Digital_Marketing_Report

| | | | MKT302 Digital Marketing Group Activitye-Marketing Practices Report | Bonnie Lanzarini & Nicole SonntagStudent # 5358T & 25761T | Table of Contents Introduction 3 Analysis of e-Marketing Practices 4 Borders 4 eBay 5 Fishpond 5 Dymocks 6 Amazon 7 Barnes & Noble 9 Angus & Robertson 10 The Book Depository 12 WHSmith Entertainment 13 Doubleday Entertainment 14 Conclusion 16 Bibliography 18 Appendix 20 MKT302 ------------------------------------------------- Group Activity e-Marketing Practices Report Introduction The purpose of this report is to provide an insight into e-marketing practices of 10 organizations within the e-commerce industry of books, music, DVDs and entertainment online retailers. The 10 organizations analyzed in this report are Borders, eBay, Fishpond, Dymocks, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Angus & Robertson, The Book Depository, WHSmith Entertainment and Doubleday Entertainment. The report will provide critical insights into how each of these 10 organizations practice different e-marketing strategies to attract customers and retain them, as well as increase sales and revenue. All e-marketing strategies analyzed deal with the 4 Ps of marketing – product, price, place and promotion - and how each organization has implemented tools and practices based on the 4 Ps. The first part of the report provides an in-depth analysis of each organization, followed by a conclusion, which summarizes the outcome and main differences comparing each organization’s e-marketing practices and their effectiveness in today’s market. Analysis of e-Marketing Practices Borders The first thing that you notice with the Borders website is that they heavily promote the fact that buying online is cheaper. They do these with clear banners stating “Books up to 35% off RRP” and also that there is an online clearance of up to 75% off RRP on selected titles. Strangely, when you get to a product page, it does not show you what the RRP is and how much you are potentially saving. This could drive customers to shop elsewhere if they do not think that they are saving any money. Borders has several promotions on their main page. These promotions include: * Free delivery with any purchase * “10% off your order when you spend $50 or more” * Online price guarantee – “find it cheaper online and we’ll refund the difference + 10%” The promotions are clear and do not conflict with each other as they are on a rotating banner. Borders has used customer reviews as part of their e-marketing strategy. You can also “like” the page on Facebook, which means you share the product on your Facebook page so that in turn other people can potentially click on the link. When accessing Borders on a mobile device, the site used 2.05mb of download limit to get on to their homepage. This is a vast difference to the Fishpond site, which used around 600kb to load. Definitely not a mobile friendly website. Overall, Borders have used quite strong marketing on their website. The first thing that you see when you go on to their website is a banner ad with “up to 75% off selected titles”. This is clear and precise and if you click on the ad it takes you to the online clearance store. When you select a category from the left hand side, it takes you to the main page of the category and shows a product ‘in the spotlight’ and below that are the best sellers. I think this is a great way to market to online users. The search bar is also very clear so it is easy to find exactly what you want quickly. On the product page the “buy now” button is clear and easy to see and is uncluttered. eBay eBay is an auction style site where potential buyers make bids on the items that they are buying. There are some products that are offered to “buy it now” so that customers can pay the price that is offered and do not have to make a bid. This could potentially cost the customer more for the item. eBay also uses price negotiation as a pricing model. When you are on the eBay homepage, you can see that there are several promotions on a rotating banner. The first one is a sneaker sale that takes you to a special promotion page with the sneakers that are for sale. The next one is called “The Big Deal” which is a daily deal and gets updated each day. The other promotions are for the iPad 2, leather jackets and winter fashion that are both eBay store advertisements. As part of their e-marketing strategies, eBay have an eBay App to ensure that people are able to access their site wherever they are. They also have their most watched items list that are items that people are watching to potentially bid on. They also use banner advertisements and you can also follow on Twitter and “like” the eBay stores on Facebook. eBay is a well established company and to start with they have jumped on to the iPhone app wagon and tapped in to the fact that people are well attached to their mobiles and surfing the internet. Having an app so that people can ensure they can outbid the next person is keeping in touch with shopping on-the-go that is what customers seem to want these days. Fishpond