Online Consumer’s Behaviour:

The boom of internet technologies and digital marketing has enabled several new and old businesses to develop their online presence and to sale products and services online. Though, a business may develop an excellent online store, it may not be successful if it is not aligned with their buyer’s preferences. An online business may be doing all necessary efforts to sell products and services online but it would eventually go out of business if it does not understand how its consumers act in web space. It is not so simple that an online buyer would come to business website, search a product, like the product, and eventually buy the product. It is not that simple. It is very important to understand online consumer’s behaviour to be a successful online seller.

Internet has changed the way buyers are purchasing products these days. With ever evolving internet commerce, consumers’ buying styles are also changing. With the development of newer technologies, consumers’ learning curve is also changing. Though volume of e-commerce is increasing every day with increasing online buying habits of more people, there are many consumers who are still reluctant to purchase through online channels. There are many factors which affect online consumer’s actions. These factors explain why some consumers prefer to buy online products and services while other consumers abstain from entering these relatively new avenues. Some of the factors that affect online buyer’s behaviour are as follows.

• Online channel characteristics/ knowledge
• Online shopping exposure
• Buyer’s Demographics
• Pricing Preferences

The three main characteristics which distinguish a marketing channel from another are communication, distribution, and accessibility. A marketing channel would perform better than other on the basis of these three main characteristics. Online consumers believe that internet provides better services in terms of said qualities to do transactions as compared to purchases through non-online channels. However, it should be noted that online purchasing requires a device that can be connected to internet as well as knowledge of internet to complete an online transaction. The consumers who have resources as well as knowledge and skills in web browsing would be more comfortable in purchasing online as compared to consumers who lack such skills and resources. It can be easily said that one who has more web channel knowledge and skills is more likely to do online purchases. Therefore, web channel knowledge and skills would impact the decision as well as frequency of purchasing on internet. Moreover, frequent online purchasers would be more comfortable and knowledgeable than occasional online purchasers. The following picture shows different factors which influence online consumer’s behavior.

Even before the convenience of online shopping, consumers were used to do shopping through printed catalogues and TV shopping channels. Convenience and recreation are two major aspects of non-store or home based buying. Young, recreational, economical, low-income, and adventurist are some characteristics of these kinds of buyers. These day similar shoppers are also attracted by online shopping. In addition, online shopping is also preferred by some web based buyers over in-store shopping because of the time savings and convenience it brings. One of the major arguments in-store buyers give that in stores and shopping malls they can see, feel, touch, and try the products they want to buy before they pay for the products. So, those shoppers who want to physically check the product before buying would be less likely to buy online since online buying does not provide physically touching the product experience on the internet. On the other hand, buyers who do not care for experiencing the product before buying and prefer convenience would be more inclined to purchase online. Similarly, buyers who make online purchases would become more convenient toward future online purchasing than those who do not purchase online.

These characteristics are consistent with existing situation of e-commerce. Internet has proved its power to spread different kinds of information. Today, online stores provide large amount of searchable information about products. Online consumers can find various characteristics of products such as size, color, and prices using search function. Even consumers are able to conduct search to compare products’ features available in different online stores. Though online buyers can also experience certain digital products online such as they can play a part of a music track or download a trial version of a software program, today's online stores still have a limited capacity for consumers to experience tangible products online.

It is evident that existing online stores have some limitations as compared to the conventional stores. For example, web based stores present the product information in a way that reduces the impact of brand quality. The display screen of device provides a list of brand names with features like flavors, sizes, and prices. Online buyers do not see the brand product packages. As a result brand awareness is lost. Moreover, most of online shopping stores allow buyers to go directly to specific product categories to make their selections which lacks buyer looking at other products on the way to buying any specific product. Due to this online space shoppers make relatively fewer purchases or only those products which they actually want to buy.

The demographics of online buyers are also related to their buying behaviour online.  Since education is highly correlated with a person’s income as well as predicts the internet knowledge and skills, it can be said that education is a major factor that affects a person’s online buying behavior. It is also not difficult to say that young internet users spend more time on the web as compared to the older users. Similarly, young users have more skills and knowledge about the newer web based technologies than the older users. Therefore, buyers who are more educated are more likely to purchase online as compared to the buyers who are less educated, and frequent online buyers are even better educated than less frequent online buyers.

Some studies have found out that male users of internet do more of online purchasing than female user of internet, and they are more frequent online buyers as compared to females. Moreover, online consumers have higher incomes as compared to in-store buyers and they buy more frequently than in-store buyers.

In summary, whether buyers purchase online and how frequently they buy online relates to some extent of their channel skill, knowledge, and views about channel utilities. Buyers’ online buying behavior is also influenced by shopping convenience as well as shopping experience. Online buying convenience preference would have a positive impact on their future online buying endeavours; however an experience preference would have a negative effect on future tries. Similarly, recreational and economic preferences would have minimal impact on consumers’ online buying behavior since generally recreational buyers spend more and are not money savers. Also, gender, income, and education would also predict and impact the level of web channel skills, knowledge, and indirectly influence online buying behavior.

