vishnu new trends of e-marketing by online firms jims3

8/13/2019 Vishnu New Trends of E-Marketing by Online Firms JIMS3

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A MINOR PROJECT REPORT

ON

The New Trends Of E-Marketing by online firms

Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirement of Bachelor ofBusiness Administration (B.B.A) General

BBA IIIrd Semester (Shift)(Section)Batch 2010-2013

Submitted to: Submitted by:Shradha Goyal Vishnu Vijayan

Assistant Professor 05314101711

JAGANNATH INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT SCHOOLKALKAJI


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A lot of effort has gone into this training report. My thanks are due to many

people with whom I have been closely associated.

I would like all those who have contributed in completing this project. First of all, I

would like to send my sincere thanks to_______________ for his helpful hand in

the completion of my project.

I would like to thank my entire beloved family & friends for providing me monetary

as well as non monetary support, as and when required, without which this

project would not have completed on time. Their trust and patience is now

coming out in form of this thesis


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CONTENTS

Description Page No.

Executive SummaryCertificate of completion

Introduction to topic

Objectives

Literature review

Company Profile

Research Methodology

Analysis & Interpretation

Findings & Inferences

LimitationsRecommendations and Conclusion

Appendices

Bibliography


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Online shopping is the process consumers go through to purchase products or

services over the Internet. An online shop, eshop, e-store, internet shop,

webshop, webstore, online store, or virtual store evokes the physical analogy ofbuying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping mall.

The metaphor of an online catalog is also used, by analogy with mail order

catalogs. All types of stores have retail web sites, including those that do and do

not also have physical storefronts and paper catalogs. Online shopping is a type

of electronic commerce used for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-

consumer (B2C) transactions. In general, shopping has always catered to middle

class and upper class women. Shopping is fragmented and pyramid-shaped. At

the pinnacle are elegant boutiques for the affluent, a huge belt of inelegant but

ruthlessly efficient discounters flog plenty at the pyramids precarious middle.

According to the anaylsis of Susan D. Davis, at its base are the worlds workers

and poor, on whose cheapened labor the rest of the pyramid depends for its

incredible abundance. Shopping has evolved from single stores to large malls

containing many stores that most often offer attentive service, store credit,

delivery, and acceptance of returns. These new additions to shopping have

encouraged and targeted middle class women.

In recent years, online shopping has become popular; however, it still caters to

the middle and upper class. In order to shop online, one must be able to have

access to a computer, a bank account and a debit card. Shopping has evolved

with the growth of technology. According to research found in the Journal of

Electronic Commerce, if we focus on the demographic characteristics of the in-

home shopper, in general, the higher the level of education, income, and

occupation of the head of the household, the more favourable the perception of

non-store shopping. An influential factor in consumer attitude towards non-store

shopping is exposure to technology, since it has been demonstrated that

increased exposure to technology increases the probability of developing

favourable attitudes towards new shopping channels.


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INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC

The Internet

The Internet is the worldwide, publicly accessible network of interconnected

computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard

Internet Protocol (IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of

smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together

carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file

transfer, and the interlinked Web pages and other documents of the World Wide

Web.

The term "Webshop" also refers to a place of business where web development,

web hosting and other types of web related activities take place (Web refers to

the World Wide Web and "shop" has a colloquial meaning used to describe the

place). Buying online introduced new ways of reducing costs by reducing the

number of staff needed. It is a more effective way of getting products to people

and spreading into different demographics.

Benefits of online shopping

1. Bargaining power of consumers. They enjoy a wider choice

2. Supplier power. It is more difficult for consumers to manage a non-digital

channel.

3. Internet increases commoditisation

4. Threat of new entrants. Online means it is easier to introduce new services

with lower over-heads

5. Threat of substitutes

6. Rivalry among competitors. It is easier to introduce products and services to

different markets


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The idea of online shopping predates the World Wide Web, for there are earlier

experiments involving real-time transaction processing from a domestic

television. The technology, based on Videotext, was first demonstrated in 1979

by Michael Aldrich, who designed and installed systems in the UK, including the

first Tesco pilot system in 1984. The first B2B was Thomson Holidays in 1981.

In 1990 Tim Berners-Lee created the first World Wide Web server and browser.

In 1992 Charles Stack created the first online book store, Book Stacks Unlimited

(aka Books.com), two years before Jeff Bezos started Amazon. In 1994 other

advances took place, such as online banking and the opening of an online pizza

shop by Pizza Hut. During that same year, Netscape introduced SSL encryption

of data transferred online, which has become essential for secure online

shopping. In 1995 Amazon expanded its online shopping, and in 1996 eBay

appeared.

In general, shopping has always catered to middle class and upper class women.

Shopping is fragmented and pyramid-shaped. At the pinnacle are elegant

boutiques for the affluent, a huge belt of inelegant but ruthlessly efficient

discounters flog plenty at the pyramids precarious middle. According to the

anaylsis of Susan D. Davis, at its base are the worlds workers and poor, on

whose cheapened labor the rest of the pyramid depends for its incredible

abundance. Shopping has evolved from single stores to large malls containing

many stores that most often offer attentive service, store credit, delivery, and

acceptance of returns. These new additions to shopping have encouraged and

targeted middle class women.

In recent years, online shopping has become popular; however, it still caters to

the middle and upper class. In order to shop online, one must be able to have

access to a computer, a bank account and a debit card. Shopping has evolved

with the growth of technology. According to research found in the Journal ofElectronic Commerce, if we focus on the demographic characteristics of the in-

home shopper, in general, the higher the level of education, income, and

occupation of the head of the household, the more favourable the perception of

non-store shopping. An influential factor in consumer attitude towards non-store

shopping is exposure to technology, since it has been demonstrated that


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increased exposure to technology increases the probability of developing

favourable attitudes towards new shopping channels.

Online shopping widened the target audience to men and women of the middle

class. At first, main users of online shopping were young men with a high level of

income and a university education. This profile is changing. For example, in USA

in the early years of Internet there were very few women users, but by 2001

women were 52.8% of the online population. Sociocultural pressure has made

men generally more independent in their purchase decisions, while women place

greater value on personal contact and social relations.

Trends

One third of people that shop online use a search engine to find what they are

looking for and about one fourth find websites by word of mouth. Word of mouth

has become a leading way by which people find shopping websites. When an

online shopper has a good first experience with a certain website, sixty percent of

the time they will return to that website to buy more.

Books are one of the things bought most online. However, clothes, shoes, and

accessories are all very popular things bought online. Cosmetics, nutrition

products, and groceries are increasingly being purchased online. About one

fourth of travelers buy their plane tickets online because it is a quick and easy

way to compare airline travel and make a purchase. Online shopping provides

more freedom and control than shopping in a store. From a sociological

perspective, online shopping is arguably the most predictable way to shop. One

knows exactly what website to go to, how much the product will cost, and how

long it will take for the product to reach them. Online shopping has become

extremely routine and predictable, which is one of its great appeals to the

consumer.