The Fishpond main page doesn’t have any promotional banners and it is not until you are on a product page that you find out that there is free shipping Australia wide. Fishpond would probably benefit from having this as their main selling point. There are also bundle deals that are available. On the product pages, the original price is struck out and the new price is green and it also has the amount you would be saved as a percentage below the price. Fishpond has several e-marketing strategies. They have customer reviews, which include a $0.20 credit to your account if you write a review of the product. You can share the page on Facebook, Twitter, Google buz or email and you can also “like” the page that goes on your Facebook page. To the right of the particular product page that you are looking at, it has a link to Fishpond’s Facebook page where you can click “like”. You can also see other people who have “liked” their page. The site is not a proper mobile site but it is clear to see on your mobile and doesn’t take as long as other sites do. The Fishpond website has avoided using online banners that detract from the page, however, the main page could use a better promotion banner or something to really pull you in. At the moment it just shows some ‘books for mum’ and ‘great movies for ladies’ as the main focus of the page in a very basic layout and the discounted price. I think that they could “sell” it a bit more with a proper promotion banner. The buying process on Fishpond is quite easy and user friendly. Once you have added the product that you wish to buy to the shopping cart, it straightaway gives you the option of either continue shopping or go straight to the checkout with a small banner at the top of the page that you were viewing. Dymocks When you first visit the main page there are a lot of promotions and banners. The first promotion is to “receive a free $100 eGift Voucher when you purchase the Acer Iconia Tab”. This is on a small banner and is also repeated further down the page. The other promotions are: * “We Love” – list of the Dymocks picks * “Dymocks Top 10” * 3 books for the price of 2 * 20% off all DK Eyewitness travel guides Dymocks displays their prices on their product pages as having the RRP in small grey font crossed out and then with the online price below in bold black font. Below the online price is the amount that you save in small grey font. This did not stand out much as a selling point. The only e-marketing that Dymocks have used on their website is two small icons at the bottom right hand of the page of their product pages for their Twitter & Facebook pages. Dymocks has not embraced the use of shopping on your mobile as their website is not mobile friendly at all. Dymocks doesn’t seem to have grasped how to market online properly. On the homepage, there is so much going on in terms of promotions etc. that you don’t know where you want to go first. There is no indication of price on the first page to draw the customer in. They also have no customer reviews on the products. According to (Snell, R. 2011) product reviews help your site gain more keyword hits in search engines. The buying process on Dymocks lacks momentum. Instead of a “buy now” button they have an “add to cart” button where when you click on it brings you to the shopping cart page. Your next two call-to-action buttons are “continue shopping” and “checkout”. When you select “checkout” it takes you to a new page that shows that it is going to be a 6-step process to make your purchase starting with creating an account. Dymocks should not believe that customers are sold when they are in the shopping cart section of the website (McCraw, A. et al 2011). Overall it is a very ‘clean’ website as it is clear and doesn’t have too much clutter. Dymocks need to embrace more e-marketing solutions to improve their online marketing. Amazon Amazon’s homepage is intuitive, user-friendly, and encourages the customer to explore further. The search box and category list are very prominent. Upon log-in onto the website, Amazon immediately takes users to their customized homepage, filled with recommendations based on their previous purchases, searches and views. This demonstrates how Amazon uses web analytics, social engagement metrics as well as customer relationship management (CRM) as strong e-marketing strategies to satisfy customers and to create value by increasing the likelihood of purchases. Web analytics and social engagement metrics are two performance metrics that study the behaviour of a user on a web page and how a user engages with information provided on a web page (Strauss & Frost, 2009, p. 36), while similarly, CRM uses databases to store customers’ details facilitating customer reorders and suggestions for subsequent orders based on previous purchases or customer information provided (Strauss & Frost, 2009, p. 202). These tools have proven to be a major selling point for Amazon. Product pages are very thorough and include a variety of related media that enable customers to feel more at ease with their purchase as they have the chance to view