E-Marketing of Amazon - Essay Example

?Executive Summary E-marketing is one of the methods that gained considerable attention in the business world. This is attributed to the fact that itfunctions than the conventional marketing methods. Despite its success in the business world, it has been faced with a number of challenges that need considerable attention. Individual companies and organizations have developed websites that are aimed at reaching a considerable number of the target market. These websites have had their flaws and thus, the need to improve or adopt a different website that is of attraction to the user. A number of strategies have been proposed to improve the look and feel of the website such as using different advertising strategies and search engine optimization. Majority of online stores use e-marketing as a tool to advertise and sell their products and services, in this study, the website of Amazon.com will be analyzed, and suggestions offered in regard to the website. Although the company has done much on the website, there are a few things to be added and others improved. For example, the company can consider including mobile phone technology in its payment system. The organization can also take measures to allow users access its services through their smartphones. In addition, the company can engage Search Engine Optimization in order to ensure that it gets the most traffiick which may end up being transformed to customers. E-marketing: Amazon Introduction Jeff Bozos founded Amazon.com in 1994, and the company has grown quickly to become a successful e-commerce company (business) in the universe. Today, the company is among the Fortune 500 companies and of the biggest online retailers in United States. Unlike, the other companies, such as e-bay which do online auction, the focus of Amazon.com has been on retail sale. Amazon.com has grown in the world in a rapid rate and has become one of the famous retailing website in the universe. The success of Amazon.com is attributed to its consumer friendly website interface and inventive tools that assist the consumers such as offering lists of popular books, the recommendation system, and lists of the best sellers (Wong 2009). Amazon is one of the first businesses to sell products embedded in their long chain through housing them in their many warehouses. It also distributes products from the numerous partner companies. Amazon acts as a medium or directly sells a wide range of products. These products include consumer electronics, videos, music, clothing, household products, and books. Most of products sold are done through Amazon, however, majority of them are from third-party sellers (CrunchBase 2012). In this essay, Amazon.com website will be analyzed in terms of how it markets its products, and how it can improve online sales for its products. Suggestions to improve its online sales of product such as Search Engine Optimization and advertising strategies will be discussed in detail. Website Analysis The success of Amazon is as a direct consequence of the strong user shopping experience. There are several features that make the Amazon shopping experience a model worth to be imitated by e-commerce developers. The shopping experience of Amazon starts on the home page where user or shopper is visually informed of the two-fold purposes of the website; to inform customers of available products and their characteristics and to direct customers toward purchasing the products. Apart from the disorderly layout and several clean distinct components that attract the eye of the user, the shopping/search controls at the top, and the navigation section on the upper left stand out in the Amazon home page. With such components highlighted, the two-fold aim of the Amazon website is achieved when the user is capable of quickly finding and purchasing products, and the seller is capable of quickly processing online purchases and making a profit (Webdesigner depot 2009). The online shopping and product search are very conspicuous even for an individual who has visited the website for the first time. The architects and designers of Amazon have ensured that these two components in the structure of the website are usable and prominent. Online purchasing and product search have been clearly emphasized from the very start of the user experience. This is regardless of whether it is a returning customer or a first time user. The content on the website is tailored to the present user. Once the user has recognized the website’s online shopping and product search abilities, he/she will most likely make use of the features immediately, particularly beginning with the search. Amazon utilizes cookies to keep the user logged in; the shopping habits of the user are also tracked and stored on the server-side. This is a vital enhancement, because it vigorously customizes the experience of the user based on page views, written reviews, purchases, wish-list additions, and prior searches. A good example of customized content can be seen on the home page, which alters the major content based on the manner in which the user interacts with the product search component. In other words, related items are displayed in which the user (whether logged in or not) can interact with them. Recommended items are displayed based on prior activity. This same form of customized content emerges on consequent visits, provided that the browser cookies have not been cleared (Ibid). Any good e-commerce website like Amazon tracks the behavior of the client-side on the server-side to make sure that consequent visits of every user is progressively tailored to his or her habits and