Logistics

Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the retailer directly,

or do a search across many different vendors using a shopping search engine.

Once a particular product has been found on the web site of the seller, most

online retailers use shopping cart software to allow the consumer to accumulate


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multiple items and to adjust quantities, by analogy with filling a physical shopping

cart or basket in a conventional store. A "checkout" process follows (continuing

the physical-store analogy) in which payment and delivery information is

collected, if necessary. Some stores allow consumers to sign up for a permanent

online account so that some or all of this information only needs to be entered

once. The consumer often receives an e-mail confirmation once the transaction

is complete. Less sophisticated stores may rely on consumers to phone or e-mail

their orders (though credit card numbers are not accepted by e-mail, for security

reasons).

Payment

Online shoppers commonly use credit card to make payments, however some

systems enable users to create accounts and pay by alternative means, such as:

* Debit card

* Various types of electronic money

* Cash on delivery (C.O.D., offered by very few online stores)

* Cheque

* Wire transfer/delivery on payment

* Postal money order

* PayPal

* Google Checkout

* Amazon Payments

* Bill Me Later

* Money bookers

* Reverse SMS billing to mobile phones

* Gift cards

* Direct debit in some countries

Some sites will not allow international credit cards and billing address andshipping address have to be in the same country in which site does its business.

Other sites allow customers from anywhere to send gifts anywhere. The financial

part of a transaction might be processed in real time (for example, letting the

consumer know their credit card was declined before they log off), or might be

done later as part of the fulfillment process.


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While credit cards are currently the most popular means of paying for online

goods and services, alternative online payments will account for 26% of e-

commerce volume by 2009 according to Celent.

Product delivery

Once a payment has been accepted the goods or services can be delivered in

the following ways.

Download: This is the method often used for digital media products such as

software, music, movies, or images.

Shipping: The product is shipped to the customer's address.

Drop shipping: The order is passed to the manufacturer or third-party

distributor, who ships the item directly to the consumer, bypassing theretailer's physical location to save time, money, and space.

In-store pickup: The customer orders online, finds a local store using

locator software and picks the product up at the closest store. This is the

method often used in the bricks and clicks business model.

In the case of buying an admission ticket one may get a code, or a ticket

that can be printed out. At the premises it is made sure that the same right

of admission is not used twice.

Shopping cart systems

Simple systems allow the offline administration of products and categories.

The shop is then generated as HTML files and graphics that can be

uploaded to a webspace. These systems do not use an online database.

A high end solution can be bought or rented as a standalone program or as

an addition to an enterprise resource planning program. It is usually

installed on the company's own webserver and may integrate into the

existing supply chain so that ordering, payment, delivery, accounting and

warehousing can be automated to a large extent.

Other solutions allow the user to register and create an online shop on a

portal that hosts multiple shops at the same time.


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Open source shopping cart packages include advanced platforms such as

Interchange, and off the shelf solutions as Satchmo, osCommerce,

Magento, Zen Cart, OpenCart, VirtueMart, Flying Cart and PrestaShop or

the dual licensed PhPepperShop.

Commercial systems can also be tailored to ones needs so that the shop

does not have to be created from scratch. By using a framework already

existing, software modules for different functionalities required by a web

shop can be adapted and combined.


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Design

Why does electronic shopping exist? For customers it is not only because of the

high level of convenience, but also because of the broader selection; competitive

pricing and greater access to information. For organizations it increases their

customer value and the building of sustainable capabilities, next to the increased

profits

Information load

Designers of online shops should consider the effects of information load.

Mehrabian and Russel (1974) introduced the concept of information rate (load)

as the complex spatial and temporal arrangements of stimuli within a setting. The

notion of information load is directly related to concerns about whether

consumers can be given too much information in virtual shopping environments.

Compared with conventional retail shopping, computer shopping enriches the

information environment of virtual shopping by providing additional product

information, such as comparative products and services, as well as various

alternatives and attributes of each alternative, etc.

Two major sub-dimensions have been identified for information load: complexity

and novelty. Complexity refers to the number of different elements or features of

a site, which can be the result of increased information diversity. Novelty involves

the unexpected, suppressing, new, or unfamiliar aspects of the site. A research

by Huang (2000) showed that the novelty dimension kept consumers exploring

the shopping sites, whereas the complexity dimension has the potential to induce

impulse purchases

Consumer expectations

The main idea of online shopping is not in having a good looking website that

could be listed in a lot of search engines and it is not about the art behind the

site. It also is not only just about disseminating information, because it is all aboutbuilding relationships and making money. Mostly, organizations try to adopt

techniques of online shopping without understanding these techniques and/or

without a sound business model. Rather than supporting the organizations

culture and brand name, the website should satisfy consumer's expectations.

Many researchers notify that the uniqueness of the web has dissolved and the

need for the design, which will be user centered, is very important. Companies
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should always remember that there are certain things, such as understanding the

customers wants and needs, living up to promises, never go out of style,

because they give reason to come back. And the reason will stay if consumers

always get what they expect. McDonaldization theory can be used in terms of

online shopping, because online shopping is becoming more and more popular

and website that wants to gain more shoppers will use four major principles of

McDonaldization: efficiency, calculability, predictability and control.

Organizations, which want people to shop more online for them, should consume

extensive amounts of time and money to define, design, develop, test,

implement, and maintain website. Also if company wants their website to be

popular among online shoppers it should leave the user with a positive

impression about the organization, so consumers can get an impression that the

company cares about them. The organization that wants to be acceptable in

online shopping needs to remember, that it is easier to lose a customer then to

gain one. Lots of researchers state that even when site was a top -rated, it

would go nowhere if the organization failed to live up to common etiquette, such

as returning e-mails in a timely fashion, notifying customers of problems, being

honest, and being good stewards of the customers data. Organizations that

want to keep their customers or gain new ones try to get rid of all mistakes and

be more appealing to be more desirable for online shoppers. And this is why

many designers of webshops considered research outcomes concerning

consumer expectations. Research conducted by Elliot and Fowell (2000)

revealed satisfactory and unsatisfactory customer experiences.[16]

User interface

It is important to take the country and customers into account. For example, in

Japan privacy is very important and emotional involvement is more important on

a pensions site than on a shopping site.[11]

Next to that, there is a difference inexperience: experienced users focus more on the variables that directly influence

the task, while novice users are focusing more on understanding the information.

There are several techniques for the inspection of theusability.The ones used in

the research of Chen & Macredie (2005) are Heuristic evaluation, cognitive walk

through and the user testing. Every technique has its own (dis-)advantages and it

is therefore important to check per situation which technique is appropriate
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When the customers went to the online shop, a couple of factors determine

whether they will return to the site. The most important factors are the ease of

use and the presence of user-friendly features.[18]
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Market share

E-commerce product sales totaled $146.4 billion in the United States in 2006,

representing about 6% of retail product sales in the country. The $18.3 billion

worth of clothes sold online represented about 10% of the domestic market.

