Use of Social Media and Blogs for Attracting and Retaining Customers
Due to modernization and globalization in the present era the concept of social media has become an essential component of the e-business industry. The business firms have to use the presence of social sites which helps in attracting A large number of service users has been made attracted and on the basis of the same they influence their perception also and this is done by the presence of the social media and sites by the business corporations (Gligorijevic & Leong, 2011)). Due to an increase in the intensification in the competitor’s world the e-business corporations are forced to adopt appropriate media presence which enables the business organizations in attracting large number of buyers and also retain the existing ones. Brand awareness can be created and developed by the e-business corporations by making use of social media and blog pages. This concept also boosts the potential purchasers.
Online presence has been also used by the physical location based business organizations so as to bring an increase in its sales and expand its customer base beyond the physical location. There are number of retailers which have started making use of internet for increasing and developing their product sales and create and increase more and more attraction of customers to their physical store. Internet and the online portals are being used by the customers for checking the details of the products and also any kind of promotional offers or discounts made by the retailers or the marketers (Allen & Seaman, 2013). For bringing an expansion in the business activities the concept of online presence has provided a number of advantages to the business organizations. The online presence is an expansion of the physical store; however, several considerations are needed to launch a successful online presence. Building or establishing an online presence for a business corporation is a totally different concept as compared to launching or commencing a new business online in several ways. There is also difference found in the online customers and that in the customers who walk into the physical store. So it is of very much significance to launch or adopt an appropriate business strategy for launching online business. The business strategies are utilized by the business corporations in the process of advertising, pricing and shipping of the products through online mediums. There are number of issues faced by the local business organizations while commencing an online business. The issues faced can be in the form of language barriers or social differences etc. For instance a business corporation is launching an e-commerce website in another region then it has to abide by the standardized sizes followed in different countries. Moreover, the process of interaction and communicating effectively with online customers of that particular region and different countries is also challenging for the online vendors.
Online Presence for Physical Location Based Businesses
It has also been stated that before making a will to buy or confirming the purchase decision the consumer is more likely to search for the details and about the company and also about the desired the product online; therefore, the concept of online presence can be also be termed as the process of introduction of the company to the consumers. Hence building and developing an online presence has become a very much vital and crucial concept for any of the business corporations. Building its image, reputation and developing and increasing attraction for potential customers is the basic task of the online presence (Klein, Becker & Meyer, 2012). Due to a growth in the intensification of competition each and every business entity have an online presence; therefore, the business corporations are required to make implementation of some strategies so as to develop distinctive image and position in their counterparts. In this regard, a company can create their website and optimize it so that it is mobile friendly. The web portals developed and designed should be easy and simple to use. The essential components of a website are an about us page, blog testimonials, blog and a contact address
Gligorijevic, B., & Leong, B. (2011). Trust, Reputation and the Small Firm: Building Online Brand Reputation for SMEs. In ICWSM.
Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. (2013). Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States. Sloan Consortium. PO Box 1238, Newburyport, MA 01950.
Klein, H. J., Becker, T. E., & Meyer, J. P. (Eds.). (2012). Commitment in organizations: Accumulated wisdom and new directions. Routledge.
The E-business or Electronics Commerce websites makes use of various electronic payment options or mediums, IN this concept electronic payment refers to paperless monetary transactions which is to be carried out for the completion of the e-transaction. The concept of electronic payment has been emerged as a revolution which has reduced the paper work to a great extent (Niranjanamurthy & Chahar, 2013).. Also other additional costs associated with the transaction has been minimized such as the transaction costs cost, labor cost etc. This concept has also aided the business organizations in making an increase and development of the market base and also expansion of the same and this has been made possible due to its user friendly and less time consuming nature. The below mentioned are some of the modes of e-payments:
- Debit card
- Credit card
- Smart card
- Electronic fund transfer
The above mentioned are some of the modes which can be used for making payments of the transactions (Laudon, Laudon & Brabston, 2011).. These mediums have made the payment transactions way to simpler and easy as there are numerous of benefits associated with these modes. Such as convenience is the biggest advantage as the customer can make the payment of the bills 24/7 from any corner of the world, moreover a high sense of privacy is provided while making the payments, the transactions also have become time saving, for most of the vendors there is no cost or fee charged for paying online (Kou, 2013).. On the flip side, with having so many benefits there are some disadvantages such as it can be complex sometimes as while making payments some sites require you to create an account and which can be hectic for the customers.
Challenges in Launching a Successful Online Presence
Niranjanamurthy, M., & Chahar, D. D. (2013). The study of e-commerce security issues and solutions. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and Communication Engineering, 2(7).
Laudon, K. C., Laudon, J. P., & Brabston, M. E. (2011). Management information systems (Vol. 8). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Kou, W. (Ed.). (2013). Payment technologies for e-commerce. Springer Science & Business Media.