tastes. Furthermore, it exposes the user to a wide range of services and products that are aligned with their areas of interest. The shopping experience at Amazon is full of reminder why the user ought to buy a product from them rather buying from other sources whether online or not. First, the prices are compared to the suggested retail. Each product on the display has a discounted price provided by Amazon, as well as the list price or the manufacturers suggested retail price. This feature is immediately recognized by the user due to the strikethrough text, and it is seen with each product on the Amazon website. The feature has greatly boosted the revenues of Amazon (Ibid). Second, users are informed of free shipping prior. After adding some items to the shopping cart, a huge distinct yellow banner emerges at the top of the screen, informing the user that they have qualified for free shipping. The yellow banner also has a link that tells the user of any restrictions that may applicable. Rationally, the free shipping notice is supposed to come as a step in shipping options, however, the process happens after the user has expressed some commitment to items in his or her shopping cart. The life-like book preview makes the shopping experience at Amazon better. The look inside element is a feature that makes this possible. The most frequently bought items on Amazon are books, and this has made the development team at Amazon to create a feature called “Look Inside” (Ibid). The “Look Inside” element allows the shoppers to view particular sections of books such as the table of contents, index, first pages, back cover, and the front cover. This is very helpful because the shopper will be capable of telling from a glance whether the book suits them or not. This is made possible by having a look at the introduction or the table of contents. The “Look Inside” element on the preview menu possesses a small box branded “Search inside This Book,” which allows the user to search the whole book apart from searching sections available for preview. When the user “selects an option from the “Look Inside” menu, a lightbox pops up, giving the user a product preview that is almost as good as holding the book in your hands” (Ibid). The “Search Inside” element gives results from any page but informs the user if the page cannot be previewed. The recommendations and history are customizable. Each product on the user’s personal page under “Today’s Recommendations for You” at the Amazon website can be edited. When the user clicks on the “Fix this recommendation” link, it pops up a window that elaborates why the item was recommended and offers the user an option to change it. The history of all products the user has viewed is another customizable feature. The navigation elements are well-placed at the Amazon website. The success of any online store depends on simplicity with which users are able to navigate the different sections. At the Amazon site, user pages, purchase pages, shopping cart pages, and the basic store categories are easily accessible by the user. The shopping cart has extra options that make the user feel comfortable (Ibid). First, if the user feels to change his or her mind about a particular item, he or she has the alternative of removing it from their cart. Second, they have the ability of saving the delete for later, an option referred to as soft delete. After adding a product to the user’s cart and selecting a shipping method, the user can evaluate a summary of their order and click the “Continue” button. The button takes the user to the final step where they confirm and make their purchase. The purchase can be confirmed by adding a card to the profile of the user (Ibid). Suggestions The Amazon website is very attractive, but there are a few suggestions that can make the website better through various advertising strategies. The company can start making use of the mobile phones like smartphones which permit users to have online access. With the creation and deployment of wireless, mobile technologies like the third generation (3G) phones has made it possible for users to get high-speed quality information on any subject or website of their choice. This means that the consumer and customers will be reached on the move hence the speed and efficiency of e-marketing will be greatly improved (Unhelkar, Ghanbary and Houman 2010). It is will be imperative if Amazon.com optimizes its website such that it can be accessible through mobile phones. Majority of the people are phone users, and it will be beneficial for Amazon.com if they would make it possible for phone users to make purchases through a mobile phone. While mobile phone payments can be a positive addition to the company’s rich portfolio, there are quite a number of challenges that may be associated with it. For one, the company will need to develop systems to ensure that transactions carried out are secure and that customers can access their moneys in case of errors during incomplete transactions. Yet another challenge that the company may experience in the same respect is getting potential customers to embrace the use of mobile phones to carry out transactions. As always, people often get skeptical about embracing change or new ways. However, this challenge may be overcome through marketing and may end up being a success as it has been proven to work in various (African) countries. In order for Amazon.com to keep its website accessible and visible, it required the assistance of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) methods. The two choices available to business to have exposure include Paid Search Advertising (Paid Search