For developing countries and low-income households in developed countries,

adoption of e-commerce in place of or in addition to conventional methods is

limited by a lack of affordable Internet access.

Advantages

Convenience

Online stores are usually available 24 hours a day, and many consumers have

Internet access both at work and at home. A visit to a conventional retail store

requires travel and must take place during business hours.

Searching or browsing an online catalog can be faster than browsing the aisles of

a physical store. Consumers with dial-up Internet connections rather than

broadband have much longer load times for content-rich web sites and have a

considerably slower online shopping experience.

Some consumers prefer interacting with people rather than computers (and vice

versa), sometimes because they find computers hard to use. Not all online

retailers have succeeded in making their sites easy to use or reliable.

In most cases, merchandise must be shipped to the consumer, introducing a

significant delay and potentially uncertainty about whether or not the item was

actually in stock at the time of purchase.Bricks and clicks stores offer the ability

to buy online but pick up in a nearby store. Many stores give the consumer the

delivery company's tracking number for their package when shipped, so they can

check its status online and know exactly when it will arrive. For efficiency

reasons, online stores generally do not ship products immediately upon receiving

an order. Orders are only filled during warehouse operating hours, and there maybe a delay of anywhere from a few minutes to a few days to a few weeks before

in-stock items are actually packaged and shipped. Many retailers inform

customers how long they can expect to wait before receiving a package, and

whether or not they generally have a fulfillment backlog. A quick response time is

sometimes an important factor in consumers' choice of merchant. A weakness of

online shopping is that, even if a purchase can be made 24 hours a day, the
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customer must often be at home during normal business hours to accept the

delivery.For many professionals this can be difficult, and absence at the time of

delivery can result in delays, or in some cases, return of the item to the retailer.

Automated delivery booths, such asDHL'sPackstation,have tried to address this

problem.

In the event of a problem with the item - it is not what the consumer ordered, or it

is not what they expected - consumers are concerned with the ease with which

they can return an item for the correct one or for a refund. Consumers may need

to contact the retailer, visit the post office and pay return shipping, and then wait

for a replacement or refund. Some online companies have more generous return

policies to compensate for the traditional advantage of physical stores. For

example, the online shoe retailer Zappos.com includes labels for free return

shipping, and does not charge a restocking fee, even for returns which are not

the result of merchant error. (Note: In the United Kingdom, Online shops are

prohibited from charging a restocking fee if the consumer cancels their order in

accordance with the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Act 2000.

Information and reviews

Online stores must describe products for sale with text, photos, and multimedia

files, whereas in a physical retail store, the actual product and the manufacturer's

packaging will be available for direct inspection (which might involve a test drive,

fitting, or other experimentation).

Some online stores provide or link to supplemental product information, such as

instructions, safety procedures, demonstrations, or manufacturer specifications.

Some provide background information, advice, or how-to guides designed to help

consumers decide which product to buy.

Some stores even allow customers to comment or rate their items. There are

also dedicatedreview sites that host user reviews for different products.In a conventional retail store, clerks are generally available to answer questions.

Some online stores have real-time chat features, but most rely on e-mail or

phone calls to handle customer questions.

Price and selection

One advantage of shopping online is being able to quickly seek out deals for

items or services with many different vendors (though somelocal search engines
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do exist to help consumers locate products for sale in nearby stores). Search

engines and onlineprice comparison services can be used to look up sellers of a

particular product or service.

Shoppers find a greater selection online in certain market segments (for

example, computers and consumer electronics[21]) and in some cases lower

prices. This is due to a relaxation of certain constraints, such as the size of a

"brick-and-mortar" store, lower stocking costs (or none, ifdrop shipping is used),

and lower staffing overhead.

Shipping costs (if applicable) reduce the price advantage of online merchandise,

though depending on the jurisdiction, a lack of sales tax may compensate for

this.

Shipping a small number of items, especially from another country, is much more

expensive than making the larger shipments bricks-and-mortar retailers order.

Some retailers (especially those selling small, high-value items like electronics)

offer free shipping on sufficiently large orders.

Concerns

Fraud and security concerns

Given the lack of ability to inspect merchandise before purchase, consumers are

at higher risk of fraud on the part of the merchant than in a physical store.

Merchants also risk fraudulent purchases using stolen credit cards or fraudulent

repudiation of the online purchase. With a warehouse instead of a retail

storefront, merchants face less risk from physicaltheft.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption has generally solved the problem of

credit card numbers being intercepted in transit between the consumer and the

merchant.Identity theft is still a concern for consumers whenhackers break into

a merchant's web site and steal names, addresses and credit card numbers. A

number of high-profile break-ins in the 2000s has prompted some U.S. states torequire disclosure to consumers when this happens.Computer security has thus

become a major concern for merchants and e-commerce service providers, who

deploy countermeasures such asfirewalls andanti-virus software to protect their

networks.

Phishing is another danger, where consumers are fooled into thinking they are

dealing with a reputable retailer, when they have actually been manipulated into
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feeding private information to a system operated by a malicious party. Denial of

service attacks are a minor risk for merchants, as are server and network

outages.

Quality seals can be placed on the Shop web page if it has undergone an

independent assessment and meets all requirements of the company issuing the

seal. The purpose of these seals is to increase the confidence of the online

shoppers; the existence of many different seals, or seals unfamiliar to

consumers, may foil this effort to a certain extent.

A number of resources offer advice on how consumers can protect themselves

when using online retailer services. These include:

Sticking with known stores, or attempting to find independent consumer

reviews of their experiences; also ensuring that there is comprehensive

contact information on the website before using the service, and noting if

the retailer has enrolled in industry oversight programs such as trust mark

or trust seal.

Before buying from a new company, evaluate the website by considering

issues such as: the professionalism and user-friendliness of the site;

whether or not the company lists a telephone number and/or street

address along with e-contact information; whether a fair and reasonablerefund and return policy is clearly stated; and whether there are hidden

price inflators, such as excessive shipping and handling charges.

Ensuring that the retailer has an acceptable privacy policy posted. For

example note if the retailer does not explicitly state that it will not share

private information with others without consent.

Ensuring that the vendor address is protected with SSL (see above) when

entering credit card information. If it does the address on the credit card

information entry screen will start with "HTTPS".

Using strong passwords, without personal information. Another option is a

"pass phrase," which might be something along the lines: "I shop 4 good a

buy!!" These are difficult to hack, and provides a variety of upper, lower,

and special characters and could be site specific and easy to remember.
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Although the benefits of online shopping are considerable, when the process

goes poorly it can create a thorny situation. A few problems that shoppers

potentially face include identity theft, faulty products, and the accumulation of spy

ware. Most large online corporations are inventing new ways to make fraud more

difficult, however, the criminals are constantly responding to these developments

with new ways to manipulate the system. Even though these efforts are making it

easier to protect yourself online, it is a constant fight to maintain the lead. It is

advisable to be aware of the most current technology and scams out there to fully

protect yourself and your finances.[23].

