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A

Summer Training Project Report


ON
“WEB TECHNOLOGY & E-COMMERCE
COMPANIES”

TO BE SUBMITTED TO DR. APJ ABDUL KALAM TECHNICAL


UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW
IN THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT
FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION


Batch 2016-18
Submitted To : Submitted By :

Mr. ANAND MISHRA PARVEZ AHMAD


H.O.D, of Management M.B.A. III Sem
Roll No. - 1637070033

SHANTI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY


MEERUT

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STUDENT DECLARATION

I PARVEZ AHMAD student of MBA here by declared that the research report

entitled “WEB TECHNOLOGY & E-COMMERCE COMPANIES” is completed

and submitted under the guidance of Mr. Anand Mishra HO.D., Management

Department, SIT, Meerut is my original work. The imperial finding in this report

is based on the data collected by me . I have not submitted this report to any other

university for the purpose of compliance of any requirement of any examination or

degree.

Mr. Anand Mishra


(H.O.D). MBA Dept.
DATE……. PARVEZ AHMAD

MBA-III SEM
Roll No. – 1637070033

SUPERVISOR :

Date

Signature

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It gives me immense pleasure to express my indebtedness and deep sense of gratitude


to my Faculty Mentor Mr. Anand Mishra HO.D., Management Department, SIT,
Meerut for his valuable and scholarly guidance. His sympathetic and helpful attitude
and motivation helped me to work on this dissertation.

This acknowledgement would be incomplete without grateful mention of all the


people who provided various information as when required and I had approached to
them. I also express my heartfelt gratitude towards all my classmates who have
helped, assisted, and motivated me time to time during my Internship period.

I acknowledge my heartfelt gratitude to my parents for all help, resources and


guidance whenever I required.

Last but not the least; I thank ALMIGHTY for his blessings.

PARVEZ AHMAD

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CONTENT

CONTENTS PAGE NO.

Declaration 2

Acknowledgement 3

Executive Summery 5

1. About the Industry in General 6

2. Growth of the Industry 7-11

3. Company Profile Its Products 12-13

4. Sectors & Services 14-28

5. Products Profile 29-31


6. ENGAGING ECOMMERCE EMAIL MARKETING STRATEGIES  
32-34

7. ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGE OF E-MAIL MARKETING 35-37

8. E-COMMERCE SERVICES THAT ACCELERATE BUSINESS GROWTH


35-40

9. FUTURE E- COMMERCE SYSTEM TEQUIREMENTS 41-48

10. E-MAIL MARKETING FUNDAMENTALS 49-54

11. BENEFITS OF RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

INTERNET BRANDING 55-61

12. ADAPTING MARKETONG TO THE ECONOMY 62-64

13. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 65-68


15. DATA ANALYIS 69-78

16. IMPORTANT QUESTINS ANSWER 79-91


17. FINDING 92-96
17.CONCLUSION 94

18. RECOMMENDATION 95
19. LIMITATION 96
20. BIBLIOGRAPHY 97-98
21. QUESTIONNAIRE 99-103

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EXECUTIVE SUMMERY

The growing use of Internet in India provides a developing prospect for online

shopping.

If E-marketers know the factors affecting online Indian behavior, and the relationships

between these factors and the type of online buyers, and then they can further develop

their marketing strategies to convert potential customers into active ones, while

retaining existent online customers. This project is a part of study, and focuses on

factors which online Indian buyers keep in mind while shopping online.

This research found that information, perceived usefulness; ease of use; perceived

enjoyment and security/privacy are the five dominant factors, which influence

consumer perceptions of online purchasing.

A model was developed indicating online shopping behavior and acceptance among

customers in India. The model was tested with a survey sample (n=100). Factor

analysis technique in SPSS was used to classify these factors which buyers keep in

mind while shopping online.

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ABOUT THE INDUSTRY IN GENERAL

Welcome To Sturdily Business


Services Pvt Ltd.

On behalf of All the Staff members & Top Management, I welcome you at Sturdily
Business Services Pvt. Ltd and wish you every success in your future.

At Sturdily Business Services Pvt. Ltd, we believe that each employee contributes
directly to the growth and success of the company, and we hope you will take pride in
being a member of our team.

This manual is developed to describe some of the expectations of our employee and to
outline the policies, programs and benefits available to the eligible employees.
Employees should become familiar with the contents of the HR manual and it will
answer many questions about employment with Sturdily Business Services Pvt. Ltd.

We believe that professional relationships are easier when all employees are aware
of the culture and values of the organization. This guide will help you to better
understand our vision for the future and the challenges ahead.

We hope that your experience here will be challenging, enjoyable and rewarding.

With Best Wishes

_______________

Deep Shahot
(Director)

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Growth of the Industry

COMPANY OVERVIEW (“WHO WE ARE”):

Sturdily Business Services Pvt Ltd is a complete marketing company specializing in


B2B marketing, customer retention and managing sales leads for major accounts in
multiple industry sectors. Sturdily Business Services Pvt Ltd is widely recognized as
one of the “leading lights” of the B2B Marketing Industry.

Over the last era, clients from different verticals and industries, especially IT,
Entertainment, Healthcare firms, have benefited from our end-to-end Marketing
solutions. To take your Digital Marketing-driven strategies to the next level, our
progressive business models and advanced Marketing solutions are created specific to
B2B and B2C markets and customized to your commercial requirements.

STURDILY BUSINESS SERVICES PVT LTD holds expertise in:

 Market Research
 Marketing Databank
 Niche Marketing
 Content Marketing
 Social Media
 Video Optimization
 Media Marketing
 Mobile Marketing
 Digital Signage

Digital Marketing-driven Marketing is about using data and online to do smart-


marketing – irrespective of the channels you’re working on. Those companies that
have adopted Digital-Driven Marketing will have better clarity and standpoint
regarding their target prospects as well as their competition.

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Highlights of our lead generation programs include:

 Completed over 5 million new business sales presentations for our clients.
 Generated over 2.5 million sales results for our clients.
 Created millions of dollars in new revenue for our clients.

Sturdily Business Services Pvt Ltd clients range from small local businesses to
Fortune 100 companies.

 Below are some of the many advantages of hiring us for B2B Marketing
services and managing your business leads:

Determine Your Destination - Our tried and true process determines the
marketing strategy that will generate leads, increase revenue, and get your B2B
Company moving in the right direction.

Align Your Business - It’s not a good Marketing Plan if your team isn’t on board.
Our strategies will get all of your complex B2B Company’s efforts working
together toward a greater goal.

Market you’re Products - We’ve worked with industry experts on some of their
most complicated, challenging, and technical products and services. We know
how to tell your business’s story.

Drive Your Sales - The world of B2B lead generation has drastically changed.
It’s less about pushing your sales and marketing team onto clients, and more about
getting them to find you.

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U.S.-based call centre for B2B Marketing and target audience setting: Our
B2B marketing is based in the U.S. This gives your company the advantage of
being represented by native English speakers – no offshore Callers –to ensure
clear, culturally fluent communication and make the most of your business leads.

Category-specific experience in managing sales leads: Our lead generation


agents and sales representatives are not newcomers to the arena; we offer a
talented, diverse, well-trained team of sales professionals who have specific
expertise in your product category.

Vision: “To help our clients, partners & customers expand their businesses and
to make the impossible possible.”

Mission: "Deliver global Digital marketing solutions where practically anyone


can reach global audience”

Values: “Peddle worthy marketing services at a realistic profit, treat your


customers like human, and they will always come back for more.”

Goal: “To reach out all Clients, Partners and Customers, fulfil their Business
needs and to help them expand their businesses.”

Business Ethics & Conduct: The successful business operation and reputation of
Sturdily Business Services Pvt Ltd. is built upon the principles of fair dealing and
ethical conduct of our employees. Our reputation for the integrity and excellence
requires careful observance of the spirit and letter of all applicable laws and

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regulations, as well as a scrupulous regards for the highest standards of conduct and
personal integrity.

The continued success of Sturdily Business Services Pvt Ltd. is dependent upon our
clients/customer’s trust and we are dedicated to preserving that trust. Employees owe
a duty to Sturdily Business Services Pvt Ltd., its clients & customers to act in a way
that will merit the continued trust and confidence of the public.

Sturdily Business Services Pvt Ltd. will comply with all applicable laws and
regulations and expects its Directors, Managers, Executives and associated staff
members to conduct business in accordance with the letter, sprit, and intent of all
relevant laws and to refrain from any illegal, dishonest, or unethical conduct.

In general, the use of good judgment, based on high ethical principles, will guide you
with respect to lines of acceptable conduct. If a situation arises where it is difficult to
determine the proper course of action, the matter should be discussed openly with
your immediate head of the department and, if necessary, with the DIRECTORS, for
advice and consultation.

Compliance with this policy of business ethics and conduct is the responsibility of
every Sturdily Business Services Pvt Ltd. employee & associated members.

Disregarding or failing to comply with this standard of business ethics and conduct
could lead to disciplinary action, up to and including possible termination of
employment.

Human Resource Policy & Procedures:

The Sturdily Business Services Pvt Ltd. Human Resources Policy and Procedures
Manual have been developed to facilitate the implementation and clearly define
Sturdily Business Services Pvt Ltd. policies on human resource management.

The Manual provides guidelines to be followed in the administration of these policies,


and assists all employees in defining who is responsible for each human resource
management decision, and the correct procedure which is to be followed.

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The policies specified within are consistent with those of best practices of
management principles. They have the full support and commitment of Sturdily
Business Services Pvt Ltds management.

HR policies must be kept current and relevant. Therefore, from time to time it will be
necessary to modify and amend some sections of the policies and procedures, or for
new procedures to be added.

Any suggestions, recommendations or feedback on the policies and procedures


specified in this manual are welcome. This should be provided by email or through
suggestion boxes.

These policies and procedures apply to all areas of operations within Sturdily
Business Services Pvt Ltd. And related entities.

