. (Kim and Eom, 2002).

Retailers must understand what the key factors of service quality are considered by

consumers in the network shopping, as well as the influence of service quality

dimension on customer satisfaction. Improving electronic service quality can

maximize the online competitive advantage of e- commerce (Sanfey, Rilling et al.

2003). At the same time, retailers can use the SOSTAC planning framework to

analyze the current market and company situation (Chaffey, D., Smith, P. 2013).

3.1 Reliability
(Chiu et al., 2009)
The researchers believe that trust is a crucial enabler of online transactions (Chiu et

al., 2009), thus establishing a long-term stable relationship.

Assumptions based on this argument: Does trust matter more to buyback intentions than

shopping value (commodity value/hedonism)?

Trust as a perceived control factor is receive the influence of the service quality of the

businessman. Information equivalence is the most effective way to build trust relative

to consumers, including deterministic factors (such as the degree of trust of merchants

and goods) and security factors in merchants' online stores. Consumers' trust in sellers

is the key to building customer loyalty (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000). According to

planned behavior theory is positively correlated with the degree of buyback (Ajzen,

1991). Therefore, all online services developed by the company should be based on

gaining customer trust, which will become one of the factors that have a greater

impact on consumer buyback than shopping value (Chiu et al., 2009).

3.2 Tangibility
(Cai and Jun , 2003)

More and more studies show that consumer satisfaction is related to service quality,

and is also the key to the success of retailers（Jarvenpaa,1997）. This paper studies

how online retailers attract and retain consumers through tangible factors, and puts

forward the influence of tangible services in website aesthetics, usability, physical

equipment and personnel on consumers. The SERVQUAL dimension of "tangible" is

reflected in the category mainly for the three parts of "accessibility", "navigation" and

"design and presentation" (Kaynama and Black, 2000). Chen and Wells (1999) noted

that consumers are dropping out of business because of slow clicks and long redirects.

Therefore, online retailers use digital marketing to improve the website of Sheng

Siong Supermarket and help enterprises to maintain daily website operation.

3.3 Responsiveness
(Jun, Yang and Kim, 2004)

The results of the present study indicated that online customers are eager to get

personalized service from online retailers (Jun, Yang and Kim, 2004). This can be

achieved through an interactive process between the customer and the service

provider(Harvey, 1998). For enterprises, SERVQUAL, as the decisive factor to

achieve high level of overall service quality and customer satisfaction, can take the

initiative to help customers and provide timely and rapid service, including interaction

with customers and friendly service attitude.

3.4 Traditional Marketing And Digital Marketing

Traditional marketing includes girect mail, broadcast media, telemarketing. digital

crafting can better track and target your customers (Yelle, 2018), compared with
digital marketing, staff need to spend more time and energy. Hence, use of traditional

marketing methods in online services lacks advantages.

3.5 SOSTAC

Establish a framework and plan for the future of the company based on the analysis

results. Sheng Siong Supermarket is in a stable state. Although there are still many

competitors in Singapore, such as Redmart and Honestbee. A bigger risk that Sheng

Siong faces is the rise of e-commerce players on its own turf. Among online retailers,

merchants should consider a combination of digital marketing and online servqual to

develop strategies based on the analysis results.

The question to be considered in the SOSTAC Framework is whether the service

quality of enterprises is related to customer satisfaction.

4.0 Macroeconomics and microeconomics environment

The business activities of enterprises are restricted and affected by the macro-

economy, including country's politics, economy, technology and social culture. Sheng

Siong is Steady development in the macro-economy, by influencing the micro

environment to affect the enterprise marketing ability. If the company does not

consider the combination of macro and micro environment, without clear goals and

planning ability, sustainable development cannot be achieved. Companies need to

work closely together internally, including effective communication with the

promotion website for digital marketing cooperation and customer service operations

(Responsiveness).

