XAVIER INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

BHUBANESWAR

Summer Internship Project Report

Title
Develop and execute marketing strategies
to improve the sales and overall customer
experience

At shopezone.com

Submitted By
Kishor Chandra Sahu (UM14323)
 Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 4
1 Executive Summary 5
2 Introduction 5
2.1 Economic policies.................................................................................................................6
2.2 Current trends.....................................................................................................................6
2.3 Industry Report...................................................................................................................7
3 Company Background 8
4 Objective 8
5 Trade life cycle in shopezone 9
5.1 Vendor selection process.....................................................................................................9
5.2 Shopezone order fulfilment process..................................................................................11
5.3 Market Place Inventory management..............................................................................12
5.4 B2B Marketing Strategies and Execution........................................................................13
5.4.1 Affiliate Marketing Program....................................................................................14
5.5 B2C Marketing Strategies and Execution........................................................................16
5.5.1 E-mail marketing.......................................................................................................16
5.5.2 Coupon marketing.....................................................................................................16
5.6 SEO Strategies for Shopezone...........................................................................................17
5.6.1 Optimize the website for its visibility........................................................................17
5.6.2 On-page factors..........................................................................................................18
5.6.3 Directory submission.................................................................................................19
5.6.4 Classified submissions................................................................................................19
5.6.5 Social Bookmarking...................................................................................................19
5.6.6 Web 2.0.......................................................................................................................20
5.6.7 Blog Creation..............................................................................................................21
5.6.8 URL Submission.........................................................................................................22
5.6.9 Business Listing..........................................................................................................22
5.6.10 Document Sharing.....................................................................................................23
5.6.11 Article Blog Bookmarking.........................................................................................23
 5.6.12 Article Submission.....................................................................................................24
6 Methodology 24
7 Data Collection 26
8 Data Analysis 26
8.1 Explanation Analysis.........................................................................................................26
9 Managerial Implications 28
9.1 Organization's business model..........................................................................................28
9.1.1 Key Ingredients of SZ’s business model...................................................................29
9.2 Organizational Development and Roles...........................................................................29
9.3 Issues at Shopezone............................................................................................................30
9.4 Social Media Strategy........................................................................................................31
10 Post-implementation Results 34
11 Future Scope 36
12 Limitations 37
13 Conclusion 37
14 Appendix 38
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all those who have extended their guidance and support
to successfully complete this project.
I would like to thank my project mentors at Shopezone, Founder and CEO Mr. Akshay Chauhan
and COO Mr. Avanish Mohan who provided immense support in the learning process and guided
me throughout the project. The staff of Shopezone has shown their support by taking out time from
their busy schedules and willingly sharing their knowledge and experience. Besides above, I would
like to thank my seniors Mohit, Sunil and Munish for their help in understanding the concepts and
approach in the completion of this project.
I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Sanjay Mohapatra for his immense help in
understanding and his guidance during my SIP tenure to provide me valuable e-commerce insights.
Without the support of all the above-mentioned people, the report completion would have been a
herculean task.
I attribute them the successful completion of the project and would like to thank all of them for
spending their valuable time in helping me complete this project.
1 Executive Summary

shopezone.com, a start-up ecommerce company was analyzed critically for its website and the
extent of reach in the huge online consumer base of India. Though the online store's the backend
operational processes in all the layers of the value chain were matured enough and were
functional, the brand shopezone was not significant which was affecting the sales.
The current implementation of the fulfillment cycle at SZ was studied. At various levels the
passage of information has been discussed and the model followed by SZ has been depicted
diagrammatically for clarity.
Several marketing strategies including B2B and B2C were developed and executed to promote
the products and improve the awareness of the brand shopezone. Various SEO initiatives taken
by SZ to rank high in the search results for the consumer products category wise is also
discussed.
To know the factors affecting the e-commerce conversion rate among users, a survey was floated
among past users, current frequent user and potential future users. The respondent’s data
collected was analyzed using structural equation modelling techniques to find out how the model
fits the understanding of the nature of the factors. The various factors using CFA were identified
from a fit model and strategies were suggested. The various strategies for promoting and
enhancing visitor experience was implemented which showed the results. The results has been
listed with the number of users and the amount of sales which was an improved figure.
The measures undertaken have resulted in improved reach and the number of visitors. Hence the
online orders at shopezone.com started to see an increasing trend which will hopefully continue
to rise and make its mark as a customer oriented and profitable firm in the online shopping
market.
The various future scopes and limitations were highlighted for the future course of action for the
firm SZ. Finally the study and analysis was concluded satisfactorily for the audience of the
report.

2 Introduction

Electronic commerce, commonly known as E-commerce or ecommerce is widely considered as

the buying and selling of products or services over the internet. But any transaction that takes
place only electronically can be considered as e-commerce.
Many technologies are employed in e-commerce, like supply chain management, inventory
management systems, electronic funds transfer, mobile marketing, Internet marketing, online
transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), and automated data collection systems,
etc.
As a whole e-commerce business covers many aspects which may employ some or all of the
following: Business-to-business (B2B) buying and selling, Business-to-consumer (B2C) buying
and selling, Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) buying and selling, Business-to-business electronic
data interchange, Online shopping web sites for selling direct to consumers, Accumulating and
using demographic data through web contacts and social media, Marketing to the present and
prospective customers through e-mail and Engaging in pretail to launch new products and
services, etc.
 With e-commerce, one can buy almost anything they wish for without actually touching the
product physically and inquiring the salesman n number of times before placing the final order.
Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Jabong, Myntra, etc. are some of the most popular e-retail
companies in India.

