customer retention and value addition strategies of indiamart

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CHAPTER-I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 ABSTRACT

A project entitled A Study on Customer Retention and Value Addition

Strategies of Indiamart Services to Coimbatore Customer Base. The objective is

to know about retaining the existing customers and to find the value added service

and solution to satisfy the old clients.

The researcher adopts descriptive research design and the collection of

data was made through questionnaire method. Suggestions given to the company

is to monitor the clients regularly, ask to give more customer support, measure the

details about the price, terms and conditions, and ask to do search engine

optimization to generate more enquiries. The company may take some action to

avoid repeated mistakes and legal problems in online business promotion.

Statistical techniques used in the study were given below:

Percentage Analysis.

Weighted Average Analysis.

This study helps the company to satisfy their customer and their

expectations by improving the standard of service. Based on the analysis and

interpretation the findings and suggestions are provided to the organization for

further improvement.

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1.2 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

Internet in todays life becoming regular activities in all circumstance like

education, official purpose, accounting, and even in all business transaction. Now

-a -days in the competitive world, business people can get relevant business

enquires through which they can make profitable business with out spending huge

money & time. This is the major work undertaken by the B2B portal business

promotion companies like IndiaMART.Com .Even though they are providing this

kind of services they cant able to find the expectation of their clients.

So in order to understand their satisfaction level & to make repeated

business with them, I have undergone a research study with the IndiaMARTs

existing clients. By which I have found their needs & expectation of their services

in various aspects, so I have taken a survey with 200 existing clients of

IndiaMART.Com in and around Coimbatore.

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1.3 NEED OF THE STUDY

In every quality process of an organization, there will be some unique

features to retaining the existing customers and improving the budgetary plan

towards sales enhancement. In this kind of Promotional activities how

IndiaMART retain their old customers and generate more revenue with its

corporate companies. By means of it how IndiaMART increasing the investments

from the same customers by providing strategic oriented packages. And also

committing return on the investment (ROI) to the existing customers by providing

more resource to improve their New Sales all across the Globe.

In order to analyze those factors involved in developing the Individuals

Promotional package, I have examined with group of different industry with

various aspect of New Sales they have acquiring from the Internet Platform and

Guideline which IndiaMART has giving to their customers. This study also

highlighting the Quality Process behind Promotional Strategies & Solutions, and

to make the small and medium scale enterprises (SME) grow in their competitive

business world.

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1.4 INDUSTRY PROFILE

Internet Business Enhancement

Internet is Open media where the information can get reach out in fastest

and vast spread out. And also this is very useful way of easy communication and

reliable source utilization of access the information.

Internet (On-line) Business describes the use of advanced way to spread

the Individual Businesses all across the Globe in an easy manner. In olden days of

business development has happened through the traditional way of spreading out

the information, business scope, and brand image with a limited geographical

area. But after the Internet Trend penetrates into Business Scenario, and helped

the enterprise acquire New Buyers.

B2B Platform

B2B platform is an On-line Market place where huge set of Suppliers of

different industry would get relevant buyers from various places in the world.

B2B platform is a place where the buyers would search for variety of suppliers

according to their requirement such as price, quality, collection, & etc.

Where B2B Platform Company would get business from their customers

by generating relevant business to them, this is the core concept behind this

business formula.

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Business Promotion through B2B

Every B2B Platform company promote their customers in various aspectsuch as Internal & External promotion, where internal promotion has been taken

place directly through their website of On-line business promotion company such

as log on into www.indiamart.com

External promotion has been taken place through the search engine

promotion, In which the buyer doesnt want to know about the particular

manufacturer or supplier or the B2B platforms website. The would search the

information of the required product in different search engines like Google,

Yahoo, Msn, Alta, Vista & etc . Here the B2B platform company would give their

visibility of their links on the top 10 results such as www.indianindustry.com,

www.surfindia.com & etc

Generation of Relevant Business Enquires

The Ultimate aim of every business people to invest a huge money behalf

of their business promotional activity is to get Relevant enquires. In order to

generate it.B2B companies like IndiaMART.Com would take special care on

preparing the Marketing Tool (Web designing). These companies would follow

certain norms to design a web page of any product or services which would be

easy accessible & it should be in a manner where the buyer has to get convinced

through the rich content or information stuffed in that Marketing Tool.

Major Players In B2B

Many B2B companies are into the Market providing same set of services

their clients as IndiaMART.Com but only few players have recognized by the

business peoples and they are

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GLOBAL PLAYERS

Alibaba.com

This china based company, where this company is the biggest giant in to

field of B2B. Alibaba basically promote Product rather than the company.

Global Source

Global Source is a UK based company, where this company is in rank II

all around the world.

INDIAN PLAYERS

IndiaMART

IndiaMART is the No I B2B platform business promotion company in

India & It is ranked at IIIrd rank all around the globe.

Trade India

Trade India is the company which provides B2B services for a long

time in India, this company is the major competitor in India for India MART.Com

Go4worldbusiness.Com, Eindiabusiness.Com

These are the other small Players in India who benchmark the major

players like IndiaMART.Com, Trade India.Com & etc.

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1.5 COMPANY PROFILE

India MART Inter MESH Ltd has started at the year 1996 in the month of

April, the company has been started by three brothers in a small room at Delhi,

internet has been launched in India at 1995, India MART.Com is running this

business successfully for the past 12 years.

India MART is the first B2B platform company, which had received ISO

9001:2000 certificate for quality Management. India MART is the first company

had received CNBC Awards in this industry. India MART is the first B2B

business promotion companies which have introduce Sourcing Guide (off-line

promotion).