The concept of E-business is a broader term which comprises of numerous factors such as computer software and applications, system packages, elements and parts of hardware systems and analytic processes. These components are very much vital and can be made available for aiding and facilitating in all of the operational activities of the business. The business corporations can make adaption of these approaches for transferring order fulfillment, clearing the transactions of payments and other related procedures. The mentioned procedure will aid in development of strong bonds an connections and also an efficient communication process will be carried out between the departments and the organizational structure, the dealers, clients and the suppliers and customers (Barnes & Hunt, 2013). The following are some of the main e-business technologies which will aid in business activities such the online web based portals, websites of the business corporations. Also use of the contemporary mechanisms and tools for the communication process, automated inventory and warehousing systems, and also making use of the modernized and virtual communication process which can be utilized for the conferences and meeting will help in the business concepts. The below presented are the main E-business models:
Business to business: In this concept the business entities who have adopted the b2b business model will be willing to sell the products and the services to the immediate buyer. These immediate buyers are the other business organizations who then will be selling the goods to the ultimate consumers. These buyers are also known as wholesalers. For instance, a wholesaler bought goods in lot from a company’s portal and after that sold the goods to the consumers according to their requirements.
Business to consumers: According to this business model the business corporations are likely to sell their goods directly to the ultimate buyers for their consumption. The consumers can get the required products and the services on the web-based portal which is 24/7 running and also there are all the necessary and required details regarding the product.
Consumer to consumer: According to this model one consumer has been proven a helping hand to the other consumer. In this one consumer helps another consumer whoever is interested in selling their goods, properties or assets to another consumer. In this business model there are varied number of modes available for purchasing the goods and also a number of modes of payments (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010). Company charges a fixed amount as a fees from the consumers for the usage of the web-based portal through which the transaction has been carried out.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Payments
Consumers to business: On the basis of this business model the customers are to be expected to reach to a e-business organization and are required to express their interest of spending or investing an amount for a particular service of a business entity. For instance, comparison between the interest rates on loan of different banks can be shown by the websites.
Business to government: This business model carries out big transactions as it makes deals between the governing bodies and the organizations (Turban, Sharda & Delen, 2011). Under this business model the governing authority’s makes use of an e-business website so as to carry out the deal and transaction and also transfer of the information’s with other organizations. These e-businesses are accredited and approved by the government.
Government to business: For approaching any of the business corporation the governing bodies make use of this business model. Auctions, tenders and application submission functionalities are some of the services and offerings which can be provided by these e-business corporations. A fee or fixed amount is taken by these business corporations against these services.
Barnes, S., & Hunt, B. (Eds.). (2013). E-commerce and v-business. Routledge.
Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation: a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. John Wiley & Sons.
Turban, E., Sharda, R., & Delen, D. (2011). Decision support and business intelligence systems. Pearson Education India.
Customer base or the targeted segment of the consumers has to be considered as the major target market for the e-commerce companies. Due to which a team of researches has been involved in the investigation process of checking behaviour of the consumers or also online consumers and also the key which motivating and influencing factors that affect the online purchase decision (Solomon, Bennett & Previte, 2012). There are many differences found in the online purchase decision makers and that from the offline factors. And hence there will be also difference found in that of the strategies and marketing tactics employed by the e-business organizations and that to in the offline methods (Solomon, 2014).. There are number of benefits of the online shopping experience and also is quite popular to the consumers who want convenience and rapid transactions, several factors such as lack of trust, the need of examining the product and human interaction prevents them to buy online. There is also a difference found in te decision making for a product to be bought and that too from the traditional concept. For the first step the online customers seek for the details, advertisements and more information by making use of the online mediums, comparing the choice of products, searching consumer reviews and brand image and at last making the purchase decision.
Main E-business Models
The components such as website stricture, customer reviews and the brand name plays a significant and vital role in influencing the buying decision. For supporting the purchase decision of the consumers a well-structured and organized set of information is of very much essential. Making comparison or allowing the customers to compare two products has been considered as a unique feature of the online shopping. The variety of the products offered, Information quality and the sales services are crucial concepts to be considered in predicting the online purchase decision for the variety of the products offered. Convenience, availability and assortment of the products and services, information availability and saving in terms of cost and time are the major motivating factors which has been deduced from the above carried out discussion. The major motivating factor in the online shopping is the convenience offered to the consumers. Online shopping has an access of 24/7 from anywhere the consumers wants. Usage of online shopping can also be increased in some cases like, some people have less interest in interacting with other individuals and hence they will ignore a salesman sales person as they feel uncomfortable to interact with them. Similarly, an equal significance has been provided to the information provided to the online customers. The consumers only have the option of checking the details of the product on over the internet only so the consumers are required to gather or accumulate the information as much as they can as there is no option to get in touch with the product physically (Wilson & et al, 2012). The consumers also have an access over the feedbacks or the reviews of the other customers so that they can check the viability of purchasing the product. So providing the relevant piece of information and details is of very much significant for the e-commerce websites to provide all the necessary information to the customers.
