E-commerce plan

E-commerce plan

Online advertising

Online advertising has gained momentum in the past few years. The online advertising is growing at a rapid rate of 20% in countries like America, India and other developed nations. All the organizations, whether big or small, are trying to find ways to advertise themselves online to gain more revenues and have their presence felt in a larger way. Internet is widely used in today’s retail world to sale and purchase merchandise. It can be used for trading anything. The use of online retailing has increased due to easy accessibility, convenience, assessment of prices, and economical in use. Online retailing started with eBay and Amazon and has reached new heights since then (Limayem, et all, 2000).

Online retailing of books has become very popular. Many books stores have experienced decline in their sales due to opening of these virtual book stores. Due to emerging competition in this field, an e-business can flourish only if it is able to satisfy the needs of the customer better than others by providing them with vast choices. Lower prices, varied choices, excellent services, convenience of the customers are some of the steps that can help the e-business to flourish (Vassos, 1996).

Revenues can be generated by an online bookstore only if the company advertises itself successfully. The medium of advertising through online is completely different from other means of advertising (Yang, 2003). Online advertising is paid advertising. Now there are different types of advertising which can be used. These are:-

Pay per click- this form of advertisement is for those companies who have financial strength to venture in advertisements for bringing traffic to their sites. For example Google AdWords. This is a good option because here the customer will type in the actual information (keyword) that he expects from the product. This is done before clicking on the advertisement. This option is very good alternative to reap high profits quickly and increase the online traffic on the website. However the flip side is, there is huge competition in pay per click advertisement. In order to be successful in this type of advertisement the company needs to be experienced in using this medium as well should be financially sound. So for trying this mode of campaigning, it is best to undergo some training before actually wasting lots of financial resources (Yang, et al, 2009).

Banner advertising- this is the oldest form of advertisement mode. Earlier there would be physical banners but now there are virtual banners. The banner placed on the website (any)should be flashy, attractive, meek, memorable, and appealable. Those customers who click on this banner will eventually be guided towards the website of the company. However the problem with this advertisement is that web users have started monitoring these banners by starting banner blindness. Because of this only a small group of people can actually see the advertisement. So the company needs to be aware that they are not spending too much on these banners especially if the company is shelling per impression. Impression means that the advertisement will show up a particular number of times. This company will be charged regard less of whether anyone visited the site or not.

Newsletter advertisement- in this the company can place the advertisement in the ad space of the newsletter (also called as e-zine) of webmaster or vendors running email programs. The cost involved is very low as compared to other modes of advertising. This method helps in reaching large number of subscribers. The method is very simple as there can be just a simple link directed towards the company’s website or it can also be stated that company is the sponsor of the newsletter. Usually publishers give a lot of space on the webpage of the publications to be emailed. This way one gets lot of exposure. A simple way to advertise one’s product and services by including the information about the website in the newsletter.

Affiliate marketing- is another means to advertise products and services through internet. This is especially true for e-books. It means that the company can outsource the sales representatives to customers who will be selling the product for a certain percentage of commission on each sale. Here the commission is not paid until the actual sale takes place. The commission is based on per sale. the burden is on the company to promote its affiliate in the suitable market. Once this has been done, the company can relax as it is now the job of these affiliates to do everything to sell the product. They can opt for anything like pay per click or article writing. It is their headache to drive traffic to the company’s website and initiate the sale of the product. The problem is that many companies do not believe in this idea as they think it will not benefit them. They don’t trust affiliates and think that something wrong is going on. If this is ignored, the process is quite simple. The affiliate has to just convince the customer that this affiliate program is legal, money making and lucrative. There are various networks promoting this kind of affiliate programs like Clickbank and Paydotcom, etc (Yang, et al, 2009).