VISION

We strive to become an Integral part of every organizations business

promotion plan.

Envision providing complete business enhancement and promotion servicesto our clients."

MISSION

With firm belief in our Vision and with complete dedication, integrity and

honesty, we endeavor to generate profitable returns to our customers through

high quality business promotion services and solutions that enhance revenues

and are cost effective at the same time.

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ORGANISATION STURCTURE

CEO

COO

DESIGNINGDEPT

FINANCEDEPT

HRDEPT

MARKETINGDEPT

PROMO-TION

DEPT

FINANCEMANAGER

REGIONALHR

ASSISTANTFINANCIALMANAGER

STAFF

STAFF

REGIONALHEAD

BRANCHMANAGER

SALES CUSTOMER CARE

DEPTHEAD

STAFF

STAFF

ASSISTANTMANAGER

ASSISTANTMANAGER

EXECUTIVES EXECUTIVES

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Fact Sheet

IIL started its operations in 1996 and has stood its ground even in the toughest

times. It had a profitable business even when other companies in this domain

found it hard to sustain. Today, it operate from an 18,000 sq. ft. office in Noida

(near Delhi), and have 26 branch offices spread all over the country. IIL team

includes over 1000 + professionals from diverse background, bound together to

serve over 15,000 customers.

Highlights

1996-97

Launched Indiamart.com as India's first online B2B directory

Successfully introduced the concept of free listing and free-query

forwarding to familiarize Indian SMEs with the benefits of Internet for

business promotion

Accomplished India's first e-commerce project for Nirula's

(http://nirulas.com)

Broke-even within six months of launch

1997-98

Crossed 100 clients mark

Launched Travel.indiamart.com(India's largest travel portal today)

Initiated franchisee network building

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1998-99

Launched Handicraft, Apparel and Finance channels

Workforce increased to 40

B2B marketplace network crossed 1 million page views/month mark

1999-2000

Accomplished 'Bharat On Line' - MTNL's online portal project

Launched auto industry channel

Opened branch office in Mumbai

Crossed Rs. 1 crore revenue mark

2000-01

Touched 5 mn page views/month

Crossed 1000 clients mark

Crossed 100,000 business queries/month

Accomplished Online projects for HHEC, Jindal Organization, ModiCorp,

Won Britannica (BIG) Award forTravel.indiamart.com

New Branch Office in Chennai

Profits increased by 128% over last year

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2001-02

Declared as "the only profitable Indian Dotcom, with positive cash flows"

by Business World - Cover Story: 14 May 2001 issue

Added to its service portfolio - Electronic Trade Offers, and Request for

Quotation / Request for Proposal

Recognized by CNBC India as one of the only profitable dotcoms in India

based on report by McKinsey

2002-03

Moved operations to state-of-the-art NOIDA development center

Launched Online Hotel Reservation System

Launched Exim.indiamart.com

Crossed 2lakhs business queries mark with 12 million page views

2003-04

Launched Trust SEAL to bridge the trust gap in B2B trade

Crossed 3000-clients mark

Touched 26 million page views per month, generating more than 3 lac

business queries.

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2004-05

Became the first ISO 9001:2000 company in its domain

Launched an online payment gateway ABCPayments.com

Crossed 8000 clients

2005-06

Launched MDC (Mini Dynamic Catalog ) to generate relevant queries

Crossed 12000-Clients

Generated more than 4lakhs business enquires

2006-07

Launched Sourcing Guide (Print Ad Media) where this directorywould circulate in the best trade shows all around the globe

Crossed 15000+ clients

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Awards & Achievements

IIL's successful business model featured on CNBC India as analyzed by

McKinsey

Declared as India's only profit-making dotcom company by Business

World (Cover story)

Special footage for IIL's contribution in enabling e-business for exporters

from Moradabad; Mr. Dinesh Agarwal interviewed (India Tomorrow -

BBC News)

www.indiantravelportal.com bags eighth "BIG" Award from

Britannicaindia.com

IndiaMART.com nominated for Britannica Internet Guide (BIG) Awards

for excellence on Internet

IndiaMART.com listed among Top Indian Websites under Business - to

business category by Ecomready

The best India related yellow pages on the Net - Cosmopolitan

Top Indian Site by www.indiatimes.com

Termed as 'Online Gateway to Indian marketplace'- The Economic Times

Best Travel Site- www.indiantravelportal.comby India Online: DD News

Site of the day - Handicraft.indiamart.com by Zee News

Listed in the Top Indian IT organizations survey by Dataquest

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http://www.indiantravelportal.com/http://britannicaindia.com/http://www.indiatimes.com/http://www.indiantravelportal.com/http://handicraft.indiamart.com/http://www.indiantravelportal.com/http://britannicaindia.com/http://www.indiatimes.com/http://www.indiantravelportal.com/http://handicraft.indiamart.com/


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Intermesh Systems listed in the top 70 Indian IT organizations by

Communications World

Indiamart.com, handicraft & finance top-rated amongst India's most

wanted Sites - PC World

Intermesh Systems listed amongst Indian IT companies - Dataquest

Nominated amongst the Top 5 Indian Sites by Microsoft

Termed as The Most Interactive Trading Zone on the Net by The

Economic Times

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1.6 PRODUCT PROFILE

In order to make good business with any buyer or supplier across the globe orwith in India, IndiaMART.Com provides its clients with the best product that suits

their requirements.