One of the hardest areas to deal with in online shopping is the delivery of the

products. Most companies offer shipping insurance in case the product is lost or

damaged; however, if the buyer opts not to purchase insurance on their products,

they are generally out of luck. Some shipping companies will offer refunds or

compensation for the damage, but it is up to their discretion if this will happen. It

is important to realize that once the product leaves the hands of the seller, they

have no responsibility (provided the product is what the buyer ordered and is in

the specified condition).

Privacy

Privacy of personal information is a significant issue for some consumers.

Different legal jurisdictions have different laws concerning consumer privacy, and

different levels of enforcement. Many consumers wish to avoid spam and

telemarketing which could result from supplying contact information to an online

merchant. In response, many merchants promise not to use consumer

information for these purposes, or provide a mechanism to opt-out of such

contacts.

Brick-and-mortar stores also collect consumer information. Some ask for address

and phone number at checkout, though consumers may refuse to provide it.Many larger stores use the address information encoded on consumers' credit

cards (often without their knowledge) to add them to a catalog mailing list. This

information is obviously not accessible to the merchant when paying in cash.

Product suitability

Category U.S. online sales (2006)
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Apparel, accessories and footwear $18.3 billion

Computer hardware and software $17.2 billion

Autos and auto parts $16.7 billion

Home furnishings $10.0 billionTotal products sales (excluding travel)$146.4 billion

Travel $73.5 billion

Many successful purely virtual companies deal with digital products, (including

information storage, retrieval, and modification), music, movies, office supplies,

education, communication, software, photography, and financial transactions.

Examples of this type of company include: Google, eBay and Paypal. Other

successful marketers use Drop shipping or affiliate marketing techniques tofacilitate transactions of tangible goods without maintaining real inventory.

Examples include numerous sellers on eBay.

Some non-digital products have been more successful than others for online

stores. Profitable items often have a high value-to-weight ratio, they may involve

embarrassing purchases, they may typically go to people in remote locations,

and they may have shut-ins as their typical purchasers.[citation needed] Items which

can fit through a standard letterbox such as music CDs, DVDs and books

are particularly suitable for a virtual marketer, and indeed Amazon.com,one of

the few enduringdot-com companies,has historically concentrated on this field

Products such as spare parts, both for consumer items like washing machines

and for industrial equipment like centrifugal pumps, also seem good candidates

for selling online. Retailers often need to order spare parts specially, since they

typically do not stock them at consumer outletsin such cases, e-commerce

solutions in spares do not compete with retail stores, only with other ordering

systems. A factor for success in this niche can consist of providing customers

with exact, reliable information about which part number their particular version of

a product needs, for example by providing parts lists keyed by serial

numberProducts less suitable for e-commerce include products that have a low

value-to-weight ratio, products that have a smell, taste, or touch component,

products that need trial fittings most notably clothing and products where

colour integrity appears important. Nonetheless, Tesco.com has had success
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_shoppinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paypalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_shippinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_neededhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_neededhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_neededhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.comhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_companyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tescohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tescohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_companyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.comhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_neededhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_shippinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paypalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_shopping


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delivering groceries in the UK, albeit that many of its goods are of a generic

quality, and clothing sold through the internet is big business in the U.S. Also, the

recycling program Cheapcycle sells goods over the internet, but avoids the low

value-to-weight ratio problem by creating different groups for various regions, so

that shipping costs remain low

COMPANY PROFILE IF PROJECT IS BASED ON

SPECIFIC COMPANY

Letsbuy.com aims to be one of the largest Internet retailers of branded computer

technology and digital lifestyle products with more than 5000 products from top

international and domestic brands.Our business philosophy is simple: offer consumers and businesses what they

want, when they want it.

Products

We offer our customers over 5000 quality products, and our list of product

categories and product offerings is growing every day.Letsbuy customers know

theyre getting the best prices and exclusive offers on a huge range of computer

technology products like desktops, notebooks, printers, mobile phones,

networking, digital cameras, software, storage and more. Plus, we offer other

interesting products such as LCD TVs, MP3 players, gaming and home

electronics.

Our direct association with all the major brands means our customers will always

find special deals on great products from the biggest names in the industry. And
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cheapcycle&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cheapcycle&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom


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to help our customers choose the right products, we make it easy to find

availability, pricing, reviews and ratings.

Service

At Letsbuy.com, our focus has always been on helping customers save time and

money. This is why weve invested in building a website that allows them to

securely manage their accounts without intervention. Its the empowering, 24/7

self service approach that ensures we keep our customers satisfied, and our

prices competitive.

At the beginning of the century, social life was mostly local. It was followed by a

period in which commodities were produced on a mass scale. Consumer

Marketing operated on mass marketing principles, and business primarily

concerned itself with how to built the best sales force. At the end of the century,

there is an emerging global culture. The major driver of these changes is

technology. Technological change has moved steadily back focussing on the

individual. These changes shape the possibility and conduct of business.

Marketing is especially tied to communication and transportation revolution. As

the tools and reach of marketing increase, the job and responsibilities of

marketers have evolved with them.

Kotler formalized this evolution with his book "Marketing Management." His key

stages are production, sales and brand management. Each of these is strongly

motivated by technological opportunities, which permit new methods and new

opportunities. A fourth stage, a focus on the individual customer, is also

important. As the new technology of the Internet develops, it reinforces the new

marketing emphasis - which in many ways is a return to business at the turn of

the century.

In todays technology driven world, a new fast paced digital economy is

emerging. Tomorrow there will be companies that will exist only inside computer

networks. Most business transactions will be made electronically, directly from

the producer to the consumer, bypassing the supply chain. In the digital

marketing environment, the consumer becomes an integral player in the


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development of the product. In fact, a consumer might build the product himself

from a wide array of parts provided by the Company. It is e-commerce that is

changing the way products and services are conceived, manufactured,

promoted, priced, distributed and sold. The reason being that it is much cheaper;

it allows vast coverage and helps in serving the customer better.

Growth of Internet usage and E-commerce:

According to the research report of Goldman Sachs, India will emerge as the

second largest Internet market in Asia after China with 70 million users by 2003.

It estimates that Indian Internet Users will increase by 130% compounded annual

growth rate (CAGR) from 0.5 million users recorded at end of 1998. Also by

March 2001, there will be over 80 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and at least

12 private international gateways. As per preliminary findings of the NASSCOM

survey, the total volume of E-commerce transactions in India was about Rs.131

crore in the year 1998-99. Out of this volume, about Rs.12 crore were contributed

by retail Internet or Business-to-Consumer transactions, and about Rs.119 crore

were contributed by Business-to-Business transactions. The survey also

revealed that E-Business transactions in India are expected to exceed Rs.300

crore during 1999-2000. Out of this, about Rs.50 crore could comprise of retail

transactions. For Business-to-Business transactions, Indian industries are

expected to reach online penetration of 2% by 2003 and 8% by 2008.

