SUMMER INTERNSHIP PROJECT REPORT

ON
“MARKETING STRATEGY TOWARDS AMAZON”
A report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award
of Degree of
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Submitted By:
Rahul Verma
Roll No. 2310019025304
MBA Marketing 3rd Sem. 2 Year

Under the Supervision of

Dr. Asif Iqbal
(Assistant Professor)
Institute of Management Sciences
University of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE,

UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW, UTTAR PRADESH

2023-25
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the work presented in this dissertation entitled MARKETING
STRATEGY TOWARDS AMAZON, was carried out by me. I have not submitted the
matter embodied in this dissertation for the award of any other degree or diploma of any
other University or Institute. I have given due credit to the original authors/sources for all the
words, ideas, diagrams, graphics, computer programs, experiments, results, that are not my
original contribution. I have used quotation marks to identify verbatim sentences and given
credit to the original authors/sources. I affirm that all the data represented in this project is
true & correct to the best of my knowledge & belief. I also declare that this dissertation is my
own preparation and not copied from anywhere else.

Name: RAHUL VERMA

Roll. No.: 2310019025304
MBA Marketing 3rd Sem. 2nd Year
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Asif Iqbal Sir, who has been my thesis
mentor, for his constant support, priceless advice, and perceptive criticism during this study
project. His knowledge, commitment, and support have been invaluable in determining the
course and calibre of this thesis, and I am incredibly grateful for their guidance.

1 considers me very fortunate to get the opportunity to conduct the training approval and
project assignment by FLIPKART. I got opportunity to get a practical exposure into actual
environment and it provides me the golden opportunity to make my theoretical concept of
Recruitment and selection process in a more clear way.

I am very much thankful to all the officials at FLIPKART for their cooperation during my
training for providing me necessary information without which this project report would not
have been completed.

I have gone through various sites, Research Books, Magazines and Newspapers to get the
accurate information for analysis and tried to find the best conclusion.

Name: RAHUL VERMA

Roll. No.: 2310019025304
MBA Marketing 3rd Sem. 2nd Year

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

Chapter-1: Introduction to topic

Chapter-2 Product/Service Profile

Chapter-3: Research Methodology along with objectives & scope of study.

Chapter-4 Use & Importance of the Study

Chapter-5: Data Collection Methods & Its analysis

Chapter-6 Findings

Chapter-7 Conclusion

Chapter-8Limitations

Chapter-9Bibliography

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INTRODUCTION

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 INTRODUCTION
Consumer Behaviour
It is the study of when, why, how, where and what people do or do not buy products. It
blends elements from psychology, sociology, social, anthropology and economics. It attempts
to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups. It also tries
to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups,
and society in general.

Customer behaviour study is based on consumer buying behaviour, with the customer playing
the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Relationship marketing is an influential asset
for customer behaviour analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-discovery of the true
meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer.
A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention, customer relationship
management, personalization, customization and one-to-one marketing. Marketing provides
services in order to satisfy customers. With that in mind, the productive system is considered
from its beginning at the production level, to the end of the cycle, the consumer

The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by
understanding issues such as how

• The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different
alternatives (e.g., brands, products);

• The psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment (e.g.,
culture, family, signs, media);

• The behaviour of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions;

• Limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence

decisions and marketing outcome;

• How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that differ
in their level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer; and

• How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and marketing
strategies to more effectively reach the consumer.

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One "official" definition of consumer behavior is "The study of individuals, groups, or
organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products,
services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on
the consumer and society."

Steps of Consumer Behaviour

The first step is problem recognition—you realize that something is not as it should be.
Perhaps, for example, your car is getting more difficult to start and is not accelerating well.
The second step is information search—what are some alternative ways of solving the
problem? You might buy a new car, buy a used car, take your car in for repair, ride the bus,
ride a taxi, or ride a skateboard to work.

The third step involves evaluation of alternatives. A skateboard is inexpensive, but may be
ill-suited for long distances and for rainy days.

Finally, we have the purchase stage, and sometimes a post-purchase stage (e.g., you return a
product to the store because you did not find it satisfactory). In reality, people may go back
and forth between the stages. For example, a person may resume alternative identification
during while evaluating already known alternatives.

Consumer involvement will tend to vary dramatically depending on the type of product. In
general, consumer involvement will be higher for products that are very expensive (e.g., a
home, a car) or are highly significant in the consumer’s life in some other way (e.g., a word
processing program or acne medication).

It is important to consider the consumer’s motivation for buying products. To achieve this
goal, we can use the Means-End chain, wherein we consider a logical progression of
consequences of product use that eventually lead to desired end benefit. Thus, for example, a
consumer may see that a car has a large engine, leading to fast acceleration, leading to a
feeling of performance, leading to a feeling of power, which ultimately improves the
consumer’s self-esteem. A handgun may aim bullets with precision, which enables the user
to kill an intruder, which means that the intruder will not be able to harm the consumer’s
family, which achieves the desired end-state of security. In advertising, it is important to
portray the desired end-states. Focusing on the large motor will do less good than portraying
a successful person driving the car.
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Information search and decision making. Consumers engage in both internal and external
information search.

Internal search involves the consumer identifying alternatives from his or her memory. For
certain low involvement products, it is very important that marketing programs achieve “top
of mind” awareness. For example, few people will search the Yellow Pages for fast food
restaurants; thus, the consumer must be able to retrieve one’s restaurant from memory before
it will be considered. For high involvement products, consumers are more likely to use an
external search. Before buying a car, for example, the consumer may ask friends’ opinions,
read reviews in Consumer Reports, consult several web sites, and visit several dealerships.
Thus, firms that make products that are selected predominantly through external search must
invest in having information available to the consumer in need—e.g., through brochures, web
sites, or news coverage.

A compensatory decision involves the consumer “trading off” good and bad attributes of a
product. For example, a car may have a low price and good gas mileage but slow
acceleration. If the price is sufficiently inexpensive and gas efficient, the consumer may then
select it over a car with better acceleration that costs more and uses more gas. Occasionally,
a decision will involve a non-compensatory strategy. For example, a parent may reject all
soft drinks that contain artificial sweeteners. Here, other good features such as taste and low
calories cannot overcome this one “non-negotiable” attribute.

The amount of effort a consumer puts into searching depends on a number of factors such as
the market (how many competitors are there, and how great are differences between brands
expected to be?), product characteristics (how important is this product? How complex is the
product? How obvious are indications of quality?), consumer characteristics (how interested
is a consumer, generally, in analysing product characteristics and making the best possible
deal?), and situational characteristics (as previously discussed).

Two interesting issues in decisions are:

• Variety seeking (where consumers seek to try new brands not because these brands
are expected to be “better” in any way, but rather because the consumer wants a “change of
pace,” and

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• “Impulse” purchases—unplanned buys. This represents a somewhat “fuzzy” group.
For example, a shopper may plan to buy vegetables but only decide in the store to actually
buy broccoli and corn. Alternatively, a person may buy an item which is currently on sale, or
one that he or she remembers that is needed only once inside the store.

A number of factors involve consumer choices.