Marketing) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is a continuing strategy that needs a flow of continuous content for a certain period of time to lead into placement. The benefit of this strategy is that it builds upon itself, and the content published by the company becomes an asset. The disadvantage of this strategy is that it is time consuming before the company sees the outcome in placements. However, Paid Search Advertising leads to instant placement on the pages of the search engine (Thompson 2011). Paid Search Advertising is a method by which a company gains traffic by buying ads on search engines to promote a website through increasing its visibility on search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and Google. With the help of this technique, the company pays search engines to display ads “for the keyword queries that match your keyword list” (Ibid). Paid search advertising is classified into two, Display Advertising and Pay Per Click (PPC). PPC ads contain a tag line, URL, and the ad copy that the company wants the visitor to go to the moment they click on the ad. The visitor eventually lands on a website, a landing page, or any web property that is defined by the company based on the aim of the ad. They are usually displayed on ad sections or sponsored links of the search results pages of the search engine (Ibid). However, it is important to remember that an effective Pay Per Click technique is based on a disciplined approach, which entails web optimization and website analytics (Stoke 2010). On the other hand, display advertising employs banner advertisements across the internet. The banner ads may be composed of animated, flash, or static images integrated with interactive video and audio elements. It has been proved that banner ads are very effective and attract a lot of traffic because they get in touch with the right people at the expected time. Some of the methods used in banner ads include contextual (displaying ads to individuals on sites featuring content that is related to the business), behavioral targeting (displaying ads to individuals who have shown recent online interests or behaviors relevant to the business), and remarketing (displaying ads to individuals who have recently visited the site to evoke their interests). The Display Advertising cost is dependent on the number impressions, in other words, how many times the ad has been actually displayed (Thompson 2011). It is important to note that neat banners increase brand recall and awareness. Repeated logos or large logos simplify the offering and message. Large banners also clarify the message. Together with the presence of the human face, they increase the consumer’s desire to know more concerning the advertised service or product (Plummer 2007). Conclusion In conclusion, e-marketing is one of the techniques that have gained popularity in the world. E-marketing employs the use of Internet to advertise products and services in a particular company. It has become one of the convenient and easiest ways of doing business. Online advertising is also gaining popularity, but it has become a challenge to most companies, which do not know exactly how to attract customers to purchase their products and services. In the case of Amazon, the company has been able to at least make the shopping experience of its users more enjoyable. The Amazon shopping experience begins on the homepage where the shopper is informed of the two aims of the website, online shopping and product search. The website integrates a number of things, which make it have a lasting shopping experience. The online shopping and product search are very clear even for a person who has visited the site for the first time. Amazon has made good use of cookies to keep the users (shoppers) logged in and to track the shopping habits of users. There are features evident in Amazon website, especially in the books section and they include “Look Inside” feature, “Search Inside this Book” feature, and the “Fix this recommendation” feature. Suggestions to improve the look and the feel of the website include optimizing the website so that it can be easily accessed via internet-enabled mobile phones, use of gift certificates and adopting the “Search Engine Marketing” methods. Works Cited Carroll, Jim, and Rick Broadhead. “Online Marketing Strategies: 16 Proven Ways to grow your E-business.” Last modified 2004. http://www.datingsoftware.biz/docs/mkt_guide.pdf. CrunchBase. “Amazon.” CrunchBase. Last modified 2012. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/amazon. Plummer, Joseph Thornton. The Online Advertising Playbook: Proven Strategies and Tested Tactics from the Advertising Research Foundation. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2007. Stokes, Richard. Ultimate Guide to Pay Per Click Advertising: Advanced Strategies to Help You Beat 97% of the Competition. Madison, Wisconsin: Entrepreneur Press, 2010. Thompson, Doug. “Paid Search Advertising: For Immediate Results.” WSI Digital Marketing. Last modified May 18, 2011. http://www.wsiems.com/2011/05/18/paid-search-advertising-for-immediate-results/. Unhelkar, Bhuvan, Ghanbary Abbass, and Houman Younessi. Organizations: Frameworks for Service Integration. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Inc, 2010. Webdesigner depot. “An Analysis of the Amazon Shopping Experience.” Webdesigner depot. Last modified October, 2009. http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/an-analysis-of-the-amazon-shopping-experience/. Wong, Timothy. “Exploratory Data Analysis of Amazon. Com Book Reviews.” Master’s thesis, University of California, 2009. Read More