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COMPANY PROFILE AND ITS PRODUCTS

“Evaluation of E-Mail marketing and Database services for


E- Commerce companies”

Over the last era, clients from different verticals and industries, especially IT, Entertainment,
Healthcare firms, have benefited from our end-to-end Marketing solutions. To take your
Digital Marketing-driven strategies to the next level, our progressive business models and
advanced Marketing solutions are created specific to B2B and B2C markets and customized
to your commercial requirements.

 STURDILY accumulate, aggregate, manage, and authenticate data from thousands


of local sources daily so that our clients can use the information internationally to
target the right businesses.
 STURDILY Services uses top mobile ad publishers and a unique geo-targeting solution
to place the most relevant mobile banner ads possible.
 Online video distribution can get your business message out to thousands of
potential new buyers. Increase your website traffic, Video & conversions by reaching
a global audience with our video distribution services.

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 Your content is your Online Song. Sing it right, and you’ll get it right. Utter a messy
term and you’ll pay for it. You don’t want that to happen to your business, do you?
We have in-house professionals who craft strategies to improve content and make
websites drive traffic.

Company Synopsis

Over the last era, clients from different verticals and industries, especially IT,
Entertainment, Healthcare firms, have benefited from our end-to-end Marketing
solutions. To take your Digital Marketing-driven strategies to the next level, our
progressive business models and advanced Marketing solutions are created specific
to B2B and B2C markets and customized to your commercial requirements.

STURDILY Services holds expertise in


 Market Research

 Marketing Databank

 Niche Marketing

 Content Marketing

 Social Media

 Video Optimization

 Media Marketing

 Mobile Marketing

 Digital Signage.

  Digital Marketing-driven Marketing is about using data and online to do smart-


marketing – irrespective of the channels you’re working on. Those companies that
have adopted Digital-Driven Marketing will have better clarity and standpoint
regarding their target prospects as well as their competition.

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 Sectors
Every industry has a different set of risks inherent to it. The specialists at
Sturdily Business Services have a depth of dedicated experience across all
industries. These are just some of the sectors we service.

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 B2C

 TECH Market

 Entertainment

 Automobile

 Government

 Real Estate

 E-Commerce

 Customer Intelligence

Business to Business Solutions


Business-to-business marketing (or B2B marketing, as it is commonly known)
involves the sale of one company’s product or service to another company.
STURDILY connects to all the B2B industries.

Business to Customer Solutions


It doesn’t matter if you sell online, in brick-and-mortar locations or through
multiple channels, as a business selling to consumers (B2C), you require
strategies and tactics that nonstop evolve in order to maximize opportunities that
reach customers online.

Information Technology
We are a specialist Company providing marketing services to the technology
sector. STURDILY Services help clients in reaching technology users, tele-
marketing, IT prospect database, Lead Generation, App & Software
Development and market research.

Entertainment
Your entertainment company needs to develop the atmosphere and the
messaging to connect with your audience. Get inspired by our marketing plans.

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 Why wait to start your marketing plan? STURDILY makes it easy to create a
marketing plan that powers your business growth. Use our marketing solutions to
develop a strategy, improve ROI for your marketing resources and create a
stronger connection to your customer.

Automobile

STURDILY connect the dots from car-buyers’ screens to dealership lots with the
world’s most comprehensive and successful automotive digital marketing solution.
STURDILY Digital Marketing is uniquely accomplished of delivering unified
consumer experiences that delight buyers and maximize dealer revenue and
profits.

Government

STURDILY helps governments harness the power of information technology with


process transformation to improve performance of State and Local governments.
We also provide customized services and solutions that would safeguard complete
interoperability with other lead applications under the e-governance framework of
the respective nations.

Real Estate

We are a full service real estate marketing agency that consistently delivers
beautiful, edgy, elegant and out of the box real estate marketing strategies and
graphic design.

E-Commerce

STURDILY provides customized end-to-end e-commerce solutions for retail brands


on an entirely outsourced basis. Our suite of integrated services brings multichannel
retail dreams to life, allowing you to imagine while we maximize your online and
mobile sales.

Customer Intelligence

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Customer intelligence (CI) is information derived from customer data that an
organization collects from both internal and external sources. The purpose of CI is to
understand customer motivations better in order to drive future growth. The
application of business analytics to customer data is sometimes called customer data
mining.

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 Services
Whether you are looking for consulting, Digital-Driven Marketing, or subcontracting
solutions, employ the knowledge of our teams of experienced professionals, thought
leaders, and marketing experts.

It is our attitude and determination to deliver the best that sets us aside from other
Digital Marketing Providers. Our services below are backed by our many years of
expertise, knowledge and energy in those areas.

 Market Research
 Marketing Database
 Niche Marketing
 Content Marketing
 Social Media
 Video Optimization
 Media Marketing
 Mobile Marketing
 Digital Signage

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 Market Research

Recognise the industry better with thorough Market Research and systematic Analysis
Analyst intelligences give in-depth idea of the industry your target audience fall into;
and how your services can be useful to them. These reports help you know the hints
of the particular industry and fine-tune your services accordingly. Filled with real-
time data and analytics, they give you a pictorial representation of what the industry
looks like and what you can do best to assist them.

 Sturdily Services can provide you with analyst reports for any efficient industry and
its sub-segments. Our market research team is pro at collecting, researching, collating
and presenting any industry information in a usable manner. While our reports can
also be used for direct sales purposes, they can be extensively used by companies to
strategies and formulate products and services. While serving clients from various
industries, we have realized that a consolidated report often helps in realizing just
what they need to do to tap an unknown market and make the venture count.

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 Marketing Database

STURDILY accumulate, aggregate, manage, and authenticate data from thousands of


local sources daily so that our clients can use the information internationally to target
the right businesses. Our ability to turn a massive stream of data into high quality
business data is what sets us apart from other data owners. Our sources of information
include landing pages, events, tradeshows, live conferences, company financials, B2B
magazines, newspapers and other online media.
The foundation of our process is Excellence Guarantee which includes over 840 +
separate automated checks, plus many manual ones, to ensure the data meets our high
quality ethics.

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 Niche Marketing

Niche marketing by STURDILY is a targeted marketing plan that focuses on one


particular sector of the market that has high potential to connect with a product or
service. Instead of casting a wide net in mass-media and large-event marketing, niche
marketing zeroes in on strategically selected venues and media platforms that have
high concentrations of these targeted consumers.

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 Content Marketing

Your content is your Online Song. Sing it right, and you’ll get it right. Utter a messy
term and you’ll pay for it. You don’t want that to happen to your business, do you?
Content holds a critical position in this internet era. It’s not just high quality content
but a perfect mix of quality, relevance and SEO which makes you stand out of the
clutter. At STURDILY Services, we have in-house professionals who craft strategies
to improve content and make websites drive traffic.

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 Social Media

Social Media Marketing is on the upsurge by the day with millions of users teeming
across the globe. They are technically advanced and updated timely. Being a part of
these sites would hardly cost you anything. You can promote your business, products
and your websites through them and this has increasingly become an integral part of
any digital marketing initiative.

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 Video Optimization

Video marketing is an unlimited way to improve your Video, website and business.
Customers trust websites that have videos. Our video marketing services can get you
started quickly in harnessing the power of online video. We create a customized
motion graphic video tailored to your specific business. Then we include an integrated
online marketing campaign to help promote your video and business which helps to
drive results to your website.

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 Media Marketing

New Media Marketing STURDILY New media is a marketing and communication


tool that uses technology such as video, multimedia and the web to convey a message.
This new and innovative form of communication enables anyone to express their
ideas and opinions in an interactive way, by using a variety of digital media. Web
videos, blogs, social networks, and pod casts are just some forms of new media that
have been a successful part of marketing.

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 Mobile Marketing

STURDILY Services uses top mobile ad publishers and a unique geo-targeting


solution to place the most relevant mobile banner ads possible. Mobile ads will be
placed on smartphones for iOS and Android operating systems across a mobile ad
network to reach mass distribution while remaining as targeted as possible. Ad units
can be targeted down to meters, focus on actions such as calls, app downloads,
landing pages or driving directions. Full campaign reporting gives marketers the
insights they need to optimize their future campaigns.

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Location

Target your ads to be shown to customers the closest to you or your competitors. Even
target special event venues to create the most relevant strategy possible.

 
Interest

Looking for a particular group of mobile users? Target users based on whether they
are sports lovers, shoppers or travelers and more.

 
Time & Day

Run your ads when is most effective. Run ads for specials related to day and time to
add to effectiveness.
 
Budget Control

Create your own spending limits daily and monthly. Control bid amounts and get full
reports on spend levels.

 
Actions

Actions such as Click to Call, Click to Driving Directions, Click to Download or


straight to a Landing Pages that houses Coupons or even Video.
 
Reports

Tracking reports include Budget used, Time/Day, Location Intelligence, CTR, what
Actions were taken & more
Get in touch for more information or pricing.

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 Digital Signage

Content Makes All the Revolution

It’s NOT the hardware, software or the display that makes digital signage effective.
Your digital signage is only as effective as the content that appears on the screen.
STURDILY’s core strength is generating original content, we have nearly 4 yrs + of
knowledge that help us deliver outstanding results for our clients. Content generation
it is part of the basic service.

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PRODUCT PROFILE

 Mobile App Development

 Software Development

Mobile App Development

STURDILY is a company included of highly dedicated professionals with


expertise in digital strategy, user experience design and custom application
development. We live and breathe mobile, and work with forward–thinking
companies to turn ideas into successful products.

 Strategy

The initial phase of any engagement answers the question what is the ultimate
purpose of the app? from both a company and user perspective.

 Design

The goal of the user experience and graphic design phase is to deliver an application
that is intuitive, easy to use and stunningly beautiful.

 Development

For all aspects of the development process we apply an iterative process allowing for
a more flexible and efficient workflow.

 U-Training

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To build the best you have to have the best. Receive the same training that makes
STURDILY developers go from good to stellar.

