Now a days, life has become very fast. Most of the people do not prefer going to shops for shopping. Instead they prefer to do the same by sitting at home and ordering online. Thanks to the advancement of technology. It has brought the entire world within the grip of our hands. Just a click of a mouse on the computer can perform transactions of thousands and lacs. Thus most of the business today is taking place online. This feature is termed as e-commerce.
E commerce or electronic commerce is defined as the sale and procurement of supplies and servicesusing information systems technology. Sometimes it is also called as internet commerce. There are several definitions of e-commerce. According to Zwass, e-commerce is “the sharing of business information, maintaining businessrelationships, and the conducting business transactions by meansof telecommunications networks”. Daniel Minoli and Emma Minoli gave their view of Internet-based commerce as follows – “Electronic commerce is the symbiotic integration of communications, datamanagement, and security capabilities to allow business applications withindifferent organizations to automatically exchange information related tothe sale of goods and services.”
Benefits of Internet Commerce
Business benefits:
Reduced costs to buyers from increased competition on-line
Reduced costs to suppliers by on-line auction
Reduced errors, time, and overhead costs information processing
Reduced inventories, and warehouse
Increased access to real-time inventory information, speed-up ordering &purchasing processing time
Easier enter into new markets in an efficient way
Easily create new markets and get new customers
Automated business processing
Cost-effective document transfer
Reduced time to complete business transactions, speed-up the delivery time
Reduced business overhead and enhance business management
Marketing benefits:
Improved market analysis, product analysis and customer analysis.
Low-cost advertising
Easy to create and maintain customer o client database
Customer benefits:
Wide-scale information dissemination
Wide selection of good products and goods at the low price
Rapid inter-personal communications and information accesses
Wider access to assistance and to advice from experts and peers.
Save shopping time and money
Fast services and delivery
Now, we can see that, e-commerce not only benefits the consumers, but also the sellers a lot. To cope up with the increasing competition today, every organization has to develop selling option of its product through internet. Bunker Books, a twenty year old book company has also found this.
To set up e-commerce is not the only way out for the book company. It is also required proper advertisement to reach out to its customers. Bunker books was selling its product via traditional means of counter purchase since the last twenty years. Since it is now introducing e-selling facility, it must convey this to its existing customers and also try to attract new customers. Now a days, social networking is a very well known fashion. Hence, the company can target the youths by giving its advertisement in several social media sites. To make the customers attracted, it has to give some promotional offers like cash back, free gifts, discount coupon etc. These features attract more and more customers. They can also retain the new customers by sending offers on their email ids or mobile numbers.
The technological foundations of e-commerce are largely hidden, but they are the base on which electronic commerce is built. Kalakota and Whinston use the analogy of a traditional transportation company to describe the complexity of the network and how the different components that make up the technology infrastructure are interlinked.
The network infrastructure is like the network of roads that are interconnected and are of different widths, lengths and quality – for example, the Internet, local area networks, intranets. Network infrastructures also take different forms such as telephone wires, cables, wireless technology (such as satellite or cellular technology). The publishing infrastructure (including the World Wide Web, Web servers) can be seen as the infrastructure of vehicles and warehouses, which store and transport electronic data and multimedia content along the network. Multimedia content is created using myriad tools such as HTML and JAVA. This content can be very different with varying degrees of complexity similar to different vehicles travelling on the roads. For example, text only, or more complex is an application, such as a computer game, containing audio, video, graphics and a programme. Messaging and information distribution infrastructure are the engines and fuel, which transport the data around the network. Once the multimedia content is created, there has to be a means of sending and retrieving this information, for example by EDI, e-mail, Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. Once content and data can be created, displayed and transmitted, supporting business services are necessary for facilitating the buying,
selling and other transactions safely and reliably. For example, smart cards, authentication, electronic payment, directories/catalogues.