Product on the Internet usually changes form online, and the user experiences it

electronically, in the form of text, images and multimedia. Physical goods are

usually presented in the form of a detailed online catalogue that the customer

can browse through. Technology allows the user to virtually touch and feel the

product on the Internet - rotate it, zoom in or zoom out and even visualize theproduct in different configurations and combination. Content and software are

two avatars of digitized products that can be even distributed over the Internet.

On the Internet, E-marketing will be based more on the product qualities rather

than on the price. Every company will be able to bring down the cost of its

products and hence competition will not be on price. It will rather be on the

uniqueness of the product. To be able to attract the customers and retain them,

the company will have to provide nouvelle and distinct products that forces the

net users to purchase and come back for more.


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COMPETITION INFORMATION

Launched in january 2008, naaptol has grown to become india's leading

comparison based social shopping portal, the one-stop destination for all

shoppers, merchants and market enthusiasts To begin with naaptol does not sell

directly. What it does is it initiates' selling. With the sudden upsurge of brands

and stores, both online and offline, that claim to sell the best of the products at

the most reasonable prices the shopper goes crazy. What is the assurance that

the price offered to him is the best? Normally before making a buying decision of

an expensive product the consumer does an in depth research on the product

from various websites which is an extremely tedious task. He would often wish a

single website that would meet all his buying needs. Thus fulfiling this motive is

came naaptol.com in january 2008.

Started as a brainchild of two people naaptol has grown to about 60 odd

employees within a span of 1 year. Not only in terms of employees but theorganization has grown in other respects too. From nil sellers naaptol has grown

to 500 stores in its portfolio and still counting. And that's not all! There are about

470 brands that are associated with naaptol which include indiatimes shopping,

ferns and petals, home shop 18, j j mehta and the likes. This has all been

possible due to the dedicated and efficient team of naaptoleers who strive all

along to get nothing but the best. Be it sales, operations, technology or

marketing, all teams work in unison with each other to reach the top. Thus for

naaptol we are not specifically looking for people who have all the knowledge

,but we are also looking for people who have the 'it' factor. We are looking for

people who are full of life, are willing to learn and most importantly are willing to

work as a team.


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OBJECTIVE

To study how letsbuy.comCreate a system that is easily accessible by

customers from the comfort of their homes, offices etc.

To study letsbuy.com customer perception towards Reduce the flow ofhuman traffic and long queues at banks.

To Study the perception towards Reduce the time wasted in going to

banks to stay on queues.

To study Promote efficient and effective banking for the banks by focusing

on those services that still require physical presence at the banking hall.


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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

SAMPLE SIZE

100 people would take for this report

PRIMARY DATA

Data has been collected through one to one interaction and discussion with

various people who are involved in the business Event activities to boost its

business and brand. Interaction with customers during such Event activities

would enable to understand the success ratio of such kind of Event activities.

Various products of the company would be discussed with respect to their

benefits and advantages. Various insurance players would be compared with

respect to their market share and products that they offer.

SECONDARY DATA

A secondary data is that data that is required to conduct the study and can be

obtained from books, journals, magazines, records etc. Secondary data is data

taken by the researcher from secondary sources, internal or external. Secondary

data is collected from following sources: -

1) Magazines and journals

2) Company websites.

3) Internet

4) BooksLIMITATION

Many constraints were involved in doing this study. Some of them are as follows.

The most significant limitation has been the individuals involved in this

study were very busy and did not spare much time in discussion.

The sample size selected for the survey was too small as compared to

large population.


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The project was carried out only in the Delhi, so findings on data gathered

can be best true for Delhi only and not applicable to other parts of state

and country.

Indian stock market is a market where sentiments play a major role in price;

hence 100% accurate predictions cannot be made about its future path


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LITRATURE REVIEW

As internet is a global showcase of information at the click of a button, vendors

host severs sources to market their good and services internationally and buyers

buy these services regardless of where ever they may be located. E-commerce

is the buying and selling of garment products via the communications capabilities

of private and public computer networks, including the Internet (Rao, 2006: 532).

The Internet will bring radical change to automation in trading. By providing a

omnipresent public network and standards for communication, the Internet will

help businesses lower costs in EDI-like transactions. More importantly, the

Internet will make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to participatein automated commerce transactions. Many businesses, be it small, medium,

and largewill soon send and receive the majority of their purchase orders and

invoices over the Internet (Chaffey, 2007).

The study is analyzing the impact of e-commerce on access to global markets for

India. An area where Indian Garment Companies can use E commerce at this

stage of its development is at the export front. Companies that export to the

developed countries can utilize E commerce to get access to customers in these

countries that are using the Internet more and more for their business and also

for their personal needs, and where the Internet connectivity is very high.

COMMERCE & E-COMMERCE

Commerce is a dissection of trade or production that deals with the exchange of

goods and services from producer to the end-consumer. Something of economic

value is traded for example goods, services, information or money between twoor more entities and that is what we called commerce. Commerce works as a

central mechanism that drives capitalism and some other economic systems.

Commercialization is a process of transforming something into a product, service

or activity which one would then use in commerce, which is primarily money

transaction. [Watson, Peter, 2005]. The basic difference between Trade &

Commerce could primarily be expressed as an abstract notion for buying and


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selling, whereas trade may refer to the exchange of a specific class of goods.

Today commerce essentially includes a complex range of system and companies

that try to maximize their profits by offering various products and services to the

market maintain a low production-cost and increasing return on investment.

[Davies, Glyn, 2002]. Delivery of goods and services is an essential part of

commerce and we call it Trading. Existence of Trade exists is for many reasons

such as due to specialisation and division of labor, concentration on a small

aspect of production, trading for other products. It exists between regions

because different regions would have a comparative and competitive advantage

in the production of some tradable commodity, or because different regions of

different size allows for different benefits for mass production [Watson, Peter,

2005]. Advertising and brand promotion and a huge amount of ad spend is

definitely an essentials of this game of commerce. When its business, it means a

lot of thing included and a large perspective is to reach the end consumer at

ease taking care of the return on investment. Trade going International becomes

exchange of goods and services across the national borders. This particularly

contributes a significant part of the GDP. International trade has increased

because of industrialization, advanced transportation, globalization, multinational

entities and outsourcing. But gradually we entered an era of technological

comfort and our life got changed. Life comes with business and therefore,

business or just the way we do business got changed as well [Weisbrot, Mark,

2005].

Electronic commerce or e-commerce or eCommerce, means buying and selling

of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other

computer networks. The volume of trade done electronically has grown

immensely since the spread of the Information Technology and Internetspecifically. Variety of commerce is conducted electronically. Innovations in field

of electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online

transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management

systems, and automated data collection systems has been brought about by

e=commerce for the ease of consumer transaction and other benefits. It is the

World Wide Web platform on which the modern electronic commerce is done.


