Improving Sales for Huetiful - Research Paper Example

? How Huetiful Can Increase Sales How Huetiful Can Increase Sales Background Huetiful is a hair care and beauty company that operates on a global base and lives up to a commitment of providing and development of beauty care solutions, products and service suitable for Colored women. Huetiful customers find the delight of accessing products specifically designed for them because the mainstream beauty and hair care offers them very little. Huetiful’s debut product is the Huetiful Hair Steamer. This steamer was the first of its kind and the company has made sales globally. Since Huetiful’s entrance into the market, competition has developed as expected. After continuous meetings and marketing strategies in attempt to drive sales, it is not difficult to identify Huetiful’s dilemma. The company’s dilemma is declining sales in the hair steamer from a year ago. A careful examination of the dilemma at hand reveals that several internal factors have caused the current problem. First, lack of awareness has led to the decline in sales. Now, the company has about 2% awareness in its desired target market. Secondly, positioning is one of the most crippling issues the company has. Most customers have pigeon holed the company into being a solution for women with natural or transitioning from relaxed to natural hair only. Potential customers then count themselves out as being qualified to use the product, simply because they are under the impression it will not work for them. In addition, conversion potential is affecting sales. Huetiful is an online global beauty and hair care company. The company’s model developed as an online company where customers did not have to leave the comfort of their homes to purchase a Huetiful product. With this in mind, Huetiful sales are determinate on the conversion rate of visitors to the website. The company has not seen an increase in the ability to convert website visitors into purchasers. In fact, from a year ago conversion has decreased from 3.54% to 2.45%. Not only are there internal factors that contribute to management’s problem there are external factors. One of the most evident external factors has to do with competition. As mentioned earlier Huetiful was the first of its kind, table model instead of floor model, to enter the market. Since then there has been a competitive steamer offered at a lower price point. If consumers begin to perceive the competition as just as good then this results in loss sales. This thought brings about the economic factor. Consumers are extremely leery of buying a new product online at such a high price. It is a constant struggle convincing customers that a Huetiful hair steamer is a great investment that will ultimately save them money. After discussing these factors it is clear that the question at hand is how can Huetiful increase its debut product sales. Research Questions Should Huetiful expand its channel of distribution from online into retail stores to increase sales and profits? Should Huetiful participate in international expansion to increase awareness? Should Huetiful offer a mobile site to increase purchase conversion rates? Research Goals The most important goal of carrying out this research is finding solutions to Huetiful’s problem of declining sales. The project seeks to identify ways in which the company can increase the sales of its debut product. The project can only achieve its objectives through a research into the issue. Research will involve a methodology that will provide reliable findings concerning the issue. After the research, findings from the research will help formulate recommendations that the company can use to solve its problem. Literature Review Available literature on increasing sales in electronic commerce provides useful insights. Experts in online marketing employ different strategies to convert website visitors into buyers (Ramos and Cota, 2009). Each company spends a large amount to create and manage a website and should have means of making customers from all the visitors. Research reveals that many companies entering electronic commerce centers achieved a low conversion rate usually below 4 percent. However, the online marketing scene is changing too fast and costs increasing. In a bid to survive, companies are coming seeking to optimize the opportunity to market online. According to Davis (2006), leading companies have new strategies in search engine optimization. These new strategies have come into place after studies of the behavior of most online customers. Research indicates that most people use the keyword of products they want to purchase and only proceed to open the first pages that appear. Experts in this field reveal that a company has to make sure that its website appears as one of the leading options in the search engine. For that to happen, the company must find ways of achieving this because it is the first way of attracting any visitors to the website. In order to gain an international marketing front, companies are employing the search engine marketing. In order for the company to create more awareness, it must discover the most appropriate niche. The company should find ways of formulating the niche in a unique way. A potential buyer should easily spot what the company can offer. Others maximize the potential of the search engine to place advertisements on the right side of the results. Experts argue that despite the cost, this becomes very effective (Grappone and Couzin, 2011). It ensures that many people using the search engines stand a chance of being potential visitors to the company’s website. Generally, this increases the traffic to the company’s website and does not necessarily lead to sales. A company must do much more to make sales from the traffic (Jones, 2008). Other experts reveal that marketing officers have to be more proactive as they post any information on their websites. Since website communication is passive, the website must provide sufficient information that will transform a visitor to a potential buyer. The content on a company’s website should have details that will capture the attention of the visitors. Each visitor incurs cost to the company and the company should not waste opportunity in converting a visitor into a buyer. Other studies into online marketing reveal that successful companies monitor each visitor on their website. The marketing team finds out information about the visitors concerning locations and is then able to begin chat dialogs with visitors. Experts warn that the dialog should start after the visitor has been on the website for some time so that the interruption does prompt the visitor to log off. The marketer should have tact to survive in initiating a chat with the visitors. In addition, dialogs should come when the visitor is on a page that implies interest in the products. In that way, the dialog can help the visitor gain more information about the product and increase the company’s conversion rate. Other experts advise that companies should have automated chat dialogs on their websites that will help any willing