In some cases, consumers will be more motivated. For example, one may be more careful
choosing a gift for an in-law than when buying the same thing for one self. Some consumers
are also more motivated to comparison shop for the best prices, while others are more
convenience oriented.

Personality impacts decisions.

Some like variety more than others, and some are more receptive to stimulation and
excitement in trying new stores.

Perception influences decisions. Some people, for example, can taste the difference between
generic and name brand foods while many cannot. Selective perception occurs when a
person is paying attention only to information of interest. For example, when looking for a
new car, the consumer may pay more attention to car ads than when this is not in the horizon.

Some consumers are put off by perceived risk. Thus, many marketers offer a money back
guarantee.

Family Decision Making.

Individual members of families often serve different roles in decisions that ultimately draw
on shared family resources. Some individuals are information gatherers/holders, who seek out
information about products of relevance. These individuals often have a great deal of power
because they may selectively pass on information that favors their chosen alternatives. The
decision maker(s) have the power to determine issues such as:

• Whether to buy;

• Which product to buy (pick-up or passenger car?);

• Which brand to buy;

• Where to buy it; and

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• When to buy.

It should be noted that family decisions are often subject to a great deal of conflict. Note that
many decisions inherently come down to values, and that there is frequently no "objective"
way to arbitrate differences. One spouse may believe that it is important to save for the
children’s future; the other may value spending now (on private schools and computer
equipment) to help prepare the children for the future. Who is right? There is no clear answer
here.

Some family members may resort to various strategies to get their way. One is bargaining—
one member will give up something in return for someone else. For example, the wife says
that her husband can take an expensive course in gourmet cooking if she can buy a new
pickup truck. Alternatively, a child may promise to walk it every day if he or she can have a
hippopotamus. Another strategy is reasoning—trying to get the other person(s) to accept
one’s view through logical argumentation. Note that even when this is done with a sincere
intent, its potential is limited by legitimate differences in values illustrated above. Also note
that individuals may simply try to "wear down" the other party by endless talking in the guise
of reasoning (this is a case of negative reinforcement as we will see subsequently).

Major factors affecting the consumer behavior:

There are many factors in consumer behavior. However, following are the factors we are
mainly focusing for the purpose.

Cultural factors:

Cultural factors are coming from the different components related to culture or cultural
environment from which the consumer belongs.

a. Culture and societal environment:

Culture is crucial when it comes to understanding the needs and behaviors of an individual.
For a brand, it is important to understand and take into account the cultural factors inherent to
each market or to each situation in order to adapt its product and its marketing strategy. As
these will play a role in the perception, habits, behavior or expectations of consumers.
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 b. Sub-cultures :

A society is composed of several sub-cultures in which people can identify. Subcultures are
groups of people who share the same values based on a common experience or a similar
lifestyle in general. Subcultures are the nationalities, religions, ethnic groups, age groups,
gender of the individual, etc. The subcultures are often considered by the brands for the
segmentation of a market in order to adapt a product or a communication strategy to the
values or the specific needs of this segment.

Social classes:
Social classes are defined as groups more or less homogenous and ranked against each other
according to a form of social hierarchy. Even if it’s very large groups, we usually find similar
values, lifestyles, interests and behaviors in individuals belonging to the same social class.
We often assume three general categories among social classes: lower class, middle class and
upper class. According to some researchers, behavior and buying habits would also be a way
of identification and belonging to its social class and so is important to consider while
researching.

c. Cultural trends:

Cultural trends or “Bandwagon effect” are defined as trends widely followed by people and
which are amplified by their mere popularity and by conformity or compliance with social
pressure. The more people follow a trend, the more others will want to follow it. They affect
behavior and shopping habits of consumers and may be related to the release of new products
or become a source of innovation for brands.

Social factors

Social factors are among the factors influencing consumer behavior significantly. They fall
into three categories: reference groups, family and social roles and status.

a. Reference groups and membership groups

The membership groups of an individual are social groups to which he belongs and which
will influence him. The membership groups are usually related to its social origin, age, place
of residence, work, hobbies, leisure, etc. he influences level may vary depending on
individuals and groups. But is generally observed common consumption trends among the
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members of a same group. The understanding of the specific features (mindset, values,
lifestyle, etc..) of each group allows brands to better target their advertising message.

b. Family

The family is maybe the most influencing factor for an individual. It forms an environment of
socialization in which an individual will evolve, shape his personality, acquire values. But
also develop attitudes and opinions on various subjects such as politics, society, social
relations or himself and his desires. Perceptions and family habits generally have a strong
influence on the consumer buying behavior. People will tend to keep the same as those
acquired with their families.

c. Social roles and status

The position of an individual within his family, his work, his country club, his group of
friends, etc.. – All this can be defined in terms of role and social status. A social role is a set
of attitudes and activities that an individual is supposed to have and do according to his
profession and his position at work, his position in the family, his gender, etc.. – and
expectations of the people around him.

Personal factors

Decisions and buying behavior are obviously also influenced by the characteristics of each
consumer.

d. Age and way of life

A consumer does not buy the same products or services at 20 or 70 years. His lifestyle, values
, environment, activities, hobbies and consumer habits evolve throughout his life. For a brand
or a retailer, it may be interesting to identify, understand, measure and analyze what are the
criteria and personal factors that influence the shopping behavior of their customers in order
to adapt.

e. Purchasing power and revenue

The purchasing power of an individual will have, of course, a decisive influence on his
behavior and purchasing decisions based on his income and his capital. As for social status,

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some consumers may also look for the “social value” of products they buy in order to show
“external indications” of their incomes and their level of purchasing power.

f. Lifestyle

The lifestyle of an individual includes all of its activities, interests, values and opinions. The
lifestyle of a consumer will influence on his behavior and purchasing decisions.

g. Personality and self-concept

Personality is the set of traits and specific characteristics of each individual. It is the product
of the interaction of psychological and physiological characteristics of the individual and
results in constant behaviors.

Psychological factors
Among the factors influencing consumer behavior, psychological factors can be divided into
4 categories: motivation, perception, learning as well as beliefs and attitudes.

h. Motivation

Motivation is what will drive consumers to develop a purchasing behavior. It is the

expression of a need is which became pressing enough to lead the consumer to want to satisfy
it. It is usually working at a subconscious level and is often difficult to measure.

i. Perception

Perception is the process through which an individual selects, organizes and interprets the
information he receives in order to do something that makes sense. The perception of a
situation at a given time may decide if and how the person will act. Depending to his
experiences, beliefs and personal characteristics, an individual will have a different
perception from another.

j. Learning

Learning is through action. When we act, we learn. It implies a change in the behavior
resulting from the experience. The learning changes the behavior of an individual as he
acquires information and experience.

k. Beliefs and attitudes

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A belief is a conviction that an individual has on something. Through the experience he
acquires, his learning and his external influences (family, friends, etc..), he will develop
beliefs that will influence his buying behavior.