The various products offered by India MART.com are;

Web Page

Mini Dynamic Catalog

Web Site

Banners

Panels

Trust Seal

Portal Sponsorship

Web Page

A web page is a document created with HTML that is part of a group of

hypertext documents or resources available on the World Wide Web.

Collectively, these documents and resources from a web site. Every Web page is

identified by a unique URL. It usually consists of 1-3 screens which contain a

presentation of products or services offered by the company.

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Mini Dynamic Catalog

Mini dynamic catalog is a new, one of its kind solution from India MART

that allows you to publish your online business homepage, with total command

over the product details, company information, navigation and almost everything

related to it. It allows you to:

Add / Edit / Delete text and images related to your company profile,

infrastructure, quality, clients, certifications and almost everything that

you want, anywhere, anytime

Add / Edit / Delete a product, its images and details and categorize as per

your wish

Add / Edit / Delete blow-ups for products

Attaching product related document for enhanced / sophisticated details

Customize your enquiry form

WEBSITE

A Virtual location on the web. A URL that serves as the top-level address

of Web site will be said to point to that websites homepage. That page serves as a

reference point, containing pointers to additional HTML pages or links to other

Web site. It usually consists of 5-10 web pages regarding all the products and

services of a company.

Your Own Domain Name Services (http://www.companyname.com)

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BANNERS

Banners are advertisements regarding and products or services with a link

to a particular website or webpage. They are usually found on the top of the

screen, which attracts the maximum visitors. They are also placed in the middle

and the bottom of the screen. They are designed with animation, flashing text etc,

to attract the attention of the customers. India MART offers its webpage and

website clients with a free rotatory banner. The company also offers the banner

for the customers on a monthly basis with a choice of location.

BANNER LOCATION & TRAIFF

India MART offers the banner space on a number of pages. The clients

have a wide variety of banner spaces to choose from, so that they can attract the

target visitors to their site. India MART offers the banners on the home page at

Rs.60000 per month and on the category wise listing page at Rs.4000 per month.

All the banners will be effective in generating more business enquiries if place for

a period of three months.

PANELS

Panels are similar to Banners, which contain advertisements regarding any

products or services with link to a particular website or webpage. Panels are

usually shorter in size and found on the side of the screen with text messages to

attract the attention of the visitors. India MART offers its webpage and website

clients with a free rotatory panel. The company also offers the panel for the

customers on a monthly basis with a choice of location.

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TRUST SEAL

India MART Trust SEAL is an indication of trust worthiness of a business

based upon its verified record of certified documents pertaining to proof of

existence, legal status, statutory approvals, affiliations and quality certifications,

once the entity is Trust SEAL verified, a click able trust seal will appear along

side the listing of the entity all across the India MART platform. Upon clicking

the seal, visitor will be able to see the verified details of the entity. Thus for a

buyer, an entity having Trust SEAL will have more reasons to be trust worthy as

compared to any other entity in negotiating a business transaction. India MART

Trust SEAL is not a substitute of traditional authentication / verification services.

It is actually a tool to abridge the basic trust gap between a buyer and seller

interacting through India MART platform. India MART Trust SEAL is only

indicative and nor inferential for all practical purposes.

Benefits to Trust SEAL certified Members

Edge over non-certified competitors online

Higher trust level amongst buyers online attracting better response

Reduce delay in lead maturity

Reduce the risk of transaction failure by allowing buyers to make

informed choices

Distinct and enhances visibility all across India MART B2B

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PORTAL SPONSORSHIP

A Portal is a dedicated site to a particular product or services offered by a

similar company. It involves product photos, but also extensive product specific

information, main production centers, industry overview, trade statistics etc.

Large buyers prefer to visit and use such places from where they can ask for

quotation from multiple suppliers for their needs.

IndiaMART.Coms product / industry specific portal sponsorship is a

carefully crafted solution that addresses all the challenges faced by sellers toady.

It offers the following

Large, focused product / industry portal, completely dedicated to sponsor

at zero development cost.

Comprehensive content, information and its regular updation without the

sponsor spending time, effort and money

Dynamic tools for large buyers like online directory, trade leads, product

catalogs etc without paying for its development and maintenance

Affiliation, linking and buyer traffic from India MART. Com at no extra

cost for it

Dedicated continuous search engineer promotion and thereby better search

results.

100% dedicated advertising space (banners, skyscrapers) on the portal

with the ads of the sponsors products.

Premium listing in online directory and catalogs with premium trade

offers.

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1.7 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Nicholls, Alex; Watson, Anna (2005)1

He suggested that; in order to exploit the Internet to its full potential, legacy

retailers need to analyse a variety of situational antecedents in order to identify e-

value creation opportunities. In addition, they must consider whether integration

or separation with bricks and clicks operations will deliver the best solution in

each value-adding interface.Implementing e-value strategies in UK retailing.

Gubman, Edward L (1995)2

This Books review discusses market leaders' way of showing how human

resource (HR) practices support customer value strategies. Alignment of a

company's people strategies and management processes with business strategies;

Addition of company value through people; Customer value disciplines; Product

leadership core capability; Operational excellence core capability; Customer

intimacy core capability.;

1. Nicholls, Alex; Watson, Anna. Implementing e-value strategies in UK retailing International Journal

of Retail & Distribution Management, 2005, Vol. 33 Issue 6, p426-443, 18p;

2. Gubman, Edward L. Aligning people strategies with customer value Compensation & Benefits

Review, Jan/Feb95, Vol. 27 Issue 1, p15, 8p, 3 Charts;

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Van Geenhuizen, Marina (2004)3

E-commerce is increasingly influencing business operations, as a major

supportive medium for different strategies or as a strategy on its own. This paper

seeks to identify impacts from concomitant changes on the development of cities.