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Most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items by

logistics mode and some serves virtual products. Online retailers are known as e-

tailers and online retail is called e-tail. Contemporary way of trading and

commerce is mostly e-commerce oriented or driven and almost all big retailers

have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web today. (Chaudhury,

Abijit; Jean-Pierre Kuilboer, 2002).

E-commerce is considered to be the sales aspect of electronic business. It also

consists of the exchange of data in order to facilitate the financing and payment

aspects of the business transactions. The entire meaning of e-commerce has

changed over the last three decades. Through the use of technology like

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) the

electronic transaction of business of goods and commodities and financial

transactions are carried on. From signing and agreeing to terms of business till

making the actual payment, everything is carried on electronically. The growth

and acceptance of automated payment, credit card, debit cards, ATM online

shopping and payment, phone banking and many more are only the by products

of e-commerce industry. Larger the transaction, ease of business is even better.

(Chaudhury, Abijit; Jean-Pierre Kuilboer, 2002).

Terms like e-business, e-commerce, net shopping, online retailing, e-culture, e-

age, the virtual world and portals are fast becoming part of our new business

language (RIGA, 1998). Electronic commerce is defined as sale or purchase of

goods or services through the application of information and communication

technology from its point of origin to its endpoint along the entire value chain of

business processes conducted electronically and designed to enable the

accomplishment of a business goal (Wigand, 1997; Kansititorn, Poopparadai andSmutkput, 2005). E-business which primarily includes online purchasing, and

providing product and service information, which allow for cutting of costs,

improving the quality of goods, and increasing the speed of service (Kleindl,

2000). The world wide web provides a wide range of benefits including a

relatively inexpensive means of accessing global markets, niche markets and low

cost communication medium (Poon & Swatman, 1997; Kleindl, 2000).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Interchangehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Interchangehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Funds_Transferhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Funds_Transferhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Funds_Transferhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Interchange


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The scope of this study is to understand the potential that e-commerce holds for

Readymade Garment exporters in India and also to gain an insight into what new

opportunities can be opened up and how best these opportunities can be

exploited.

Electronic commerce or e-commerce or eCommerce, means buying and selling

of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other

computer networks. The volume of trade done electronically has grown

immensely since the spread of the Information Technology and Internet

specifically. Variety of commerce is conducted electronically. Innovations in field

of electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online

transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management

systems, and automated data collection systems has been brought about by

e=commerce for the ease of consumer transaction and other benefits. It is the

World Wide Web platform on which the modern electronic commerce is done.

Most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items by

logistics mode and some serves virtual products. Online retailers are known as e-

tailers and online retail is called e-tail. Contemporary way of trading and

commerce is mostly e-commerce oriented or driven and almost all big retailers

have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web today. (Chaudhury,

Abijit; Jean-Pierre Kuilboer, 2002).

Terms like e-business, e-commerce, net shopping, online retailing, e-culture, e-

age, the virtual world and portals are fast becoming part of our new business

language (RIGA, 1998). Electronic commerce is defined as sale or purchase of

goods or services through the application of information and communicationtechnology from its point of origin to its endpoint along the entire value chain of

business processes conducted electronically and designed to enable the

accomplishment of a business goal (Wigand, 1997; Kansititorn, Poopparadai and

Smutkput, 2005). E-business which primarily includes online purchasing, and

providing product and service information, which allow for cutting of costs,

improving the quality of goods, and increasing the speed of service (Kleindl,


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2000). The world wide web provides a wide range of benefits including a

relatively inexpensive means of accessing global markets, niche markets and low

cost communication medium (Poon & Swatman, 1997; Kleindl, 2000).

Internet is now available through the world and through internet an export firm

can reach out to customers who have access to internet. Thus, a firm can reach

beyond its geographic location and its current customer segment. In other words,

e-commerce has increased the reach of export firms whereby they can operate

globally (Kinyanjui, 2002).

E-commerce means better quicker customer service. For companies that do

business with other firms, adding customer service to the web is a competitive

advantage. The overnight package delivery service, where tracking number

allows customers to check the whereabouts of a package online, is one good

example (Awad, 2006: p.15).

It facilitates higher profit margins for the business by reducing the costs of

various kinds of commercial transactions and cutting delays in receiving

payments from customers. It also saves a lot by replacing manual transactions

with electronic transactions. A well prepared eCommerce strategy can increase

sales from mere 10 percent to several times within the first six month of

implementation. There is a possibility that order size per customer will also

increase thanks to some eCommerce functionalities like advanced eCatalog,

Notification service, order status viewing system and ability to offer related

products (Nowshade Kabir, 2002).

Internet provides a form for interaction between export firms and also between

firms and their customers. Through internet suppliers, manufacturers,

distributors, retailers, exporters are able to share information on the inventory

and enhance the flow of information and goods through the supply chain. Nowthe exchange of multimedia information has been made possible which fastens

better relationships among the participants. The real time capability of the

internet provides a sense of teamwork and shared goals among the participants

(Kinyanjui, 2002). The Ecommerce improved image, improved customer service,

new found business partners, simplified processors, compressed cycle and

delivery time, increased productivity, eliminating paper, expanding access to


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information, reduced transportation cost and increased flexibility (Humphrey,

2002).

Many organisations are eager to engage themselves in the e-business trend

through the application of the Internet technology which incorporates eminent

and fascinating functions such as Interactive Communications, Dynamic

inventory, Customer order tracking, Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

etc. However, companies are usually are eager to develop their corporate

websites which contain typically the same information as they put in the Yellow

pages and which is rarely updated. This is an unplanned approach and as a

result of such unplanned approach, senior executives are most likely to diminish

the budget and human resources involvement and eventually suspend the e-

transformation project. To successfully transform small and medium- sized firms

into e-capable companies, an e-transformation roadmap which focuses on not

only the website development, but also the involvement of employees as

individuals, project or task teams as groups, as well as the entire company as a

single entity. This proposed roadmap consists of eight phases: basic website,

interactive website, e-commerce website, effective individual, effective group,

effective enterprise, convergence, and new emerging business processes. Initial

six phases of the roadmap aims into internal and external development

approaches of which the internal development approach is mainly concerned

with the transition of effectiveness with a company and is constructed of the

development of effective individuals toward the effective enterprise. On the other

hand, the external development approach is essentially related to the

construction of the website and its functionalities. It is based on the development

of a static, information only website to wards e-commerce competent world wide

web platform. (Wigand, 1997; Kansititorn, Poopparadai and Smutkput, 2005).


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The E-transformation Roadmap

Source

If we talk about only a website, there could many a times of websites that a

company can create to infuse customer interaction model for their business such

as Basic Website, Interactive Website, E-commerce Website etc. First the

organization goes through transformation phase at an individual stage, then

transformation at a group level, and then finally it changes or transforms the

enterprise as a whole, its perspective and acceptability in the market.

A basic website refers to a static and information only website for any company.