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The Internet, as a mean for both firms and individuals to conduct business, is nowadays one
of the most widely used non-store [Link] popular trends and demands the concept of
the Internet as the way forward to increase profit margins, companies new and old are
creating websites here and there. The significance for retailers to having a web site is that a
web site is informational and transactional in nature,as the web site can be used for
advertising and direct marketing; sales; customer support and public [Link] has been
more than a decade since business-to-consumer E-commerce first evolved. Scholars and
practitioners of electronic commerce constantly strive to gain an improved insight into
consumer behaviour incyberspace.

Internet is changing the way consumers shop and buy goods and services, and has rapidly
evolved into a global phenomenon. Many companies have started using the Internet with the
aim of cutting marketing costs, thereby reducing the price of their products and services in
order to stay ahead in highly competitive markets. Companies also use the Internet to convey,
communicate and disseminate information, to sell the product, to take feedback and also to
conduct satisfaction surveys with customers. Customers use the Internet not only to buy the
product online, but also to compare prices, product features and after sale service facilities
they will receive if they purchase the product from a particular store. Many experts are
optimistic about the prospect of online business.

A brand is the idea or image of a specific product or service that consumers connect with, by
identifying the name, logo, slogan, or design of the company who owns the idea or image.
Branding is when that idea or image is marketed so that it is recognizable by more and more
people, and identified with a certain service or product when there are many other companies
offering the same service or product. Advertising professionals work on branding not only to
build brand recognition, but also to build good reputations and a set of standards to which the
company should strive to maintain or surpass. Branding is an important part of Internet
commerce, as branding allows companies to build their reputations as well as expand beyond
the original product and service, and add to the revenue generated by the original brand.
Initially, Branding was adopted to differentiate one person's cattle from another's by means of
a distinctive symbol burned into the animal's skin with a hot iron stamp, and was
subsequently used in business, marketing and advertising.

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Customer perception is a marketing concept that encompasses a customer's impression,
awareness and/or consciousness about a company or its offerings. Customer perception is
typically affected by advertising, reviews, public relations, social media, personal experiences
and other channels.

Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes
they use to select, secure, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy
needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and [Link] blends
elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics. It attempts to
understand the decision-making processes of buyers, both individually and in groups. It
studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioural
variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the
consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general.

Customer behaviour study is based on consumer buying behaviour, with the customer playing
the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Research has shown that consumer behaviour
is difficult to predict, even for experts in the field. Relationship marketing is an influential
asset for customer behaviour analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-discovery of the true
meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer.
A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention, customer relationship
management, personalisation, customisation and one-to-one marketing. Social functions can
be categorized into social choice and welfare functions.

The ultimate goal of most businesses is to increase sales and income. Ideally, you want to
attract new customers to your products and encourage repeat purchases. Brand awareness
refers to how aware customers and potential customers are of your business and its products.
Brand Awareness is the extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers, and is
correctly associated with a particular product. Expressed usually as a percentage of target
market, brand awareness is the primary goal of advertising in the early months or years of a
product's introduction.

Brand awareness is the extent to which the consumer associates the brand with the product he
desires to buy. It is the brand recall and the brand recognition of the company to the
consumers. Brand recall is the ability of the consumer to recollect the brand with reference to

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the product whereas brand recognition is the potential of the consumer to retrieve the past
knowledge of the brand when enquired about the brand or shown an image of the brand logo.
Brand awareness is an essential part of brand development which helps the brand to stand out
from the others in this monopolistically competitive market.

Digital marketing involves the promotion of products and services using digital distribution
channels that reach consumers in a timely, relevant, personal, and cost effective manner. At a
high level, digital channels can have many categories, such as the internet, mobile, digital
outdoors, and any form of interactive digital media. Each category has multiple digital tools/
sub-channels that can support digital marketing. These include:

 Internet- Email banner ads, dedicated websites, pop-up ads, sponsored content, paid
keyword search, podcasts, etc… Newer channels comprise social networks, blogs,
wikis, widgets, virtual words, online gaming etc…
 Mobile- SMS,MMS, mobile Web, mobile application and mobile video
 Digital outdoors – Stills,/ video digital display, interactive kiosks
 Interactive digital medium – interactive television channels

Any combination of the above channels can be used to gain maximum visibility with utmost
impact among targeted customers, thereby enabling more business at a reasonable cost. While
digital channels empower marketers with a tremendous advantage in terms of their extensive
reach, leveraging their potential requires effective management of multiple channels with
complex variables to realize optimal value.

INTERNET USAGE IN INDIA

Internet in India report says that India’s internet user base has gone well above 100 million –
that’s just fewer than 10% of the population. India’s internet user base was growth was very
sluggish until 2007-08, but has picked up rapidly thereafter.

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Graph 1.1: Internet usage in yearly basis

At about 150 million Internet users, India now has 3rd largest Internet population in the world
after China (at 575m) and the US (at 275m). At 150 million total Internet users, the Internet
penetration in India remains at 12 per cent vs. 43 per cent in China and 80 per cent in the US.
However, the low penetration means that India presents unmatchable growth opportunity for
the Internet sector in coming years. In our view, India will likely see golden period of the
Internet sector between 2013 to 2018 with incredible growth opportunity and secular growth
adoption for E-Commerce, Internet advertising, social media, search, online content, and
services relating to E-Commerce and Internet advertising.

Here is the India Internet outlook for 2013, the first year for this golden period.

 Internet penetration will reach 15%. Expect India to add 30 million new Internet users
in 2013 and total Internet population to touch 180mm. This implies a 20% growth in
the Internet population.
 Time spend online will rise and directionally become comparable to US and China.
As per research estimates, an Internet user in India on average is spending 13 hour per
week and this number will likely reach 16 hours per week. The incremental time
spend online will largely be spent on social media, photo/video sharing, E-Commerce,
and utilities/banking/bill payments.
 Mobile Internet users to touch 100M. India has nearly 950 million mobile subscribers
and close to 50 million or fewer than 6 per cent of these mobile subscribers access

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 Internet via mobile handsets. And estimate that in 2013 the mobile Internet
penetration will go up from close to 6 per cent to 10 per cent and India could double
its mobile Internet population in 2013 at 100 million estimated mobile Internet users
by end of 2013.
 Internet usage will likely grow faster for female and from home. So far India Internet
usage is heavily screwed towards male gender and from work and educational
establishments. In 2013, Internet usage will grow much faster for female and from
home access. This acceleration will likely happen due to overall Internet adoption
moving to masses.
 E-Commerce will likely touch $900M in 2013. As per the estimates, in 2012 India E-
Commerce reached $550 million in gross revenue and we expect E-Commerce to
touch $900 million in gross revenue by end of 2013.
 Majority of E-Commerce growth will come from emerging cities. While, top 8 cities
in India may remain at 45 per cent to 65 per cent of total E-Commerce for various E-
Commerce companies, we believe that higher growth delta for E-Commerce in 2013
will come from emerging cities. We define emerging cities as the cities other than
Top-40 cities in India e.g. Bhatinda in Punjab or Kota in Rajasthan.
 Internet advertising will be the fastest growing sub-sector of the India Internet. As per
the estimates, India Internet advertising generated $300 million in revenue in 2012
and can double in 2013 to reach $600 million. Also believe that lots of Internet
advertising growth will come due to the rise in social media, mobile Internet, and non-
search and content driven online ad formats such as lead generation, affiliate
marketing, and email marketing etc.
 Funding environment for the Internet start-ups to remain challenging in 2013.
Funding environment for the Internet start-ups to remain challenging in 2013 in India.
In last 17 years, India has created less than $5 billion in Internet market capitalization
vs. $600 billion by US Internet sector and $250 billion by Chinese Internet sector. Lot
many Internet companies have to become a lot bigger for the funding environment to
ease off.
 E-Commerce will likely see emergence of disruptive business models and
consolidation. E-Commerce companies that are focusing on fundamental issues will
likely disrupt the E-Commerce industry in 2013. On one hand, the fundamental issues

