Digital Marketing - TaoBao - Essay Example

Digital Marketing Report- TaoBao Affiliation Summary Taobao is an e commerce with the largest population on online shoppers that deals with all kinds of information including: products, shipping rates, taxes, inventory, orders, customers etc. it is located in china under the Alibaba operations though it shares similar characteristics with the eBay and the Amazon. It has the largest online marketplaces in the world with over 370 million users and more than 800 million products. It mainly offers online shopping in order to facilitate business to customers and customers to customers relations by providing a model for small businesses and individual entrepreneurs to unimpeded online stores that chiefly serves Chinese speaking region and abroad. Most of their sellers post on their goods and operates by either fixed prices or actions which normally accounts for higher transaction rate. For much of the transparency and accountability issues, the sellers information are normally included in the website, plus the comments of other shoppers who had earlier purchased from his/her site. In addition various complain addressed by the shoppers assist in others to reassess and identify a reliable seller. Digital marketing is a type of marketing that makes the use of electronic devices such as computers, phones, and technological platforms like websites, emails, blogs and other related social network. A number of organizations and firms have moved to an era of deploying the introduction of digital marketing in there operational basis. This has effectively aided in the product promotional more accurately and efficiently compared to other most common traditional techniques. Taobao is one of the world’s largest online shopping website and platform where sellers post a number of products to meet the demand of the larger population to these convenient forms of technological improvement. Majority of consumers find it expedient and easy to grant access to different kinds of products from various categories of vendors. Furthermore, it was realized that the consumption level rises due to the introduction of such a popular online website through provision of fundamentally different services by means of diverse methods. These methods included the following: I) Alipay Following the creation and the introduction of this online marketing website, was an abrupt increment of registered users from various parts of the republic china (Yang & Liu, 2009). This was ensued by the emergence of Alipay launch which was a third party payment tool to help enhancing consumers trust for the sellers in the Taobao marketplace. This was achieved through the following determinants; Credibility- It is a credible form of payment and this was realized as customers trust in Alipay and its positive influences in their purchase intentions towards Taobao. It encourages customers to make online transactions in order to increase their purchase intention online. There should be a credible co-existence amongst the shoppers and the venders in order to increase the trust issue between them. It also resulted from the reliability and responsiveness, convenience and responsibility from both parties. Enhanced security- With a strong guarantee to security, Alipay let the public know how good it is working ahead. This is accounted from the fact that strong research and development team and internet technology controlling team are fused in order to build up and maintain public’s confidence in the system. This also discourages and combats potential hackers from high chances of attacking Alipay’s system. However, a lot of establishment of security control, most at times, generates the hesitation concerns in online payment. This is evident by the continuous and the generative loss of confidence involving online banking, leading to more costly channels. (Fang &Peter, 2007) Reliability- The system ensures that there is a high level of stability provided in the system both managerial and financially. Each and every transaction encountered during disposal and even order are handled smoothly and instinctively in a specific order criterion to avoid any chances for any customer to easily fall into manipulating errors. This was viewed to be an upholding factor in terms of trust gain by the systematic procedures. In case of any encountered single error, customers confidence are rendered insufficient thus unreliable. It was thus concluded that when system’s security control matters and reliability in payment are fully enforced, the acquisition of products through the online website will thrive upwards. There are steps followed when and individual or an entrepreneur needs to open up and launch a Taobao shop. They were given as follows; a) Register for an Alipay account by using your real name and provision of a passport for verification incase an individual is from other countries. b) One has to upload a photo of his/her containing his/her image. c) There has to be a confirmation of policies from the Taobao by providing into details the types of products you would offer and a demonstration of how the running of the shop will take place. And since there is no licensing required, a number of vendors often sell idle stuff. d) The application will be audited and verified within seven days. It should be carefully field with the correct information to avoid refusing ,ones it has been approve you can go to Taobao developer center to create an application with which a formal test will be guaranteed and the application scanned and launched online II) E- Commerce Taobao has most