2.1 Economic policies

Currently India’s e-commerce sector is neither regulated by any dedicated e-commerce law nor
is it contributing towards the economic and social growth of India.
Many legal provisions related to national taxation laws, foreign direct investment (FDI),
foreign exchange management act (FEMA), cyber law and cyber security due diligence, e-
commerce due diligence, etc. are openly ignored in India. Investigation against some big e-
commerce players like Myntra, Flipkart and many more e-commerce websites operating in
India has also been initiated by Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Many institutions like the Federation of Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Associations in India
(FPBAI) and the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) have also protested against the
unfair trade practices and predatory pricing tactics of Indian e-commerce websites.

2.2 Current trends

The e-Commerce market in India has enjoyed phenomenal growth in the last five years. The
market was worth about $3.8 billion in 2009 which went up to $12.6 billion in 2013. In 2013,
the e-retail segment was estimated to be worth $800 million in 2011 and is estimated to grow to
$11.8 billion in 2015. Currently about 87% of India's e-commerce market is travel related.
Although the trend of e-Commerce has been making rounds in India for 15 years, the
appropriate ecosystem has now started to fall in place.
According to Google India, there were 35 million online shoppers in India in 2014 Q1 and is
expected to cross 100 million mark by end of year 2016. The considerable rise in the number of
internet users, growing acceptability of online payments, the proliferation of internet-enabled
devices and favorable demographics are the key factors driving the growth story of e-
commerce in the country.
The number of users making online transactions has been on a rapid growth trajectory, and it is
expected to grow from 11 million in 2011 to 38 million in 2015.
Online travel has traditionally been the largest e-Commerce sub-sector (by revenue) in India.
Nevertheless, online retail is catching up fast and is expected to match online travel revenues
by 2015 Overall e-commerce market is expected to reach Rs 1,07,800 crores (US$24 billion)
by the year 2015 with overall e-commerce market being expected to reach $24 billion by that
time.

2.3 Industry Report

 According to Gartner Inc. digital commerce in India is at a nascent stage. However, India is
also one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in Asia/Pacific. India represents a $3.5
billion market (in 2014), growing at approximately 60-70 percent every year (expected to grow
to $6 billion in 2015). E-commerce represents less than 4 percent of the total retail market
which is led by B2C e-commerce in India, while B2B is limited to organizations that drive
online channels to integrate with their partners and distributors.

According to McKinsey internet penetration is still very low with about 8.4% of the population
online. 90% of all retail transactions are conducted in cash while online works best with plastic
or electronic money. This is the reason that the e-commerce accounts for less than 1% of the
total retail sales while in Brazil this ratio is more than 4%.

Currently mobile commerce has found increased focus in mobile shopping. Food and
Beverages companies, Marketplaces, Consumer Products companies have now started to invest
in mobile commerce. According to Mr. Praveen Sengar, Research Director at Gartner,

“The digital commerce platform market is maturing; incumbent vendors are investing in
building out their commerce platforms, and those in adjacent areas, such as search, order
management and marketing — both through organic development and acquisition” and also
“Vendors are increasingly focused on execution and winning new customers, sometimes at
the expense of articulating future vision. Merger and acquisition activity is increasing,
resulting in fewer digital commerce platform options in the market, but also serving to
extend the commerce platforms of the established vendors”.

Limited internet penetration, multiple payment models (like cash on delivery, debit/credit card
payment, wire transfers), logistics challenges, fulfilment challenges, higher return rates, low
average order etc. are putting pressure on the profitability and viability of B2C e-commerce
businesses. The biggest challenge for the Indian Enterprises is getting the digital commerce
strategy right and adequate investments in people, process and technology to engage with
customers across channels, which has been ignored so far.

Still, Indian e-commerce sector’s picture is not so gloomy. According to McKinsey nearly 1/3
of India’s travel is booked online which accounts for $7 billion of the $23 billion market. This
is dominated by two local players, MakemyTrip (48% market share) and Yatra (30%). In train
reservations, 40% of the bookings are made online thanks to the popular IRCTC website. The
main reason is that the online travel sector doesn’t have to deal with the transportation and
logistics problems since the tickets can be downloaded into the digital devices.

3 Company Background

Shopezone Ecomm Private Limited is a Private Company incorporated on 05 February 2013. It is

classified as Indian Non-Government Company and is registered at Registrar of Companies,
Delhi. It’s headquartered at Noida. Directors and cofounders of Shopezone Ecomm Private
Limited are Mr. Akshay Chauhan and Mr. Avanish Mohan.
Online shopping is undeniably lacking the in-store experience; Shopezone is the first in India
trying to capitalize on this gap. It aims to provide a platform that gives an unparalleled
combination of the benefits of offline and online retail shopping, enhanced through the
application of cutting edge Internet Technology. Its platform offers features and advantages that
are unprecedented in the online shopping space. With extensive research, development and
 testing it is developing an innovative unique product with the potential to become a market
leader in not only Indian online shopping, but worldwide.
The company is mulling to get into trading into the retailers and become a partner with the
leading online shopping portals in India and be a part of the value chain. This will enhance the
experience in that system and can be leveraged and implemented for SZ in the future.

4 Objective

With the considerable rise in the number of internet users, the proliferation of internet-enabled
devices, acceptability of online payments and favorable demographics the Indian consumers are
at the right position to enhance the online shopping experience.Shopezone.com is an online
shopping website where consumer products in different categories like men, women, kids, sports,
electronics, gifts, home& kitchen and categories under different price zones categorized as
999Zone.
The objective of this project is to formulate different marketing strategies to pull more consumers
to visit the online store and continue the long term relationship with the loyal consumers. The
primary objective of the execution will be to boost the sales and enhance overall customer
experience. It includes the brand building, enhancing the customer and vendor relationship, on
boarding new vendors and efficient day-to-day operations across the fulfillment life cycle of a
product shopped online.