Another method for classifying e-commerce is by identifying the partners directly involved in the transaction. An informal version of this framework is being loosely applied in the use of the terms business-to-business (B-to-B), business-to-consumer (B-to-C) and consumer-to-consumer (C-to-C).
Business-to-Business (B-to-B): It is the exchange of products, services or information between business entities.
Business-to-consumer (B-to-C): It denotes the exchange of products, information or services between business and consumers in a retailing relationship. Some of the first examples of B-to-C e-commerce were amazon.com and dell.com in the USA and lastminute.com in the UK.
Business-to-Government (B-to-G): The exchange of information, services and products between business organizations and government agencies on-line denotes business to government.
Business-to-Peer Networks (B-to-P): This would be the provision of hardware, software or other services to the peer networks. An example here would be Napster who provided the software and facilities to enable peer networking.
Consumer-to-Business (C-to-B): This is the exchange of products, information or services from individuals to business. A classic example of this would be individuals selling their services to businesses.
Consumer-to-Consumer (C-to-C): In this category consumers interact directly with other consumers.
Consumer-to-Government (C-to-G): Examples where consumers provide services to government have yet to be implemented. See Government-to Business.
Consumer-to-Peer Networks (C-to-P): This is exactly part of what peer-to-peer networking is and so is a slightly redundant distinction since consumers offer their computing facilities once they are on the peer network.
Government-to-Business (G-to-B): It is also known as e-government. It is the exchange of information, services and products between government agencies and business organizations. Government sites offering information, forms and facilities to conduct transactions for individuals, including paying bills and submitting official forms on-line such as tax returns.
Government-to-Government (G-to-G): (Also known as e-government). Government-to-government transactions within countries linking local governments together and also international governments, especially within the European Union, which is in the early stages of developing coordinated strategies to link up different national systems.
Government-to-Peer Network (G-to-P): As yet there is no real example of this type of e-commerce.
Peer–to-Peer Network (P-to-P): This is the communications model in which each party has the same capabilities and either party can initiate a communication session.
Thus, while setting up e-commerce, Bunker books has to well establish all these networks very efficiently. Besides this, the store can tie up with major online shopping websites to attract more customers. For example, if Bunker book shop tie up with flipkart, world’s one of the leading online shopping website, then many more people can come to know about the book store. Then later on they can visit the book stores webpage particularly later on. If the book store offers higher discounts or give more offers on its own website, then number of buyers will increase.
This was just one aspect of increasing online sales by Bunker book store. Beside this, there are several other criteria, which the store should keep in mind. The book store must keep on notifying the customers via e-mail or sms about new books launched and new offers. This will attract more customers. The book lovers are crazy about the new launch. So, if they can get the same at their doorsteps with a few clicks on their gadgets, sales will really increase.
Again there are several books which are really expensive. For those books, the book store can launch some easy payment option. Suppose, the book store allows EMI option as an alternative payment mode for the expensive books, then it will attract many more customers. This will include those readers who are fond of reading, but cannot help restraining them from buying the books because of their budget constraint.
All these methods will attract new customers and improve the sales figure. But besides attracting new customers, the book store must value its old customers also. Habits seldom change. Hence, people with a regular habit of reading are always inclined towards book. Therefore, its important for bunker book store to retain its old customers. To achieve this, the book store can give special offers and discount to their old customers.
To increase the current sales a system of points can be introduces. Some points based on the value of the transaction will be accrued to each customer. Then on the basis of accumulated points, the company can give them some gifts or allow the customer to redeem their points according to their own wish.
Besides this, the website must be very user friendly and the transaction process must be very efficient. The transaction process should be very safe and secure so that the customers can rely on it.
One of the best ways to establish the credibility of the company is to include customer testimonials in its sales letter. These should be excerpts from genuine e-mails or letters from customers expressing how useful or how good the books are, or how good the service of the company is.
Instilling urgency in the copy and convincing the readers they need to buy now is very important for the sales of the company. Sales copy instills a sense of urgency in the visitors, compelling them to buy now. One important way is to denote like this – “Last few copies of this edition, Flat 20 % off, HURRY!!” These will all attract more and more customers.