References:

Birchall, C. (n.d.). Understanding online consumer behaviour – the different online shopper personality types. In Kerching retail. Retrieved November 28, 2015, from http://www.kerchingretail.com/understanding-online-consumer-behaviour-the-different-online-shopper-personality-types

Grabowski, P. (May 30, 2014). Key factors influencing online consumer behavior – backed by research. In Ecommerce insiders. Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://ecommerceinsiders.com/key-factors-influencing-online-consumer-behaviour-backed-research-1981/

Li, J. (May 10, 2013). Study: Online shopping behavior in the digital era. In iAcquire. Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://www.iacquire.com/blog/study-online-shopping-behavior-in-the-digital-era

Roberts, M.L., Zahay, D. (2013), Internet marketing: Integrating online and offline strategies (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Stokes, Rob., The minds of quirk, e-marketing: The essential guide to marketing in a digital world (5th ed.). Quirk eMarketing (Pty) Ltd.

Shazia Karrar               

Social Media Channels and Digital Marketing:

Social media is relatively new way of digital marketing that both B2B and B2C businesses are using these days. The size of social media marketing has increased tremendously in last few years. Social media marketing is the term marketers used to explain marketing through various platforms which allows people to exchange information. The growth of social media platforms has changed the way people socialize, interact, share information, and do business transactions. Social media has also established new channels for digital marketing as well.Some of the popular social media channels are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flicker, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Instagram etc. 

The social media channels can be categorized as follows.

·        Social networks: These are consisting of social profiles for example Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn.

·        Content creation: The purpose of these channels is to develop and share content. Examples of such platforms are YouTube, Instagram, Flicker, Pinterest, and Blogs etc.

·        Bookmarking and aggregating: Examples of these can be Reddit, Digg, and Delicious. These have the purpose of social bookmarking and content sharing.

·        Location: Example of this type of channels can be Facebook and Foursquare. These are part of social networks based on locations.

It should be noted that since channels in above categories do not have very clear boundaries, they may overlap. Some platforms can be classified under many categories for example some social networking sites allow members to share photos as well as blogs. Social media channels use new online technologies strategically and innovatively to attain several communication and marketing objectives. This is the reason that we can find several types of social media services within a channel. The following picture shows different types of social media channels.

Social media channels are basically online communication channels which provide community based input, interaction, content and information sharing as well as collaboration. Different types of social media channels include websites and applications which are dedicated to social networking, forums, social bookmarking, micro-blogging etc. These have become necessary part of online life. This is one of the most important reasons that businesses today use social media channels to promote their brands, market products, attract new customers as well as retain existing ones.

Businesses perform marketing activities using social media channels through two methods. One method is free but requires building followers, fans or connections by sharing attractive and useful content, running contests, and generally engaging users. The other method is through paid advertising. For example, in this method businesses may use Facebook advertisements, Google Adwords, or Twitter accounts to market their products or services on such channels. These social media channels take advantage of social networking to help businesses enhancing brand recognition by increasing their customer reach. Businesses do it by creating compelling contents which users will share with others in their social networks. Businesses also use analytical tools available for social media channels to gather data from blogs and social media websites and analyze that information to make effective business decisions. One of the general uses of these analytical tools is to analyze client habits and preferences to provide better marketing and customer services.

Following are brief descriptions of few famous social media channels.

Twitter: It is the most famous free micro-blogging service that was launched in July, 2006. It allows registered users to broadcast 140-characters short posts called tweets which are usually short thoughts or links to interesting articles. Users can follow other user’s tweets.

Facebook: It is undoubtedly the most dominant personal social network in the world with over one billion registered users. Businesses want to use these audiences for their marketing purposes. It is also free social networking channel that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages, and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues.

LinkedIn: It is also a social networking channel; however it is designed specifically for the business community. It allows registered members to establish networks of people they know and trust professionally.

YouTube: Its users upload 100 hours’ worth of video every minute, and 4 billion hours of videos are watched every month (YouTube, 2013), making it the prime social video-sharing site on the web. YouTube offers many features to video up-loaders and viewers, and is simple to use. Marketers can promote video content directly through YouTube or advertise next to (or during) content on YouTube.

References:

Bendror, Y. Which Social Media Channels Should I Use For My Business? Retrieved Nov. 05, 2015, Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/social-media-channels-business-223554094.html

Chitwood, L. (2014). Which social media platform is best for your business?  Retrieved Nov. 05, 2015. Retrieved from http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2014/03/05/social-media-platform-best-business/

Newman, D. (2014). Understanding The Channels: An Overview Of Social, Mobile, Digital And Traditional Marketing For B2B. Retrieved Nov. 05, 2015. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites#/sites/danielnewman/2014/11/04/understanding-the-channels-an-overview-of-social-mobile-digital-and-traditional-marketing-for-b2b/

Roberts, M.L., Zahay, D. (2013), Internet marketing: Integrating online and offline strategies (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Stokes, Rob., The minds of quirk, e-marketing: The essential guide to marketing in a digital world (5th ed.). Quirk eMarketing (Pty) Ltd.