reviews, videos, and even a preview of books by implementing a tool called “Look inside” giving users the ability to preview sections of a book before committing to the purchase. This is a great e-marketing tool that can influence a customer’s decision and make them feel more comfortable with it. Also Amazon uses the strategy of always listing the RRP right above their discounted price, highlighted in red, suggesting to customers that Amazon offers the best price. Similarly to Barnes & Noble, Amazon adopts the strategy of advertising additional new and used items from other trusted sellers, giving customers the feeling of being in control of their purchase and also giving them more choice, creating a feel of trust and loyalty. Amazon does offer free shipping, but this option is currently only available to US customers. For this reason users might be driven to the competition, such as The Book Depository, Fishpond or Borders, as they know that here they can get free shipping worldwide. Amazon though does adopt a strategy of enabling customers to add items to the cart with a “save for later” option, meaning that such items remain in your cart forever and users don’t ever have to lose track of their favorite products. This works as a great strategy to give users more control over their purchases or online experience. The checkout process is very straightforward and easy, but it does take 6 steps to complete and confirm a purchase, which can be a bit of a put off for some customers. Amazon would benefit from condensing all information necessary to complete a purchase into 1 page, like Angus & Robertson, Fishpond and The Book Depository have done. This would benefit them in ensuring that customers actually finalize their purchase and don’t change their mind upon seeing how long it takes to checkout. Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble’s homepage is very clean, simple and easy to navigate. The search box and category list are very easy to find and use. There is a mention of free shipping when you spend at least $25, but it’s in small text at the top so it’s hardly noticeable. The homepage is filled with best sellers, recommendations and featured authors. This last one is particularly interesting as it gives exposure to new authors while at the same time introducing new authors to customers and sparking their interest in new purchases, therefore encouraging them to explore further. Search and filtering options are very good, offering customers many filtering choices to narrow down their search and more easily find what they want. This is a great strategy as users want to feel at ease while shopping online, in control, and also want to go through the shopping experience in less time possible. Product pages contain all the basic and necessary information such as price, overview and description, delivery timeframe, and very prominent add to cart buttons. Barnes & Noble does a similar thing to Amazon to also advertise additional new and used items from other trusted sellers, giving customers the option to save money or buy from sellers other than Barnes & Noble. This is great strategy, which gives users more control over their shopping choice and experience, and therefore can increase customer loyalty and sales. Barnes & Noble also always lists the RRP right above their price, which is highlighted in red, and right below shows the percentage saved when buying from their website. This is an e-marketing tool to remind customers that Barnes & Noble offers the best price, giving customers peace of mind. Particularly for books, besides showing the price of the selected item, on the product page Barnes & Noble also lists the price for other formats such as Nook book, compact disc and Hardcover, giving customers again more choices and more control over their purchase. This proves to be a great e-marketing tool as customers can view all this information on one page rather than going back and forth searching for this information, and dramatically simplifies their shopping experience making them more likely to go ahead with the purchase. User and editorial reviews are available at the touch of a button, and there can be thousands of reviews available, which are also easy to sort and filter, giving customers more control and more information on which to base their decision, so it shows another great strategy used by Barnes & Noble to increase sales and revenue. The checkout process is simple, although it takes about 4 steps to reach the purchase confirmation page. Here Barnes & Noble could implement a strategy of having a 1 or 2 step checkout process making it less time consuming for customers to complete a purchase. But a good e-marketing strategy implemented is that Barnes & Noble does not force users to register to their website in order to complete a purchase. This takes away an unnecessary obstacle and increases the chances of customers actually going ahead with the purchase. There are many instances of users not finalizing a purchase just because a website forces them to register, so this is a great strategy to dramatically increase