Software Development

With STURDILY, you get a partner who not only understands how to build high
performance software products and applications; you also get a company whose
developers are adept at technology platforms & agile development practices and
deliver high quality software with cost and time predictability. With STURDILY
working on your Software Development initiatives you can count on:

 A strong guidance partner with capabilities and knowhow across technology


platforms and paradigms – cloud, mobile, enterprise or web
 Global delivery capabilities with world class onshore and offshore
development centers
 Expertise spanning the entire Software Development Lifecycle including
Architecture, Design, Development, Integration, Quality Assurance and
Testing
 Predictable deliverables using strong agile practices
 Accelerated development using reusable frameworks, ready-to-integrate code,
tools, methods, and best practices

Software Development Services

 NET Development
 Java Development
 C/C++ Development
 iOS Development
 Android Development
 Azure Application Development
 PHP Development
 Software Development Services
 Software Product Development
 SaaS Development
 Custom App Development
 Web App Development

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 Enterprise Application Development
 Mobile App Development
 Cloud Application Development
 Independent Software Testing

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ENGAGING ECOMMERCE EMAIL MARKETING
STRATEGIES 

Despite the amazing advancements in social media and on-site user interface design
for communicating with customers, email is still one of the best tactics e Commerce
marketing professionals can use to leverage prospects and past customers to increase e
Commerce sales.

There are three primary types of email that Hub Spot e Commerce marketers can use
to increase engagement and boost sales: Time-interval based lead nurturing, Date-
based “one-off” emails, and visitor behavior-triggered emails.

1. E-Commerce Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing (alternatively known as prospect-nurturing or e Commerce drip


marketing) is the practice of sending a consumer a series of emails at a set series of
intervals from the time they completed a specific action. e Commerce lead
nurturing is particularly useful for helping “secondary conversions”, or conversions
on forms for free educational downloads and guides, into primary conversions by
capturing an email address and engaging with a prospect over a period of time.

or example, if a visitor to an online luxury shoe boutique downloads “The Ultimate


Guide to Summer Shoe Styles”, that marketer could send them an email three days
after they download the guide asking if they had any questions, soliciting their
feedback, and offering an opportunity to complete a primary conversion (i.e. buying
something) by offering a discount incentive or link to a limited-time offer. This
process may be repeated in variations at day 5, 10, 15, 25, and so on until the
consumer either completes the primary conversion, converts on another secondary
educational download, or enough time has expired that it’s improbable that the
consumer is still within the range of the boutique shoe-buying cycle.

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The main purpose of an e-Commerce lead nurturing campaign is to get a consumer to
complete a primary conversion and buy something. Alternatively, the consumer
completing another secondary conversion allows you to “refresh” your relationship
with them and reset them in another lead nurturing campaign, so lead nurturing emails
usually include an additional secondary call to action.

A variation on lead nurturing for e-Commerce marketing professionals is the


“reverse” lead nurturing campaign. Whereas conventional lead nurturing campaigns
lead away from a user completing an action and the time intervals between emails
become greater, a reverse lead nurturing campaign leads towards an event (such as a
specific holiday or the expiration of a special offer) and the time intervals become
more aggressive as the target date approaches. This increased velocity helps increase
the sense of urgency in the prospect.

2 . One-Off e-Commerce Emails

There are many reasons that an e-Commerce marketing department may want to send
a one-time email. The newsletter is probably the most common application of this
tactic, with emails going out on a specific day of the week or month. Because this
type of email isn’t tied to any kind of user behavior, it’s often the least effective in
converting sales. Also, these tend to lessen the impact of incentivize discounts
because consumers become reliant and expectant of them. However, because of its
historical popularity it’s still widely practiced.

A more useful application of this practice is to communicate special offers and


information to users that weren’t anticipated in advance. Over-stocked item blowouts,
newly released products, and special offers that aren’t significant enough to warrant a
“build-up” campaign are effective uses. Also, “warming” an existing database by
sending them an education secondary call-to-action can be an effective use of one-off
emails. These are often more effective applications because they’re disruptive of
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customer expectations and less likely to be archived, skipped, or ignored without
being read.

3. Behavior-Triggered e-Commerce Emails

One of the most effective and powerful applications of email for e-Commerce
marketing are emails that are directly tied to the behaviors of visitors to your website.
The most common e-Commerce marketing application of this tactic are abandoned
cart nurturing emails. When a user adds an item to their cart and fails to complete a
checkout, an absolute necessity for e-Commerce marketers is to send an email to re-
engage that user.

Commonly, e-Commerce marketing professionals design a three-email series to


engage with users who have abandoned a cart and build in exit conditions (such as re-
visited the website and viewed a product detail page) that trigger different emails that
relate to that behavior.

e-Commerce marketing professionals can leverage this tool in a number of ways - it’s
power is only limited by your ability to relate a logical series of customer behaviors
with effective messaging.

 You can use behavior-based emails to detect when a customer is trying to


choose between two products and send them a comparison guide. 
 You can use behavior-based emails to keep an email database warm based on
whether or not a user has visited your website recently (instead of using the
one-off method).

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E-mail Marketing: Advantages, Disadvantages
and Improving Techniques

Abstract—

E-Commerce changes the way organizations do business. Recognizing the


significance of E-Commerce contributions to the nation’s economic growth, the
Iranian government introduced some solutions to increase the practice of E-
Commerce. They effort to encourage public and private enterprises to adopt E-
Commerce as a tool to be more competitive in global markets. One of tools regarding
E-commerce is E-mail Marketing. E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing
which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fund-raising
messages to an audience. In this paper, there is a systematic review on its advantages
and disadvantages. In addition, there are some recommendations to Iranian Marketing
Company regarding to improving E-mail Marketing. More results are subsequently
explained in the paper.

Advantages of E-mail Marketing

Most of what you invest, you get. Recent research shows that for every dollar
invested in E-mail marketing, you can expect that according to the Direct Marketing
Association, E-mail marketing in 2009, acquired for $ 43.52. So E-mail Marketing
has the highest return on investment than other marketing method.

It is very meaningful. You can customize messages for different customers and
provide contents and promotions that are consistent with their profile. Finally, your
customers acquire what they want and thus they obtain better view about what each
section of current business will respond. So you can continue to send more relevant E-
mail.

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Measurability. By E-mail marketing, you can easily find the number of E-mails sent,
number of E-mails that have been opened and that those who have opened up, the
number of people who are not registered, and click rate (which includes the link been
effective and who clicked on it).

It is easy. Creating a marketing message via E-mail is almost as easy as writing an E-


mail.

It is automatic. E-mail marketing has a tool called an “autoresponder”. For example,


if you want to send a campaign message to your recipients on special days you just
create the messages and schedule it

It is fast and efficient. Timing is everything, so it can be said: this is a quick and
efficient way. Offers promotions through E-mail with a clear call to action, can have
tremendous impact on earnings. Channels cannot provide any possibility for you in a
short period of time so as to obtain the customer directly.

E-mail marketing is known as a permission marketing and it is one of it’s advantages


because it allows customers to decide whether they want to be reached via E-mail.

mass customization are enabled by E-mail marketing so each message is unique to


each customer, it helps marketers to inform the success of their promotions easily and
quickly, it provides a major insights into the recipient’s actions through measurable
events such as message open, hyperlinks clicked.

36
Disadvantage of E-mail Marketing

Undelivered E-mail. These days many ISPs use complex junk-mail filters. So there is
no guarantee that your E-mails are getting into your audience inbox. Also, it is
possible that individuals delete an E-mail from someone who is not in their contact
list. This is increasingly becoming a disadvantage of e-mail marketing.

E-mail response decay. It's not easy to keep subscribers actively engaged with your
company in the long-term.

Renderability. Difficulty of displaying the creative as intended within the in-box of


different E-mail reading systems.. Your subscribers may want a message with
"unsecured" items such as color, graphics and links that not all browsers will support
them. Finally, your recipient will instantly close the window or you will have to just
settle for the drab all-text E-mai.

Expenses. Some people and technology resources are required to deliver a


sophisticated E-mail newsletter that engages the consumer. Even though E-mail
marketing is very inexpensive to propagate, the outcome could wind up costing a lot
more if a judge deems your messages “useless spam”.

E-mail Overload. When an E-mail gets through to the consumer, there is so much E-
mail that needs to be looked at sometimes it is difficult for the individual to
distinguish between solicited and unsolicited E-mail, as well as have time to read
through the E-mail.

Another disadvantage of E-mail marketing is to transmit many software viruses and it


makes customers to become suspicious even to the trusted sources and market.

37
E-Commerce Services That Accelerate
Business Growth

The Rise of E-Commerce

E-Commerce was the fastest growing retail market in Europe in 2015, as brands
played catch up with consumer behaviour and demand. Consumers are drawn to the
convenience and low prices of online shopping, made accessible through multiple
devices at any time of the day.

The growth of paid and organic marketing platforms – such as Google


SEO/AdWords – are more capable than ever of directing engaged consumers to a
website prepared to make a purchase. Fast internet speeds, secure payment providers
and advances in Usability (UX) have made browsing and purchasing easy and
convenient.

In the past, E-Commerce would be the small arm of a retailer but now it increasingly
forms the central part of any retail strategy and this is how Web Method’s E-
Commerce Consul tancy can help.

38
Delivering E-Commerce Strategy

In trying to deliver an effective E-Commerce strategy, many brands rush out and pay
a large amount of money for a custom website on a platform such as Magento. The
marketing of the website comes further down the line and is too often an afterthought.
The old adage “build it and they will come”  couldn’t be further from the truth when it
comes to E-Commerce. The industry is highly competitive & fast-moving, so in order
to grow brands need to to be very clear on what they want to achieve and to appeal to
the right consumers.

There are a vast number of options for marketing a website, and brands often spend
money trying to drive sales through channels which simply aren’t relevant to their
business goals.

A good strategy starts with one or more goals, and a mechanism to measure
performance – usually website analytics. Are you looking to increase Revenue?
Profit? Transactions? Awareness?. This decision will shape the marketing channels
that are selected, and where the marketing budget should be invested to deliver on
these goals.

Our E-Commerce Services

Web Method offer a range of E-Commerce services, because often the different


technologies and skills are linked. To be successful in one area, you need to have a
much broader understanding in order to make the right decisions.

For example, you can produce the best content for your website but if it isn’t
distributed properly or if the website isn’t in a good technical SEO state then you’re
not going to meet your SEO potential.

