Does Weather and Seasonal Festival Affect E-Commerce Sales - Research Proposal Example

Research Proposal: How Does Weather and Seasonal Festival Affect E-Commerce Sales? Contents Research Project Rationale 3 Literature &Research Review 3 Focus and Research Questions 6 Methodology and Methods 7 Ethical Issues 8 Data Collection & Data Analysis 9 Outcome and timescale 11 References 12 Research Project Rationale The particular research is been done on the issue of how the weather and seasonal changes affect the sales of e-commerce. With the increasing market demand of e-commerce in the present global market and also with increasing usage of e-commerce websites for buying products by the customers does makes the topic very interesting to research and see how the sales in the e-commerce websites are been affected because of the changing weather and seasonal changes. It is one of the major concerns for the social and community interest groups. This research is also done with the help of other researches which have been done in past based on the changing in buying decisions made by the customers and also based on the charging preference of the customers. People in UK look to buy lots of products from the e-commerce sites and they also give more importance to buy products online rather than going to shops and stores (Vulkan, 2003, pp. 45-47). The preference of the customers changes from time to time based on many factors among which the seasonal changes and the festivals seasons do influence people a lot to buy more. This research will help to know the changing buying decision made by the customers based on different times, and will also help in making further researches over the preference and taste of the customers towards buying from the e-commerce sites and the way it affects the business of the e-commerce websites (Turban, Lee, King and Chung, 2002, pp. 123-128). Literature &Research Review Many scholars and institutes have already made study over the effect of seasonal changes and also of the festival seasons over the sales on the e-commerce sites. The research reports that are already been done in past are been analysed and studied properly to understand the exact impact of this topic and to understand how to go about through the particular research report is been done. As per World trade Organization, which stated in 2011 that the sales of most of products do get affected with the changes in the seasons and there is a gradual rise and decline in their production and sales process based on the changing seasons. In 2004, Remenyi, Grant and Pather said that the fluctuations in the sales based on the seasonal changes is a big concern for all the marketing managers as they need to understand the reasons behind the changes in the sales of the products with the changing seasons and also prepare the company in a proper way so that they can face and also take this increase and decrease in demand of products in a proper way (Stones, 2000, pp. 34-39). The companies supply of products should be based on the changing seasons and this should completely be depending on the way the manufacturing is been done. According to Starkey and Madan in 2001, specific products like seeds, fruits, flowers and other natural products which are mainly agriculture based have their supply and also manufacturing process based on the changing seasons and also with the changing weather conditions. In 1998, Babbie and Mouton, which is into e-commerce business and are known to give huge variety products and services to the customers, do sell their products at an exceeding price at the time of certain festive seasons in the specific countries to get more profit (Weller and Romney, 1988, pp. 56-62). In 2000, Zwass did say that products like Easter eggs, Halloween costumes, the lotions been used for sun protections, winter clothes, Fireworks, New Year cards and gifts, swimwear’s etc. do get a lot of fluctuating demands with the changing weather conditions and also with changing festival seasons in different countries as per the customers in different countries prefer or celebrate. As per the research done by Hendrick and Heiman in 2001, it can be seen that certain festivals based on various religious activities like Special day in China, Diwali in India, Halloween in European countries and US, UK etc. do create change in demand for different products and services and these seasons are known as the peak seasons as the sales of these products do increase by huge numbers (Silverman, 2010, pp. 145-149). As per DeLone and McLean in 2004, the biggest critical driver for the buying pattern of the consumers is the seasonal changes. The seasonal changes does affects the promotions and discounts for the products which does affects a lot on the buying trends of the consumers and encourages the customers to buy more in these times than in normal seasons. This does increase the sales volume of the products during this time. In 2008, Bothma explains that the factors affecting the decision of choice making between buying on e-commerce sites and from stores depends on the flexibility of payment, the shipment time and also on the other facilities that the e-commerce sites provide to the customers (Punch, 2006, pp. 86-92). With good facilities, good flexible payment option and also with fast and reliable shipment of the products the e-commerce site do get lots of benefit over the brick-wall stores located at different places. In 2000, Choi, said that the marketers need to use reliable promotional services and also lucrative offers and discounts in the correct time to make sure that the company is able to capture the market at the right time and also the sales volume of the company increases at the right time by capturing the maximum customers interest. According to Gao in 2001, people from different countries have different religious and cultural background based on their ethical way of living and their practices and beliefs. People often tend to buy in the festive seasons like in India people buy more products in the season of festivals like Diwali, Durga Puja, Eid etc. while people in UK and USA buy products in the time of Christmas, New year etc. for gifting the products and also for celebrating the festivals with their relatives and friends (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2003, pp. 78-85). In 2001, a research done by Kroll explains that the marketing managers of various e-commerce based companies look to generate more revenues by capitalising on the factor of changing seasons which does affect the buying decisions of the customers in a huge way. The same concept was even supported in the research done by Pride, Hughes and Kapoor in 2008, in which it can be seen that the most famous and the large e-commerce business uses specially designed advertising and promotional activities to meet the needs of the customers based on the existing demand and also on the changing needs of the customers in the market for that particular product (Tiddlier, 2009, pp. 135-140). In 1999 a research was been done by Benbasat and Zmud based on which it was said that during the peak seasons the maintenance and utilisation of the available resources and also of the skilled labours has to be done i9n the best possible way to maintain a good position for the company in the market and also function in a proper