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 are the issues that matter for improving customer experiences and the state of the
ecosystem, on other hand focusing on fundamentals of business vs. throwing money
at the problem will become absolutely imperative. Majority of the inventory led E-
Commerce business models will likely either merge with each other or take a niche
vertical position.
 Start-up culture and ecosystem to become more widespread. In our view, the start-up
culture and start up ecosystem are becoming more widespread. The seed and angel
rounds are no longer limited to Mumbai, Delhi or Bangalore and emergence of start-
up is no longer limited to IITs or big cities. While, India has long way to go vs.
having a true Silicon Valley start-up culture, ecosystem and support system, India is
headed in that direction. Founding a start-up immediately after graduation or leaving a
rewarding corporate job to join a start-up, or find or become an angel investor is no
longer uncommon. While, the 2013 Internet funding environment will likely be
challenging, the overall Internet start-up ecosystem will become stronger and more
ubiquitous.

RETAILING

Retailing is selling of merchandise and certain services to the consumer. Retailing began
several thousand years ago. The activities involved in the selling of goods to ultimate
consumers for personal or household consumption. It is extremely competitive, and the
failure rate of retail establishments is relatively high. Price is the most important arena of
competition, but other factors include convenience of location, selection and display of
merchandise, attractiveness of the establishment, and reputation. The diversity of retailing is
evident in the many forms it now takes, including vending machines, door-to-door and
telephone sales, direct-mail marketing, the Internet, discount houses, specialty stores,
department stores, supermarkets, and consumer cooperatives.

Whatever form it takes, however, the essence of good retailing remains the same: attractive,
appropriate merchandise offered for sale in an attractive, eye-catching manner at a reasonable
price at a convenient location.

It ordinarily involves the selling of individual units or small lots to large numbers of
customers by a business set up for that specific purpose. In the broadest sense, retailing can

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be said to have begun the first time one item of value was bartered for another. In the more
restricted sense of a specialized, full-time commercial activity, retailing began several
thousand years ago when peddlers first began hawking their wares and when the first
marketplaces were formed.

As with most other business activities, retailing is extremely competitive, and the mortality
rate of retail establishments is relatively high. The basic competition is price competition, but
this is moderated somewhat by such non-price forms of competition as convenience of
location, selection and display of merchandise, attractiveness of the retail establishment itself,
and intangible factors such as reputation in the community. Competition for sales has led to a
blurring of traditional product lines in retailing, and many establishments offer a much wider
variety of merchandise than their basic classification would indicate (e.g., drugstores may
carry food, clothing, office supplies, hardware, etc.).

Terms Defined:

Vending Machine- a coin-operated machine for selling small articles, beverages, etc.

Direct-mail marketing- reaching the desired clients using print ads in a form of leaflets,
e-mails.

Discount houses- retail store that offers merchandise for sale at lower prices than
conventional stores that sell merchandise at list prices or suggested retail prices;

Specialty stores- are small stores which specialise in a specific range of merchandise and
related items.

INTRODUCTION TO ONLINE SHOPPING

Online shopping is the process whereby consumers directly buy goods, services etc. from a
seller interactively in real-time without an intermediary service over the internet. Online
shopping is the process of buying goods and services from merchants who sell on the
Internet. Since the emergence of the World Wide Web, merchants have sought to sell their
products to people who surf the Internet. Shoppers can visit web stores from the comfort of
their homes and shop as they sit in front of the computer. Consumers buy a variety of items
from online stores. In fact, people can purchase just about anything from companies that

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provide their products online. Books, clothing, household appliances, toys, hardware,
software, and health insurance are just some of the hundreds of products consumers can buy
from an online store.

Many people choose to conduct shopping online because of the convenience. For example,
when a person shops at a brick-and-mortar store, he has to drive to the store, find a parking
place, and walk throughout the store until she locates the products she needs. After finding
the items she wants to purchase, she may often need to stand in long lines at the cash register.

Despite the convenience of online shopping, not everyone chooses to purchase items and
services online. Some people like the idea of physically going to a store and experiencing the
shopping process. They like to touch the merchandise, try on clothing, and be around other
people. Online shopping doesn't permit shoppers to touch products or have any social
interaction. It also doesn't allow them to take the merchandise home the same day they buy it.

Online shopping allows browsing through endless possibilities, and even offers merchandise
that's unavailable in stores. If someone is searching for a niche product that may not be
distributed locally, they're sure to find what they're looking for on the internet. What's even
more useful is the ability to compare items, similar or not, online. He can search through
multiple stores at the same time, comparing material quality, sizes and pricing
simultaneously.

Shopping via the internet eliminates the need to sift through a store's products with potential
buys like pants, shirts, belts and shoes all slung over one arm. Online shopping also
eliminates the catchy, yet irritating music, as well as the hundreds, if not thousands, of other
like-minded individuals who seem to have decided to shop on the same day.

Online shopping transactions occur instantly-saving the time to get your other errands done!
Additionally, unlike a store, online shopping has friendly customer service representatives
available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to assist you with locating, purchasing and shipping
your merchandise.

Factors influencing consumer to shop online

22
Though there are several factors that influence consumers to shop online, but there are mainly
four factors which influence consumer to shop online after reading literature in the field on
consumer attitudes towards online shopping and these factors are discussed below in brief.

Convenience

Convenience factor refers that it is easy to browse or search the information through online is
easier than the traditional retail shopping. Through online, consumers can easily search
product catalogue but if the consumer look generally for the same product or item in a
traditional store manually it is difficult to visit physically and time consuming also.
Convenience has always been a prime factor for consumers to shop online. According to the
Robinson, Riley, Rettie and Wilsonz (2007) the major motivation for online purchasing is
convince in terms of shop at any time and having bundles of items delivered at door step.

Rohm and Swaminathan’s (2004) claims in “typology of online shoppers into”: Convenience
shoppers, balanced buyers, variety seekers and store-oriented shoppers, based upon their
present shopping motivation. Through online purchase consumers can easily compare the
price than the traditional purchase. So price comparison is also another convenience factor of
online shopping.

[Link] Time saving

Time savings is one of most influencing factors of online shopping. Browse or search an
online catalogue can save time and patience. People can save time and can reduce effort by
shopping online. One possible explanation that online shopping saves time during the
purchasing of goods and it can eliminate the traveling time required to go to the traditional
store. On the other side, some respondent think that it is also time taken for delivery of goods
or services over online shopping.