39
Similarly, you can run your own AdWords campaign at a seemingly low cost but if
your campaign and website aren’t structured properly then your costs will be
significantly inflated and it can be a false economy.

E-Commerce is a rapidly growing industry that is flooded with new, frequently


advancing technologies. This makes it an exciting space to be working in, but it’s a
huge challenge for business owners without a great deal of digital expertise to be
successful.

Web Method will make sense of this complex digital landscape and focus on a simple
but effective strategy for your business. We’ll save you money by highlighting the
areas in which you’re not making money and advise you on the best investments
to make based on your budget.

We provide one-off, fixed price digital marketing audits for E-Commerce


websites – which are a plain-speaking way for business owners to understand the
challenges faced and how best to grow online.

40
Future E-Commerce System Requirements

This section recaps the information from the Scope Matrix, organizing the individual
requirements by the modules expected in the high-level design. It also adds some
additional descriptive information from meeting notes and other documentation
collected in the investigation phase.

Core Business Requirements and Limitations

-Future e-Commerce web portal should support the desired growth for an increase in
operations up to 50% in 5 years (up to 100-120 orders per day in the future)

Future system should support features like bulk/Future orders, quoting, purchasing
and requisition, History Reports and proper customer management

. New Order Creation Workflow should allow Client’s Customer Service and Sales
people to use it as a one stop solution and to support the shared process for processing
phone orders and web orders

. Next e-Commerce system should support Mini Site feature to become B2B e-
Commerce hub for vendors.

Future Product Catalog should support up to 500,000 products. Ecometry should be


involved in e-Commerce transactions in the future

The future e-Commerce platform will use the present Ecometry ERP system with
associated Manhattan warehouse management system and several service systems
connected directly to Ecometry.

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1. System Requirements Summary

I. Features available in most e-Commerce Systems


ii. Features probably not available in any e-Commerce System

iii. Features that partially exist in some/few e-Commerce Systems

Account Management

Individual Accounts

i. Features available in most e-Commerce Systems

1. Ability to add/edit all personal information

2. Allow customer to set default shipping and billing addresses

3. Provide "remember me next time" auto-login functionality

4. Ability to view “pre-shipping” order status

5. Provide progress bar for filling out first time registration

ii. Features probably not available in any e-Commerce System

1. Support nicknames for shipping locations

2. Support auto-fill account information when filling out forms

3. Provide communication preferences, opt-in/out and frequency options

4. Ability to register as individuals, corporations

iii. Features that partially exist in some/few e-Commerce Systems

1. Ability to access order history and current status of placed orders (with search,
filter, sort functions)

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2. Ability to manage multiple shipping and billing addresses

3. Support order tracking (FEDEX/UPS integration)

4. Ability to manage stored payment methods

5. Provide check to avoid duplicate registration

Corporate Accounts

i. Features available in most e-Commerce Systems

1. Ability to register corporate account online

2. Ability to set default shipping destinations/billing information for their


organization

ii. Features probably not available in any e-Commerce System

1. Ability to manage the purchasing workflow in terms of requests, approvals,


denials, and purchase completion, along with associated messaging and
communications (e.g. e-mails to the correct people in the approval chain - could
multiple approvers)

2. Ability to set permissions for who can order, who can request products, who
can approve products for purchase (permissions and entitlements)

3. Ability to "convert" individual account to corporate account (collect more


info, welcome message, assigned sales rep, "get started" introduction, feature &
benefits of corporate programs)

4. Ability to alert sales rep when a new buyer is created for an existing corporate
customer

5. Ability to alert corporate sales when a new corporate account is created

6. Provide welcome message to new account administrator and surface program


features and benefits

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7. Roles/responsibilities and approval/workflow for corporate accounts rules can be
modified: by year, quarter, monthly, weekly

8. Ability (internal) to "merge" accounts under corporate umbrellas

9. Ability to set up a list of “approved” products for purchasing and restricting


purchases to those products

10. Ability to add product to "approved" list from product page

11. Support customer purchase/activity reports

12. Provide "corporate dashboard" with high-level purchase activity (number of


open orders, orders waiting for approval, etc.)

13. Provide view of open orders/pending approval for buyers

14. Support for contract compliance

15. Allow "master" user to put message on login screen for all users to see

16. Allow corporate users to petition to become buyers in system

17. Allow "auto-setup" for customers registering from managed customer accounts
(domain check)

18. Show Account Manager on login screen

19. Provide “What’s New” highlights (both client and corporate information)

Purchase Order Management

i. Features available in most e-Commerce Systems


1. Ability for customers to change release dates, quantity, item numbers

2. Show payment receipts and amounts

3. Ability to print copy of invoices

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ii. Features probably not available in any e-Commerce System

1. Ability to set up blanket order: customers approved P.O. for set dollar amount
and/or set products and quantities multiple orders

2. Ability to monitor value/balance on open P.O.s, see order history against P.O.s,
alert customer when P.O. balance is low

3. Ability to pay outstanding invoices online (via credit card/EFT)

4. Ability for the customer to view credit limit (view/request/history)

5. Ability to monitor customer credit cutoff (orders won’t ship once this is
reached)

6. Show running credit limit total and flags for nearing credit limit

7. Show both kinds of credits (applied to order, applied to credit balance)

8. Support online credit application, potentially even as part of registration

9. Ability to limit the items available to "resellers" (customer type)

10. Ability to notify sales of all future orders

11. Provide reports on future orders

12. Post Future orders to Ecometry when they are ready to be fulfilled

13. Future orders must be logged into Ecometry but flagged so it doesn’t hit
customer’s credit limit

14. Provide advance warning to users of future order ship date

15. Present orders to corporate buyers as waiting for approval (workflow for
purchase approvals)

16. Allow customers to view outstanding P.O.s, invoices and "open/close" status
and aging

ii. Features that partially exist in some/few e-Commerce Systems

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1. Ability to purchase using P.O.s or to require purchases to have P.O.s

2. Ability to set future "order/ship date"; edit dates, frequency, etc.

3. Credit and accounts payable management

Personalization

i. Features probably not available in any e-Commerce System


1. Ability to surface discounts, sales reps, special offers and
pricing/promos (all customers)

2. Display recently viewed items

ii. Features that partially exist in some/few e-Commerce Systems

1. Surface "welcome back" message on homepage

Customer Service/Live Chat

i. Features probably not available in any e-Commerce System

1. Support live chat to support customer decision making

2. CSR automatically flagged when order has exceptions or needs manual


intervention (e.g., drop ship quote, LTL, duplicate accounts)

3. Ability to view customer's exact confirmation page

4. CSR automatically flagged for suspicious orders or other business rules

5. Ability to gather general site feedback via a feedback form; results mailed
to internal address (global navigation - source page and time stamp)

Product Catalog

i. Features available in most e-Commerce Systems

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1. Ability to request catalog from site (form)

2. Generate confirmation email to customer

ii. Features probably not available in any e-Commerce System

1. Provide Quick Look (on mouseover) for products at category, product


listings, product thumbnail level

2. Ability to shop/filter by safety/compliance standards (e.g., OSHA)

3. Ability to merchandize best sellers at category level

4. Ability to merchandize featured products at category level

5. Ability to merchandize new products at category level

6. Support sub-category landing pages (SEO)

7. Ability to display non-stock items (order qty, lead time, pricing)

8. Ability to flag products as New, Clearance, Best Seller, Sale (across the site)

9. Submitted form data emailed to office services team (customer IA record


created in Ecometry)

10. Generate catalog order in Ecometry

iii. Features that partially exist in some/few e-Commerce Systems

1. Support up to 500,000 items in Product Catalog

2. Ability to enter multiple product SKUs and add them to the cart in one batch

3. Ability to browse products by category, brand (including client’s products),


price ranges, (filter only: in stock/out of stock/drop ship) and other attributes that are
appropriate at the category/sub-category levels (e.g. materials, dimensions, safety
ratings, application, style, color, customizable, A-Z, etc.)

4. Provide "Clearance", "Sales", "New Products" category/sub-category pages

5. Ability to filter and sort the products in a category by key attributes like product
name, price, brand, and more

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6. Ability to browse product offering through A-Z PRODUCT index PAGE; might
be a module on a page

Merchandizing

i. Features probably not available in any e-Commerce System

1. Apply logic of customer buying patterns to up-sell/cross-sell: related items, “you


may also like” items

2. Apply logic of catalog ad structure to web site (bundles, kits)

3. Ability to "match" accessories with products (may be replacement parts)

4. Improve Quick Shop functionality (SKU parser)

5. Maximize opportunities for cross-selling via discounts (promotion): creating


joined products – “buy this and buy this and you’ll get an discount”

6. Ability to surface free shipping at product level (items that qualify for free
shipping, items that exceed $1000, some vendors include free shipping)

7. Highlight automatic email reminder to reorder products (product detail, my


account, checkout confirmation)

ii. Features that partially exist in some/few e-Commerce Systems

1. Ability to easily add add-ons to shopping cart

2. Ability to easily associate add-on products from back-end system.

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E-Mail Marketing Fundamentals

In this chapter we lay the foundations for detailed guidelines in later chapters which
describe approaches for developing and implementing e-mail strategies. The well-
established concepts underpinning e-mail marketing described in this chapter are
permission marketing and customer relationship management. Permission marketing,
or gaining consent for marketing communications to be received, is fundamental to
successful e-mail marketing. We will explore the development of the permission
marketing concept and ask what it means in practice – for example, how do opt-in and
opt-out relate to permission marketing, and what are the legal constraints on e-mail
marketing? Meanwhile, the concept of customer relationship management (CRM) has
proved popular as an approach to improving customer focus and customer loyalty.
Companies have found the customer lifecycle of customer acquisition, retention and
extension provides an essential framework for bringing focus to creating different
marketing strategies and tools. If you are already familiar with the permission
marketing and CRM concepts you may want to fast-forward where we look at the
specifics of developing an e-mail marketing strategy. However, in this chapter we do
challenge some of the conventional wisdom about permission marketing and CRM,
and also explain how e-mail can be used in conjunction with the web site and
traditional communications.