Social media- this is one of the most popular form of advertising these days. Companies use online forums like blogging sites to advertise themselves. Facebook, My Space, Twitter, are some of the common forums where companies can advertise themselves as these are hugely popular. The website of the company offers huge scope for advertisements and promotions. All those users whom the company wishes to address can do so by enrolling with Facebook or any other social media. This way company saves time, money and energy on taking decision as to who should see the advertisement.

Since the company here is e-book shop it is advisable for them to go for affiliate marketing or pay per click. Both of them are effective methods to reach large audience in a simplest way.

Online payment methods

There are various modes of collecting online payment. Since the transaction is online and the real buyer or seller cannot see each other, it is very essential that a secure payment system is conceptualized.

Some of the common methods available are:-

Credit cards- are one of the earliest and safest ways to collect payment. Through this method the company is fully secured that payment is credited in its bank. To accept payment through a credit card the company must be protected by 128 SSL certificate. Credit card can be accepted online or through ant payment gateway or even through company driven point of sale terminal. So for processing credit cards online so that receipts can come to the bank of the company automatically, the company needs to meet three essential requirements. First it needs to have payment gateway, second a bank account and lastly a certificate by SSL. Payment gateways help in authorizing the transaction by helping to move funds from the credit card account to the company’s bank account. A bank account is essential to receive all the money authorized from the payment gateway.

PayPal – is another method to receive funds in the account. If a company is using PayPal it need not maintain a merchant account and a SSL certificate or payment gateway account. PayPal can be signed up for free i.e. without any cost. There is no a monthly fee or set up cost. PayPal only charges fees per transaction. Payment via credit cards can also be collected through PayPal.

Another version of PayPal is PayPal Express. Here the shopping cart is directly linked to PayPal Express account. The customer who moves finalizes shopping cart and moves towards checking out is directly directed towards the PayPal site to finish the payment process. The customers get an advantage here that they can store their credit card information on the PayPal’s website (Malone, 1987). This is a safest mode to transact online.

Chase Paymentech- is automatic payment gateway for credit cards. It also links directly to the shopping cart of the company. In this payment method the company can accept the credit card by being at storefront. For this again, the company needs to possess SSL certificate attached to the account. When the customer uses credit card to purchase any good from the company’s website it will be already authorized (McNeill, 2007).

Cash on delivery- is the safest mode of collecting payment for online sale. After the transaction is effected, the seller delivers the goods. After the delivery has been made, payment is collected. If the purchaser does not make the payment, the delivery is taken back. This is suitable for customers who are not ready to spill their credit card information to anyone.

Purchase order and Checks- in this after the sale has taken place, the customer can take a print out of the purchase order. Then he places a call to the seller to come and collect the payment via check or cash. This option is convenient for customers who do not want to give their personal details to the seller company. Also the seller benefits as he can handle customer to customer specifications individually without any failure.

All the payment methods described above are purely safe in their operation. If the company doesn’t trust the credit card holders, it can go for Cash in delivery option. It is safe and convenient to both seller and purchaser. If they are sure to collect payment immediately then nothing is more successful than going through PayPal method.

References

Limayem, M., Khalifa, M. & Frini, A. (2000). What makes consumers buy from the internet? A longitudinal study of online shopping. IEEE Transactions on Systems. Man and Cybernetics – Part A: Systems and Humans, Vol. 30, No. 4, 421–432.

Malone, T., JoAnne, Y., & Benjamin, R,. (1987). Electronic markets and electronic hierarchies. Communications of the ACM ,30(6), 484-497.

McNeill, B. (2007). At UVA, a new textbook option: Rental bookstore also offers e-books, guaranteed buyback. Daily Progress Journal, No 94, 654- 672.Vassos, T. (1996). Strategic Internet Marketing, Que Corp., Indianapolis, IN.

Yang, B. (2003). Purchasing textbooks online. Applied Economics, Vol. 35, 1265–1269.

Yang. J., Zielinski, J., and Cheng, L. (2009). Purchasing college textbook from E- bookstore- An empirical study. International Journal Management in Education, Vol. 3, No. 2, 162-

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