Online Marketing Strategy for Retail Businesses

By

ABSTRACT

The strategies of online marketing is vital that they have the ability to harness the skills, knowledge and proposals of the media exploit the cost and practicality of new technologies and apply creativity in an innovative way to mark a milestone in industry. Any marketing strategy to be implemented should consider the customer as the central focus, and this should be the main objective of entire organization. This point marks the difference between a company that is focused on results in the short term and that customer-focused organisation that focuses on results in the long term. Therefore the primary "target" or goal of each company shall be the customer. As the Internet brings so much impact on our lives, businesses have begun to use it to their advantage. They use it to reach the world market and promote their products and services without spending a fortune for advertising costs. These pioneers of Internet marketing are gaining great wealth. The effectiveness of digital marketing cannot be ignored not only for the business but also for the large firms that need cost competitive strategies. This new channel of marketing has proved itself to be cost effective and easy to use for the officials. The digital marketing includes advertising through the digital display; internet and other mediums like mobile phones, radio and television. 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 Study3

Structure of the thesis4

Chapter I: Introduction4

Chapter II: Literature Review4

Chapter III: Methodology5

Chapter IV: Analysis and Discussion5

Chapter V: Conclusion5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW7

Business in the age of Online Technology8

Consumers and Online Technology11

Technology and Online Marketing13

Advantages of Online Marketing14

Disadvantages of Online Marketing17

Online Retailing19

Online Retailing Strategies20

Current Trends in Online Retailing22

Rapid growth of e-commerce's share of total retail sales22

Continued growth of online sales volume22

Increasing number of people switching to online retailing22

Increasing demand in web sites with customer services24

Impersonalisation and Failures of Online Retailing24

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY27

The Research Process27

Research Objectives29

Theoretical Framework29

The search strategy30

Sampling30

Strengths and weaknesses of study design31

Position of the Researcher32

Ethical Considerations33

Reliability and Validity33

Likert scale34

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION36

Findings from the Interview Questionnaire36

Response36

Results of the Survey36

Findings from the Secondary Sources45

Personalisation: Historical Background46

Overview of Problems in Online Retailing Personalisation47

Personalisation Elements in Online Retailing: Their Nature and Roles51

Customer Service51

Shopping Experts' Opinions52

Human Interaction52

Store Atmospherics53

Website Architecture and Interactivity55

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION58

REFERENCES63

APPENDIX67

Appendix A: Consent form67

Appendix B: Questionnaire Survey68

Appendix C: Responses of the Questionnaire Survey70

Appendix D: List of Charts72

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 ...