5 Trade life cycle in shopezone

Trade cycle in e commerce:

Primarily buying and selling of goods online is the model of e-commerce. E-commerce can be
applied to different phases of trade cycle. This trade cycle will depend on factors like the nature
of the organizations, the nature of product that is transacted.
Conducting a typical commercial transaction involves the following steps:
1. Pre-Sale which involves Search which is finding a supplier and negotiate which is
agreeing the terms of trade.
2. Execution: Product Ordering and delivery of the same.
3. Settlement: Invoice and Payment.
4. After-sales for example return and exchange of products, warrantee and service,
feedback.
 Fig 1: Internet e-commerce
The trade cycle in SZ starts from the lead generation through the customer feedback collection.

5.1 Vendor selection process

At shopezone, vendor on-boarding is one of the most critical ongoing activities. Selection of
the tight vendor is undoubtedly important to the success of an online shopping start-up firm.
Comparing different vendors of a particular category of products is difficult because of the lack
of standards and the use of industry terms on a consistent basis.
Following check points are necessary for shopezone for vendor on-boarding, though all of them
are not available with the vendors.

Company
How old is your organization?
Do you manufacture or outsource your product?
What all categories of products you deal with?
Project
How do you manage your own the website content and graphics?
How do you implement your process?
Who will be the primary contact and secondary contact?
Who is responsible for creating the images and graphics of the products?
What kind of automated tools you are using?
Features
What kind of content management system you are using?
Is your shopping cart fully integrated or provided by a third party?
Are you able to deploy a mobile version with fully integrated ecommerce?
Do you have a broadcast / mass email tool? Is it fully integrated within your software?
Please list all reports that are available through your solution.
Graphic Design
How does your graphic design process work?
Do you staff your own graphic designers?
Support
How do your customers request and receive support?
What happens if you go out of business?
Will you bear the shipping?
Pricing
MRP and Transfer price
 Settlement period

Details on the below points are also required.

 Product and image management
 Quantity discounting / tiered pricing
 Tools to generate quotes and then convert to orders
 Returns management
 Inventory management and controls

On a very high level the vendor selection is shown as below

Categories Secondary Filter

A
Price

B Quality Check
Customers
Contract

C Returns%

5.2 Shopezone order fulfilment process

Oder fulfillment is the process where we receive, store, package, and ship the orders to the end
consumers who shop online.
Shopezone order fulfillment process is done 3 phases.
Product Confirmation phase: In this first phase the ordered product is confirmed with the
vendor for availability and the customer is contacted over phone for the confirmation of the
order. The customer is contacted for confirmation of the order only in case the customer’s
payment method is “Cash On Delivery”
Logistics confirmation phase: In this 2nd phase the logistic partner’s availability is checked
both at the seller’s pin code and consumer’s pin code. If there is no logistics service available at
the consumer’s pin code then shopezone bears the responsibility and the cost through any other
3rd party (courier/speed post) shipping at the delivery address.
Delivery and settlement Phase: In this last phase the product is delivered and the payment (in
case of COD payment type) is received by the logistics partner, which in turn gets credited to
SZ account. The logistic partner credits the COD amounts in every 15-20 days period. The
seller’s payment settlement is done within 4 to 5 days after the order has been dispatched.
Please refer to the flow chart diagram below for clarity.
SZ follows the drop shipment model when it comes to fulfillment. In this model, the products
are shipped directly from the retailer to the customer’s doorstep. By following this model
shopezone gets a few advantages which are low hassle, widen the product range, low risk,
 location independence. The biggest cons of drop shipping is the low margin because the
sellers/wholesalers expect a significant cut.

Flo w c ha rt fo r sho pe zo ne fulfillme nt p ro c e ss

Is the No
New order on
Order COD

Yes

Product No
Confirmation
with Seller

Product No
Confirmation
Yes with Customer

Yes

3rd Party
Logistics
Logistics Confirmation

No

Yes

Delivery &
Settlement
Order
Cancellation

Fig 2: Order Fulfillment process

5.3 Market Place Inventory management

SZ facilitates hassle-free listings and transactions by both manually and using its seller’s panel
manual. The sellers provide the list of products including category, subcategory, product
description, SKUs, dimensions, volumetric weight, number of units etc.
 The inventory management system or the seller’s panel enables the following.
1. Managing multiple categories of products and variants of product
2. Managing multiple SKUs and multi-level SKUs of the same type of products
3. Managing wide variety of catalogues
4. Managing your scale of business as it allows as many products as you can upload for
listing
5. Managing multiple price lists, multiple discounts and offers
6. Managing multiple vendors and selling partners
7. Notify the seller/vendor when a product is sold
8. Instruct the seller how to ship it to the buyer

The inventory panel enables the vendors to take quick action based on the stock out products,
recommendations, and historical data of the products sold.

5.4 B2B Marketing Strategies and Execution

Shopezone.com being an online shopping place needed to have the products available to the
user in all segments, categories, sizes, colors, price ranges, and volumes as applicable.
Affiliating as many sellers or vendors for their products gives a wide range of choices to the
customers.
Because content on our website is one of the most important part of our business, the
vendor's/seller's product description content will have to be prioritized to achieve results.
If we are attracting and opting in lots of active prospects then our priority should be
1. Qualifying the seller’s sales readiness.
2. Nurturing their engagement with our SMEs.
3. Attracting and acquiring new prospect sellers or vendors
Vendors and sellers who are new to the online shopping marketplace will need enough
education and awareness about the processes for a smooth on-boarding. We need to use
customer-focused articulation of the business that we are in and involving them in the content
making strategy by profiling our target customer segments.
The developed content should be aligned with that the customer is looking for towards a more
relevant and effectiveness.
The leads are prepared on segment basis. The sales team start pitching in to the sellers who can
be wholesalers, distributors, retailers. Online shopping interface provides just another sales
channel for the respective vendors where they enjoy the revenue generation only by enabling
their affiliated products into our website.
The process of alignment of vendors/sellers is as below.