              

Shazia Karrar

Digital Marketing Strategy:

Today’s businesses need digital marketing strategy to improve sales substantially and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. This strategy is a road map to coordinate digital marketing efforts with other marketing tools such as TV, radio, and newspapers to attain greater results such as sales growth, global brand recognition, and wider market penetration etc. The objectives of digital marketing strategies are to acquire, convert, and retain customers as well as increase value for them. Search engine optimization (SEO), websites and blogs, social media, videos, email lists, affiliate marketing etc. are tools of digital marketing strategy. These tools provide interactive channels to allow digital communication and ecommerce. Websites and blogs on the internet have become channels of communication for many businesses, especially in B2B (business-to-business) markets, where they are an essential means of customer communication for many firms. Search marketing, which includes search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, is an important way to drive visitors to businesses’ websites. Today, email marketing is a key tool of the internet marketing strategy. It can be used in customer acquisition programs, but is especially important in customer retention campaigns. Social media channels include the networks on which people communicate and platforms which allow construction of communities that support content and communications. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are three of the largest networks.

In the above diagram, digital marketing strategy is well explained by Esotech. It incorporates SWOT and competitor’s analysis and with the help of corporate mission and vision digital marketing tools SEO, PPC, and social media are used to acquire, convert, and retain customers.

Though internet was used earlier by universities and military, the history of digital marketing started in 1983 when mass email was produced by Compuserve. Early HTML language version and web browsers became available around 1993 which allowed common people to access web. In 1995 Amazon, one of the largest online businesses today, was established and other companies realized the potential of online commerce. Launch of Google in 2003 helped the search engine marketing that enabled consumers to search for desired products and online businesses. The convenience of consumers in online marketing reached to new levels when in 2007 smart phones and applications made online purchasing possible from hand held phones. Innovation of digital social media networks like Facebook in 2010 became a new milestone in online networking and marketing. Today, new technologies have placed digital marketing channels among the top marketing strategies.

Strategy planning is important for digital marketing activities because one aspect of strategy affects other. Alignment in online and offline channels is critical to achieve objectives of overall marketing campaign, maximize return on investment (ROI), and higher profits. A digital marketing strategy helps development of products with strong consumer demand that results increased profits. It makes possible for sellers to establish competitive prices for online sales of products since internet allows consumers to access and compare so many products at competitive prices. It also facilitates sales and consumers’ convenience improves when they connect to sellers through easier ways like hand held phones and devices. The cost of transportation also reduces when digital marketing strategies establish effective distribution channels. Improvement in brand image and recognition is direct result of improved customer relationship management and communication which become possible due to effective strategy mix of digital marketing tools.

Amazon is an excellent example of digital marketing strategy success. For the last several years, it has successfully implemented tools of digital marketing to improve customer experience by providing easy-to-use functionality, fast and reliable fulfillment, timely customer service, feature rich content, and a trusted transaction environment. Personalization of website pages, customer reviews, notifications and recommendations, search function, wish lists, free shipping, secure payment system, delivery date estimate, inventory availability information etc. are the features which improved customer loyalty and repeat purchase. Any new and existing business may learn from Amazon’s digital marketing strategy as a guide while optimizing unique features of their business to create competitive advantage. 

 

 

Following are some digital marketing strategies that any business may adopt.

• Create accounts on social media and frequently launch interesting material. Also, blogs must be updated consistently.
• Perform social listening using website. It is important to know what questions people are asking and where are content gaps.
• Publish well written SEO articles on website to come up on the initial pages of an internet search. SEO articles should have as many keywords as possible and should be of high quality. Purchase email lists and send frequent email blasts to update customers.
• Create interesting videos about products and business. Launch these videos on different platforms to draw consumers’ interest.
• Align and launch digital marketing campaigns at the same time of TV and print media campaigns.

 

 

References:

1. Roberts, M.L., Zahay, D. (2013), Internet marketing: Integrating online and offline strategies (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
2. Stokes, Rob., The Minds of Quirk, eMarketing: The essential guide to marketing in a digital world (5th ed.). Quirk eMarketing (Pty) Ltd.
3. 10 reasons you need a digital marketing strategy. Written by Dave Chaffey. Retrieved September 29, 2015 from http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/digital-strategy-development/10-reasons-for-digital-marketing-strategy/ 
4. When This Company Followed The Same Simple Marketing Strategy As Amazon And Apple, It Beat The Odds. Written by Mark Fidelman. Retrieved September 30, 2015 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2015/06/10/when-this-company-followed-the-same-simple-marketing-strategy-as-amazon-and-apple-it-beat-the-odds/ 
5. Digital Marketing Strategy Development. Retrieved September 29, 2015 from https://esotech.com/visualize/strategy/digital-marketing-strategy-development/ 

 

Shazia Karrar