sales and revenue. Angus & Robertson The homepage of Angus & Robertson is quite busy with various elements, and differently from other website, the category list is not on the left hand side, but across the page at the top. Having said this, the category list is quite prominent and the search box is also very noticeable at the far top of the page. This makes it easy for customers who immediately want to start a search. On the homepage Angus & Robertson use the strategy of highlighting in bright red their specials and promotions, such as free shipping for a limited time only which is a tool used to entice first-time purchases, discounts and the online clearance sale. This immediately attracts customers’ attention to the fact that they offer free shipping for a limited time, so there are no more doubts about any shipping charges, and to the fact that there are specials, discounts and a sale available, which most users would be interested in, increasing the likelihood of a purchase taking place, and therefore increasing sales. The homepage is also filled with best sellers, top buys and top liked items. Search and filtering options are quite good, allowing customers to narrow down their results to a manageable amount, and it allows them to also filter by price, format and stock status. This last filtering option was not encountered in any other website so it’s a refreshing approaching and one that could be quite useful to users of their website. This shows how Angus & Robertson adopt the strategy of always ensuring that stock status is up to date to make the customer shopping experience more reliable, easy and with no annoying obstacles. Product pages include all the basic and necessary information such as price, stock status, product description, shipping and delivery information, which can work as a differentiation strategy for timely and efficient order processing (Strauss & Frost, 2009, p. 201), and any related products. The price charged by Angus & Robertson does not display any RRP or potential savings for purchasing from them, and it is in fact quite a bit higher than other online retailers. This actually pushes customers to go and view other websites to compare prices and eventually even going to the competitor to finalize their purchase. Just a simple strategy as displaying the RRP and potential savings could be a decisive factor for customers to complete their purchase on their website. There are no reviews on this website, making it more difficult for customers to make up their mind or be at ease with the purchase. Reviews can be a great incentive to help customers decide whether a product is suitable for them. The checkout process is the best among all 10 organizations; it only takes 1 step to complete your purchase, showing the implementation of a great strategy of condensing all information necessary for completing the purchase into 1 page, simplifying users’ purchase process and experience. As for compulsory registration, Angus & Robertson does not force users to register, giving the option of paying through PayPal, and this can be a selling point for customers. As for countries delivered to, Angus & Robertson only ship to Australia, limiting the business to this region, which can mean lower sales and lower revenue. The Book Depository The homepage of The Book Depository is well laid out, and the search box and category list are prominent, making the website easy to use and the user comfortable from the very beginning. A very interesting and innovative feature is the “watch where people shop” tool showing a map and what customers around the world are currently buying. This e-marketing tool also emphasizes the fact that The Book Depository offers free shipping worldwide, another e-marketing strategy used to increase sales and its customer base. The search and filtering options offered on the website are good, but sometimes not enough to narrow down the search to fewer results. In comparison, the Borders website offers much better filtering options making the search results more manageable. The product pages have clear information on price and delivery, as well as prominent add to basket buttons, making the process smooth and easy for customers. Having these basic functions prominent and easy to find, where users expect them to be, is a vantage point over competition, because users like simplicity. Compared to Amazon though, there is not very much information provided on the product itself, and user reviews are hidden below the page. The Book Depository doesn’t offer additional information such as videos, related media or previews. There should be clearer and more prominent information on the product, which would help customers decide on the purchase. The price offered by The Book Depository lists the RRP in small text right next to it, with the savings highlighted in red just below, the percentage saved by purchasing the item from their website, and again another reminder of their free delivery worldwide. This works as an e-marketing strategy with high impact to give customers an incentive to purchase from them rather than