Key Website Factors in E-Business Strategy - Research Proposal Example

Research Methods Background Solely online is one of the many companies that use the internet as their main source of contract between clients and their product. Instead of stocking physical goods like in the convectional Mortar and brick stores online stores, keep their products in go-downs or sometimes just use their suppliers for storage (Verhagen and Van Dolen 2009, p.80). Since they have established a good relationship with numerous supplies they do not always have to buy the products beforehand. Sometimes they simply take an order from a customer, then procure the items from the supplier, when they deliver them and payment is made, they then pay the supplier, this means that to some extent the firm makes deals simply by routing product from one point to another. This is a typical online store, payment is made either through online payment modes such as PayPal or visa but most customers prefer to pay on delivery when they first purchase but with time more are willing to use the online options available. While the business has been doing relatively well there is concern over the amount of traffic that is visiting the website as it appears to be reducing with time, this is a risky state of affairs for the business since the number of visitors are directly proportional to the potential clients. To this end this paper is dedicated to establishing how the traffic can be improved through a survey as well as examination of literary works on the topic to discover how the traffic can be increased to the site and how the visitors can be converted into actual buyers. To achieve the aforementioned objectives, management is cognizant of the fact that they need to make their website accessible to as many people as possible, it is at this point that the issue of smartphone arises. Today with the advent of multiple and powerful mobile technologies, a greater number of people spend a lot of time browsing the internet on their smartphones and this can is seen as a significant opportunity for the firm. Although it sells shoes for all generations, its most frequent buyers are the youths who by default tend to access the internet more than the older generation. The popularity of smartphones is a unique opportunity for increasing traffic to the site since they not only allows easy but constant access to the internet and therefore increasing the chances that the users will access the online store. Retrospectively the internet was mostly available on PCs; consequently, most people saw it as a work or education tool and spend less time online as opposed to when they have smartphone (Papapanagiotou, Nahum & Pappas 2012, p.423). Through these devices they access a variety of sites more so social media such as Facebook and twitter, as a result there are numerous avenues for the company to advertise its services. This has the double advantage of increasing the visibility of marketing information on the firm as well as providing the avenue through which the potential clients can access the actual online store ultimately increasing the chances of making a sale. Literature Review The first step of the study should involve and examination of the data that is available online pertaining to the various ways of increasing traffic to a website. For this it is not important whether the particular website can be accessed on the phone, in a sense this is primarily just generic information on how to make a website attractive to customers and encourage them to remain on the page and/or visit it again. One of the ways through which these could be achieves is by improving the rankings of the online store on search engines such as Google (Scott 2011, p.15), this can be achieved through search engine optimization SOE, which helps people find the website when they are searching for related content on the web (HernáNdez, JiméNez & MartíN 2009, p.266). To this end, the online store should find out if by typing the words someone would generally type while looking to buy shoes online directs them to the site and if yes how high is it ranked. To achieve this, the website should be designed in such a way that the key words are visible to the browser and they are not depicted in graphics since search engines cannot read graphics (Bruemmer, 2007). A key factor in this regard and directly connected to the firm in question has to do with smartphone SEO, many company websites have been designed with the traditional PC in mind and they are not configure properly for smartphones. As a result, there are mostly fewer results in Google mobile rankings to avoid this; the company should ensure it has both a mobile and desktop version of the site to ensure that smartphone clients can access the full range of services. In some cases, websites tend to be accessible via smartphones but not all the tabs and buttons function, as a result potential clients will be frustrated and assume that the company is too incompetent to maintain a functional website which could result a negative perception (Galletta and Everard 2006, p.59). Another option given the diversity and versatile nature of smartphones would be for the firm to develop and app through which their clients can access them without having to go through a browser (Vuong, 2011). Majority of the smartphones today can read apps either through, android, apple IOS or Microsoft which are the most popular platforms, by developing and app the shoe firm can make it easier for potential clients to have regular access to their services and they can also use it to advertise new products. Methodology The research should be carried out in two stages, the first should be the literature review, in this stage the managers should read up on the various ways a website can increase its visitor flow as well as how these can be converted into customers. Given the currency and versatility of this information which is bound to change overtime as new methods emerge, there will be likely very few published books on the subject. The main source of information in predictably the internet (Kim, Fiore & Lee 2007, p.98), using the appropriate search term, one can gather a lot of information from online journals websites and blogs on how to increase traffic flow to a website. One can key “increase number of website visitors”, “search engine optimization for smartphones” and similar search words or phrases to Google or any relevant search engine. The integrity of the results cannot be guaranteed since many of the responses are bound to be personal blogs and wikis. However they should not altogether be ignored since the fact that one has found them in their search means they have excelled at making their sites visible online. The most reliable information should however be what search engines publish since they have pages dedicated to helping users learn how to increase the visibility of various websites online. All the information gathers should therefore be critically examined and crosschecked against the general