To this purpose, emerging time-based strategies are analyses in manufacturing

and customer-services strategies are analyzed in the services sector.

Forbes, Lukas P.; Kelley, Scott W.; Hoffman, K. Douglas (2005)4

This paper strengthens the existing failure and recovery literature by presenting

data on the largest growing sector of the service industry. These findings will

have value to traditional firms looking to expand to e-commerce channels in

addition to e-commerce firms currently experiencing customer dissatisfaction.

Johnson, Gordon; Ericson, Shannon; Srimurthy, Vikram (2007)5

There is growing interest in the marketplace for enhanced active equity strategies

as investors search for higher alpha in an era of lower expected returns. An

enhanced active strategy partially removes the long-only constraint, allowingmanagers to short a portion of their portfolio to enhance active returns. Evidence

of just how popular these strategies have become is apparent in the tremendous

growth in assets over the last year. Investment industry periodicals estimate that

assets in these strategies may be as high as $60 billion by mid 2007 and could

reach $500 billion within five years. This article conducts an empirical analysis of

130/30 Strategies, using an illustrative stock selection model. Results show that

removing the long-only constraint can substantially enhance returns. Backtests of

quantitatively-oriented strategies in domestic and international universes indicate

that 130/30 strategies perform substantially better than long-only strategies with

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Zeithaml, et. al. (1990)8

The author said that "The most important thing a service company can do is be

reliable that is, perform the service dependably and accurately ... do it right the

first time. When a service problem does crop up, however, all is not lost unless

the company ignores it. In other words, by resolving the problem to the customer's

satisfaction, -- by performing the service very right the second time -- the

company can significantly improve customer retention rates."

Heskett, et. al. (1990)9

Author found that good service delivery elicits the best outcome in terms of

customer satisfaction. They noted that the next best outcome was achieved when

problems were elicited and resolved, followed in descending order by problems

that were elicited but not satisfactorily resolved and problems that were not

elicited or expressed.

Bitran and Hoech (1990)10

He differentiated between transaction-oriented, "low contact" services, in whichquality can be defined as "conformance to specifications" and "high contact"

services, such as customer retention, that satisfy higher order human needs. They

proposed that "actively understanding and managing the relationship between

server and customer can yield higher service revenues through increased

repurchase rates."

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CHAPTER-II

METHODOLOGY

2.1 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

Primary Objective

To measure the level of Customer Retention of IndiaMarts

services from the Coimbatore clients.

Secondary Objective

To identify the potential clients for up gradation of services

To analyze the factors which influencing the effective Customer

Satisfaction

To analyze the existing problems and to evaluate suggestions for

further improvements in customer relationship.

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2.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

SAMPLING METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH DESIGN

A research design is the determination and statement of the general

research approach or strategy adopted for the project. If the design adheres to the

research objective, it will ensure that the client need will be served.

Research design basically focuses on.

Statement of studys objectives, the output of the research.

Statement of the data inputs, or causal data, on the basis of which the

solution is to be reached.

The analytical method with which the inputs will be treated or calculated.

TYPE OF RESEARCH

The research design was descriptive research. Descriptive studies are

undertaken is many circumstances.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

Convenience sampling was adopted in the research work. This was

because there are more than 500 existing clients in & around Coimbatore. So it is

highly impossible to cover all of them. .

POPULATION DEFINITION

In this study the researcher cannot meet all the clients in research area. So,

200 clients is taken as samples.

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GEOGRAPICAL AREA

The study is confined in & around Coimbatore of Tamil Nadu.

SAMPLING SIZE

Sample sizes of two hundred existing clients from Coimbatore District of

Tamil Nadu were chosen for the purpose of the study.

DATA SOURCE

The study mainly relies on primary data and secondary data.

PRIMARY DATA

Primary data consists of original information collected for specific

purpose. In this study, primary data has been used. This project has relied upon

the response of the Coimbatore base existing clients. To obtain the primary data

as well structured questionnaire was prepared to get the response. The

respondents were met face to face to get their response.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

Well structured questionnaire is used as a research instrument for this

study.

INTERVIEW METHODThe data is collected by using the personal interview method. The

researcher directly met the target respondents and collects the data.

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ANALYTICAL TOOLS

PERCENTAGE METHOD

This method is used in making comparison between two are more series of

data. Percentages are used to describe relationships; percentages can be used to

compare the relative terms, the distribution of two or more series of data.

WEIGHTED AVERAGE ANALYSIS

Its an analysis where weights are assigned to factors and finally the

weighted average of all the factors are found and ranked accordingly.

NX

Weighted Average = _______

N

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2.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This Project is A Study on Customer Retention & Value additionstrategies of IndiaMART Services to Coimbatore customer base is to understand

the customer expectation towards IndiaMART Services which would help the

companies marketing people to retain them & to upgrade them to further bigger

packages

And this research study would help the company to understand their area

of development, where this will help them to avoid the repeated mistake & to

make more profit from their existing clients by improving their standards.

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CHAPTER-III

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS

3.1 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

TABLE-3.1.1

Table showing the Categories of the Respondents.

