Selling Electronic Goods: a Computer Shop, that is Based on the High Street of a United Kingdom - Essay Example

Imagine you are a consultant working for a computer shop owner, who is based on the High St. of a UK mid-sized town, with the annual revenue between £ 40.000 and £ 50.000. Apart from selling electronic goods, some services are also offered. Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Discussion 6 Conclusion 8 Introduction The strategic management plan of the computer business should include effective marketing strategies, digital strategies as well as business strategies to ensure a beneficial expansion process for the business. There are a number of benefits that the business can get from expanding its business online through opening up a functional company website and through the use of the social media for promoting the business. Before embarking on an online expansion plan, the business should evaluate the implications and the potential of the new technologies, map the needs of the online business process with the availability of the resources and capabilities in the organization, minimize the probable risks in starting the online services and adapt the products and services to the demand and existing conditions of the local market. The business can use the online marketing as an effective tool to communicate with the customers, create and provide more value to the customers, manage their relationships with the existing customers, attract new customers for customer acquisition purposes all of which will ultimate increase the profitability of the business and benefit the company as well as the shareholders of the company. The company should start planning the expansion in online activities by a careful assessment of the demands of the UK market, the use of internet by the customers in UK and the degree of competition in the e-commerce business of the computer products and services industry existing in UK. The company should focus on online marketing from two perspectives- one including the e-business and the other including the e-commerce strategies. Since the computer shop is already established as a physical business in which the sales are done by the customers visiting the shop, therefore, the business should focus more on the e-business strategies to increase the visibility of the business. The e-business process should involve effective communication with the customers about the products and services of the business. Also, e-business activities would include advertising the products on the company website and on other popular social media sites. For this, the company would have to create and establish a dynamic and functional official website. The company can outsource the creation and maintenance of the website to third party vendors or recruit employees dedicated to the maintenance of the websites. Seeing the scale of this business, outsourcing to a small third party vendor for developing and maintaining a dynamic company website would be an appropriate strategy. The website should list the products and services offered by the business, the specifications of each of the computer and laptop models, the services provided, details about the after sales services and the payment modes and options. The company should also hire specific employees for customer servicing and communicating with the customers during presales and after sales queries through the company website. Using the services of solving the customer queries through electronic mails and online chatting with the company representatives would prove to be invaluable in maintaining continuous and fast communication with the customers. Also, including an ‘ask a question’ section within the company website can create better value for the customers and encourage them to follow a faster buying decision management process through quick online response from the business. The company should also employ e-commerce activities in which the interested customers can buy directly from the company website by adding the products to their carts. For this, the business will have to set up a listing of the available products with proper images, model numbers, specifications, prices, payment modes and delivery systems. The products should be attractively displayed via the images and various payment modes should be offered to the customers including the electronic payment modes like paying through credit and debit cards, online banking or even through cash on delivery. The flexibility of payment is significant factor that guides the purchase decision of consumers in the online buying activities. The company should set up sufficient physical and human resources including proper computers, server, internet connection, domain, online payment systems, customer service executives dedicated to guide the customers through the buying process and enabling them to track the order as well as provide after sales services. All these would require the use of robust information and communication technologies by the company. The evaluation of the existing resources and the establishment of new resources and capabilities to support the e-commerce activities of the business are critical for expanding the business through online marketing (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014, pp.91-92). The company should ensure the use of latest technologies and processes and create a sustainable infrastructure to support the e-commerce activities. The organizational and technical architectures should be designed in such a way that they are aligned with the mission and vision of the business. The governance model including the organizational structure, the roles of the different entities in the business and the business model and processes followed in the business should also be considered before designing the digital marketing strategies for the business. The governance model is the underlying basis of how the decisions are made in the business, how the issues are escalated and resolved etc. These factors should be critically considered to establish a successful marketing plan for expansion of the business through online marketing activities. The competition in the UK market, the demands and preferences of the customers in buying and enquiring about products online and the use of online marketing strategies by the competitor companies should also be considered while deciding on the business strategies. Since, the use of the internet is very common among the consumers of UK; the company should try to boost their sales through an effective use of the internet marketing and promotional strategies. The computer business should also implement a measurement system in their e-business plan in which it would use key performance metrics to monitor and measure the effectiveness of the e-business strategies and processes implemented for expanding the business online. This measurement plan should encompass the evaluation of the e-business metrics, the financial and operational metrics and the interconnectivity between these metrics which have major impacts on the performance of the online business of the store. Discussion The use of online marketing tools and creating an online presence of the business alone would not drive the sales of the company. The company should use effective marketing strategies to improve their visibility, retain the existing customers and acquire the potential customers as well as create interest and goodwill in the market related to the business (Schneider, 2008, p.20). The company should include partnering and affiliating with relevant intermediaries in order to facilitate the setting up of the business in the online medium. The plan of expansion through digital marketing is incomplete without the use of the online media for a robust promotional process implemented by the computer store. The use of banner advertising, advertising in popular social media sites and search engine optimization are the key tools for establishing a successful business on the World Wide Web (Dave, 2008, pp.314-316). The computer company should partner with the online payment gateways, payment portals and banks to ensure that the customers are provided with easy financial transaction options and procedures (Chaffey, 2011, p.252). The alliance with third party payment gateways would help the business to establish a credible online business and help it to gain more number of customers due to the reliability factor. Also, the levels of risk are shared between the company and the affiliated businesses with respect to the financial transactions made by the customers and the customers are doubly assured of the safety of their purchases (Chaffey and Chadwick, 2012, p.117). The partnership of the store with