going to the competitor. It also uses the strategy of providing links to Amazon on their product pages, showing customers that their prices are competitive and avoiding them leaving the site to search for better prices. If customers do decide to purchase from Amazon, The Book Depository will get 8% commission from those sales. (Charlton, G. 2009) The checkout process is one of the best among these 10 organizations, taking only 1 step until completion of the purchase, plus another step just for confirmation. It’s very smooth and simple, and makes the user feel in control, at ease and confident. A great e-marketing tool implemented by The Book Depository is the elimination of the compulsory registration in order to complete a purchase. Imposing a compulsory registration poses an unnecessary obstacle and nuisance, and often drives customers away. The Book Depository gives users the choice to either register or check out as a guest, which is a great strategy to increase sales and customer base, and it makes customers feel in control and at ease. WHSmith Entertainment The homepage of WHSmith Entertainment is very plain and nothing really stands out. Having said this, it’s laid out with simplicity and users find it easy to navigate and search, having the search box and category list right where users expect them to be, at the top and on the left hand side respectively. From the homepage users can immediately notice the free shipping offered by WHSmith Entertainment, making customers immediately feel at ease about any shipping charges and it’s applied as a great e-marketing tool from the beginning to attract new customers with the prospect of creating loyalty and additional purchases. Search and filtering options on this website are pretty poor making the browsing and search experience of users lengthy and unmanageable at times. WHSmith would benefit from better search and filtering tools allowing customers to narrow down their searches, and therefore avoiding any sense of frustration or impatience. Another area where WHSmith is lacking is in the search terms, as it doesn’t seem to handle misspelled words, creating frustration with customers when this happens. By creating a tool that deals with misspelled terms by showing alternative suggestions, it will create a smoother experience for users, leading to customer retention and loyalty. Many new customers will be likely to be driven away from WHSmith if they encounter such problems as poor filtering options and no suggestions with misspelled words. Product pages have all the basic information but don’t really have anything outstanding and omit certain features that could be the decisive point for a purchase. Many photos displayed of the product are too small and cannot be zoomed in, and there is no related media, no videos or user reviews, which can all be great e-marketing tools to attract new customers and retain the ones you already have. One mistake that WHSmith Entertainment has made is that it allows customers to complete a purchase even for out of stock items, which is only marked as such on the product page is small text. These errors could make customers run to the competition and never return to their website again. The checkout process is fairly simple but WHSmith Entertainment falls into the trap of forcing users to register in order to complete their purchase. This is an obstacle that many customers want to avoid and it’s likely to drive them away therefore lowering sales and revenue. Another disadvantage for WHSmith is that they only ship to the UK and nowhere else in the world, limiting their business and lowering their chances of increasing sales, revenue and customer base. Doubleday Entertainment Doubleday Entertainment’s homepage is quite good; it’s tidy and laid out well, although the search box is not that noticeable and does not stand out from the rest. What really stands out on their homepage is the free postage for all orders, which is very prominent and highlighted in red. This e-marketing tool reinforces the fact from the beginning that all orders qualify for free shipping, taking away any doubts from customers’ minds about shipping charges. This is a great way to attract new customers, and an incentive to purchase from their website rather than the competition. The homepage is also filled with bestsellers, new releases, top buys and recommendations, a good strategy to increase users’ interest in other products. Search and filtering options are pretty good, offering quite a few filtering choices to users’ search results making them manageable and easy to go through. Product pages are basic with a short description on the item and an image, as well as average shipping time from purchase completion. Doubleday does use the strategy though of always listing the RRP just below their price, and highlighted in red the savings that purchasing from them will give their customers. This e-marketing strategy tells customers that Doubleday is offering the best price and also gives them an incentive to buy from them, which in turn will create higher revenues for Doubleday. User reviews