RESPONSE NUMBER OFRESPONDENTS

RESPONDENTS INPERCENTAGE

Manufacturing 65 32.5

Manufacturing & Exporting 45 22.5

Exporting 37 18.5

Importing 19 9.5

Services 34 17

Total 200 100

Interpretation

From the above table we found that 32.5% of respondents are under

manufacturing sector, 22.5% of respondents are under manufacturing &

exporting, 18.5% of respondents are under exporting sector, 17% of respondents

are under services and 9.5% of respondents are under importing sector.

Majority of the respondents are under manufacturing and exporting sector.

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CHART-3.1.1

Diagram Showing the Categories of the Respondents

17

9.5

18.5

22.5

32.5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Manufacturing Manufacturing &

Exporting

Exporting Importing Services

Response

Percentage

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TABLE-3.1.2

Table Indicating Duration of Service Availed in IndiaMart



Less than Six Months 58 29

6 months 1 Year 52 26

1 Year 2 Years 43 21.5

2 Years and above 47 23.5Total 200 100

Interpretation

From the above table we found that 29% of the respondents have said that

they have less than six months of service, 26% of respondents have said that they

have 6 moths to 1 year of service, 21.5% of respondents have said that they have

1 to 2 years of services and 23.5% of respondents have said that they have abovetwo years of services.

Majority of respondents have said that they have less that six month of

services.

CHART-3.1.2

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Diagram Indicating Duration of Service Availed in IndiaMart

29

26

21.523.5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Less than

Six Months

6 months 1

Year

1 Year 2

Years

2 Years and

above

DURATION

PERCENTAGE

TABLE-3.1.3

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TABLE-3.1.4

Table indicating whether respondents objectives where fulfilled by having

web presence.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40Percentage

1

Respondents

Objective to have Web Presence

Enquiries

Brand Promotion

Corporate Image

Business Promotion

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TABLE-3.1.5

36

Level of Respondents fulfillment in objective of havingweb Presence

33%

Yes

No

67%


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Table Indicating Whether the Respondents Requirements where Clearly

Understood by the Organization.

RESPONSENUMBER OF

RESPONDENTS

RESPONDENTS IN

PERCENTAGE

Yes 151 75.5

No 49 24.5

Total 200 100

Interpretation

From the above table we found that 75.5% of respondents have said that

the respondents requirements where clearly understood by organization and

24.5% of respondents have said that their requirements was not clearly understood

by the organization.

High majority of respondents have said that their requirements where

clearly understood by organization.

CHART-3.1.5

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75

25

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

percentage

Yes No

Factors

Whether the Organization Understood the Clients Requirements

TABLE-3.1.6

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Table Indicating Whether the Organization Handles Clients RequirementAccurately

RESPONSE NUMBER OF RESPONDENTSRESPONDENTS IN

PERCENTAGE

Yes 168 84

No 32 16

Total 200 100

Interpretation

From the above table we found that 84% of respondents have said that the

organization handles their requirement accurately and 16% of respondents have

said that the organization does not handle their requirements accurately.

High majority of respondents have said that the organization handles their

requirements accurately.

CHART-3.1.6

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84%

16%

Yes No

Organization Handling Clients Requirements

TABLE-3.1.7

Table Indicating Average Number of Queries Received in a Month.

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Less than 10 73 36.5

10 20 62 31

20 50 34 17

Above 50 31 15.5

Total 200 100

Interpretation


they receive 10-20 queries per month, 31% of respondents have said that they

received 10-20 queries in a month, 17% of respondents have said that they

received 20-50 queries in a month and 17% of respondents have said that they

received more than 50 queries in month.

Majority of respondents have said that they receive up to 20 queries in a

month.

CHART-3.1.7

No of Queries Received in a Month

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TABLE-3.1.8

Table indicating whether the queries are relevant to the respondents

35

31

17 16

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

PER

CEN

TAG

E

Less than 10 10 20 20 50 Above 50

RESPONSE

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RESPONSENUMBER OF

RESPONDENTSRESPONDENTS IN

PERCENTAGE

Yes 144 72

No 56 28

Total 200 100

Interpretation


queries are relevant to them and 28% of respondents have said that the queries are

not relevant to them.

High majority of respondents have said that the queries are relevant to

them.

CHART-3.1.8

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Yes

72%

No

28%

Whether the Queries are Relevant to the Respondents

TABLE-3.1.9

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Table Indicating Proportion of Relevant Queries.

RESPONSENUMBER OF

RESPONDENTS

RESPONDENTS IN

PERCENTAGE

20% - 40% 36 18

40% 60% 51 25.5

More than 60% 113 56.5

Total 200 100

Interpretation


the proportion of relevant queries are above 60%, 25.5% of respondents have said

that the proportion of relevant queries is about 40-60% and 18% of respondents

have said that the proportion of relevant queries is about 20-40%.

Majority of respondent have said that the accuracy is above 60% and somesubstantial proportions of respondent have said that the accuracy of queries falls

between 20-60%. The organization should ensure that the accuracy of queries

should be high. The necessary steps should be taken in order to make the client

satisfied.

CHART-3.1.9

Proportion of Relevant Queries

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19

25

56

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

PERCENTAGE

20% - 40% 40% 60% More than 60%

RESPONSE

TABLE-3.1.10

Table Indicating Number of Materialized Business Enquiries.

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More than 5 60 30

4 5 66 33

1 3 74 37

Total 200 100

Interpretation

From the above table we found that 37% of respondents have said that

nearly 1-3 enquiries were materialized, 33% of respondents have said that 4 - 5

enquiries were materialized and 30% of respondents have said more than 5

enquiries were materialized.

