Online Marketing Strategy for Retail Businesses

By

ABSTRACT

While the core concepts of marketing have not changed, the Internet provides opportunities to engage with customers in a way that marketers a generation ago could not have imagined. Marketing executives and managers who embrace optimization technology will be well position for the future of marketing. Investing in collaboration, driving toward multichannel marketing, and focusing on delivering a personalized customer experience will create a lasting competitive advantage. The transition to optimizing online may indeed pose challenges for the modern marketer, but the companies who do make this transition become the true innovators. Nowadays more businesses are using the Internet as an efficient way to reach as many customers as possible. It is more than just for email; companies now use the web for advertising, sales and communicating with consumers. As a result, workers who are well versed in Internet applications are in demand. Although social networking websites such as Face book and Twitter were once considered distractions, many organizations and companies are utilizing these social networks to market their products and services. More technological innovations is leading us to the new era of online marketing. The purpose of this study is to analyse the concept of online retailing and its application in the UK retailing industry and discuss various online retailing strategies adopted by retail stores and their effectiveness.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACTii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the Study1

Research Objectives2

Significance of the Study2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW4

Online Marketing4

Online Retailing5

Online Retailing Strategies6

Consumer Perception and Behaviour Regarding Online Retailing9

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY13

Research Design13

Research Objectives14

Survey15

Sample15

Data analysis16

Position of the Researcher16

Reliability and Dependability17

Validity17

REFERENCES18

APPENDIX22

Appendix A: Consent form22

Appendix B: Questionnaire Survey23

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The online shopping or the marketing industry can be said to be just arrived and explored under the wings of the internet. The internet was primarily developed for knowledge and information transfer and its utilisation were initially limited to these factors. Observing its growth this platform was gradually converting to an ideal shopping or merchandising place benefitting both B2C and B2B (consumers). In case of Business to consumers dealing the online shopping has resulted in direct shopping where merchants are dealing directly with the consumers cutting down the cost of retailing and wholesaling. This is also saving time for them. The manufacturers when deals directly with the powerful retailers only is said to be in B2B contexts. Same advantages of time saving and cost saving is obtained but also push strategy is applied to produce sale. Today by using and exploiting this major breakthrough we have witnessed boom not only of business online in specific territory but also globalisation has been made more convenient in terms of reach, information and knowledge.

The western countries with global giants have benefitted the most. Looking towards only in the UK the internet economy claims to be of £100 billion a year. It is growing at a super speed of 10% every year in the UK employing 250,000 people. The Internet has become a major retail channel. As technology develops, consumers become more comfortable with online shopping ...