UNAWARE AWARE INTERES PARTNER VALUE

T PROVIDER

Fig 3: Vendor alignment process

The unaware vendors are made aware and SZ enables them to help in creating value for the
customers.
 The flow of seller’s content is briefly as below.
seller's content seller's panel SZ database online shopping catalogue
The sellers or vendors create their latest textual and visual image content to be uploaded onto
the online catalogue. They use the seller panel provided to them from SZ with the credentials to
upload which in turn gets updated in SZ database.
The online shopping catalogue will be able to fetch the updated content on the page refresh.
The process enables the sellers to be focused on their content, easy to use, contextual
understanding and clear goals which helps the overall conversion rate.

5.4.1 Affiliate Marketing Program

Though the effort for creating a perfect ecommerce website requires the best images,
descriptions and pay per click advertisements affiliates communicate the value proposition to
wider customer base. SZ plays the role of an affiliate for some popular online shopping for
example websites selling baby care products.
SZ has to take care of the reputation while promoting the products. SZ does this by selling
good products or services, ensure reliable delivery of the products and a transparent return
policy. To promote the offerings we get the images, animations, videos, product descriptions
from the sellers/vendors.
SZ also partners with other ecommerce websites in affiliation programs. The partners could
be arbitrage specialists between pay per click advertisements and affiliate commission or
owners of email marketing or website owners themselves. The visitors of the partner website
are channelized to SZ.
Shopezone relies on two kinds of pricing models for selling the products on its website from
different partners.
Transfer Pricing Model: In this pricing model, the sellers/vendors provide the products to
shopezone with transfer prices or wholesale prices. Shopezone then decides a competitive
selling price by comparing with other competitors/sellers. So, the main focus on taking this
step is that shopezone tries towards recovering its costs instead of keeping focus on gaining
profit.

Fig4: Transfer Pricing Model

Let’s consider an example. Here let the MRP of the product be ₹1000 and the Transfer Price
be ₹350. So the results are shown in the table below.

MRP ₹ 1,000 (say)

 (say)
TP ₹ 350 (Inclusive of service tax @12.36% = ₹ 38.5)
(In case of COD orders Logistics charge is ₹50+
Logistics Charges ₹ 50 ₹30)
TP + 35% of TP (35% is the cost incurred by SZ
in general including the logistics and payment
Typical SP ₹ 472.50 gateway charges)
Payment Gateway 2% of SP (In case of COD orders no payment
Charges ₹ 9.45 gateway charges)
Typical Money Received (After deducting the Typical Payment Gateway
by SZ ₹ 63.05 Charges, Logistics Charges and TP)
(SP set for about 1.35 times the TP at SZ's
Actual SP ₹ 499 discretion)
Actual Payment Gateway 2% of SP (In case of COD orders no payment
Charges ₹ 9.98 gateway charges)
Actual Money Received (After deducting the Actual Payment Gateway
by SZ ₹ 89.02 Charges, Logistics Charges and TP)

Hypothetical Example: Transfer Price Breakup

In case of prepaid orders the money paid by the consumers is credited to the Payment
Gateway’s account. The Payment Gateway deducts 2% from the paid amount and then credits
the remaining amount into SZ’s bank account. In case of COD orders the logistics company
charges an extra flat rate of ₹30 along with the shipping rate of ₹50 and then credits the
remaining amount to SZ’s bank account. Also in case of setting the selling price of a product,
a 35% rule is generally applied.
Commission Based Pricing Model: This model is applied for pricing of products when the
sellers/vendors are unable or disagree to sell the products to shopezone with transfer prices.
Then it is at the discretion of the sellers/vendors to decide on the selling price of the products
to be sold through shopezone.com. In return Shopezone receives a commission on the profit
gained by the seller.

Fig5: Commission Based Pricing Model

5.5 B2C Marketing Strategies and Execution

The online shopping business is highly consumer oriented. It becomes imperative on the online
shopping companies to keep their customers well informed, win them back in every transaction
they make and strive for a long term relationship.
 The business to consumer strategies for those reasons become potential winners for even a
single order.

5.5.1 E-mail marketing

E mail marketing is one of the important tools used by Shopezone to increase
the consumer connect and awareness. The company sends various promotional schemes and
updates to the users to help build better customer relationship and reach.
Shopezone planned an email campaign wherein we reached out to the frequent customers of
Shopezone and rewarded them with customized coupons as part of customer loyalty scheme.
We made the coupons in the name of the consumers and sent them on their registered email to
help increase our relationship with them. As email marketing is an important part of micro
conversions in ecommerce transactions, so the idea was to generate more such future micro
conversions which would ultimately lead to macro conversions.

5.5.2 Coupon marketing

Shopezone being an ecommerce company also has tie ups with various coupon rewarding
organizations .These coupons are awarded to the buyers of shopezone to attract and increase
the foothold of the brand.
Various coupon providing companies such as couponduniya, etc. were brought in as part of
affiliate marketing program to foster business to consumer marketing. Through the use of
these coupon affiliates and partners Shopezone has tried to build customer value and customer
retention. A certain fee was charged by the companies to provide these coupons on shop zone
website. Coupons serve to be an important part of promotional activities and help in customer
engagement and attraction.

5.6 SEO Strategies for Shopezone

Search engine optimization is all about optimizing a website for search engines. This is a
technique used to design and develop a website to rank well in the results of a search engine,
boost the quality and volume of the traffic to a website from the search engine and to market
by understanding the visitors.
Shopezone being a naïve website and slowly trying to make its mark amidst the big online
shopping players, it plans to implement both on-page and off-page SEO implementations.
We’ll discuss the strategies implemented at Shopezone one by one.