Boosting own product’s desirability by adding images. Images of the books make them seem more tangible and “real” to the visitors in the website and are a powerful sales tool. But sometimes revealing what the product is too early in the sales process can kill the sale–you may need to highlight the product benefits and value before you reveal exactly what it is.
Make the Most of Local Reviews: When the customers leave good comments about the company’s business on local review websites it helps give its business credibility among prospective clients and website visitors. Hence bunker book store should request that their existing customers post honest reviews on sites like Google, Foursquare or Yelp. Many times, potential customers will check out these review websites for indications of previous customer satisfaction. Having powerful, positive reviews will go a long way in helping the potential customer choose our service or product.
Everyone is familiar with pop-ups. They’re the small windows containing a special offer or other information that sometimes “pop up” when you visit a website. Love them or hate them, pop-ups have been a very useful, online marketing tool for years. However, because a percentage of internet users disliked them, Google, AOL, Netscape and others developed pop-up blocking software to combat them.
Directory and Article Submissions: This strategy is one of the oldest and most reliable methods of website promotion for building an online presence. Pen articles rich in keywords that relate to your business niche and submit them to respected article directories. By having website links in important directories you build quality back links back to your site thereby reinforcing your online presence.
Establish the Problem: It is needed to firmly establish the problem or issue before providing the solution. The headline might start with a problem but you need to really get into it to ensure the entire target audience will view it as something that needs to be remedied. People want to know that you understand “their problem” not just something general because then they will feel more confident that Bunker book store can solve it.
Use social media: Social media networks are taking over internet marketing. These are popular sites, including Digg.com, Twitter, MySpace, and more that provide a natural online network. Essentially, it offers companies a built in opportunity for viral marketing. Your company can network with others, submit articles and news for users, and essentially help direct the movement of word of mouth through the web.
Building an online presence is a critical function of every business in today’s world of fierce online competition. When several companies set out to start their businesses they believe that they have a hard road ahead of them. But even beyond the already difficult job of business setup is the daunting task of marketing and promotion. Marketing and promotion is a part and parcel of the online business world that is critically important, but unfortunately, too few business owners realize its importance. However, this lack of awareness is slowly changing as business owners start jumping on the bandwagon by doing all they can do promote their service and business. The marketing strategy that is gaining in popularity is online marketing.
With the advancement of technology, smart phones have become very popular these days. People prefer to do all the things on their phones on the go. This had lead to the concept f mobile banking and mobile shopping. Mobile shopping is becoming popular day by day. To attract more customers, the bunker book store has to cope up with this technological advancement. They have to redesign their website and create a mobile version and a mobile application for online mobile shopping. People can browse the books n their mobile and can even buy using their handsets and mobile banking facility.
Faster is Better: Life has become very fast these days. People have no time to wait. People are becoming more impatient these days. They are using their phones for several shopping purpose, but cannot wait for sometime giving it some time to load and all. If you have time to sip your latte while waiting for it to load, then it’s too slow. Hence Bunker books must develop a new platform and new version of the mobile application which can work really faster.
It is often found that many people though prefer online shopping, but they do not want to pay for the product in advance. Many people prefer the cash on delivery option. Hence bunker book store should also keep that facility open to its customers.
Offer Free Shipping: Research shows this is the number one thing that convinces visitors to buy. Today most of the online shopping websites are providing free shipping to most of the locations. Bunker book store should also follow that.
Exchange links: A common technique for online growth is link exchange networking. It is a process of finding partner sites that are willing to provide a link to your site, in exchange for you doing the same for them. This adds another location for consumers to find you. More importantly, links from sites that are popular and high in traffic can be very beneficial to your Google popularity, and ultimately, your search engine positioning.
Now, these suggestions are simple but very effective strategies that the bunker book store can use in the effort to enhance their online presence.