Unexpectedly time saving is not the motivating factor for the consumers to shop online
(Corbett, 2001) because it takes time receiving goods or delivery. But time saving factor can
be seen through different dimensions i.e. “person living in Florida can shop at Harod’s in
London (through the web) in less time than it takes to visit the local Burdines department
store”. So the importance of the time saving factor cannot be neglected as motivation behind
online purchasing. Additionally Goldsmith and Bridges (2000) emphasize that there is a

23
discrimination between online shopper and non-online shoppers, online shoppers are more
worried about convenience, time saving and selection whereas non online shoppers are
worried about security, privacy and on time delivery.

Website design/features

Website design and online shopping activity is one of the vital influencing factors of online
shopping. Website design, website reliability/fulfilment, website customer service and
website security/privacy are the most attractive features which influence the perception of the
consumer of online buying Shergill & Chen (2005). Kamariah and Salwani (2005) claims the
higher website quality, the higher consumer intends to shop from internet. Web design
quality has important impacts on consumer choice of electronic stores, stated by Liang and
Lai (2000). Website design one of the important factor motivating consumers for online
shopping.

Website design features can be considered as a motivational factor that can create positive or
negative feelings with a website. If website is designed with quality features it can guide the
customers for successful transactions and attract the customers to revisit the website again.
However, worse quality website features can also hamper online shopping. According to
Liang and Lai (2000), web design quality or website features has direct impact on user to
shop online.

[Link] Security

Security is another dominant factor which affects consumers to shop online. However many
internet users avoid online shopping because of credit card fraud, privacy factors, non-
delivery risk, post purchase service and so on. But transaction security on the online shopping
has received attention. Safe and secured transaction of money and credit card information
increases trust and decreases transaction risk. In 1995, UK has introduced Fraud free
electronic shopping and later on Europe and Singapore introduced secured electronic
transaction (SET). According to Bhatnagar and Ghose (2004) Security is one of the
attributewhich limits buying on the web as they claim that there is a large segment of internet
shoppers who don’t like to buy online because of their thinking about the security of their
sensitive information.

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INTRODUCTION TO ECOMMERCE

Electronic commerce, commonly known as ecommerce, is a type of industry where buying

and selling of product or service is conducted over electronic systems such as the Internet and
other computer networks. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile
commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online
transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems,
and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the
World Wide Web at least at one point in the transaction's life-cycle, although it may
encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices social media, and
telephones as well.

Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also

consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business
transactions.

E-commerce can be divided into:

 E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on websites with online catalogues, sometimes

gathered into a "virtual mall"
 The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts and social media
 Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of data
 E-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospective and established
customers (for example, with newsletters)
 Business-to-business/ Business-to-Customer buying and selling
 The security of business transactions etc…

Growth and progression of E-commerce in India

The e-commerce market in India has grown by 34% in the last seven years, was about USD
600 million in 2011-12 and is expected to touch USD 9 billion by 2016 and USD 70 billion
by 2020. According to Forrester, the Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow at a
CAGR of over 57% between 2012 and 2016, which is the fastest within Asia-Pacific region.

25
The key factors that are driving this growth are the rise of Internet usage (growing at 20%) &
3G penetration, and increasing smartphone users with availability of Internet on mobile
phones. It is estimated that currently there are 27 million mobile Internet users in India out of
which 4% are buying products on mobile. This figure is expected to increase to 20% mobile
shoppers in the next four years. These factors accompanied by busy lifestyles, traffic
congestion, lack of offline shopping time, great deals and discounts offered online, and use of
innovative e-commerce models such as group buying and second-hand sales have led to more
and more consumers switch to online shopping. With the rising middle class incomes, global
exposure and changing demographics (close to 50% of the population is less than 25 years of
age), this trend also holds true for the Tier II & III cities.

Online travel (76 percent) and financial services (10 percent) form the biggest component of
online shopping followed by e-tailing (8 percent). While services such as travel tickets,
movie tickets, restaurant discount vouchers, hotel bookings, utility payments, insurance
policies, and premium payments lead the wallet share of the amount spent online, product
categories such as computers & accessories, cameras & mobiles, electronic durables, and
books are picking up. But, product categories such as apparel, jewellery and footwear
(require high touch and feel), which offer maximum potential in terms of market size, faces
challenges such as high return rate and negative cash cycles due to COD (cash on delivery).

However, the e-commerce industry today faces certain challenges. Firstly, there is a very low
penetration of credit/debit cards in India, which restricts the online purchasing power. Even
though strategies such as cash on delivery have been introduced, they have their own nuances
and pose high working capital issues to the companies. Secondly, high volume items such as
refrigerators require high freight & shipping costs and because the e-commerce model in
India is based on free shipping concept, sale of such items online could suffer a setback.
Finally, the distribution & logistics in India is not very well organized and prone to fraud.
Hence, buying of high value items such as jewellery, electronic goods (LCDs), which require
travel insurance adding up to the total costs may not be one of the bestsellers in the digital
space.

The key to success in this segment is delivering high quality user experience which includes
differentiated and detailed product catalogue, order fulfilment, website performance, different
modes of transaction(credit cards, payment gateways, cash on delivery etc.), and simple and
26
sensible checkout. Furthermore, with the increase in competition in this segment, the e-
commerce players need to invest in research and development of differentiated product
catalogues, innovative service and customer engagement concepts, and cost effective supply
chain and logistics models.

27
INDUSTRY
OVERVIEW

28
 INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
RETAIL INDUSTRY

India is the second fastest growing economy in the world. It is third largest economy in the
world in terms of GDP and fourth largest economy in terms of Purchasing Power Parity.
India presents a huge opportunity to the world at age, to use as a hub. Standing on the
threshold of a retail revolution and witnessing a fast changing retail landscape, India is all set
to experience the phenomenon of global village. India is the “promised land” for global
brands and Indian retailers A “Vibrant economy”. India tops in the list of emerging market
for global retailer and India’s retail sector is expanding and modernizing rapidly in line with
India’s economic growth. The future is promising; the market is growing, government
policies are becoming more favourable and emerging technologies are facilitating operations.

Retailing in India is gradually inching its way toward becoming the next boom industry. The
whole concept of shopping has altered in terms of format and consumer buying behaviour,
ushering in a revolution in shopping in India. Modern retail has entered India as seen in
sprawling shopping centres, multi-storied malls and huge complexes offer shopping,
entertainment and food all under one roof. The Indian retailing sector is at an inflexion point
where the growth of organized retailing and growth in the consumption by the Indian
population is going to take a higher growth trajectory. The Indian population is witnessing a
significant change in its demographics. A large young working population with median age
of 24 years, nuclear families in urban areas, along with increasing working-women
population and emerging opportunities in the services sector are going to be the key growth
drivers of the retail sector in India. Retailing in India is evolving rapidly, with consumer
spending growing by unprecedented rates and with increasing no of global players investing
in this sector. Organized retail in India is undergoing a metamorphosis and is expected to
scale up to meet global standards over the next five years. India’s retail market has
experienced enormous growth over the past decade. The most significant period of growth for
the sector was between year 2000 & 2006, when the sector revenues increased by about
93.5% translating to an average annual growth of 13.3%.The sectors growth was partly a
reflection of the impressive Indian economic growth and overall rise in income level of
consumers. Apparels and consumer durables are the fastest growing vertical in the retail
sector. Mobile phone as a product category has witnessed the highest growth in the consumer
29
demand amongst all retail products offering, with increasing penetration of
telecommunication in towns and villages. The telecommunication sector has been adding on
an average 5 million new users every month. The other product categories are gaining
traction predominantly in the urban areas and emerging cities, with increasing average
income and spending power of young urban India.