5.6.1 Optimize the website for its visibility

The relevance of the keywords and the search result which gives the keywords were
considered. If the keywords gives good results on search engine pages but are not that
relevant to the business that the online shopping website then the investment for those
keywords are of no use. So design and optimization of the website has to be in accordance
with the keywords. The ranking of a webpage is measured by the position of the page in a
search engine result.
The key phrases which were considered for optimization were as below.

Key Phrases
 buy anarkali suits online at best price
in India
buy online Indian designer anarkali
salwar kameez
kurtis online shopping india
buy men’s perfume online at best prices in India
buy cheap perfumes online India
buy online perfumes for women

Buy Designer lehenga online India buy power bank online at best prices in India

Sarees Online Store in India Best Portable Power Bank Charger online
buy latest design sarees online portable power bank online India
buy bollywood replica suits & dresses
online buy lingerie undergarments online

buy bollywood sarees online women lingerie online shopping india

buy bollywood replica anarkali suits
online online lingerie shopping in India

t-shirts online store in India night wears for women online shopping in India

buy online men t-shirts buy home appliances online at low prices

buy women shoes online India
buy women heels online at best
prices
Buy Flats online for women at best
prices in India
buy kitchen appliances products online
buy home décor products online india
buy women dresses online india

buy men’s shoes online India buy women tops online at best prices in India

5.6.2 On-page factors

On-page SEO factors include good web content, good keyword selection, appropriate title
of the web pages, internal links etc.
Site structure: The search engines crawl through a link structure to index and find the web
pages. So, the web site’s structure should be clear and intuitive so that the pages can be easily
indexed and searched.
Page URL: Another way to improve SEO is to make sure that each page’s URL is SEO-
friendly i.e., it has to include the main keyword which the page is targeting. Few examples are
as below.

Url List Published URL

http://www.shopezone.com/women/ethic-wear/anarkali-
http://www.bing.com suit.html
http://www.shopezone.com/women/ethic-wear/designer-
www.google.com lehengas.html
 Alt-text of images: In case of images, the search engines read alt-text instead. So while
describing images the focused keywords need to be used.
The list of factors those were profiled for on-page report are as below.

Profile List
URL Structure Sufficient Quantity of Words in Content
Title Tag Appropriate Characters in the URL
Meta description Appropriate Page Title Length
H1 Tags No More Than One H1 Tag
H-2 tags External Links
Body bold tags changes Appropriate Meta Description Length
Image alt title Hyper links on one page

Appropriate Use of Rel Canonical Duplicate url

Appropriate Keyword Usage in

Document Sitemap, rss
Avoid Keyword Stuffing in
Document Redirection
Keyword Usage in Image Alt
Attribute Image

5.6.3 Directory submission

This is a method where we submit blog or website into web directories. Since the directories
provide relevant categorized information, it is used to increase website indexing which in turn
increase our page rank.
A few seo friendly directories which are cached and indexed by Google were selected and the
web pages were added to the corresponding categories.
One of the many targeted URLs submitted is shown below.

Directory List Targeted url Submit URL

http://www.shopezone.com/wo
http://addgoodsite men/ethic-wear/anarkali- http://addgoodsites.com/details.ph
s.com/ suit.html p?id=249919

The parameters added are seen as below once the URL is submitted.

Fig6: Directory Submission

5.6.4 Classified submissions
The category wise web pages submission to the classified ad websites to improve the web
page rankings. Few example are shown as below.

Title Ad's URL

Buy anarkali suits online http://gurgaon.click.in/buy-anarkali-suits-online-at-best-price-in-
at best price in India india-c75-v10967446
http://adpress.in/635/posts/4-Apparels-Accessories/3-Women-s-
Buy anarkali suits online Apparel/783351-Buy-anarkali-suits-online-at-best-price-in-
at best price in India India.html
Buy Designer lehenga
online India http://delhi.indads.in/item/398942/

5.6.5 Social Bookmarking

A social bookmarking service is a centralized online service which enables users to add,
annotate, edit, and share bookmarks of web documents. Social bookmarking is a powerful
tool in promoting a website.

Fig7: Social Bookmarking

5.6.6 Web 2.0

A Web 2.0 site allows its users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media
dialogue. The users are treated as the creators of the content in a virtual community. On the
other hand, Web sites are limited to the passive viewing of content.
Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, folksonomies, video
sharing sites, hosted services, Web applications, and mashups. Some of the web2.0 content
used by shopezone were as below.
 Fig8: pinterest

Fig9: tumblr

5.6.7 Blog Creation

Blogging has become such a passion that every second of every minute of every hour of
everyday a new blog is being created. Researchers have actively analysed the dynamics of
how blogs become popular. Essentially there are two measures of blogging. One is popularity
through citations and another is popularity through affiliation. Some of the blogging activities
taken for shopezone are as below.
 Shopezone.blogspot.in

Quora

5.6.8 URL Submission

Visibility by submitting and optimizing your website for Google search, and distributing your
content across the web.

Sr.
URL List Published URL
No.
http://www.shopezone.com/women/ethic-
1 http://www.bing.com
wear/anarkali-suit.html
http://www.shopezone.com/women/ethic-
2 http://www.bing.com
wear/kurtis.html
3 www.google.com http://www.shopezone.com/women/ethic-
 wear/anarkali-suit.html
http://www.shopezone.com/women/ethic-
4 www.google.com
wear/kurtis.html
http://www.shopezone.com/women/ethic-
5 http://www.entireweb.com
wear/anarkali-suit.html
http://www.shopezone.com/women/ethic-
6 http://www.entireweb.com
wear/kurtis.html
http://www.shopezone.com/women/ethic-
7 http://www.dmoz.org/
wear/anarkali-suit.html
http://www.shopezone.com/women/ethic-
8 http://www.dmoz.org/
wear/kurtis.html

5.6.9 Business Listing

Business listing is done to ensure that the people may come to know about our business. So
for that name, phone number and address has been listed on different business listing websites
like Your Story Pages and Rediff Pages. This also helps in local SEO.
Some of the listings that have been done are shown below.