trusted payment portals like PayPal to facilitate the payment processes would ensure better credibility of the business and assurance for the customers regarding the safety of online financial transactions. The store can use gallery sites to store bigger images of the computer models. This will help the company to save the expenses related to domain maintenance by partnering with the gallery providing websites. The computer store can also create alliances with blogging sites, reviewing sites and enrol in the corporate referral programs to improve the visibility and brand recognition of the company. The company can also enter into partnerships with online customer survey sites which will help them to get databases related to the potential customers as well as gauge the changing demands and requirements in the UK market. The information gathered from the online transactions and the online survey companies would help to boost the sales in the stores of the companies as well (Timmers, 2000, p.44). The computer business can also implement the new trend of integrating online and offline selling services in which the consumers can order through the online company portal but pick up the product from the store according to their convenience. The flexibility in the buying processes, payment methods and delivery systems would ensure that a more number of customers find the store suitable to buy from. The internet enables a business to communicate across the globe through the use of the World Wide Web (Drucker, 1999, p.45). The intranet enables a network connection that can be used by the employees of the organization to communicate among themselves. The extranet type of network enables the inclusion of the suppliers and vendors of the company along with the employees to communicate with each other. Though the use of internet is more expense incurring, yet the benefits derived from the use of internet are much higher as compared to the benefits received from the use of the extranet or internet. The company should work with the use of internet to ensure that they can tap into the local customers as well as global customers in the future. The establishments of an internet based network would help the business to increase its sales multiple times more than that by an intranet or extranet. The focus of the company to position itself in the e-ecommerce business of computers and peripheral services in the UK market can be highly supported by the presence of the company in the World Wide Web (Greenstein, 2001, p.412). This would allow the company to remain accessible by the consumers around the clock and thus help it to improve its customer acquisition and retention processes. Also, the establishment of direct modes of communication with the customers as well as suppliers through electronic mails and online chatting services would ensure that the company can procure its raw materials faster and respond to the customer queries and problems in minimum required time. The online store and digital marketing strategies would support the functioning of the brick and mortar store and help the company to gain higher brand value through the creation of brand recognition among the customers (Adelaar, Bouwman and Steinfield, 2004, p.114). One major advantage of establishing the e-commerce part of the business on the internet is that the company will have a worldwide presence which can have major effects on the sales generation as well as brand name creation for the store (Laudon and Traver, 2003, p.156). Conclusion The e-business strategies for the computer store include advertising in the social media, creating a dynamic company website, affiliating with related online businesses, promoting the store through the social media websites, enabling direct buying facilities from the company website and creating partnership with large e-commerce companies likes eBay.com, Amazon.com etc. to generate higher visibility and revenue generation for the business. Among these strategies, the computer business should focus extensively on the promotional activities using the platform of social media. This is because the social media has emerged as a very popular tool of advertising for businesses, irrespective of the scale of the businesses. The use of social sites like Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, Instagram, professional sites like LinkedIn and corporate business listing sites like Alibaba.com are popular online mediums that influence the consumer buying behaviour in the UK market. Creating a page for the company in highly used websites like Facebook would enable the company to improve the brand recognition factor. Also, many internet savvy consumers would find it easier to access the details of the products and services of the store from the online medium than by taking the hassle of visiting the store in person for selecting the products. The social media is recognized as particularly influential in communicating and engaging with the consumers for supporting them as well as for marketing the products and services of a business effectively. This is very much applicable in the existing landscape of the UK market and is highly beneficial for medium and small scale businesses. The transformation of the computer store from a brick and mortar version to a brick and click type of business in which both an existent physical store is supported by an e-business of the store is likely to induce more reliance and brand awareness among the customers in the market. The prospects of an e-commerce business wing of the store is especially high in the UK market as statistics shows that the e-commerce industry in UK is an industry characterized by huge potential for development and a high growth rate. The United Kingdom was found to have the largest e-commerce market measured by per capita spending in 2011. But the business should carefully evaluate the digital marketing strategies to ensure that they can be supported by the existing resources of the company. In order to attract more customers to the online business of the store, the business should use a mix of traditional and innovative digital marketing strategies in the e-business. The business should focus on displaying new contents, use creative promotional strategies, ensure smooth navigational support to the customers and embed the factors of user friendliness and necessary guidance in their official websites. The installation of security software and security tools to protect the information of the customers would be essential for maintaining a high level of credibility for the online website and increase the number of visitors in the website. The expansion of the business in the online segment is expected to be less expense incurring and more beneficial as compared to the physical expansion of the stores. This is because the trend of e-commerce has increased to a great magnitude with more and more consumers displaying the inclination to buy from the online stores rather than from the physical stores. The proper use of the social media platform for promoting the business along with the implementation of other digital strategies would ensure sustainability for the business in the rapidly evolving global scenario. The integration of online sales facility through an e-commerce store and offline sales facility through a physical store is considered much advantageous for a business because the perceived risks related to buying online are much lowered when a physical store of the business exists. The consumers in UK are technologically advanced and the access to internet is easy which has made the market highly suitable for e-commerce businesses. Therefore, the extension of the computer store into an online business is an opportunity for the business to increase its profitability, market share, sales, and customer base as well as brand recognition. References Adelaar, T., Bouwman, H., & Steinfield, C. 2004. Enhancing customer value through click-and-mortar customer experience. Telematics and Informatics. Vol. 21(1), pp.167-182. Chaffey, D. & Chadwick, F. E. 2012. Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice, 5th edition. New Jersey: Pearson. Chaffey, D. 2011. E-Business and E-Commerce Management: Strategy, Implementation and Practice, 5th Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.  Dave, C. 2008. E-Business and E-Commerce Management. United Kingdom: Pearson Education India. Drucker, P. 1999. Management Challenges for the 21st Century. New York: Harper Business Press. Greenstein, M. 2001. Electronic Commerce: security, Risk Management and control. Stamford: Cengage. Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. 2014. Principles of Marketing. 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