visitor to inquire more about products and services. King (2008) advises that for companies to succeed in online marketing, they should do a lot more. This author describes the buying process as consisting of micro-actions that determine whether a website visitor makes the macro action of conversion. From research and case studies, Eisenberg and Davis (2006) emphasize the role of persuasion in the buying process. They one point very clear that will benefit companies marketing online. Companies must realize that the buyer and seller operate on different grounds. The seller thinks of the linear selling process while the buyer has influences from several factors. A tactful seller understands the linear process but also understands conditions and needs surrounding the buyer. If a company becomes aware of this, it becomes easy to deliver sufficient customer service. Since online marketing is passive, the only way through companies can understand the conditions of the buyer is by monitoring the behavior of customers online. This monitoring should put into consideration all online metrics. A company should seek to identify at what page most visitors leave the website. The home page should provide sufficient information that propels the visitor’s action into next step of the buying process. If most visitors only leave the website after viewing the home page then the company should realize that its home page does not provide sufficient information for the buyer. In other cases, the visitor gets impression on the home page but leaves on a different page. The company should seek to understand possible needs of the buyer that this page does not satisfy and make adjustments. A company should make all efforts possible to persuade visitors with tact. Research indicates that a large number of people access the internet using mobile phones. Mobile phones keep an individual online most of the time despite the location. Businesses are utilizing this in marketing as mobile internet brings a greater population of people closer to their online business. Companies have indulged in developing mobile websites. Mobile websites are shorter versions for mobile phone use. Companies have to design these mobile websites effectively because mobile phones can only download limited amounts of data. Experts’ advice is that mobile websites should have easy accessibility because people are likely to give up easily on pages that take long times to load. The other tact in designing mobile websites is being able to satisfy customer needs even if the website is shorter (Harris, 2008). Companies should remember to give customers a call option on the mobile website. Making a call while on a mobile website is easy. The ease of making a call will propel the potential buyer into the next action. Mobile websites have generally increased conversion rates for many companies. According to Krum (2010), mobile websites enable companies to utilize the search engine marketing and exposes the company to an international population. A company that optimizes the use of search engines by ensuring that it gets in the top ten results is able push a great traffic to its website. This means that it should organize the website in a way that will persuade potential buyers from all over the globe. Mobile websites should offer precise information but should satisfy the customer needs. Most companies that adopt mobile websites agree on its effectiveness to reach their clients despite their geographical location. In addition, through mobile websites, potential buyers can access the website any time of the day. This will propel the company into a 24 hours marketing schedule and will be an advantage to the company. Some companies operating online opt to increase their market by expanding their distribution to retail stores. According to Finne, a company should understand the retail value chain before venturing into it. It has its advantages but the company must identify locations of the retail stores efficiently depending on market distribution and customer demand. The cost of distribution should be a determinant factor (Ehmke, Fulton, & Lusk, 2009). In addition, the company should plan effectively on the costs of the whole venture before starting. Business experts believe that innovation and creativity are the best strategies that help businesses thrive despite pressure from competitors (Saleh and Shukairy, 2011). A company should make the customer believe that its products are the best and are specifically suitable to satisfy the needs of the customer. Companies should increase their persuasive power by giving clients worthwhile reasons why the customer should invest in a company’s products. According to online experts, the ability of a website to persuade a buyer effectively can increase sales despite external competition (Bizmanualz, 2008). A company should rely on marketing team that is able to sell the product effectively. A buyer needs a conviction that what the company offers is the best and has benefits that surpass its price. Business experts believe that any company seeking to expand its market should plan the venture wisely before execution. A study is an effective way of determining the market conditions. In addition, the company should consider the risk involved before investing. Online marketing needs more tact and creativity because it is passive (Eisenberg and Davis, 2006). Entry of the retail value chain has its requirements. Companies should consult experts before the ventures and get an efficient marketing team. Huetiful is about to venture into activities that other companies have tried out (Meyerson, 2005). From the above literature review, it is obvious that if the company plans well, it can succeed in any of its three options. The three aspects can contribute positively and increase sales of its debut steamer. Each of the three options has its implications and cost. However, the company should analyze the needs of its customers in order to settle on the most effective option (Hosseini & Navaie, 2011). Methodology Before making any decision, it is usually wise for companies to consult with their clients. Since the most important aspect of every business is being able to deliver satisfaction to the customers, businesses indulge in research to understand the needs of customers. Carrying out a research involves identifying a portion of the population that can act as a representative of the entire population. Huetiful needs to expand its market using mobile website. In addition, it needs to establish whether entry into the retail value chain will help in addressing the needs of some of its potential customers. Since it is operating on a global front, it becomes necessary for the company to settle on an effective type of survey that will provide meaningful and realistic information (Sue and Ritter, 2012). An online survey is the most effective method for soliciting information concerning the market of Huetiful. Online surveys prove their efficiency in many ways. In the first place, the company finds many of its buyers online. An online survey will save the company time because it has