History of Retailing

Store; commonly a shop or stall for the retail sale of commodities, but also a place where
wholesale supplies are kept, exhibited, or sold. Retailing—the sale of merchandise to the
consumer—is one of the oldest businesses in the world and was practiced in prehistoric
times.

Total retail sales, which include retail stores and eating establishments, topped $2.7 trillion in
the United States in 1998. Currently, there are over 1.5 million retail establishments
employing over 19.8 million people. Most are small. One third of all retail establishments
have no paid employees; about 43% have fewer than 10 employees. Larger stores, with over
$500,000 in annual sales, account for three quarters of all retail sales. The 50 largest retailers
control about one fifth of the market, and stores with ten or more branches account for 95%
of all department store sales, 56% of all drugstore sales, half of all shoe sales, and 57% of all
grocery store sales.

The Development of Retail Stores

The earliest form of retail merchandising was probably the exchange of food and weapons;
later came traders and peddlers, and by 3000 BC shops had become common. During the
Greek and Roman period, stores, including many specialty shops, developed in the form of
open booths, attracting large cosmopolitan crowds. After the decline of the Roman Empire,
barter became more important, but by the 14th cent. Retail trade again assumed importance.
Merchants, who in early times were viewed with suspicion, rose in the social scale. Small
stores, each carrying its special line of goods, reached their peak in the 18th cent. The
wholesale business developed, and traveling salesmen and standard prices came into general
use.

30
In the United States the general store preceded the single-line store and is still common in
small rural communities. In late 19th cent, the department store came into being—a large-
scale general store or a combination of single-line stores in which each line of merchandise is
operated as a separate department. Such stores provide the convenience of easy accessibility
to a large variety of goods. Modern department stores have been vital to the development of
shopping centres and malls, huge retail developments that contain a wide variety of stores
and services.

Retail concerns that do business principally through the mail are called mail-order houses. In
the United States among the first and largest were Montgomery Ward (founded 1872) and
Sears, Roebuck, & Company (founded 1886), which sold their goods to rural residents by
means of annual catalogues. Both later developed warehouses and retail stores in many urban
communities; Montgomery Ward closed in 2001, and Sears was merged with Kmart to
become a subsidiary of the Sears Holdings Corporation in 2005. Many mail-order houses
now also depend on orders placed over the telephone and via the Internet. Development of
the World Wide Web on the Internet has given rise to companies, such as [Link], that
sell goods exclusively through an Internet site, or on-line "store," shipping purchases by mail
or other carriers.

Chain stores, though known in earlier times, first developed their modern form in 1859, when
the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) standardized the quality and price of all
merchandise sold in its stores. Through central management, quantity purchasing,
standardization of business methods, and limited individual service, the chains are often able
to sell their goods well below prices charged by independent stores. Chain stores were once
typified by five-and-ten-cent stores (e.g., F. W. Woolworth Company, which operated such
stores until 1998), but the most common forms now are discount superstores (e.g., Wal-Mart;
see Walton, Sam), bakeries, tobacco stores, drugstores, groceries, and department stores.

Consumers' cooperative stores (see cooperative movement) have been established in Europe
and the United States. Discounting merchandise became widespread after World War II, and
stores specializing in discounted merchandise have become the fastest growing segment of
the retail industry. The "discount club," where shoppers must pay a fee to become members
and name-brand products are sold at a discount (often packaged in multiples or very large
containers), became popular in the 1990s.
31
32
Indian Retailing Industry

India represents an economic opportunity both as a global base and as a domestic market. The
real GDP is expected to grow at 8-10 percent per annum in the next five years and consuming
class with annual Household incomes above Rs. 90,000 is expected to rise from about 370
million in 2006-07 to 620 million in 2011-12. India’s vast middle class and its almost
untapped retail industry are key attractions for global retail giants wanting to enter newer
markets.

The Retail Sector of Indian Economy is going through the phase of tremendous
transformation. The retail sector of Indian economy is categorized into two segments such as
organized retail sector and unorganized retail sector with the latter holding the larger share of
the retail market. At present the organized retail sector is catching up very fast. The impact of
the alterations in the format of the retail sector changed the lifestyle of the Indian consumers
drastically. The evident increase in consumerist activity is colossal which has already chipped
out a money making recess for the retail sector of Indian economy. The debate over the future
of India's retail sector has arisen because people are questioning whether the public land used
for these malls, the ultimate symbol of consumerism, is being put to good use. The crucial
sectors of the economy are on a self-trajectory. The IT industry, telecommunication industry
and many other industries have seen unprecedented growth during the last couple of years.
But one industry that has caught the eye of the common man at almost every turning on the
road is the Booming Retail Industry. There is a hue and cry over the entry of private
organized retailers’ entry in Indian retail industry. The sector faced quite a few hurdles such
as controversy over the involvement of FDI in Multi-Brand Retail and the national wide
protest by small traders against the bigger fishes .Instances are : Entry of reliance fresh and
RPG Spencer’s which faced nationwide protests. Critics argue they have done nothing to
change many people's lives.

In fact, because the malls are offering attractive prices, they are squeezing out the small
traders who can no longer afford to compete - thereby sharpening the divide between the rich
and poor in India. But according to report of ICRIER, organized and unorganized retail will
not only coexist but also grow substantially. the reason is the retail sector is growing on an
overall basis hence the benefit of this growth will go to both the sectors and both sectors will
progress though the share of organized sector will gradually increase . With the onset of a
33
globalized economy in India, the Indian consumer's psyche has been changed. People have
become aware of the value of money. Nowadays the Indian consumers are well versed with
the concepts about quality of products and services. These demands are the visible impacts of
the Retail Sector of Indian Economy. Despite the protests of the local Bania the mighty W is
finally here. Wal-Mart will be setting malls in India in association with Sunil Mittal Bahrti
Group; other international big players like Carrefour, Tesco and Auchan have also shown
interest in the industry.

Meaning of Retail

The word retail is derived from the French word retailer, meaning to cut a piece off or to
break bulk. In simple terms, it implies a first-hand transaction with the customer. Retailing
can be defined as the buying and selling of goods and services. It can also be defined as the
timely delivery of goods and services demanded by consumers at prices that are competitive
and affordable. Retailing involves a direct interface with the customer and the coordination of
business activities from end to end- right from the concept or design stage of a product or
offering, to its delivery and post-delivery service to the customer. The industry has
contributed to the economic growth of many countries and is undoubtedly one of the fastest
changing and dynamic industries in the world today.