Majority of respondents have said that 1-3 enquiries were materialized.

CHART-3.1.10

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More than 5

30%

4 5

33%

1 3

37%

More than 5 4 5 1 3

No. of Materialized Business Enquiries

TABLE 3.1.11

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Table Indicating reasons for not being able to materialize the Queries.

RESPONSENUMBER OF

RESPONDENTS

RESPONDENTS IN

PERCENTAGE

Timeliness of reply 83 41.5

Buyer Specifications 62 31

The Pricing factor 30 15

Others 25 12.5

Total 200 100

Interpretation


they are not able to materialize the queries because of Timeliness of reply and

31% of respondents have said that they are not able to materialize the queries

because of Buyer Specifications, 15% of respondents have said that they are not

able to materialize the queries because of the pricing factor, 12.5% of respondents

have said that they are not able to materialize the queries because of other

reasons.

Majority of respondents have said that they are not able to materialize the

queries because of buyers specifications.

CHART-3.1.11

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41

31

15

13

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

PERCENT

AGE

Timeliness of

reply

Buyer

Specifications

The Pricing

factor

Others

FACTORS

Reason for not able to Materialized Queries

TABLE-3.1.12

Table Indicating Rank Order of Different Aspects of Online Services.

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Attributes R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 WeightedTotal

WeightedAverage

Rank

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 28

Design of the Page 45 40 33 29 20 17 16 863 30.82 3

Service ProviderPromotion

18 41 52 44 10 21 14 845 30.17 4

Search EnginePromotion

38 54 33 47 11 9 8 985 35.17 2

Number of Queries 51 38 37 31 23 10 8 991 35.39 1

Price of Packaging 17 14 10 18 43 48 54 604 21.57 6Terms andconditions

7 9 16 16 54 53 47 562 20.07 7

Customer Care 23 10 17 17 39 41 53 618 22.07 5

Interpretation

Respondents have given best rank to Number of queries followed by

Search Engine and design of the page. Respondents have given last rank to terms

and conditions and Terms and Conditions.

Majority of respondents have given best rank to Number of Queries and

last rank to terms and condition. The organization should take care on improving

terms and conditions given and it should intimate the price of the packages in

order to satisfy the clients.

TABLE-3.1.13

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Table Indicating Whether the Respondents have any tie-up with any otherPortals for Online Marketing.

RESPONSE NUMBER OF

RESPONDENTS

RESPONDENTS IN

PERCENTAGE

Yes 43 21.5

No 157 78.5

Total 200 100

Interpretation


they do not have any other portals for online marketing and 21.5% of respondents

have said that they have tie-up with some other portal for online marketing.

Majority of respondents have said that they do not have tie-up with any

other portals for online marketing.

CHART-3.1.12

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Yes

22%

No

78%

Yes

No

Do Respondents have tie up with any Other Portals

TABLE 3.1.14

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Table Indicating Respondents tie-up with the following Portals .

RESPONSENUMBER OF


PERCENTAGE

Trade India 84 42

Trade Mart 2 1

E India business 28 14

Alibaba 86 43

Total 200 100

Interpretation


they have tie-up with Trade India, 43% of respondents have said that they have tie

up with Alibaba.

Majority of respondents have tie up with Trade India and Industrial

portals.

CHART-3.1.13

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Respondents having service with other Portals

TABLE 3.1.15

Trade India

Trade Mart

E India business

Alibaba

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

percentage

Trade India Trade Mart E Indiabusiness

Alibaba

Other Web portals

Number of clients having services with other web portals

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Table Indicating Amount of time taken by the Organization to Solve theProblem

RESPONSE NUMBER OF

RESPONDENTS

RESPONDENTS IN

PERCENTAGE

Less than 1 Day 0 0

1 3 Days 19 9.5

3 6 Days 142 71

More than 6 Days 39 19.5

Total 200 100

Interpretation


organization takes 3-6 days to solve the problem and 9.5% of respondents have

said that the organization takes 1-3 days to solve the problem.

High majority of respondents have said that the organization takes 3-6

days to solve the problem. The organization should take measures to solve theproblem as fast as possible in order to satisfy the customer.

CHART-3.1.14

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Time taken by the organization to solve the problem of the

Respondents

TABLE-3.1.16

57

0

9.5

71

19.5

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Less than

1 Day

1 3

Days

3 6

Days

More than

6 Days

NO. OF DAYS

NO.OFRESPONDENTS


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Table Indicating Respondents Satisfaction Level of Different Attributes withregard to IndiaMart services to their company.

AttributesHighly

Satisfied Satisfied NeutralDissatisf

iedHighly

DissatisfiedWeighted

TotalWeightedAverage Rank

5 4 3 2 1 15

Design ofthe Page 28 99 56 15 2 736 49.06 3

ServiceProvider

Promotion0 77 96 27 0 650 43.33 5

Search

EnginePromotion 42 110 43 5 0 789 52.6 1

No ofEnquiries 36 94 61 7 2 755 50.33 2

CustomerSupportactivity

16 64 92 22 6 662 44.13 4

Price of thePackaging 2 56 96 34 12 602 40.13 6

Terms and

Conditions 0 52 102 30 16 590 39.33 7

Interpretation

Respondent are highly satisfied with the search engine promotion

followed by No. of queries and Design of the page. Respondents are least satisfied

with Pricing of Packages and Terms & condition.