limited time before the peak season. In addition, from the online survey, the company will have a sample from a wider population. The sample size will prove to be larger and more geographically distributed. It will be easy for the company to analyze responses, as they will retrieve them through real time monitoring. In terms of cost, an online survey is cheaper than all available options because there are no mailing expenses (Baker, Reynolds, and Woods, 2007). In the case of Huetiful, an online survey will be an easy venture. The survey will be a prompt for most visitors to its website. It will contain a list of questions that the visitors can answer easily. Since most of the people accessing the website are potential buyers, it is likely that they will answer the set of questions. However, the survey should be easy for the visitor. It should not involve many steps that will discourage the visitor. In addition, questions should be in an open format for the visitors to answer freely. Usually, effective online surveys are straightforward for the website visitor (Russell and Purcell, 2009). Good choice of words in the questions is important if a company expects sensible responses. An online survey will address the company’s research questions effectively. It will provide data that will help the company make an informed choice (Poynter, 2010). Sampling Plan The online survey will be open to visitors from the international front because the company desires to receive a wide view of responses. The product of interest is a steamer and business people from all over the globe may have interest. The sample size will be a broad representation of the entire population. Survey at the End of Online Purchase A short online survey will be available to Huetiful buyers from across the globe after a purchase. The survey will seek to address two major issues. The first one will ask the buyers whether they prefer shopping for Huetiful products online. The second question will establish whether a buyer will appreciate it if they were able to access Huetiful products in a retail shop or on their online website. This survey is likely to be of interest to the buyer because it indicates concern for the customer’s needs. Facebook Survey Huetiful has over 30,000 fans on facebook. These will have a voluntary choice to respond to a survey available on the social website addressing the same issues as the survey on the Huetiful website. This last sampling plan is not a survey. Instead, it is a method of soliciting data. The company can use the data in decision-making. Huetiful is a company that receives a sufficient amount of unique online visitors every day. The goal of this sampling plan is to record the location of each visitor to determine the country in which the visitor resides. Understanding where visitors reside will give insight on to which countries would be best to begin the international expansion (Pophal, 2009). Survey Instrument A copy of the actual survey is available in the appendix. Procedure and Time Frame The procedure for delivering the survey to the respondents will all be online. The survey at the end of the purchase and the entering of the location will both be automatic prompts for the customers. The only voluntary survey will be the one given on facebook. The period that the surveys will be available online and responded to would be the full month of October. Getting the results from this month would allow time to make decisions that will go into effect during the holiday seasons. During the end of November and December Huetiful tends to see an increase of 35-45% in sales so making necessary changes could make a permanent change in sales. Analysis Plan There are different tools for analyzing data from online surveys. The data needs both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Quantitative analysis gives information on the total number of respondents and further breaking this data into locations. In addition, quantitative analysis establishes the number of respondents who completed the survey and those who addressed only some parts of the survey. A company will choose from the available quantitative analysis tools depending on effectiveness and cost. Such tools have the potential to give different types of reports. In addition, a company has the options of using Excel to understand the quantitative data well. According to Bias and Mayhew (2005), the main purpose of the qualitative analysis it to establish realistic implications from the study. Depending on the questions posed, this analysis seeks to interpret the data and formulate the research findings. Huetiful will give this responsibility to an effective team that will be able to apply qualitative tools to determine the preferences of their buyers. The team will determine the size of their market through analysis of locations of individuals. In addition, it will identify which of the regions will require retail stores. The team can also analyze the company’s emerging market. Qualitative analysis determines the ultimate step that a company will take (Berndt, 1996). From this information, it is easy to come up with recommendations for the company. Assumptions In this survey, there will be the assumption that the survey prompts will not deter customers in any way. In addition, the company will assume that facebook fans will find interest in the survey and respond. Limitations and Scope As with all research studies this research project has limitations and a finite scope. Although Huetiful is a global beauty and hair care company that offers a variety of products and services, the scope of this project deals with the debut product the Huetiful hair steamer. Many other products and services can make up for the declining sales in the hair steamer, however, it is important that the company does not let go of its original flywheel. It is evident that this survey will only be available to future buyers. Since it will be an after purchase survey on the website, past buyers are ineligible. Another limitation is that the facebook survey given in regards to the mobile site will only reach customers that have facebook. Next, time has a limitation. Getting surveys out and analyzing the data in time for the November- December holidays puts a limit on research. The last limitation is that customers that order from Amazon will not be part of the survey given to those that purchase on the website. Nor would Huetiful be able to collect the data of the location from Amazon visitors. Survey Instrument Dear our esteemed Customer, we will appreciate if you fill in this survey. Your response will help Huetiful be a better choice for you. Name Gender Age Location Have you enjoyed shopping on the Huetiful website? Is online shopping your most preferred choice? Would you appreciate accessing Huetiful products in a retail shop near whetre you live? Thank You! References Baker, J. D., Reynolds, R. A., & Woods, R. (2007). Handbook of research on electronic surveys and measurements. Hershey, Pa. (u.a.): Idea Group Reference. Berndt, E. R. et al (1996). 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