PERMISSION MARKETING

Permission marketing is an integral part of e-mail marketing. ‗Permission


marketing‘ is a term coined by Seth Godin, formerly a VP of marketing at Yahoo! It
is best characterized with just three (or four) words: Permission marketing is ...
anticipated, relevant and personal [and timely]. Godin (1999) argues that there is a
need for permission marketing, since there are ever- increasing numbers of marketing
communications bombarding consumers. He notes that while research shows that we
used to receive 500 marketing messages a day, with the advent of the web and digital

49
TV this has now increased to over 3000 a day! From the marketing organization‘s
viewpoint, this leads to a dilution in the effectiveness of the messages – how can the
communications of any one company stand out? From the customer‘s viewpoint, time
is seemingly in ever-shorter supply; customers are losing patience and expect reward
for their attention, time and information. Godin refers to the traditional approach as
interruption marketing.

However, some direct marketers have criticized the permission marketing approach in
that it is not an entirely new, radical approach. Ross (2001) says: the large number of
direct marketers who start the selling process with an ad offering information and take
it from there with a graduated programme of data collection and follow-ups will
wonder how it is that they have been practising permission marketing for all this time
without knowing. Ross also notes that in order to achieve permission it is necessary to
gain the attention of prospects, and this, of course, is only possible using ...
interruption marketing. A further implication of permission marketing is that by
providing choice you will, in all likelihood, be reaching fewer people with your
communications. Research by Evans et al. (2000) found a continuum between
consumers who recognized that in order to receive targeted communications they had
to provide their details, and those who felt that there was an invasion of privacy.
Typical comments from the former group about collection of personal data include:
I‘m not particularly bothered about that. I‘ve nothing terrible to hide! It doesn‘t really
bother me, I‘m just mildly interested to know how they get hold of your name
sometimes.

(Female, 45–54) It‘s more targeted. (Female, 45–54) Don‘t mind if a company wants
to know more about me. (Male, 18–24) Comments from those more concerned about
their personal details include: I think it‘s quite unnerving really what people might
know. How much detail they do actually have on you regarding income and credit
limits. I don‘t know what details are stored. (Female, 25–34) Junk mail, God. I give
to one charity and the next thing I know I‘ve got 10 charities coming in daily.
They‘ve obviously sold it on for profit. (Female, 45–54) Clearly, those consumers in
the second group are less likely to enter into a permission-based relationship unless
their privacy concerns and worries about data-sharing between organizations are
overcome. Advocates of permission marketing argue, however, that if consumers opt

50
out of communications, it is not a bad thing. The cost of communications with such
consumers is avoided, and they may have a low propensity to buy.

E-PERMISSION MARKETING PRINCIPLES

It is now over five years since Seth Godin launched his permission marketing mantra,
so we need to ask, how can the original principles of permission marketing be applied
by today‘s digital marketer? Writing in What‘s New in Marketing (www.wnim.com)
in 2004, I defined these ‗e- permission marketing principles‘ to prompt you to think
about how you can e-mail smarter:

1. Offer selective opt-in to communications. Offer choice in communications


preferences to the customer to ensure more relevant communications. Some
customers may not want a weekly e- newsletter; rather, they may only want to
hear about new product releases. Remember, opt-in is a legal requirement in
many countries. Four key opt-in options, selected by tick-box are: content –
news, products, offers, events . frequency – weekly, monthly, quarterly or
alerts channel – e-mail, direct mail, phone or SMS format – text vs HTML. Of
course using a range of communications preferences needs to be managed
carefully since it sets expectations, and resources must be available to deliver
on these expectations. Care must be taken not to restrict opportunities for e-
mail marketing. In many ways, e-mail marketing is about opportunities or
reasons to communicate; if the customer opts-out of some communications,
then the opportunity to market and sell to them is reduced – so you can give
too much choice. I know of one company that had a tick box for a product
catalogue. Many customers ticked this and this only, meaning that the
company could only communicate once per year!
2. Create a ‗common customer profile‘. A structured approach to customer data
capture is needed, otherwise key data needed for delivering targeted e-mails
will be missed. It sounds obvious, but ... consider the utility company that
collected 80 000 e-mail addresses, but forgot to ask for the postcode for geo-
targeting! This can be achieved through a common customer profile – a
definition of all the database fields that are relevant to the marketer in order to

51
understand and target the customer with a relevant offering. These forms belie
their importance – I think they are the second most important pages on a site
after the home pages. B2B company Tektronix (www.tektronix.com) uses
three levels of profile; level 1 (basic contact information), level 2 (position,
market sector and application) and level 3 (detailed information about
standards and preferences). Through having goals to grow level-2 and -3
detail, improved targeting is possible. Provides some practical
recommendations on how to obtain opt-in from web-site enquirers, and
explains why using an opt-out approach may be better in some circumstances.
We also look at some refinements of the technique, such as double opt-in and
notified opt-in.
3. Offer a range of opt-in incentives. Many web sites now have ‗free-win-save‘
incentives to encourage opt-in, but often it is a case of one incentive fits all
visitors. Different incentives for different audiences will generate a higher
volume of permission, particularly for business- to- business web sites. We
can also gauge the characteristics of the respondents by the type of incentives
or communications they have requested, without the need to ask them. If
you‘re a business-to-business marketer take a look at Siebel (www.siebel.com)
or Oracle (www.oracle.com), which offer a range of information resources for
different members of the buying unit, such as IT managers, marketing director
and CxO.
4. Don‘t make opt-out too easy. My view is that we often make it too easy to
unsubscribe. Yes, providing a straightforward opt-out is part of permission
marketing and, in many countries, a legal requirement due to privacy laws, but
a single click to unsubscribe is arguably making it too easy. Instead, wise e-
permission marketers use the concept of ‗My Profile‘. Instead of
‗unsubscribe‘, they offer a link to a web form to update a profile, which
includes the option to unsubscribe to some or potentially all communications.
Amazon‘s communications preferences page is a good example of this
approach. The use of ‗My Profile‘ can be tied to the principle of ‗selective
opt-in‘ – you could call it selective opt-out. Put the ‗My Profile‘ option in the
e-mail to prompt the user to keep their contact details up-to-date.
5. ‗Watch don‘t ask‘or‗sense and respond‘. The need to ask interruptive
questions to profile customers better can be reduced through the use of
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monitoring of clicks to understand customer needs better, and to trigger
follow-up communications or ‗sense and respond‘. Examples include:
Monitoring click through to different types of content or offer. The interests of
individual list members can be assessed through monitoring what they click
through to. Lastminute.com reputedly tailors its newsletters to many different
template types according to content click Through. For example, if you click
through to theatres or city breaks, then you will receive more of this type of
content in future.
Monitoring the engagement of individual customers with e-mail
communications. This is achieved by monitoring trends of opening and click
through by individual customers. These metrics indicate the level of interest of
individuals, and we can monitor how these vary through time and use follow-
up communications. For example, a buying signal may be suggested by a
customer who has not previously responded to e-mails but starts clicking
through to the web site more frequently. This could be followed up by a
tailored e-mail communication or a phone call. . Follow-up of response to a
specific e-mail. If a B2B vendor offers information about a new product
launch which encourages click through to a landing page, then they have two
main choices of follow-up. First, the for could contain a question asking about
the future buying intentions of the customer, or whether contact from a sales
rep is required. Alternatively, if there is the capability to monitor an individual
who has clicked through to a page, then it may be best to use this to prompt a
call from an account manager or sales person. The second approach may result
in more sales, but of course there is the danger that the customer may react
negatively to monitoring or ‗stalking‘ of this type, and it is arguably not
permission marketing.

LEGAL CONSTRAINTS

Nowhere is the maxim ‗consult a lawyer‘ more relevant than for e-mail marketing,
since new legislation and case law means that it is frankly impossible for a marketer
to keep up to date with the details of legislation. In fact, the maxim should read
‗consult a specialist lawyer‘. Legal constraints on e-mail marketing naturally vary by

53
country. Here, we concentrate on European legislation. E-mail marketers operating in
European countries are subject to several existing laws, and there are also emerging
laws. Of the established laws, the most pertinent are the EU Data Protection Directive,
and local advertising standards and telecommunications laws. Of the new laws, the
EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive is the most important.
Customer relationship management (CRM) is an approach to marketing that seeks to
increase customer loyalty, resulting in greater customer lifetime value. O‘Malley and
Tynan (2001) refer to the need for this to be a win–win approach, where the
relationship is characterized by trust, commitment, communication and sharing,
resulting in the mutual achievement of goals. Some have gone further and questioned
the concept of CRM, saying that customers do not want a relationship and show little
loyalty to companies. For those, perhaps a more appropriate term is ‗customer
management‘. However, I believe that e-mail marketing assists in forming both
emotional and behavioural loyalty between a company and its customers as part of
forming a relationship. The concepts of e-permission marketing, such as selective opt-
in and opt-out and ownership of communications preferences described earlier in this
chapter, can help in this. These give the customer more control of the relationship,
and change CRM towards CMR or Customer Managed Relationships. To introduce
CRM, many organizations use a simple framework to develop various CRM
initiatives. This is the customer lifecycle, which is divided into stages of customer
selection, acquisition, retention and extension.

This shows common themes within customer selection, acquisition and extension. As
the customer moves through the different stages from acquisition and retention to
extension, the loyalty of the customer and their value to the organization increases.
Customer selection is key at each stage to identify potential high-value customers who
will have the right connection with a brand. Other common themes include the need
to deliver a great experience and customer service at each stage, and integrate
communications across different channels.

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Benefits of relationship marketing

Relationship marketing is aimed at increasing customer loyalty, which has clear


benefits. As Reicheld (1996) has explained, loyalty or retention within a current
customer base is a highly desirable phenomenon since it not only results in more
transactions from each customer, but these transactions are more profitable. This
occurs for these reasons: . no acquisition costs (which are usually far higher than
‗maintenance‘ costs) . less need to offer incentives such as discounts, or to give
vouchers to maintain their custom(although these may be desirable)

Customer selection

Customer selection needs to occur at each stage of customer relationship


management. This relates CRM with segmentation and target marketing. Figure
shows that customer selection starts with identifying customer characteristics through
profiling and understanding their product needs. In e-mail marketing, we may want to
identify those customer groupings that have the best propensity for forming an online
relationship. Once these have been identified, a suitable proposition and campaign
plan will be developed for each

ONLINE CRM.