Sr.No Published URL

1 http://shopezone-ecom.yspages.com/

2 http://www.urldub.com/www.shopezone.com

3 http://pages.rediff.com/shopezone/2059693

5.6.10 Document Sharing

A lot of documents have been shared on many websites like slideshare, scribd, issuu, etc.
Since the text is extracted by Google it can be easily indexed. This will increase the visibility
of our website.
Some examples are listed below.

Sr. Directory
Submit URL Format
No. List

1 http://www.slideshare.net/shopezone/shopezone-ppt ppt

https://www.scribd.com/doc/259751588/buy-anarkali-
2 suits-online-at-best-price-in-India-Kurtis-online-shopping- pdf
India

3 http://issuu.com/shopezone/docs/shopezone_ppt.pptx ppt
 http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/shopezone-
4 ppt
2432348-buy-anarkali-suits-online-kurtis-shopping/

5.6.11 Article Blog Bookmarking

An Article Blog Bookmarking service enables users to add, annotate, edit, and share
bookmarks of web documents. Different websites are promoted in the different blogging
websites.

Sr
Social
.N Title Published URL
Boomarking List
o
http://www.articl
esbase.com/fashi
on-articles/right- Buy men’s
place-to-buy- perfume online http://www.letusbookmark.i
1
mens-perfume- at best prices in nfo/story.php?id=280608
online-at-best- India
prices-in-india-
7236817.html
Shopezone http://www.yoursocialbookm
Online Shopping arking.com/story.php?
http://shopezone
2 Portal for every title=shopezone-online-
0.blogspot.in/
consumer shopping-portal-for-every-
product online consumer-product-online

Shopezone http://www.yoursocialbookm
https://shopezon Online Shopping arking.com/story.php?
3 e.wordpress.com Portal for every title=shopezone-online-
/ consumer shopping-portal-for-every-
product online consumer-product-online-2

5.6.12 Article Submission

Articles related to the products being sold at shopezone have been submitted to various
websites to increase its visibility.

Sr. No. Published URL

1 http://www.articlesbase.com/fashion-articles/right-place-to-buy-mens-
 perfume-online-at-best-prices-in-india-7236817.html

6 Methodology
After several literatures were reviewed, analyzing with deep domain knowledge and discussion
with experts we develop a construct which depicts the consumer behavior in the online shopping.
We critically analyzed and identified various parameters that govern the conversion of visitors to
customers in an online shopping website. There are many factors which affect the pattern or the
conversion rate which are depicted diagrammatically below.

OnePage
Checkout
Streamlined
Auto Address Check-out process
Recognition Live Chat
Excellent
Communication
Page Cluttering Free Phone

Unique content
Time sensitive Shipping
Email
Promotion
Sense of urgency Free Shipping
User
On-site Analytics
High Quality Visitors
promotion

Mobile website
Improve e-Commerce Fair Competitive Price

conversion rate User Friendly Page

Native mobile
app
Product Suitability

Delivery Cost
Visitor
Experience
Speed of delivery
After Sales
Payment methods avlbl
Product
Return and Security Verification
Unified User experience
Exchange
Customer Exclusive Product
Service Launch
Secured
Transaction
Coupons
Loyalty
Customer info
Programs
Privacy Reward points

The methodology adopted in the project constituted primary survey conduct. The survey was
conducted through email web survey tool among existing, past and potential users who can come
to their website in the near future. The data was collected over a period spanning 3-4 weeks. The
total sample size obtained after the initial data screening was 161.
 SEM was used to test whether the measures of construct are consistent with our understanding of
the nature of that construct or factor.
SEM represents a theoretical concept in terms of a structural equation. We show the impact of
the observed variables or independent variables on dependent variables. SEM was used to detect
and take care of any heteroscedasticity or heterogeneity of variances among the
variables/parameters.

7 Data Collection
A survey was conducted through email web survey tool google forms and 28 questions were
floated in the questionnaire. Data was collected over a period of 3-4 weeks across the students,
youth who frequently shop online, past users who uses to buy online and potential online
shoppers. The response to questions were captured using a Likert scale of 1 through 5. Response
1 was to capture the worst case scenario and response 5 was to capture the best case scenario as
perceived by the respondents. The dichotomous scale values were replaced with 1 and 2.
After cleaning the data set received from all the respondents and removing the invalid records
there were 160 valid responses. All the factors affecting the dependent variables were columns in
the data set.

8 Data Analysis
A total of 160 respondents were recorded and saved in a data file as excel file.120 were male and
rest were female respondents. The age wise distribution of all the respondents are as shown
below. The largest population was among the age group of 20-25 who are much more prone for
online shopping.

8.1 Explanation Analysis

A confirmatory factor model was developed and used to test whether the measures are in line
with the prior construct or not.
A Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was done using SPSS AMOS tool. A path diagram was
constructed and the model was run for the CFA and he results were analyzed.
The factor loading for independent variables were found to be high and those factor loading
less than 0.5 were not considered. For the independent variables which are really important for
a factor were considered even though the factor loading was little less than 0.5
The independent variables less than 0.5 were removed from the factors run by run during CFA.
In the 2nd run, for the factor visitor experience the variables deliveryCost and
exclusiveProductLaunch were removed and again estimated. In the 3 rd run, for the factor
UIexperience the variable minimalisticDesign was removed. The variable freeShipping was
removed from the factor advertisementNPromotion in the 4th run. In the run 5 the model was
found to be fit enough and no variables were removed.
For the model fit of the default model in the CFA run the below data was found which shows
positive degrees of freedom. It shows that the model is over-identified.