are not present on Doubleday, which takes away the chance of customers going ahead with the purchase because users like being able to get a deeper customer insight on a product and access both positive and negative reviews that give them peace of mind and make them feel more at ease making a decision. The checkout process is fairly simple taking 3 steps after sign-in, but also Doubleday makes the mistake of forcing users to register in order to complete their purchase. This poses an obstacle to many customers and again, it’s likely to drive them away therefore lowering sales and revenue. Doubleday has a major disadvantage in their shipping locations, as it only limits itself to Australia. This poses limits to their business; by implementing a strategy of broadening the shipping locations, even if simply adding New Zealand, Doubleday could increase its sales and revenue a lot faster. Conclusion In conclusion, all 10 organizations, to a degree, have been able to effectively implement some great e-marketing strategies that cater to a wide variety of consumers. Comparing all 10 organizations we are able to notice how some lead the industry with very smart and strategic e-marketing tools and also encourage interaction with the website such as Amazon, which has implemented differentiation strategies and tools that enable website and content customization and offer a unique and engaging customer shopping experience that no other organization does, The Book Depository, a volume led business which even though doesn’t offer a broad variety of products, it has been able to get good deals with couriers therefore afford to offer free shipping worldwide (Charlton, G. 2009), and also condense the checkout process into just 1 easy step, and eBay, an auction style website which has managed to offer customers a variety of purchase methods and pricing models, and give them power over how much they want to pay or expect to be paid for a product, and control over their purchase and online experience. The table on Appendix B shows the major differences in the checkout process among these 10 organizations. Whereas the product tables on Appendix A shows which products each of these 10 organizations offer to customers. On the lower end, some other organizations such as WHSmith Entertainment and Dymocks have instead still quite a long way to go if they want to be ahead of the game, and they need to embrace more innovative e-marketing solutions in order to be successful and competitive in today’s market. The remaining organizations - Borders, Fishpond, Barnes & Noble, Angus & Robertson and Doubleday Entertainment - are somewhere in between the upper and lower end of the scale, and even though they have some great e-marketing practices implemented, they are still not enough, and not innovative enough, to compete with the leading organizations. Li and Zhang state that by improving website quality consumer attitudes and behavior can be positively influenced, which can lead to increased frequency of initial purchase and repeat purchases. (Li & Zhang 2002, p. 514) Consumers today seek a specific outcome from an online exchange. (Strauss & Frost 2009, p. 169) Some of the e-marketing benefits brought upon these leading organizations through the implementation of effective e-marketing strategies are increased sales, access to a global market, 24/7 availability, increased revenue and long-term profit, making them the world’s leaders in e-commerce. Bibliography * Borders, 2011. Borders, Available: http://www.borders.com.au/ (accessed 12 May 2011) * Charton, G. 2009. Q&A: Kieron Smith of The Book Depository, Available: http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/3497-q-a-kieron-smith-of-the-book-depository (accessed 4 May 2011) * Dymocks, 2011, Dymocks, Available: http://www.dymocks.com.au (accessed 12 May 2011) * eBay Inc, 2011. eBay.com.au, Available: http://www.ebay.com.au/ (accessed 13 May 2011) * Fishpond Ltd, 2011. Fishpond.com.au, Available: http://www.fishpond.com.au/ (accessed 12 May 2011) * Li, N., Zhang, P. 2002. Consumer Online Shopping Attitudes and Behavior: An Assessment of Research. Eighth Americas Conference on Information Systems, 1, 508-517. * McCraw, A. Burstein, D. Parra, J. 2011. Shopping carts optimized, Available: http://www.marketingexperiments.com/improving-website-conversion/shopping-carts-optimized.html (accessed 14 May 2011) * Snell, R. 2011. How to collar top rankings: Barking up the unique content tree, Available: http://searchengineland.com/how-to-collar-top-rankings-barking-up-the-unique-content-tree-74294 (accessed 13 May 2011) * Strauss, J., Frost, R. 2009. E-Marketing, 5th ed, Pearson Prentice Hall, Old Tappan Appendix * Appendix A * Appendix B * = Option of not registering and paying through PayPal * = It depends on what each seller sets as acceptable payment methods 1 = Free shipping is for US customers only and based on minimum spend 2 = Free shipping depends on the seller 3 = Free shipping with a minimum spend of $25 Worldwide* = Depends on the seller and on items purchased, but Amazon caters to all Countries worldwide