Peppers and colleagues (Peppers and Rogers, 1998; Peppers et al., 1999) have
suggested the IDIC (Identification, Differentiation, Interaction, Customization)
framework as an approach for using customer relationship management and the web
effectively to form and build relationships. IDIC refers to these stages of relationship
building:

1. Customer identification. This stresses the need to identify each customer on


his or her first visit and subsequent visits. Common methods for identification

55
are use of cookies, or asking a customer to log on to a site. In subsequent
customer contacts, additional customer information should be obtained using a
process known as drip irrigation. Since information will become out- of-date
through time, it is important to verify, update and delete customer information.
2. Customer differentiation. This refers to building a profile to help segment
customers. Appropriate services are then developed for each customer.
Examples of such segments include the top customers, non-profitable
customers, large customers who have ordered less in recent years, and
customers who buy more products from competitors.
3. Customer interaction. This refers to interactions provided on the web site, such
as customer service or creating a tailored product. More generally, customers
should listen to the needs and experiences of major customers. Interactions
should be in the customer preferred channel – for example, by e-mail, by
phone or by post.
4. Customer customization. This refers to dynamic personalization or mass
customization of content or e-mails according to the segmentation achieved at
the acquisition stage. Approaches for personalization are explained in the
section on retention. This stage also involves further market research to find
out whether products can be further tailored to meet customers‘ needs.

Personalization and mass customization

Personalization and mass customization can be used to tailor information content


on a web site, and opt-in e-mail can be used to deliver it to add value and at the same
time remind the customer about a product. Personalization and mass customization
are terms that are often used interchangeably. In the strict sense, personalization refers
to customization of information requested by a site customer at an individual level.
Mass customization involves providing tailored content to a group or individuals with
similar interests. It uses technology to achieve this at an economic basis. An example
of mass customization is when Amazon recommends similar books according to those
that others in a segment have ordered, or when it sends a similar e-mail to customers
who have an interest in a particular topic such as e-commerce. Mass customization
can range from minor cosmetic choices made by the customer (for example, the

56
choice of colour, trim and specification available to the customer via the multimedia
kiosks in Daewoo‘s car showrooms) to a collaborative process facilitated by ongoing
dialogue. Peppers and Rogers (1993) give the example of Motorola, which can
manufacture pagers to any of over 11 million different specifications. For e-mail
marketing, there is a range of options for personalization; these include variation
according to the following:

1. The salutation. This is the most basic level of personalization, and should be
offered in all customer communications although it is not generally used for
newsletters.
2. The content. For newsletters and alerts, this can be varied according to user
selection. For example, Silicon.com, a news service for IT professionals,
enables a range of items to be offered. These can be selected by checking
boxes for the type of content. A further method of content personalization is
keyword-based. This is offered by analysts such as Gartner, where particular
keywords such as ‗metrics‘ can be selected. Forbes.com offers a keyword-
based e-mail service which alerts recipients when a particular company name
is covered. For e-mail promotions the content can be personalized for different
segments, although it will rarely be personalized on an individual level.
3. The offer. The offer can be varied according to past behaviour, such as amount
spent.
4. The landing page. It is sometimes worth tailoring the landing page, which can
be personalized if e-mails have been targeted for different segments. Content
can also be personalized for individuals if they are already registered on a site.
The landing page can use cookies to tailor information for an individual.

57
INTERNET BRANDING

Bonding brands with customers has always been about building relationships. It has
always been about taking someone who knows little or nothing about a company or its
products and transitioning them to become a loyal user. Although the tactics might
sometimes be different on the Internet, many classic marketing principles still apply.

It's almost impossible to pick up a business publication without seeing some reference
to the world of new media, especially the Internet and its role in marketing a product
or service.

A substantial amount of this rhetoric, however, ignores one of the most important
components of a marketing professional‘s responsibility — building a brand or
corporate reputation to create relationships with customers. When it comes to building
a brand on the Internet, never have so many talked so little of what may be the
Internet‘s most stunning capability — strengthening the bond with customers and
prospects.

―Branding is redefined online,‖ says Caroline Riby, vice president-media director at


Saatchi & Saatchi Rowland of Rochester, NY. ―We are moving beyond representing
a brand to experiencing it.‖

In this new world of e-branding, the Internet has become more than a gimmick or a
mere line item on the communications budget. It can now play a pivotal role in
enhancing brand relationships and corporate reputations.

It offers a huge advantage over traditional mass media. The speed people can move
from awareness to action on the Internet is a true differentiator and challenge for e-
marketers. This requires a new way of thinking about how to design Web sites and
related marketing communications.

However as the author of The End of Marketing As We Know It, Sergio Zyman says,
there is no difference between building an Internet brand and a traditional brand. In
effect, the steps to bond prospects to brands are essentially the same. The difference,
however, will be the speed a brand can transition prospects to customers.

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Prospects pass through several stages before embracing a relationship with a
company:

 Awareness
 Familiarity
 Trust
 Commitment

These stages are driven primarily by reputation elements.

Awareness The first is the consumer becoming aware of the company or its brands.
At this stage the prospective buyer can recall or recognize the name of the company.
That does not mean trust in the brand, but simply a sense of the company as a player
in some product or category.

Familiarity During the second stage, the prospect becomes familiar with the
company through acquiring an appreciation of the products or services offered, and
various related features.

Trust The next stage takes the relationship to a deeper level. The potential customer
becomes motivated to purchase a product or service because of the perceived benefits
derived from particular features. During this phase, positive imagery about the brand
or company encourages a feeling of trust, which in turn, enhances the relationship-
building process.

Commitment The final stage is the most important. At this stage, a transaction occurs
that consummates the relationship. The prospect and the company each get something
from the other. They are no longer strangers. Both comprehend something about each
other, hopefully encouraging many repeated exchanges.

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In looking at media choices for creating this desired relationship, the advantage of the
Internet over mass media is obvious. Mass media cannot communicate with individual
prospects in a customized way. The Internet enables communication based on where
each prospect is in the four stages of the relationship-building process.

With traditional media, the messages are sent out to the world no matter what level of
trust and interest the company has previously generated. Accordingly, some prospects
are told what they already know. Others are not able to learn what they need to know
to engage further.

By contrast, a well-executed e-branding strategy, expressed in a well-designed Web


site and integrated e-marketing program, can adapt communications to match the
aspiring buyer‘s needs and wants at any stage in the relationship-building process.

The Internet and Relationships

Don Peppers, co-author of The One-to-One Future, has noted the future of
marketing is about persuading consumers to participate in a dialogue. Not just any
dialogue, but one that helps to bond the consumer to the brand.

Rather than simply interrupting a television show with a commercial message or


barging into prospect's lives with unannounced phone calls or letters, innovative
marketers will first try to get individuals to voluntarily enroll in the selling process. A
volunteer‘s experience will almost always be more likely to result in the embrace of a
brand than any forced viewing or consumption experience can ever accomplish.

Interactive technology enables marketers to inexpensively attract consumers into one-


to-one relationships fueled by two-way ―conversations‖ — played out via mouse
clicks on a computer. Through this process, prospective buyers collaborate with
marketers to fashion the product or service being sold. By inviting each prospect to
join in a uniquely responsive and tailored dialogue, marketers are more likely to earn
loyalty. To nurture such a highly targeted and relevant engagement, the
communications professional needs to create marketing tactics customized to
whatever stage the prospect has reached in the relationship-building process.
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Creative material on the Web site needs to do several things.

It must capture the attention of those prospects who know nothing or very little about
the company, but are interested in its category. It also must build awareness of what
the company does within the context of the industry in which it‘s competing. For
those who already know something of the company, but not the advantages of doing
business with it, site content should identify and link benefits sought by the consumer
to the company‘s products and services. This material needs to deepen to a level that
triggers a desire to do business with the company.

Clearly, those individuals wishing to become customers need easy site access to
satisfy their needs and assure the relationship develops even further. And most
importantly, existing customers of the company need to feel their interaction with the
site, identifying them as more than just an anonymous browser.

These customers need to be given some sense they have access not available to just
anyone. They need to be rewarded for continuing to engage with the company.

There are many design elements that can accomplish the objectives of moving a
prospect along the relationship-building continuum. These techniques can start with a
simple interaction such as a brief registration forms to begin the relationship-building
process. More sophisticated techniques are available such as games that intrigue the
user on a category relevant subject, use of an intelligent component, such as cookies,
that knows if the user has visited the site before and greets andtreats the user
personally.

Consider some of the successful Internet branding tactics of leading marketers.

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Adapting Marketing To The New Economy

The New Economy presents many new challenges and opportunities for the marketer.
The most important point is that the New Economy assuredly places the customer
more firmly in the driver‘s seat for decisions on her/his product and service choices
(customization and customerization). In addition, there have been and will be many
changes in business and marketing practices as both consumers and businesses have
virtual and real-time access to literally millions of products, offers, options, prices,
people, competitors, and sources of information that did not exist until recent years.
As a result, the marketing mix will change as marketers and firms identify new uses
for intangible assets and effective customer relationship management that is more
than a marketing term. We can assume that this increasingly rapid growth and rate of
change will continue, and despite the dot-com bust, recession, and other major social,
political, and economic adjustments, the Internet and the New Economy have changed
marketers and marketing for the long-term future.

Many specific areas of marketing also will feel the sting of change. Marketing
channels are becoming increasingly direct, as customers control the time and place of
contact. International marketing is becoming more localized as the marketing images
from one region can quickly be identified and utilized in other regions. Information
dissemination capability, despite virtual overload, is bringing massive changes to
advertisers, competitors, suppliers, and other stakeholders, with only the most
customer-aware and market-aware players surviving. Marketers who take for granted
their past images, market positions, and channel positions can and often do find
themselves on the outside looking in rather than the inside looking out.