This forms a preliminary external development phase that enterprises could use

the Internet as the media for disseminating marketing and advertising campaigns

and products information. Internet is employed as the same way as they have

been using in the conventional promotion mediums such as magazines,

newspapers, and product catalogues and so on at this stage. Primarily in this

phase it is important to ensure the corporate web presence with the appropriate

contents incorporated. In an interactive website, companies construct their

websites towards more advanced functions. Such websites are seen as an

interactive website which provides the website visitor (e.g. clients, vendors,

employees etc) with dynamic and up to date information. Primary concept of the

dynamic contents emphasises on the connection and interface between the front-

end website and the back-end database systems. The task of an interactive

website is to identify the dynamic contents availability on the Internet. But the


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ultimate e-transformation comes from e-commerce website where the objective is

to construct an e-commerce or online payment enabled website. Through this the

customers are able to place sales orders, organise accounts payables; vendors

or suppliers are able to remit invoices and receive payments; and the enterprise

could arrange payrolls and any other expenses. An important job in this phase is

to focus on the development of secure environment that provides all business

parties confidently trading through the Internet.

In this phase which is called individual convergence each employee should have

suitable IT facilities that will support their individual needs to carry out daily

business activities. The appropriate IT facilities support individuals including

personal computers, laptops, word processing applications, and spreadsheets

applications, building up a consolidated reporting and record management

system with just a click of a mouse. The working process and phenomena of an

individual worker changes completely. In an effective group approach the

development of an effective group as a whole happens within an enterprise. Here

an important aspect is team work using the diverse skills of individual employees

and resulting efficient outcomes and without a doubt, the IT and information

systems are the keys to provide an effective team or group environment. And

when moving from the effective group development towards an effective

enterprise development, the total transformation happens for the entire working

of the firm.

Once the internal and external developments have been done and a mature

status of e-commerce has been developed reached the mature status there

comes the convergence stage for the company. Through e-commerce website

and effective enterprise stages, companies are able to competent to convergeboth internal and external into a single operation. Due to this convergence phase

a number of new business processes are emerging. Such new business

processes generally relate to the activities of handling the business behaviors

amongst business parties (clients, suppliers, and the enterprise itself), including

customer relationship management (CRM), supplier relationship management


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(SRM), supply chain management (SCM), and knowledge management (KM) to

name a few.

E-commerce advantages

Some advantages that can be achieved from e-commerce include:

Being able to conduct business 24 x 7 x 365 . E-commerce systems

can operate all day every day. Your physical storefront does not need to

be open in order for customers and suppliers to be doing business with

you electronically.

Access the global marketplace . The Internet spans the world, and it is

possible to do business with any business or person who is connected to

the Internet. Simple local businesses such as specialist record stores are

able to market and sell their offerings internationally using e-commerce.

This global opportunity is assisted by the fact that, unlike traditional

communications methods, users are not charged according to the

distance over which they are communicating.

Speed. Electronic communications allow messages to traverse the world

almost instantaneously. There is no need to wait weeks for a catalogue to

arrive by post: that communications delay is not a part of the Internet / e-

commerce world.

Marketspace. The market in which web-based businesses operate is the

global market. It may not be evident to them, but many businesses are

already facing international competition from web-enabled businesses.

Opportunity to reduce costs. The Internet makes it very easy to 'shop

around' for products and services that may be cheaper or more effective

than we might otherwise settle for. It is sometimes possible to, through

some online research, identify original manufacturers for some goods -

thereby bypassing wholesalers and achieving a cheaper price. Computer platform-independent . 'Many, if not most, computers have

the ability to communicate via the Internet independent of operating

systems and hardware. Customers are not limited by existing hardware

systems' (Gascoyne & Ozcubukcu, 1997:87).

Efficient applications development environment - 'In many respects,

applications can be more efficiently developed and distributed because


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the can be built without regard to the customer's or the business partner's

technology platform. Application updates do not have to be manually

installed on computers. Rather, Internet-related technologies provide this

capability inherently through automatic deployment of software updates'

(Gascoyne & Ozcubukcu, 1997:87).

Allowing customer self service and 'customer outsourcing'. People

can interact with businesses at any hour of the day that it is convenient to

them, and because these interactions are initiated by customers, the

customers also provide a lot of the data for the transaction that may

otherwise need to be entered by business staff. This means that some of

the work and costs are effectively shifted to customers; this is referred to

as 'customer outsourcing'.

Stepping beyond borders to a global view. Using aspects of e-

commerce technology can mean your business can source and use

products and services provided by other businesses in other countries.

This seems obvious enough to say, but people do not always consider the

implications of e-commerce. For example, in many ways it can be easier

and cheaper to host and operate some e-commerce activities outside

Australia. Further, because many e-commerce transactions involve credit

cards, many businesses in Australia need to make arrangements for

accepting online payments. However a number of major Australian banks

have tended to be unhelpful laggards on this front, charging a lot of money

and making it difficult to establish these arrangements - particularly for

smaller businesses and/or businesses that don't fit into a traditional-

economy understanding of business. In some cases, therefore, it can be

easier and cheaper to set up arrangements which bypass this aspect of

the Australian banking system. Admittedly, this can create some greyareas for legal and taxation purposes, but these can be dealt with. And

yes these circumstances do have implications for Australia's national

competitiveness and the competitiveness of our industries and

businesses.

As a further thought, many businesses find it easier to buy and sell in U.S.

dollars: it is effectively the major currency of the Internet. In this context, global


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online customers can find the concept of peculiar and unfamiliar currencies

disconcerting. Some businesses find they can achieve higher prices online and in

US dollars than they would achieve selling locally or nationally. Given that banks

often charge fees for converting currencies, this is another reason to investigate

all of your (national and international) options for accepting and making online

payments.

In brief, it is useful to take a global view with regard the potential and

organisation of your e-commerce activities, especially if you are targeting global

customers.

A new marketing channel. The Internet provides an important new

channel to sell to consumers. Peterson et al. (1999) suggest that, as a

marketing channel, the Internet has the following characteristics:

the ability to inexpensively store vast amounts of information at different

virtual locations

the availability of powerful and inexpensive means of searching,

organising, and disseminating such information

interactivity and the ability to provide information on demand

the ability to provide perceptual experiences that are far superior to a

printed catalogue, although not as rich as personal inspection

the capability to serve as a transaction medium

the ability to serve as a physical distribution medium for certain goods

(e.g., software)

relatively low entry and establishment costs for sellers

no other existing marketing channel possesses all of these characteristics.

Some of these advantages and their surrounding issues are discussed below in

further detail.

E-commerce disadvantages and constraintsSome disadvantages and constraints of e-commerce include the following.

Time for delivery of physical products . It is possible to visit a local

music store and walk out with a compact disc, or a bookstore and leave

with a book. E-commerce is often used to buy goods that are not available

locally from businesses all over the world, meaning that physical goods

need to be delivered, which takes time and costs money. In some cases


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there are ways around this, for example, with electronic files of the music

or books being accessed across the Internet, but then these are not

physical goods.