effectively covered large and vast territorial boundaries from their rigorous use of e commerce system in their resource allocation. The use Taobaos successful operation as the thriving and booming consumer to consumer online website company in China, it is summed that the business plan and structure are the main accurate and exact market position. The creation and designing of these web-pages and online shopping process provide the customer’s a convenient platform and it is attractive and more convenient to the potential and ready customers (Yang & Liu, 2009). The particular credit evaluation system and creation of Zhifubao & Wang Wang are competitive advantages, which delivers more value creating outputs. However, several disadvantages include: 1. The expressional and assessment system may sometimes indulge the buyers into posting positive and desirable comments since the majority of the role of escrow service found within Taobao does not ensure the after sell services and the disclosure of transaction. 2. Most at times when a number of customers and subscribers are signing in into the official site, it is more often associated with the popping out of junk emails and a number of advertisements and ads which might discourage and disturb them while registering and entering their details. This might sometimes lead to them visiting wrong sites instead. 3. A number of online trading markets is flooded with counterfeit and fake traders and imposters thus the problem of cheating normally arises especially in categories such as clothing and accessories. This has presented a negative outlook and portrait of the online marketing as one the avenues of disposing and acquiring various commodities. 4. A limited number of online sellers were guaranteed with the authorization of acquisition of branded products, it is therefore a challenge for customers differentiate amongst the authorized products from unauthorized ones. 5. Because Taobao is highly pronounced in major Chinese market only, its varsity in marketing is limited within a specific geographical area. Thus only a few shoppers obtained access to the products. They have also encountered a lot of challenges while trying to translate to other internationally recognizable languages due to misinterpretation. 6.The tax policy in Taobao is an immature type of payment since it does not provide official receipts and invoice to most of the customers. It was suggested that Taobao Company should take the opportunity of e-commerce development and make justifiable use of information technology and both internal and external resources in order to work as a bridge joining the buyers and sellers. As an e-commerce company, provision of adequate and transparent information should be done and handled with an authorized personnel with safety scientific system. The limited payment system requires improvement and diversity. However, it is still a prosperous structure for e-commerce, and Taobao IT Strategies help improve its performance. Although big brands have been taking the merits of Taobao’s powerful e- commerce market opportunities, cropping and thriving companies have also benefited from the popularity of online shopping by selling their commodities in Taobao. III) E-tailing The growth of e-tailing also has played a major role in the promoting and boosting of Taobao economy which increase the consumption of their products. It has a potentiality in meeting shoppers taste as it unlocks the consumption in a variety of areas. It was moreover noted that it aids in the correspondence increment in the GDP growth of the given country IV) Taobao’s ladies In the website there are a number of fashion presentation and advertising by most ladies .this site provides promotion of their products at the same time it aids in the provision of fame and promotional strategies to the website. V) Promotion Techniques When Taobao online marketing website was created, a large number of both small-sized and medium-sized sites lost the realization of profits to some extent. It responded by putting advertisements in these sites at a lower cost. There was the announcement of strategic alliances with Chinese Internet portal 21 CN and various other sites found within its territory. The alliances establish long term cropped up cooperation with each other though Taobao was never satisfied, and in the coming few years, it depended entirely on commercial movies and famous TV program to expanding its expounding reputation. The influences of media, thus makes Taobao to receive a good marketing effect (Yang & Liu, 2009). VI) Cooperation with Banks Taobao and one of the branches of ICBC (the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China) signed an all-encompassing economic cooperation contract son after its formation, which was aimed at protecting and controlling the shoppers against summons and deceives pertaining any acquired product within the system. The cooperation enabled the bank into the place of intermediary to connect with most of the social network and E-commerce by creating and advancing a new way to make transactions called online banking. The service increased the amount of confidence of customers on a attainable payment and settlement. Moreover, it also gave a convenient way for vendors to receive payment for goods and saves their time and energy. In conclusion, Taobao Company should take the opportunity of e-commerce development and make rational use of information technology and internal and external resources in order to bridge the linkage between the buyers and sellers. 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