Solomon, M., Russell-Bennett, R., & Previte, J. (2012). Consumer behaviour. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Solomon, M. R. (2014). Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Wilson, A., Zeithaml, V. A., Bitner, M. J., & Gremler, D. D. (2012). Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm. McGraw Hill.
The social media marketing is the concept and the process of the development and attracting the attention of the customers by making use of the social media sites. For communicating, interacting and developing and establishing a connection with the customers the marketers make the use of the platform of social media. The concept of social media feeds, new content, news stories are discovered which are basically utilised by the customers as search activity which brings a development and an increase in the knowledge of the customers for the particular brand. For bringing an enhancement and increase in the customer base and audience of the company the e-business corporations make the use of social media (Tuten & Solomon, 2014). By following certain guidelines the e-commerce corporations can develop a comprehensive social media strategy. Providing quality content all the time is a significant task for Business Corporation. The main aim of the social media marketing is to increase its sales; however, instead of directly asking the consumers, the company should provide qualitative information and content. Providing qualitative content should be considered as the main focus of the business corporations in the concept of social media marketing, however, the context of advancing the content should also be relevant otherwise the content will be futile in attracting the attention of the consumers.
The consumers carry out interaction with the companies, other customers and provide their feedback in the process of social media (Saravanakumar & SuganthaLakshmi, 2012). And also this feedback should also be considered as significant which has been received from the consumers. The consideration of feedbacks as important one will help the companies in improvising the products and the services offered by them. In addition, most of the consumers post on the social media as they just want to listen. Providing a proper response and also solving the consumers’ queries will increase the consumer satisfaction in the buying process which will be proven beneficial for the business corporation Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are the most commonly used social media sites. For the establishment of marketing communication and achieve branding goals the e-business corporations make use of these marketing channels and mediums. For the development of a distinct image from their competitors and also for establishing a brand image, increasing the traffic to the website, lead conversion, establishing a unique brand identity and enhancing the brand conversion the companies share videos, content and images. In the concept of social media marketing, planning is the foremost thing (Heymann-Reder, 2012). For development of better connection with its target market the company can emphasize on doing keyword research and research several ideas.
Tuten, T. L., & Solomon, M. R. (2014). Social media marketing. Sage.
Saravanakumar, M., & SuganthaLakshmi, T. (2012). Social media marketing. Life Science Journal, 9(4), 4444-4451.
Heymann-Reder, D. (2012). Social Media Marketing. Addison-Wesley Verlag.
For bringing an improvement the productivity of their operations the e-commerce industry is increasingly attracted towards making us of the approaches of big data (Linoff & Berry, 2011). As compared to the other companies the e-commerce companies using big data are having 5-6% higher productivity than the other companies. The concept of Big data has been considered as highly relevant for the companies in the e-commerce industry as the concept allows tracking the behaviour of one-time user and turning them into repeated consumers. The user data can be utilized by the companies in an effective manner and enhance their decision-making in strategic business decisions in the big data. Buyer-consumer interaction and bargaining or sales monitoring are the benefits are provided with the big data. Also the identification of the loyal customers, determining the prices of the product and identifying the quality issues in the products can be done by the business corporations. Big data and predictive modelling brings together The management talent and technology to support the argument are the three concepts that are effectively entangled with each other and which has been brought together by the big data predictive modelling. Big data approach has been also considered as a holistic concept that builds the competitive advantage by bringing r the business organization and also together source, data and skills (Mayer-Schönberger & Cukier, 2013). It has also been stated that low costs and expenses of computing abilities and the prevalence of internet has also made an increase in the popularity of big data in e-commerce companies. In the e-commerce industry, data is not considered as a by-product of the business transactions but as key information to provide insight to the consumer behaviour and adapting the search results and advertisements according to the taste of the customers. Moreover there is a segmentation provided in the data in the e-commerce industry and i.e. Differentiated into structured data and unstructured data. The structured data comprises of the regular or the normal data that a business entity captures, like name, address and age (Schmarzo, 2013). And side-by-side the unstructured data is the data which constitutes of likes, preferences, tweets and videos. It provides key insight to the consumer preference and the social trends.
Linoff, G. S., & Berry, M. J. (2011). Data mining techniques: for marketing, sales, and customer relationship management. John Wiley & Sons.
Mayer-Schönberger, V., & Cukier, K. (2013). Big data: A revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Schmarzo, B. (2013). Big Data: Understanding how data powers big business. John Wiley & Sons.
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