From the model fit summary it was found that, the CMIN value was 1.831 which should be
between 1 and 3. CFI was found to be 0.869, a value close to 0.9, hence accepted.
PCLOSE was satisfactorily less at 0.003 and RMSEA value was 0.72 which again should be
less than 0.8, so accepted. The model fit summary in the AMOS output is as shown below.

The model fit summary was after only one modification indices for variable e17 e21 were
co-varied with each other. The path diagram of the model in AMOS is as shown below.
 Using CFA, 6 factors visitorExperience, UIExperience, advertisementNPromotion,
postPurchaseExperience, mCommerce, streamlineCheckOutProcess were determined by using
the independent variables.The model fit summary highlights the impact of the 6 factors on
improving e-commerce conversion rate.

9 Managerial Implications

9.1 Organization's business model

Shopezone, a start-up online shopping retails follows the e-tailer/storefront model of
B2C ecommerce business model. It involves transactions between the consumers and
the business organizations in the supply chain.
 SZ displays the product details on an online catalog and store the details on its own
database.SZ acts as a virtual merchant and is an online version of the retail store where
customers can shop 24*7 comfortably.
Various merchants from across the country lists their products which is then followed
by consumer shopping procedure starting from basic requirement determination
through the payment settlement and after-sales support.
The popular items being sold are men’s and women’s apparels, fashion accessories,
electronics, deos and perfumes, toys, beauty products etc.

9.1.1 Key Ingredients of SZ’s business model

The key business model ingredients are as below.

Value proposition: It is the sum of the benefits we provide to our customers. We
provide low cost original products and provide the local customers fast next-day
delivery. For example we sell no box perfumes so that we are able to afford to sell it
at a lower price compared to our competitors.
Revenue model: The only revenue source for SZ is through the product margins or the
service provided to the merchants to sell their products by providing online platform
in the market place. As of now we don’t sell any banner space for other vendors or
market players for advertisements.
Market Opportunity: India’s retail market estimated at USD 470 billion and growing
at 7% and over 35 million online shoppers creates huge market for ecommerce to
grow and looks promising only.SZ takes the advantage of this and intend to serve the
Indian consumers predominantly on apparels, electronics and toys category.
Competitive advantage: SZ has competitive advantage over its competitors on the
price and faster delivery in the local deliveries.
Market Strategy: The present marketing strategy is predominantly in social media
than any other media as it’s a budding company. It also adopted the email marketing
and category wise marketing of products.

9.2 Organizational Development and Roles

To carry out the business plans the organizational structure is a simpler one as the
employee strength of the firm is around 10. It’s a hierarchy-less organization though
mostly the decision making is carried out. The organization is extremely simple
structure as the firm is in start-up it’s the founders/owners at the top with the
employees beneath.
 A couple of senior employees who are MBA graduates are skilled and knowledgeable
and quite well versed with the entire value chain share a few responsibilities like
deciding on the product pricing with the merchants etc.
The employees are flexible enough and free to propose ideas and suggest in any
aspect of the business. The interns are also encouraged for a free flow of ideas which
helps in creating a friendly environment at the work place. The interns are taken for
the daily operations. Our ideas on the social media marketing strategies were executed
and it has helped in boosting the firm’s overall sales.

Founders/Owners

Employee Employee Interns Interns

Employee

The organization don’t have separate functions or divisions. The basic managerial
implications of the organizations is that it is infinitely flexible in adapting to growth
and respond to the changing environment accordingly.
From the analysis conducted it was found that the e-commerce conversion rate was primarily
determined by factors namely the visitor experience, advertisement and promotion, streamline
checkout process, m-Commerce provisions and post-purchase experience. Though the factor of
UI experience impacts but it was found to be not of a great importance. So, the look and feel of
the online store though is a valid factor but has not a profound impact when it comes to
affecting the conversion rate.
Hence, the managers could lay more importance on the above listed factors accordingly.
Among these factors at SZ two factors visitor experience and advertisement and promotion
were looked upon with utmost importance.

9.3 Issues at Shopezone

As a start-up SZ could not have avoided to implement a very dynamic and market oriented
competitive pricing strategy in place. Product suitability for the targeted consumers was also
taken care. The reachability and the brand awareness was of primary importance as there were
many online shopping companies coming up regularly doing their business catering to different
categories of consumers.
Moreover, the consumers were looking more for coupons and discounts in different bundles or
products. So, to attract more traffic to its online store was the first achievement followed by the
conversion of the visitors to potential customers and to retain them with various loyalty
programs and maintain a long term relationship.
9.4 Social Media Strategy
Increasing awareness of the brand SZ was the immediate viable option as in online shopping it
is paramount to have a very high and potential traffic.
SZ targeted the young consumers with various contests, quizzes etc. It targeted the other
potential consumers also with several promotional events.
The social media strategy at shopezone.com consists of increasing brand presence and reach on
popular social media sites such as Facebook, twitter. There are particular campaigns and
promotional events being run on these websites to increase the presence of the company. The
initiatives taken by us a team at shopezone for the social media marketing strategy were-

 Introduction of #Quotezone on Twitter as part of daily thought of the day- This initiative
was taken up to help spread a positive thought of the day as part of customer relationship
management.

The initiative was well received and there were retweets by the twitter followers. The
company has also decided to have these quotes printed on their invoice as a step towards
enhancing the customer client relationship.