Current scenario of Indian Retail Market

The size of Indian retail industry is more than US $350 billion but it is highly unorganized.
The organized sector has started developing in the past few years. Many International brands
have entered the market. With the growth in organized retailing, unorganized retailers are fast
changing their business models.

In Indian retail sector organized retail is a recent phenomenon. It is a zero-sum game between
2 players:-

a) Organized sector &

b) Unorganized sector

India’s retail is dominated by a large number of small retailers consisting of the local kirana
shops, owner manned general stores, chemists, footwear shops, apparel shops, paan&beedi

34
shops, hand-cart hawkers, pavement vendors etc. which together make up the so-called
Unorganized retail.

Organized retail is reflected in sprawling shopping centers, multiplex-malls & huge

complexes which offer shopping, entertainment and food all under one roof. The last 3-4
years havewitnessed the entry of a number of organized retailers Opening stores in various
modern formatsin metros and other important cities. Organized retailing has begun to tap the
enormous marketbut its share is small. A number of large business houses have entered the
retail business withvery ambitious expansion plan.

However, opinions are divided on the impact of growth of organized retail in the country.
Concerns have been raised that growth of organized retail may have an adverse impact on
retailers in the unorganized sector. It has also been that growth of organized retailing will
yield efficiencies in supply chain, enabling better success to markets to producers (including
farmersand small producers) and enabling higher prices, on the one hand and, lower prices to
consumers,on the other.

In India, organized retail contributed roughly 4% of the total Indian retail 2006-07, which
was verysmall even compared with most of the emerging market economics. However, After
7 years, it was projected that grown at a compound rate of 40-45 per cent per annum and was
estimated to contribute 16% to total Indian retail by 2011-12.

FDI Norms

Regulatory controls on FDI have been relaxed considerably in recent years. Currently the
government allows 51% FDI in single brand retailing and 100% in cash-n-carry business.

However, the government’s plan to further open up the retail sector has hit the roadblock
after facing strong political opposition and nationwide protests by small traders against the
proposal toallow FDI in multibrand retailing.

35
Factors driving the growth ofRetail sector:-

Indian economy is growing at the rate of 8%, indicating a prosperous future. The consistent
economic growth resulted in a decent rise in income level of the middle class. Thethickening
of the pocket of the consumer resulted in a revolution of the retail industry.
ManyInternational brands have entered the market. With the growth in organized retailing,
unorganized retailers have brought drastic changes in their business models, many factor are
responsible for the growth of retail sector. These are:

1) INCREASING DISPOSABLE INCOME: Rising disposable incomes in middle

class and lower middle class with increase in employment opportunities for young adults in
IT & IT enabled sectors are the major cause of retail growth in India.

2) INCREASING NO. OF DUAL INCOME NUCLEAR FAMILIES: In India, hefty

pay packets, nuclear family along with increasing working women population and dual
income in family are the factors contributing to prosperous retail sector.

3) CHANGING LIFESTYLE AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: Due to increasing

working population, comfortable life, travel and leisure are given importance. These key
factors are growth drivers of retail sector in India which now boast of retailing almost all the
preferences of life – apparel and accessories, Appliances, Electronics, cosmetics & Toilets
cries etc.

4) EXPERIMENTATION WITH FORMATS: Due to competition in the market,

retailing is still evolving and the sector is witnessing a series of experiments with new
formats being tested out.

5) STORE DESIGN: Shopping malls and super markets are growing at a very faster
rate. Improvements in infrastructure and enhanced availability of retail space, store design are
the factors increasing the share of organized retail and thereby contributing to growth of
Indian retail sector.

Recent Trends in Retailing

 Retailing in India is witnessing a huge revamping exercise as can be seen in the graph.
 India is rated the fifth most attractive emerging retail market: a potential goldmine.

36
 Estimated to be US$ 200 billion, of which organized retailing (i.e. modern trade)
makes up 3 per cent or US$ 6.4 billion.
 As per a report by KPMG the annual growth of department stores is estimated at
24%.
 Ranked second in a Global Retail Development Index of 30 developing countries
drawn up by AT Kearney. Multiple drivers leading to a consumption boom:
 Favourable demographics
 Growth in income
 Increasing population of women
 Raising aspirations: Value added goods sales.
 Food and apparel retailing key drivers of growth.
 Organized retailing in India has been largely an urban.
 Phenomenon with affluent classes and growing number of double-income
households.
 More successful in cities in the south and west of India. Reasons range from
differences in consumer buying behaviour to cost of real estate and taxation laws.
 Rural markets emerging as a huge opportunity for retailers reflected in the share of
the rural market across most categories of consumption.
 ITC is experimenting with retailing through its e-Choupal and ChoupalSagarrural
hypermarkets.
 HLL is using its Project Shakti initiative leveraging women self-help groups to
explore the rural market.
 Mahamaza is leveraging technology and network marketing concepts to act as an
aggregator and serve the rural markets.
 IT is a tool that has been used by retailers ranging from [Link] to eBay to
radically change buying behaviour across the globe.
 E-retailing slowly making its presence felt.

37
ONLINE SHOPPING

Online shopping is the process whereby consumers directly buy goods, services etc. from a
seller interactively in real-time without an intermediary service over the internet.

Introduction to the E-Commerce & Internet Business

The global Internet audience continues to grow rapidly, with the worldwide base of Internet
users in the 2 billion range as 2012 began, including a large base of mobile broadband users.
This vast base of Internet users encourages businesses to innovate and to offer an ever-
evolving array of online services. Sectors that are growing very rapidly online include the
sale of entertainment, event tickets, travel, apparel and consumer electronics. The most
powerful trends on the Internet include access via wireless devices, migration of
entertainment to the web and cloud-based software as a service.

Today, as a result of the recent recession, consumers are more focused than ever on finding
the best prices. Consequently, e-commerce firms like Amazon that are known for their high
value at low prices are well positioned to prosper. The standout winner in e-commerce
continues to be Amazon, where sales have soared thanks to aggressive discount pricing, free
shipping for its “Prime” members and an ever-growing variety of merchandise categories.
Amazon’s revenues rose by 41% in 2011 to $48.0 billion, and profits grew substantially as
well. Books, movies, music and other media now account for only 35% of Amazon’s sales,
while electronics and general merchandise bring in the largest share by far. Amazon’s sales
outside of North America are booming, and now account for 44% of total revenues. Clearly,
there is growing adoption of online consumer purchases throughout the world’s major
economies.

Online advertising leader Google’s recent results are a good indicator of the strong growth in
online advertising during 2011. The firm saw revenues soar 29.3% in fiscal 2011, to $37.9
billion, while profits rose 14.1% to $9.7 billion.

Growth in broadband subscriptions worldwide continues at a strong pace. Analysts at the

International Telecommunications Union (ITU) estimate that there were 1.78 billion
broadband subscribers worldwide by the end of 2011 (both fixed and wireless).