Database marketing continues to be an important element in the New Economy


marketing process, placing even more responsibility on marketers to ensure that data
is accurate, up-to-date, and nonintrusive. Marketers have higher levels of
responsibility for abuses that have occurred in direct marketing over the last few
years. Despite the potential for online and direct marketing, the controversy

62
associated with direct marketing continues. There are issues of concern regarding
irritation, unfairness, deception, and fraud, and increasingly the invasion of privacy.

Internal monitoring between marketers is all that stands between unfettered growth of
the Internet, e-marketing, direct marketing, and eventual government control of the
Internet.

As band-width (broadband) capabilities increase, the level of marketing detail and


quality adds the potential for ―remote marketing‖ that brings the world closer to true
24/7 marketing, limited only by the creativity and integrity of marketers. The
job/career options for marketers will likely reach new levels in coming years, but it is
important not to ignore the basics of marketing and constantly to observe the
consumer and changing consumer lifestyle directions and patterns from a global
perspective.

Learning Objectives

 The major forces driving the New Economy


 How business and marketing practices change as a result of the New Economy
 How marketers use the Internet, customer databases, and customer
relationship management in the New Economy.

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The group of goals set by a business when promoting its products or services to
potential consumers that should be achieved within a given time frame. A company's
marketing objectives for a particular product might include increasing product
awareness among targeted consumers, providing information about product features,
and reducing consumer resistance to buying the product.

An organization's strategy that combines all of its marketing goals into one


comprehensive plan. A good marketing strategy should be drawn from market
research and focus on the right product mix in order to achieve the maximum profit
potential and sustain the business. The marketing strategy is the foundation of
a marketing plan.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

“A Research Design is the specification of the methods and Procedures for acquiring
the information needed. It is the overall operational pattern or framework of the
project that stipules which information is to be collected, from where it is to be
collected and by what procedures.”

The research process based on primary data analysis and secondary data analysis will
be clearly defined to meet the objectives of the study.

I have chosen the primary source to get the data. A questionnaire was designed with
the help of my guide at Sturdily Business Services. I have chosen a sample of 114
clients & users across America & Europe from which I got the information to fulfil
my objectives.

I have also collected some data from the secondary sources like company’s website
and LinkedIn etc.

Research Design

A Research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data
in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in
procedures. It is an Explorative Research design. It is the Conceptual structure within
which the research is conducted; it constitutes the blueprint for collection,
measurement and analysis of data. It is needed because it facilitates the smooth sailing
of the various research operations, thereby making research as efficient as possible
yielding maximal information with minimal expenditure of effort, time and money.

In the preliminary stage, my research stage constituted of exploratory study by which


the objectives and the problem is clear.

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Sampling Plan

Sampling Plan is a distinct phase of research process. In this stage I have to determine
who is to be sampled, how large should be the needed sample and how sampling unit
is to be selected.

Population

In my research, I have defined my population as the B2B Clients and Users of E-


commerce Services.

Sample Survey

A sample study has been conducted by us because of:

Wide range of population, it was not possible to cover the whole population.

Time constraint.

Sample unit

In this survey I took the list of E-commerce clients falling in America & Europe.

Sampling Technique

Sampling Technique implies the method of choosing the sample items. The two
methods of selecting samples are:

Probability method

Non- Probability Method.

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Probability Method is that method in which every item of the universe has an equal
chance of the inclusion in the sample. Non probability Method is that method which
do not provide every item in the universe with known cause of being included in the
sample. The selection process is partially subjective.

For my study, I have taken the Non Probability sampling technique in which I got the
data from the Clients of E-commerce companies at Sturdily Business Services.

Data Collection Instrument

I have used two set of questionnaire to collect data from the clients which are
structured and highly ordered. The first set of questionnaire is fulfilling the first two
objectives. The second questionnaire is a follow-up questionnaire which fulfils the
third and fourth objective. This includes both close ended and open ended questions.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

Large volumes of raw data were collected through questionnaire in my research study.
This raw data has been further converted into significant information before further
interpretation so that I can answer my research objectives well.

Integrated Marketing Services

Strategically Coordinated B2B Result Generation

All too often, entrepreneurs and businesses of every size focus their efforts on a
single inbound marketing tactic like blogging, email marketing or social media. Then,
when that isolated effort fails or underperforms, they turn their attentions to the next
new trend. This "one-and-done" cycle is not only discouraging; it's also potentially
expensive and extremely unproductive. Don't fall into that trap. There's a better way
to market your business. One that consistently generates new leads and drives
revenue. Sturdily Marketing offers fully integrated marketing services customized
around your target audience's needs and your company's goals. We call them
Marketing Machines. The success of your company's marketing efforts depends on
the strategic coordination of multiple highly targeted inbound marketing tactics to
generate new leads for your business.

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Measuring Your Marketing Success Metrics

Marketing and selling your business’s products and services is now a science, not an
art. Like any good science, it requires careful study and analysis. Instead of relying on
hunches and whims to bring you success, you need solid, quantifiable sales and
marketing analytics.

Primary Objectives

1. To find out Emerging geographical locations and the industry size for E-
Commerce industry.
2. To find out the Growth rate of E-mail services in comparison to other
Marketing Services.
3. To Study the impact of E-mail Marketing as a marketing activity to boost up
sales.
4. To find out the Recent Trends in E-Commerce companies towards the E-Mail
marketing services.

Secondary Objectives
1. To locate and find out the Emerging Locations for E-commerce platforms as
a source of growth among America & Europe.
2. To find out the increase or decrease of E-mail services compared with other
marketing services like Direct Marketing, Content Marketing and Digital
Marketing.
3. To find out the root cause of boost up of sales, whether the companies using
e-mail services are growing or not.
4. To find out the Trends in E-mail marketing i.e. what frequency the Emails
are sent, when is the best time interact with the customer through emails.

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DATA ANALYSIS

1. What is the best day of the week / time of day to send an email?

I hate to burst your bubble, but there is no magic bullet for an optimal time to send
email. The “right time” varies by so many factors and from list to list. Kiss metrics
has a great way of putting it:

The best time to send your email will be unique to your list. That being said, there
are some trends in open rates and click through rates that provide a good starting point
for some tests. Here is a snippet from a helpful info graphic created by Kiss metrics.

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70
2. What is the ideal length for my subject line?

In general, keep the subject line shorter than 50 characters.

Specifically, Mailer found that the ideal subject line length is 28-39 characters.

What does that length look like in practice? Here are some examples of 28-39
character email subjects.

Litmus has a comprehensive info graphic on what goes into the perfect subject line.
Their tips include leveraging localization, asking questions, and keeping things brief.
Here is a snippet. The full version is available at the Litmus blog.

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3. How do I make my email look good everywhere?

The latest numbers on email opens confirm that mobile is hugely important.

Forty-nine percent of emails are opened on a mobile device.

That means that half your audience will be viewing your email on a screen three
inches wide and the other half could be viewing on a screen 14 inches wide. How do
you bridge that gap in one well-designed message?

Answer: Responsive email design. Much like responsive web design, responsive


emails look good no matter where they are viewed because they have specific styles
for specific screen sizes. You can find beautiful responsive templates on Theme
Forest, Campaign Monitor, and in most major email service providers.

73
If you’d prefer a quicker fix, try this: Design a one-column email. One-column emails
scale beautifully because there are no sidebars to squish the content as the screen size
decreases. One column emails are as simple as they come and work great on almost

any screen.

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4. What metrics should I track?

There are two titans of email marketing statistics:

 Open rate: The number of recipients who opened or viewed your


email.
 Click-through rate: Percentage of recipients who clicked at least one
link in your email.

Certainly, you should follow up each campaign by checking these two numbers.
Industry averages range, but in general, a 15 to 20 percent open rate is healthy and a 1
to 3 percent click through rate is good.

Consider opens and clicks to be your bread and butter. You’ll still need fruits and
vegetables (and desserts), right? Here are some other vital metrics that help complete
the analytics picture for your email campaigns.

Click-to-open rate: Of the subscribers who opened the email, how many clicked?

Whereas click-through rate is based on total emails sent, click-to-open rate is based on
total emails opened. This will help you measure the quality of your copy and design
better than the overall click through rate will.

You may have to calculate this yourself if your email provider doesn’t provide it.
Simply take the number of unique clicks and divide by unique opens. Can you figure
out the click-to-open rate of the below stats?

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All those who got 32 percent give yourself a gold star!

Conversions

It is possible that your email is merely a stop along your funnel, in which case you
will want to follow up to see how the email converted. Conversion tracking requires
that you dig deeper beyond the first open or click of an email and to track the user
trail all the way to the end. You’ll likely need to get your website analytics involved
in this step.

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5. What’s your prediction of the future of data in direct marketing?

Data is becoming ever more important and valuable. Companies are building larger
more complex databases of customer information and this will grow immensely in the
years to come. In order for marketers to reach new customers their need for new data
will grow and so will the customer’s acceptance of marketers using their data.

6. Explain Cornerstone’s various Data Products in three short sentence

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 3rd-Party Specialty Lists. 
 Compiled National Lists. 
 Pre-Packaged Customized Combinations of these.