guidelines on Google’s pages to confirm it is authentic before it is adopted for research (RKG, 2013). As part of literature review, the websites of different companies that use the internet for marketing should be studied closely so as to establish which tools they apply to improve their ratings and how the same can be adopted or improved. The second part of the study is a survey which should be conducted on the website inviting visitors to the site to take it irrespective of whether they had purchased anything or not. The best way to encourage the visitors to contribute is make the link or pop up for the survey visible and offer a discount, one goods bough after one had filled it. However it should not be placed in such a way that one must fill it before proceeding to the site as this can irritate potential customers who may choose to log out altogether. Sample Questionnaire Below are recommended questions Buyers 1. What device/s do you use to access our store a) Smartphone b) Tablet c) Computer d) Other 2. (If a) was an option) what did you have any challenges using the smartphone? I) If so briefly mention it 3. What attracted you most to our online store 4. How did you find out about our store? 5. Were you satisfied by the quality of service we provided? 6. How would you recommend we improve our online services Non Buyers 1. Have you ever come across the solely online shop or information about it on the internet while looking to buy shoes? 2. If No, what made you not interested in buying from us 3. When you search for shoes or related products online using your smartphone, does our store appear among the top results? 4. Was your smartphone able to navigate all the tabs on the online store 5. If not, did this prevent you from making a purchase or placing an order 6. If you wanted to buy shoes, would you rather do it online or in person? 7. Do you consider your smartphone to be as useful and practical as your laptop when it comes to online purchases? From the multidimensional research based on literature review, examination of other websites and the survey, certain issues will likely emerge. For one, the company can establish which are the best technical ways to go about increasing traffic to their site, by considering the myriad options available on the internet, they zero in on those that are most practical and relevant to their product. This can be achieved by customizing the SOE, as well as ensuring that the website has been configured for both smartphone and PC access (SU 2003, p.1198). This survey is expected to boost not only the number of visitor on the site but convert them into buyers, in the questionnaire targeting previous customer, the firm can find out what they liked about the experience and what displeased them. Using this information they can then strive to make improvements based on the answers they receive increasing their ability to retain the customers. In the second survey the main intention will be to determine why perspective clients had failed to commit even though they had accessed the website and seen the products available. The questions have been kept open so as to allow the interviewees to express their personalized impute, this way the firm will find out the issue that discourage visitors from buying and try to address them. Given that many of the clients actually use smartphones for transaction, those who claim to have found it difficult to transact through the same tools in both studies will probably be using different phone models from the rest. Should this be confirmed the company will simply gather the statistics on which platform each of the respondents used and try all of them to determine which ones have possible compatibility issues. There is however the possibility that some of the clients fail to purchase from the store because they lack the knowhow to do so through the smartphone, if the number is found to be significant, a tab should be embedded on the website to give guidelines on how to navigate the site and access all the services using a smartphone. Conclusion At the end of the day, there are bound to me more people using smartphones to access the internet than any other media because of their necessity as a communication tool not to mention that they are the most portable in comparison to computers and tablets. Therefore it stands to reason that for the firm to reasonably expect to increase traffic to its site and by extension purchases, it must develop means by which smartphone users can access the site as well as navigate comfortably enough to make a purchase. Through the a critical survey of literature on search engine optimization both for the general web and smartphones as well as the suggested questions, the online store is will be in a position to gather pertinent that will ultimately be used to make the buying experience more accommodating. Among the likely outcomes of this research will be increased efforts to educate customers on how to use their phone to navigate the website as well as configuring the web store in such a way that it can be accessed through different media tools and platforms. References Bruemmer, C. 2007. Search Engine Placement Tips. Search Engine Watch. Available at: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2067083/Search-Engine-Placement-Tips Everard, A., & Galletta, D. F. 2006. How presentation flaws affect perceived site quality, trust, and intention to purchase from an online store. Journal of Management Information Systems, 22(3), 56-95. HernáNdez, B., JiméNez, J., & MartíN, M. J. 2009. Key website factors in e-business strategy. International Journal of Information Management, 29(5), 362-371. Kim, J., Fiore, A. M., & Lee, H. H. 2007. Influences of online store perception, shopping enjoyment, and shopping involvement on consumer patronage behavior towards an online retailer. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services,14(2), 95-107. Papapanagiotou, I., Nahum, E. M., & Pappas, V. 2012. Smartphones vs. laptops: comparing web browsing behavior and the implications for caching. In ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review (Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 423-424). ACM. RKG Q3 2013. Digital Marketing Report: Google Spending Growth Stable Through Enhanced Campaigns Transition, Smartphone CPCs Down. 2013. Health & Beauty Close – Up. Scott, T., 2011. What is New in Organic Searches? Franchising World, 43(11), pp. 14-16. SU, L.T., 2003. A comprehensive and systematic model of user evaluation of Web search engines: II. An evaluation by undergraduates. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 54(13), pp. 1193-1223. Verhagen, T., & Van Dolen, W. 2009. Online purchase intentions: A multi-channel store image perspective. Information & Management, 46(2), 77-82. Vuong, A., 2011, Aug 01. TECH KNOW How to stand out in a crowd Companies are working harder to boost their standing on search engines and make a connection to customers through social media such as Facebook. Denver Post. ISSN 19302193 Read More