Fig8: #Quotezone post on Twitter

 IPL Contest- As a team we decided to host and organize an online contest of the Indian
Premier League as it was trending during the month. So we designed an online campaign and
introduced the name #CrazyAbtIpl


Fig9: #CrazyAbtIPL in Facebook

This concept of the contest was to predict the daily winners of the respective IPL matches.
Towards the end of the week we used to announce the winners based on a lucky draw
scheme. The winners were awarded with respective prizes and vouchers. This initiative also
saw a good number of active participation from the Facebook and Twitter users with few also
sharing their joy through posting pictures of the prizes on these sites.

Game of Thrones Contest- As the popular TV show was back during the month, so we
decided to dedicate an online contest for the hit series. We named the contest
#TAMETHEGAME as we wanted to find the ultimate game of thrones fan. We posted two
questions per week and announced the results every Monday.

Fig10: GOT post in Facebook

 The winners were announced through a lucky draw scheme based on the correct entries. The
contest was run parallel on both Facebook and twitter. We received a good number of entries
and there was a sense of excitement amongst the contestants. The winners were awarded with
attractive prizes and shopping vouchers.

Mother’s Day Contest- We also designed, organized and hosted a special event called as
#Me&Mom on social media sites. The idea was to share a picture of the user and his/her
mother on the popular social media sites and tell us about their best moments. This initiative
was undertaken keeping in mind that Mother’s day was being celebrated around the globe on
the second Sunday of May. The event saw a good number of responses with users sharing the
pictures of them with their mother. The best picture followed by the best moments was
awarded with attractive shopping vouchers and gifts.

Fig11: #Me&Mom on Facebook

.

 Promotional banners on social media- We also undertook the responsibility of promoting

the products available on shopezone.com through banners on Facebook. For this we used to
make a plan for an entire week .We divided the days into two products minimum and
promoted them on Facebook in minimum 4 different slots throughout the day.
 Fig12: #Me&Mom on Facebook

We used our creativity to spell out better and catchy taglines for the products to attract user
attention. We also took the help of boosting certain posts on Facebook to reach to a wider set
of audiences.

10 Post-implementation Results

The facebook page likes of shopezone was seen to rise significantly by 10000.

Fig13: FB page likes

 Fig14: FB people reached
Therefore, through our efforts in social marketing we were able to increase the likes and reach of
Shopezone on various social media websites. There was a significant growth in the number of
likes on facebook and this helped the company strengthen its presence amongst the consumers.
The reach was well distributed throughout India, U.S.A, and Saudi Arabia. The reach was
substantial amongst both men and women. The response of our designed campaigns was thus
able to gather the momentum in increasing the reach and awareness of Shopezone to the
consumers.
 Fig15: Sales Performance

Thus the total sales of the company was Rs.356, 086.60. Through our initiatives and strategies
we were able to increase the sales on Shopezone which we can see the sales performance
attached above from April 20, 2015 to May 22, 2015.

11 Future Scope

We have tried to evaluate the impact of various factors on the parameters that affect the
ecommerce conversion rates using CFA in AMOS using IBM SPSS tool. However, the
population was restricted to a small number of respondents which may not reflect the overall
online shopping view across the industry.
Comprehensive data needs to be collected from various tiered cities and various age groups and
various online shopping store in particular to have a fair view to be analyzed.
The company SZ intends to be one of the leading online shopping portals and e commerce
aggregator. Going ahead with this aspect in mind the company has decided to revamp its website
for better user interface and navigational features. The company has decided to have a more
minimalistic website design for easy and friendly experience. The new website will be designed
and made with an intention to attract better online traffic.
The company has also decided to go ahead and introduce a native mobile application for
Shopezone. The idea behind the app is to target and utilize the huge mobile customer base.
According to the trends, majority of the users nowadays prefer to shop online by using mobile for
a hassle free buying experience. The penetration of smartphones in India has further provided an
opportunity for the online e commerce aggregators to target and utilize the huge customer base.
Thus, Shopezone has decided to go ahead with the introduction of an app. The company has
decided with the design and the app would be launched on all the leading platforms like android,
windows and ios.
The company has also decided to expand its product portfolio by adding in more categories of
products and will try to board more vendors. The idea behind this initiative is to increase the
presence and foothold of the company in the business.
12 Limitations

Even though SZ has tried very hard to gain a chunk of the e-retail market share there are still
a few limitations that it has to deal with daily. Firstly, SZ doesn’t have enough cash of its
own. So SZ is unable to keep a minimum number of inventory of its own. This also proves to
be a problem since if there is a specific order which can’t be found in the market easily then
the shipment of the order is delayed. Also SZ doesn’t have any outside funding, so this also
drags down its operability.
Secondly, SZ has very less number of employees. Due to this every employee does every
work, there is no specific task for any employee. So there is no specific packing team as such.
Also due to the limited staff it is difficult to manage so many merchants.
In the end there are a few market leaders who have now become a game changer. Due to these
market leaders the market dynamics is constantly changing and SZ is having a hard time
getting even a small market share.

13 Conclusion

The in-depth study and analysis of the website shopezone.com followed by the change of look
and feel gave the online shopping website a fresh look. The change in the logo was for a
better recognition among the consumers.
The category wise leads were used to rope-in more vendors to SZ retailers list so that SZ
could widen the product ranges. It helped SZ to give its customers more products search
results, hence better shopping experience. A seller panel empowered the sellers to better
manage the orders, sales, prices and inventory. The google analytics panel was used to
promote the products categorically and find a target audience for the advertisements.
Formulating the strategies spanning across email, social media and hosting the online events
has helped the brand SZ to get recognized in the market place and enhanced the overall
customer experience and sales.
As the ecommerce in India grows stronger in the years to come, the future of SZ is the
looking forward only and make a mark in the years to come with similar market strategies and
smooth execution of them.

14 Appendix

Acronym Table:

SZ Shopezone
COD Cash On Delivery
SEO Search Engine Optimization
CFA Confirmatory Factor Analysis.
AMOS Analysis of Moment Structure