Respondents have given best rank to No.of queries and last rank to terms

and conditions. Organization should take measures to give more details about the

prices, terms and conditions and customer support activity in order to make the

client satisfied.

TABLE-3.1.17

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Table Indicating Respondents Recommendation towards IndiaMartPackage and Services.

RESPONSE NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS RESPONDENTS INPERCENTAGE

Yes 179 89.5

No 21 10.5

Total 200 100

Interpretation


they recommend package and services of India Mart and 10.5% of respondents

have said that they wont recommend package and services of India Mart.

High majority of respondents have said that they recommend package and

services of India Mart.

CHART-3.1.15

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90

10

0

10

20

3040

50

60

70

80

90

PERCE

NTAGE

Yes No

RESPONSE

Respondents Recommendation towards Indiamart Packages

TABLE-3.1.18

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Table Indicating Respondents Decision on Upgrading Services of IndiaMart

RESPONSENUMBER OF


PERCENTAGE

Yes 178 89

No 22 11

Total 200 100

Interpretation


they recommend improving the services of IndiaMart and 11% of respondents

have said that the present services itself good.

High majority of respondents have said that the present service of the

organization should be improved. The organization should take measure to

upgrade the present services.

CHART-3.1.16

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89

11

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

PERCE

NTAGE

Yes No

RESPONSE

Respondents Decision on Upgrading Services of IndiaMart

TABLE-3.1.19

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Table indicating respondents overall ranking toward

the performance of India Mart

RESPONSENUMBER OF

RESPONDENTS

RESPONDENTS IN

PERCENTAGE

Excellent 19 9.5

Good 98 49

Average 62 31

Below Average 17 8.5

Poor 4 2Total 200 100

Interpretation


present performance is good and 2% of respondents have said that the present

service of the organization is not satisfactory.

Majority of respondents have said that the performance of the organization

is good and average and some substantial portion of respondents have said that

the performance is not satisfactory. The organization should take measures to

make the present service better with latest up gradations. This make the client

satisfied.

CHART-3.1.17

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Excellent Good Average Below Average Poor

S1

9.5

49

31

8.52

Opinion

Percentage

Ranking of India Mart performance

Overall Ranking towards the Performance of IndiaMart

CHAPTER IV

RESULT ANALYSIS

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4.1 FINDINGS

1. 32.5% of the respondents are under manufacturing and 9.5% of the

respondents are importing the goods from various countries.

2. 29% of respondents have said that they have less that six month of

services and 21.5% respondents said that they having 1-2 years

duration.

3. 39% of respondents have said that they have their web presence in

order to promote their Business promotion and 17% of the respondents

said that they do an online promotion for Brand Image.

4. 67% of respondents have said that their objective of having their web

presence was fulfilled and 33% of the respondents are not fulfilled.

5. 75.5% of respondents have said that their requirements where clearly

understood by organization and 24.5% of the respondents

requirements are not clearly understood by the organization.

6. 84% of respondents have said that the organization handles their

requirements accurately and 16% of the respondents requirements are

not fulfilled by the organization.

7. 36.5% of respondents have said that they receive less than10 queries in

a month and 15.5% of the respondents only get 50 and above

enquiries per month.

8. 72% of respondents have said that the proportion of relevant queries

and 28% of respondents are getting irrelevant enquiries for his

business.

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9. 72% of respondents have said that the proportion of relevant queries

are above 60%, 18% of respondents have said that the proportion of

relevant queries is about 20-40%.

10. 37% of respondents have said that they have materialized 1-3 enquiries

and 30% of the respondents are matured more than 5 enquiries.

11. 41.5% of respondents have said that they are not able to materialize

the queries because of Timeliness of reply and 15% of them said that

because of pricing factors not able to mature a business.

12. 35.39% of the respondents have given best rank to Number of queries

and 20.07% respondents have given last rank to terms and conditions.

13. 78.5% of respondents have said that they do not have tie-up with any

other portals for online marketing and 21.5% of them have tie-up with

other portals.

14. 43% of respondents have tie up with Alibaba and 42% of the

respondents have tie-up with Tradeindia.

15. 71% of respondents have said that the organization takes 3-6 days to

solve the problem and 9.5% of respondents have said that the

organization takes 1-3 days to solve the problem.

16. 52.6% of respondent are highly satisfied with the search engine

promotion followed by design of the page and number of queries and

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39.33% respondents are least satisfied with Terms and Conditions and

Pricing of Packages.

17. 89.5% of respondents have said that they recommend package and

services of India Mart to others.

18. 49% of respondents have said that the present performance is good and

2% of respondents have said that the present service of the

organization is not satisfactory.

4.2 SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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Even though the customers are getting good number enquires from their

web presence, but they couldnt materialized it in a profitable manner due

to, Timeliness of reply so in order to make good business from the

customer side, the customer support team has to monitor the clients

properly & they have to induce the client to reply in time to materialized

the enquires

Majority of respondents doesnt have tie-up with other portals but the only

problem is with the problem solving takes 3-6 days , if they concentrate oncustomer support more, it will be easy to upgrade the existing clients with

higher packages

Organization may take measures to give more details about the prices,

terms and conditions and customer support activity in order to make the

client satisfied.