way. In 2009, as per the work done by Carton the businesses which are related to electronic commerce look to concentrate highly on the getting partners so that they can use their potential levels in the most optimum way and also improve their sales volume during the special festive seasons with respect to the country in which the business is present. Focus and Research Questions Question 1- Does the sales of product increases in your website at the time of festivals like Halloween, Christmas and New Year? Yes No No idea Question 2- Do you look to give more offers and discounts in the festive seasons to increase your sales? Yes No Remains Unchanged Question 3- Do you look to launch new products in the festive seasons to increase your sales? Yes No No idea Methodology and Methods A particular research methodology can be analysed using both qualitative and also quantitative research methods. It depends on the needs of the type of method that is to be used for the analysis of the research. Based on the research report either of the two methods is been used and if required both the methods are been used as a mixed method for making the analysis. This particular issue is been done based on both qualitative and quantitative methods that is by using exploratory research and also descriptive methods. The descriptive is been done based on the study from huge data available in various research reports, articles, journals and books. This type of method does helps in gaining a lot of knowledge about the particular topic based on the enormous study from the previous reports. It helps to get the result quickly and is also very economical in terms of conducting the particular research. The researcher can take help from the previous reports and based on that the analysis can be made with regard to the issue by gathering information from the materials, books, articles etc. (Turban and King, 2003, pp. 97-104). In this report the analysis is been conducted based on the quantitative analysis also where the data is been collected from various sources and with the help of the response from the interviews or the focus groups. These data been collected is been analysed using various quantitative tools like Pie chart to understand and analyse the issue and get to the result which clearly explains the impact that the weather and seasonal changes have on the sales volume in the e-commerce sites. The quantitative data analysis helps to know the exact result as it gives quantitative data for the analysis and it helps to understand the issue correctly and perfectly (Salkind, 2010, pp. 223-226). Ethical Issues This particular research is been conducted very ethically and no unethical method is been used during this research report. An unbiased sample of 30 e-commerce company officials has been chosen for interviewing and gathering the data. The chosen sample is not been chosen by any form of biasness and managers from different companies are been selected who can give genuine data useful for conducting the particular research. There is no biasness been done based on gender or caste while selecting the sample. The managers of various e-commerce sites of different size big, mediums and small all are been taken into the sample to conduct the research so that the correct analysis of the research can be obtained. The data is been collected from the marketing managers of various companies using interviews and questionnaires that is been designed as a common one for all the persons. The data obtained from them is not been manipulated nor been taken from people by forcing them in any way. They have been provided full freedom and enough time to think and answer to the questions so that they can answer the questions without any problem or getting forced in any way. Thus this research report is been conducted keeping all the ethical issues in mind and in a genuine way. Data Collection & Data Analysis Thus looking at the analysis been made from the data that is been collected from the questionnaire that is been asked to 30 marketing managers of different e-commerce website companies, the following pie charts explains the quantitative analysis of the issue. It can be seen from the analysis that 83% of the marketing managers accept the fact that the sales of products in the festive seasons do increase by huge numbers from the normal seasons, while 14% disagreed to the point while 3% of the sample population had no idea with regards to this. By analysing the second question it can be seen that 87% of the marketing managers have agreed to the point that they look to give more offers and discpounts at the time of festivals, while 6% said that they don’t give any discounts or offers and 7% said that the price remains unchaged with the changing seasons and weathers. Looking at the analysis of question 3, it can be see that the 87% of the managers accept to the point that they look to launch new variety of products range in the trime of the festivals in their e-commerce sites to increase the sales, while 10% said No and 3% of the sample population sais that they don’t have an idea about any changes that are been made ort not. Outcome and timescale After conducting the research on the issue of the effect on sales in the e-commerce websites because of the change in weather and seasons, it can be found that the sales volume for the e-commerce websites does increase by huge numbers at the time of festive seasons and also in specific weather seasons. Looking at the data collected from 30 marketing managers in various e-commerce companies it can be found that the companies do look to come up with latest promotional and innovative marketing strategies to attract more customers as people look to buy more in the festive seasons than in normal time. Thus it is been seen that in certain festive seasons and in certain weather conditions the sales in the e-commerce websites does increase by huge numbers across the globe and even in UK. The time scale for the conducting the particular research is in total of 6 weeks where the first 2 weeks are spend in the data collection, 1 week in analysing the data, 1 week in studying various literature present in the same topic and 2 weeks in writing the particular report. The Gantt chart representing the time scale is been shown below. Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 Data collection             Data analysis             Literature review             Report writing             References Punch, K. F. 2006. Developing effective research proposals. London: SAGE. Salkind, N. J. 2010. Encyclopedia of Research Design. New Delhi: SAGE Saunders, M. Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. 2003. Research Methods for Business Students. London: Prentice Hall. Silverman, D. 2010. Qualitative Research. London: SAGE. Stones, L. 2000. Integration in e-commerce. New York: McGraw Hill. Tiddlier, C. 2009. Foundations of mixed methods research. California: SAGE. Turban, E. and King, D. 2003. Introduction to e-commerce. New York: Prentice Hall. Turban, E. Lee, D. King, J. & Chung, H. M. 2002. Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective. New York: Prentice Hall. Vulkan, N. 2003. The Economics of E-commerce. United Kingdom: Princeton University Press. Weller, S. C. and Romney, A. K. 1988. Systematic Data Collection. California : SAGE. Read More