5.0 Digital marketing campaign’s performance

The main thing is lack of advertising planning. Due to the lack of traffic and click-

through rates, most of the customers who use the website are original customers, so

these potential customers cannot directly find the company's retail website without

being instructed by other parties. It will not be recommended by social media, nor by

search engines. The lack of potential customers may also lead to the loss of some

original customers, which is detrimental to the long-term development of the

company. “operating cost will likely revert to the historical mean of 16.5% of sales,

and in turn raise overall operating margin,” RHB commented (Singapore Business

Review, 2019). For the online store of Sheng Siong Supermarket, the target market is

clear, but it lacks the main tools of digital marketing: choose and use a good analytics

platform. Companies should target the digital marketing segment offers Website

Analytics, SEO Analytics and social media promotion，at the same time execute real

time improvements based on measurement results.

On the other hand, external cooperation means integrating supply chain partners

(suppliers, packaging and transportation companies). And it also faces contemporary

Internet problems. Cheryl (2013) pointed out that “The first one is Integrity, Business

has never faced the type of moral challenges that it faces in today’s global economy”.
For Sheng Siong Supermarket, online stores should gain the trust of consumers first,

then the rest of the online servqual.

6.0 Future marketing planning and strategy

Swaminathan et al.(1999) show that Internet users' perception of online service

characteristics, such as reliability, convenience, price competitiveness and

information acquisition, can significantly influence online purchase frequency.

6.1 Reliability

As an effective online service, gaining the trust of consumers, the click rate of SEO in

digital marketing plays a key role (Ladhari, 2009). Search engine ranking at the top of

the site is more competitive (Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2002). Consumers are more

trusting of sites that rank high in search engines (Jun, Yang and Kim, 2004). First of

all, to provide service commitment to consumers, through reliable and accurate

implementation of all the promised services. The best way to increase accessibility is

to have a special agreement with the most used Internet search tools.

6.2 Tangibility

To be an effective online service, It depends on the website quality of the online

retailer, including the use of the search bar in the website, the good state of the

website when the goods are delivered to customers, and the intuitive packaging, in

order to let online services more attractive. In the page of Sheng Siong Supermarket, a
navigation bar composed of product pictures can be provided to enable consumers to

clearly and intuitively preview and search the page, the navigation bar should be kept

as visible and clickable as possible while the customer scrolls the page. Compared

with other similar Online Grocery Shopping, Honestbee and RedMart with colorful

pictures and clear text description, consumers do not need to spend much time to

understand the specific situation of the product they want, and RedMart can clearly

display their discounts on the page. One of the key attractions of Sheng Siong

Supermarket is its low price, so the information provided on the website must be

complete and the price accurate. Therefore, in digital marketing, website tanability

can be promoted from basic page Settings (improved navigation and page structure),

add smarter search engines, attractive prices and pictures to advertise. On the other

hand, it is suggested that online retailers should choose an efficient host server and

avoid using high-resolution graphics (Doherty et al., 1999). To the consumer, the

indispensable part in tangible is neat page design and professional staff.

6.3 Responsiveness

An enterprise's online store should be dedicated to providing continuous quality

service to its employees, enabling the organization to create lasting service in order to

fulfill its relationship with customers (Kaynama and Black , 2000), Online consumers

expect accurate, reliable and timely service commitments from enterprises

(Zeithaml，2002). Online companies can also use database technology to set strict

service quality standards for response time, delivery of services and employee
conduct, Therefore, in order to show the human side to customers, the company needs

to have enough employees to answer customers' questions by phone and email. In

addition, online retailers need to maintain message areas on their websites in order to

listen to individual customers, in order to better understand their changing preferences

and predict their future needs, employees should also respond to customer comments

on other social networking sites. For example, if customers complain or appreciate in

comments on relevant websites or other social software, employees will reply and

encourage or show improvement, which will help improve customer loyalty.

7.0 conclusion
With the development of network technology, predominantly scientific Internet

continues toexpand exponentially, online companies must compete on higher levels of

quality of service and customer service, brands should focus on using digital

marketing in their online stores. First of all, gain the trust of consumers, which is the

basis for building customer loyalty. Second, electronic websites need competition,

provide more user-friendly navigation and design to make the site easier to use. On

the basis of improving the quality of the website, conduct multimedia interaction as a

new media to get their target customers. At last, it establishes contact with consumers

through timely reply, improves customer loyalty and makes online stores develop

sustainably.
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