Physical product, supplier & delivery uncertainty . When you walk out

of a shop with an item, it's yours. You have it; you know what it is, where it

is and how it looks. In some respects e-commerce purchases are made on

trust. This is because, firstly, not having had physical access to the

product, a purchase is made on an expectation of what that product is and

its condition. Secondly, because supplying businesses can be conducted

across the world, it can be uncertain whether or not they are legitimate

businesses and are not just going to take your money. It's pretty hard to

knock on their door to complain or seek legal recourse! Thirdly, even if the

item is sent, it is easy to start wondering whether or not it will ever arrive.

Perishable goods . Forget about ordering a single gelato ice cream from

a shop in Rome! Though specialised or refrigerated transport can be used,

goods bought and sold via the Internet tend to be durable and non-

perishable: they need to survive the trip from the supplier to the

purchasing business or consumer. This shifts the bias for perishable

and/or non-durable goods back towards traditional supply chain

arrangements, or towards relatively more local e-commerce-based

purchases, sales and distribution. In contrast, durable goods can be

traded from almost anyone to almost anyone else, sparking competition

for lower prices. In some cases this leads to disintermediation in which

intermediary people and businesses are bypassed by consumers and by

other businesses that are seeking to purchase more directly from

manufacturers.

Limited and selected sensory information. The Internet is an effectiveconduit for visual and auditory information: seeing pictures, hearing

sounds and reading text. However it does not allow full scope for our

senses: we can see pictures of the flowers, but not smell their fragrance;

we can see pictures of a hammer, but not feel its weight or balance.

Further, when we pick up and inspect something, we choose what we look

at and how we look at it. This is not the case on the Internet. If we were


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looking at buying a car on the Internet, we would see the pictures the

seller had chosen for us to see but not the things we might look for if we

were able to see it in person. And, taking into account our other senses,

we can't test the car to hear the sound of the engine as it changes gears

or sense the smell and feel of the leather seats. There are many ways in

which the Internet does not convey the richness of experiences of the

world. This lack of sensory information means that people are often much

more comfortable buying via the Internet generic goods - things that they

have seen or experienced before and about which there is little ambiguity,

rather than unique or complex things.

Returning goods. Returning goods online can be an area of difficulty.

The uncertainties surrounding the initial payment and delivery of goods

can be exacerbated in this process. Will the goods get back to their

source? Who pays for the return postage? Will the refund be paid? Will I

be left with nothing? How long will it take? Contrast this with the offline

experience of returning goods to a shop.

Privacy, security, payment, identity, contract. Many issues arise -

privacy of information, security of that information and payment details,

whether or not payment details (eg credit card details) will be misused,

identity theft, contract, and, whether we have one or not, what laws and

legal jurisdiction apply.

Defined services & the unexpected . E-commerce is an effective means

for managing the transaction of known and established services, that is,

things that are everyday. It is not suitable for dealing with the new or

unexpected. For example, a transport company used to dealing with

simple packages being asked if it can transport a hippopotamus, or a

customer asking for a book order to be wrapped in blue and white polkadot paper with a bow. Such requests need human intervention to

investigate and resolve.

Personal service . Although some human interaction can be facilitated

via the web, e-commerce can not provide the richness of interaction

provided by personal service. For most businesses, e-commerce methods

provide the equivalent of an information-rich counter attendant rather than


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a salesperson. This also means that feedback about how people react to

product and service offerings also tends to be more granular or perhaps

lost using e-commerce approaches. If your only feedback is that people

are (or are not) buying your products or services online, this is inadequate

for evaluating how to change or improve your e-commerce strategies

and/or product and service offerings. Successful business use of e-

commerce typically involves strategies for gaining and applying customer

feedback. This helps businesses to understand, anticipate and meet

changing online customer needs and preferences, which is critical

because of the comparatively rapid rate of ongoing Internet-based

change.

Size and number of transactions. E-commerce is most often conducted

using credit card facilities for payments, and as a result very small and

very large transactions tend not to be conducted online. The size of

transactions is also impacted by the economics of transporting physical

goods. For example, any benefits or conveniences of buying a box of pens

online from a US-based business tend to be eclipsed by the cost of having

to pay for them to be delivered to you in Australia. The delivery costs also

mean that buying individual items from a range of different overseas

businesses is significantly more expensive than buying all of the goods

from one overseas business because the goods can be packaged and

shipped together.

Reflecting some of the comments above, the following chart (Figure 1.6) shows

some of the complaints made by Australian e-consumers

.


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ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

Sources influencing your purchase decision

Newspaper

Television

Website

Friends and Relatives advice

Other (please specify)___________________

Source influences

Newspaper 27

Television 15

Website 46Friends and Relatives advice 12

Other 0

As per our primary data suggested that people are using Internet to purchasethere semi luxuries goods, which they found one of the most reliable sources of

information 46% of the people are suggested that website is the most influence

source of information of them although first influence that customer receive from

the Television as suggested by the 15% of the customer out of 100 people who

has been surveyed for the company.

Newspaper

27%

Television

15%Website

46%

Friends and

Relatives advice

12%

Other

0%

Source influences


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1) Frequency of internet usage-

Everyday

Several times a week

About once a week

Several times a month

Frequency of

Internet Surfing

Everyday 34

Several times a week 13

About once a week 15

Several times a month 38

As per our objective of this study is the scope of online Shopping for the

Automobile Industry in India, there is obvious growth that Indian industry found

as the growing population of the Internet users. 38% of the people suggested

that the they are surfing internet several times in a month while 34% of the

people suggested them surfing on Internet Every day.


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2) internet accessability-

Home

Office

Cyber caf

Other (please specify)___________________

Surfing Internet

from

Home 37

Office 42

Cyber caf 12Other 9

Internet Shopping will be the more effective when people either use internet on

home or in the office as this question suggested that the 42% of the people said

office is the place where they most of time surfing Internet this is one group

which is more prospective buyer for the Letbuy.com. 37% of the people

suggested that they have Internet in home adding to this 12% of the people

suggested that cyber Caf is the place where they are surfing internet.

Home37%

Office

42%

Cyber caf

12% Other

9%

Surfing Internet from


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3) Purpose for internet usage-

Information gathering

Shopping

News

Stock market

E-mailing

Other (please specify)_____________________

Purpose For Using

Internet

Information gathering 38

Shopping 9

News 21

Stock market 21

E-mailing 10

Other 1

Infect people

using very frequently internet and the purpose of the using internet is varying

also as per our study suggested that the 38% of the people are using Internet for

Information gathering adding to this 21% of the people suggested that they are

using most of time Internet because of the taking information of Stock market.


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One of the surprising result suggested that 9% of the people are using Internet

for the shopping.

4) Searching pages on the internet -

Followed link from another web page

By using a search engine

Read about it in newspaper/magazine

Referred by friends &relatives

Other (please specify)_______________________

Finding

the proper

Website

Followed link from another web page 32By using a search engine 22

vishnu new trends of e-marketing by online firms jims3

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