Most of respondent told they have received only less than 10 enquires in a

month, so IndiaMART has to try more to generate more business enquires

through search engine promotion

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4.3 CONCLUSION

Internet is a global interconnection of networks enabling one to access any

person content or services that has an online presence or address. A medium that

can carry data, content, voice or video, depending on the bandwidth available,

enabling flexibility of use, diverse applications and services. The more utilization

these are, the more it will be used. The Internet is the worlds largest distributed

system; it was designed and engineered for redundancy (it has an abundance of

routes and connections) and resilience (it easily recovers from a mishap). The

Internet is nor a singly company or a group of companies, no never a single

network. It is a world wide mesh or matrix of hundreds of thousands of networks,

owned and operated by hundreds of thousands of people in hundreds of countries,

all inter connected by about 8000 ISPs (Internet Service Providers). Internet

Business has provided the rapid growth in Business by means of developing the

Profitable web profile of Individual Corporate and Enterprises. It starts from

generating business enquires till payment transaction between suppliers & buyers

through On-line.

From the survey, we found that a huge business community using internet

platform to grow their business and increase the market share. And make business

people accept that internet media can generate more business enquiries for their

products and services. Based on the acceptance, B2B Industry also can assist the

individual enterprises to grow as well as earn more profit. Customers are ready to

spend money to promote their products through B2B sites. But they expect

relevant queries. In addition to this IndiaMART has established good reputation

among its clients helping them to increase the domestic & international sales.IndiaMART has proven record of 15000+ clients and a customer retention rate of

over 89% scaling up its operations with effective way of Customer Support.

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ANNUXURE

Questionnaire

(a) Name of the Company :

(b) Name of the Contact Person :

(c) Designation :

(d) Address of Organization :

(e) Product and Services :

1. The company is mainly into

[ ] Manufacturing [ ] Manufacturing & Exporting [ ] Exporting

[ ] Importing [ ] Services

2. Please mention how long you have being with in India Mart platform?

[ ] Less than 6 months [ ] 6 months 1 year

[ ] 1 year - 2 years [ ] 2 years and above

3. Main objective of having Web Presence

[ ] Enquiries [ ] Brand Promotion

[ ] Corporate Image [ ] Business Promotion

4. Is your objective of having Web presence being fulfilled?

[ ] Yes [ ] No

5. Were your requirements are clearly understood by us and where there anyClassifications we sought?

[ ] Yes [ ] No

6. Were the requirements and we handling of design changes done swiftly andaccurately?

[ ] Yes [ ] No

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7. Average Number of queries received in a month

[ ] Less than 10 [ ] 10 20

[ ] 20 50 [ ] Above 50

8. Whether the queries relevant

[ ] Yes [ ] No

9. Proportion of queries relevant

[ ] 20% - 40% [ ] 40% - 60% [ ] More than 60%

10. How many business enquiries were materialized?

[ ] 1- 3 enquiries [ ] 4 - 5 enquiries [ ] More than 5

11. What are the reasons for not being able to materialization of Queries?

[ ] Timeliness of reply [ ] Buyer Specifications

[ ] The Pricing factor [ ] others

12. Kindly rank the following aspects of online services (of your importance)

No. Aspects Rank

(a) Design of the Page(b) Service Provider Promotion

(c ) Search Engine Promotion

(d) Number of Queries

(e) Price of Packaging

(f) Terms and conditions

(g) Customer Care

13. Do you have tie-up with any other portals for online marketing?

(If No, please skip question 14)[ ] Yes [ ] No

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14. If Yes, Please mention the company you with (tick all that apply)

[ ] Trade India [ ] Trade Mart

[ ] E India business [ ] Just Dial

15. If No, the reason ________________________________________

16. If any problem encountered, then within how many days the Problem wasrectified?

[ ] Less than 1 day [ ] 1 - 3 Days

[ ] 3 - 6 Days [ ] More than 6 days

17. Tick the perception level of aspects with regard to IndiaMart Services for your

Company.

Particulars Highlysatisfied

Satisfied Neutral Dissatisfied HighlyDissatisfied

Design of the Page

Service Provider Promotion

Search Engine Promotion

No of Enquiries

Customer Support activity

Price of the Packaging

Terms and Conditions

18. Will you recommend the package or Services of IndiaMART to your businessfriends?

[ ] Yes [ ] No

19. Would you like to upgrade the services of India Mart?

[ ] Yes [ ] No

20. Please rate our overall Performance

[ ] Excellent [ ] Good [ ] Average

[ ] Below Average [ ] Poor

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Reference for Books

1. Dee, David Servicing Tough Customers. SBP Management Press: NewDelhi, 1998.

2. Kothari, C. R.,Research Methodology Methods and Techniques.Wishwa Prakashan: Delhi (1998): pp 358-362.

3. Kotler, PhilipMarketing Management Analysis, Planning,Implementation, and Control. Prentice Hall of India Private Limited: NewDelhi, 1994, p 455.

4. Malhotra, Naresh, K. Marketing Research An Applied Orientation.Pearson Education: Delhi (2004).

5. Ramaswamy, V.S.,Marketing Management Planning, Implementation,and Control. Macmillan India Limited: New Delhi, 2002, p 488 - 507.

6. Sharma, D.D., Marketing Research Applications, Principles andCases, Sultan Chand & Sons: New Delhi, 2003.

II. WEBLIOGRAPHY

www.indiamart.com

www.indiandata.com

www.indianindustry.com

www.surfindia.com

www.dir.indiamart.com

www.trade-express.com

domain b com/marketing/general

73
http://www.indiandata.com/http://www.indianindustry.com/http://www.surfindia.com/http://www.dir.indiamart.com/http://www.indiandata.com/http://www.indianindustry.com/http://www.surfindia.com/http://www.dir.indiamart.com/

customer retention and value addition strategies of indiamart

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