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS ANSWER ANALYSIS DATA

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1. For how many year you are using e-commerce?

a) Less than one year

b) One year but < five year

c) More than five year

d) Do not know /cannot say

2. For what purpose do you use e –commerce?

a) For personal use

b) For business use

79
c) For both personal and business use

Column1

a) For personal use

5%

30% b) For business use

65%
c) For both personal
and business use

3. From the various types of e-commerce, what according to you has


the largest market share?

a) Business to business commerce

b) Business to customer commerce

c) Business to government business

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d) Others

4. According to you how is e-commerce helpful to the consumer in


the e-business domain?

a) Broadens consumer choice

b) Encourages price transparency

c) Fastens business process

d) Do not know/ cannot say

81
5. According to you how e-commerce is helpful for the business
discourse?

a) Effectively caters to customers’ demands

b) Smoothens business by creating customer and businessman network

c) Ensures guarantee of payment

d) Do not know/ cannot say

82
6. Do you think that the application of e-commerce has increased
over the years in India?

a) Yes

b) No

c) Do you know/ cannot say

83
7. Do you agree the e-commerce as commercial means has its
advantages over the traditional commercial methods?

a) Agree

b) Disagree

c) Do not know/cannot say

84
8. Do you agree that e-commerce can provide an alternative
marketing channel by eliminating middleman?

a) Agree

b) No

c) Do not know /cannot say

85
Column1

10%
a) Agree
b) No
30%
c)      Do not know /cannot say
60%

9. Which is the most prominent domain in which e-commerce is used


in India?

a) Matrimony

b) Real estate

c) Stocks & shares

d) Travel and tourism

e) Banking others

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10.What are the challenges to the implementation of e-commerce in
India?

a) Slow penetration of internet

b) Security concerns

c) Lack of trust

d) Consumers’ awareness level is low

e) Other factors

87
COLUMN1
e) Other factors
10%
d) Consumers’
awareness level is a) Slow
low penetration of
15% internet
40%

c) Lack of trust
15%

b) Security
concerns
20%

11.Do you think that the govt. of India is doing its enough to promote
e-commerce in India?

a) Yes

b) No

c) Do you know /cannot say

88
Column1

10%
30%
a)      Yes
b)      No
c)      Do you know /cannot say

60%

12. What measure would you recommend for promotion of e-commerce in


India?

a) Promotion of internet

b) To increase the awareness level of people

c) An integrated promotional approach

d) Other measures

89
13.What according to you is the future of e-commerce in India?

a) Very good

b) Good

c) Not so good

d) Do not have a future in India

e) Do not know/ cannot say

90
Column1

5%
10%
5%

20% 60%

a)      Very good b)      Good


c)      Not so good d)      Do not have a future in India
e)      Do not know/ cannot say

91
FINDINGS

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FINDINGS

The findings show that Internet usage has increased over the years and it is leading to

an increase in online shopping and also shows the consumers attitude and perception

towards online shopping. Communication still forms the major activity among the

large number of online shoppers as 32% of regular online shopper use Internet for

communication as compared to shopping (10%).

Online shopping is affected by demographics as it has been seen that more males are

shopping online as compared women online shoppers and there is a positive relation

between education and income levels with respect to the increased online shopping

behaviour.

The most important motivating factor, which influenced the online shopping, was

convenience followed by time saving and price. Regular online shoppers considered

convenience as the main motivating factor while buying and were less price sensitive.

But the online marketers should attempt to differentiate their products or services

making the comparison easier. The marketers should bring out innovative ways so

that the consumers can do more online shopping while taking the full advantage of

rich information, easy access and convenience of the Internet.

One of the main concerns among the online shoppers was privacy and security.

Another reason that hindered online shopping was the touch factor. Consumers still

preferred the experience they get from traditional stores like feeling the store’s

atmosphere, interacting with a salesperson, and seeking sensory stimulation. This

might hinder the use of certain goods like grocery and apparel, as the touch factor is

the main factor, which drives the shopping for these goods.

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CONCLUSION

Hopefully coming to the point that business is not about changing the people but
about changing yourself and your reactions for them. Success comes when one learns
to control and coordinate. So integrated marketing communication plan should not be
considered an end goal but rather a continuous approach. This is the most exciting,
most challenging time in history of communication research. The diffusion of
integrated marketing communication program should closely be associated with
changes in consumption pattern, technical advancement and competition. Integrated
marketing communication study provides practice based and grounded insights as
well as concrete suggestions for organizing communication campaigns. Integrated
marketing communication must not be just communication with present and prospect
customers, but also with employees, vendors, related industries and external
environment either directly or indirectly involved within. Moreover in marketing
effective communication is absolutely necessary even though one is having a superb
product best package and offer a fair price, people will not come to buy it unless
they might have hear of it or are aware of it. So without integrated marketing
communication promotion of a brand or product or generally your business is
impossible and without promotion nothing can be sold in this competitive global
market.

94
RECOMMENDATION & SUGGESTION

The suggestions are categorized in every aspect of manufacturing, marketing the


products, marketing strategy, implementation of the market strategies, proper
utilization of resources, and achievement of properly set goals in the future.

• The company has the capacity to produce the required qualities of the books of
different categories at particular month of the year. The shortages can be
minimized by correctly forecasting the quality of titles required by analyzing
previous years data’s and gauging the demand level from the field activities.

• While marketing the new range of products or titles, some market research

should be undertaken to know the potential of the new products and


number of players already in the market place. It is better to know the
main competitors and their market share. Before launching of the range
the expected market share should be ascertained.

• While preparing for market strategy a careful review of the earlier market

strategy of already successful and revenue earning products should be


reviewed and some identical strategies should be tried along with some
lessons to be learned from the competitor’s those who are improving
their market share.

• The implementation of strategies has very important significance in adopting

the right strategy and which is also the most difficult. The study has
mentioned nine key points, while dealing with the implementation of the
strategies. Although, all the points mentioned are relevant but in this
company the most important point is that all the field force, the
management cadre and the directors should be thoroughly convinced
about the strategy being followed and implement with full zeal and
enthusiasm.

95
LIMITATION

Marketing research suffers from several limitations. a large number of problems

which are caused by financial constraints, insufficient, sample size, and lack of

personal contact etc. marketing research only helps managers in decision making

process. It provides data and information to the managers but it cannot be a

substitute for marketing.

LIMITATION OF THE SURVEY

*in this survey, it is very difficult to find the exact figure as the consumption is

very low.

*there is not a particular trend follow in this industry to promote sales. Actions

are taken according to the situations and the situation changes very fast in the

industry.

*sales price vary retailer to retailer as the cost price is different for different

retailers due to schemes given.

*the number of shops is very large in number and it is very difficult to cover all of

them.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

97
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books:

• Kotler, Philip; Gary Armstrong, Veronica Wong, John Saunders (2008).

"Marketing defined". Principles of marketing (5th ed.). pp. 7.

• Joshi, Rakesh Mohan, (2005) International Marketing, Oxford University

Press, New Delhi and New York.

• C.R.Kothari, Research Methodology, New Age Publication.(4th edition).

• Ramaswamy V.S, and Namakumari, Marketing Management,Macmillan (3 rd

edition).

Journals:

• Gupta, A.K., and Govindarajan, V. (1984). „Business Unit Strategy,

Managerial Characteristics and Business Unit Effectiveness at Strategy

Implementation‟. Academy of Management Journal, 27, 25-41.

• Govindarajan, V. (1988). „A Contingency Approach to Strategy

Implementation at the Business-Unit Level Integrating Administrative

Mechanisms with Strategy, Academy of Management Journal, 31, 828-853.

• Govindarajan, V. (1989). „Implementing Competitive Strategies at the

Business Unit Level: Implications of Matching Managers to Strategies‟.

Strategic Management Journal, 10, 251-269.

• Academy of Management Journal, 33, 259-285.

Websites:

• www.vidyaprakashan.com

• www.chitraprakashan.com

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QUESTIONNAIRE

Kindly highlight/bold your answers.

1. Do you use Internet?

 Yes ð No

2. How long have you been using Internet?

 Less than 1 year ð 3 – 5 years

ð   1 – 3 years ð More than 5 years

3. On the average, how much time (per week) do you spend in surfing the Web?

ð 0 – 5 hours ð 16 – 20 hours

ð 6 – 10 hours ð More than 20 hours

ð 11 – 15 hours

4. Have you purchased anything online ever?

 Yes ð No

5. Which category (ies) of goods have you bought through Internet?

ð Books ð Railway tickets

ð Electronic Gadgets ð Airline tickets

ð CD/Videos ð Computer Hardware

ð Accessories apparel ð Computer Software

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ð Gifts ð Magazines

ð Event Tickets ð Movies tickets

ð Hotel Rooms/Car Rental ð Office Supplies

ð Jewellery ð Food / Groceries

ð Infant / Child items ð Home tools and products

ð Sporting goods ð Health and fitness products

ð Toys ð Any other, specify………………

6. When did u shop for the first time?

ð Last 6 months

ð 6 months- 1year

ð 1-3 year

ð 3-5 year

ð More than 5 year

7. How frequently did you purchase online?

 Only once

 2-4 times

 More than 5 times

 More than 6 times

100
8. Overall, were you satisfied with your experience of online shopping?

 Highly Satisfied

 Satisfied

 Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

 Dissatisfied

 Highly Dissatisfied

9. Where do you most often access the Internet?

 Home ð Cyber-cafes

 Office / College ð Any other, specify………

10. What are the activities that you use Internet for? (Kindly rank them between 1

to 5,with 1=most used, 2=used to a large extent, 3=used to a good extent, 4=used

sometimes, 5=rarely used)

Communication (E-mail, Instant Messaging, Bulletin Boards, News Groups,

Chat, etc.)

Information Gathering (Research, News, Sports scores, Search for

employment, etc.)

Entertainment (Games, Adult entertainment, Entertainment sites, Sports,

Music, Web page design, etc.)

Finance (Investment portfolio, financial research, online banking, check

stock/fund quotes, trading, etc.)

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Shopping (Researching purchases, purchasing, auctions, Selling, Classifieds,

etc.)

11. Which category (ies) of goods are you planning to buy through internet in the

near future?

ð Books ð Railway tickets

ð Electronic Gadgets ð Airline tickets

ð CD/Videos ð Computer Hardware

ð Accessories apparel ð Computer Software

ð Gifts ð Magazines

ð Event Tickets ð Beauty products

ð Movies tickets ð Health and fitness products

ð Hotel Rooms/Car Rental ð Office Supplies

ð Jewellery ð Food / Groceries

ð Apparel gift certificates ð Pharmaceuticals

ð Infant / Child items ð Home tools and products

ð Sporting goods ð Home appliances

ð Toys ð Any other, specify………………

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12. What is your main motivation for buying through Internet?

 Convenience (ease of purchase, home delivery, ability to shop 24x7) 

Price

 Saves time

 Superior selection/Availability

 Product comparison

 Any other, specify………………

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