38
The number of American homes and businesses with broadband access capabilities topped 88
million by the end of 2011, thanks in part to modest monthly fees at Internet service
providers. This number does not include mobile broadband users, estimated at another 105
million.

Online advertising in 2011 in the U.S. reached $31.3 billion, according to eMarketer,
accounting for 20% of all advertising spending in America. eMarketer estimates total online
sales of merchandise during 2011 at $188.1 billion, expected to grow to $269.8 billion by
2015. These numbers do not include online sales of travel, which was an estimated $107.4
billion in the U.S. in 2011. Plunkett Research estimates global travel expenditures online at
$320 billion for 2011.

A significant evolution is taking place in the world of business, as more and more
telecommunications move to the Internet. VOIP continues to grow in popularity, both at
home and at the office. Meanwhile, the concept of “unified communications” threatens to
completely revolutionize business communications by combining all communications into
one screen on the desktop, including phone, fax, e-mail, IM, voice mail and teleconferencing.
Voice communications will be digitized and archived, just as e-mail is today. A user’s
communications tools will move seamlessly from the desktop to the mobile device.

Convergence: The Internet is about saving time (and therefore saving money), and the
potential of the Internet has barely been tapped. New methods of taking advantage of
efficiencies are becoming widely accepted, as access to high-speed broadband Internet
connections becomes commonplace. Users of the Internet (both business and consumer) are
multiplying around the globe, and many companies are earning terrific profits in the process
of serving those users. The long-awaited phenomenon of “convergence” of entertainment,
computing and communications arrived around 2004 and has been moving forward at high
speed ever since. Now, the latest televisions come equipped with built-in Internet
connections. This is going to create radical changes in the way TV viewers obtain their
movies and TV programming over the near term. For example, subscribers to Netflix are able
to stream downloaded movies directly to their Internet-connected TV sets.

Top selling product and services categories online include travel, clothing and accessories,
books, music, videos, electronics and specialty foods including wines. In these markets,

39
online shopping amounts to a significant share of sales. Meanwhile, many of the world’s
largest storefront retailers now operate some of the most-visited Internet sites.

A Brief History of the Online Sector:

The e-commerce and Internet sector has evolved rapidly, going through several distinct
stages since its beginnings in the 1970s:

The Internet is born: First, there were the early days, when the Internet was seen by many as a
realm for techies only, one that would produce few, if any, and commercial enterprises.
Initially designed in 1973, the Internet was a series of communication protocols written by
Vinton Cerf as part of a project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defence’s “Defence
Advanced Research Projects Agency” (DARPA). The first demonstration of a three-network
Internet protocol-based connection occurred in November 1977. Eventually, a well-enabled
Internet was rolled out in 1983, primarily as a failsafe method of defence communications
and as a means for researchers at various universities to communicate.

The Web is Created: Next, the World Wide Web and the coding language of HTML were
conceived in 1989 and implemented between 1990 and 1993 by Tim Berners-Lee, enabling a
never-ending hyperlinked cyber world where sharing unlimited data became user-friendly
thanks to the magic of linked pages.

The Boom Ensues: Starting in 1993 and 1994, entrepreneurs and financiers realized that
hyperlinked, electronically posted data could be commercialized with vast, global potential.
A dramatic revolution in retailing, publishing and entertainment was visualized, one in which
consumers and business people alike would eagerly pay for the convenience of online
shopping, trading and viewing of published data. An economic boom ensued, the likes of
which hadn’t been seen since the beginnings of earlier technological breakthroughs:
electricity, the railroad, the telephone, the automobile and the passenger-carrying airliner.

Thousands of hopeful new businesses were launched. Capitalization for these new Internet-
enabled companies ranged from cash-strapped ventures launched with Visa card credit lines,
to companies like Web Van that received vast sums from professionally managed venture
capital firms only to fail miserably. Roughly 6,000 new firms of significant size raised a
40
cumulative total of more than $100 billion in venture capital in the boom period (1994-2000).
About 450 of these companies sold their stock to the public via IPOs (initial public offerings).
Stock markets soared and instant billionaires were made. Individuals and families from all
walks of life bet their savings on technology stocks and watched their wealth rise quickly.
Venture funds that cashed out early reaped phenomenal gains, and financiers easily found
additional investors for new venture capital pools. The NASDAQ index of stocks rose to
5,000 by early in the year 2000, and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve warned of
“exuberant optimism.” Some said this boom couldn’t last—others said it was the beginning
of a “new economy” that would last forever.

The Bust: In mid-2000 the Internet industry entered a bleak and dreary phase after the
NASDAQ collapsed in March, bringing the entire sector to its knees. Hundreds of thousands
of people lost their jobs. Stock portfolio values plummeted. Thousands of firms closed their
doors, filed bankruptcy, downsized or were scooped up at bargain prices by competitors.
Sellers of hardware, software, consulting and telecommunications services suffered mightily.
Entrepreneurs found it nearly impossible to raise funds to launch or sustain their businesses.
The dream of a “new economy” became a nightmare for some—profits still matter; business
cycles still happen.

The Reality Phase: By early 2003, this sector’s dark clouds were abating, and a “reality
phase” was taking shape. Well-conceived, Internet-based businesses were proving their
value. Consumers had become devoted fans of buying over the Internet. Businesses of all
types were finding that the Internet creates true operating efficiencies and drives profitability.
For example, while most of the airline industry suffered terribly in recent years, value-based
discount airlines southwest and JetBlue enjoyed superior financial performance, in no small
part because of their use of e-commerce to efficiently book reservations and sell tickets
online. “Efficiency” is the most important factor in the e-commerce and Internet sector’s
newfound success. Consumers find the Internet to be a terrific way to efficiently expend their
shopping and banking efforts. Travellers find the Internet to be an efficient way to book
hotels rooms and airplane seats. Corporate procurement managers find the Internet to be the
most efficient way to purchase needed goods and inventory. Hundreds of millions of people
worldwide find e-mail, instant messaging and VOIP telephony to be the most efficient ways
to communicate.

41
Low Costs Fuel the Steady Global Growth Phase: Today, access to fast Internet, both wired
and wireless, is available at bargain prices in a growing footprint across the globe. Even in
relatively undeveloped nations, both consumers and businesses have grown to rely on the
Internet for everyday needs. The “second billion” set of users worldwide has been reached,
and the third billion is clearly in sight over the mid-term, as cheaper devices continue to
proliferate. Mobile computing is accelerating at blazing speed thanks to inexpensive cell
phone plans offering enhanced Internet access.

Meanwhile, the cost of developing and maintaining web sites has plummeted, opening the
door to millions of self-funded entrepreneurs, and making it easier for venture capital firms to
fund start-ups using low amounts of cash. Trends such as open software and cloud
computing, along with modular development tools, have made it easier, faster and cheaper to
start sophisticated web sites.

History of Online Shopping

History of Online Shopping starts not so long ago. Tim Berners-Lee created "The World
Wide Web Browser" in 1990. In1994 few other developments took place. Online bank, the
first of its kind opened this year. Another development was opening of online pizza shop by
pizza hut.

In the same year Netscape introduced SSL encryption to enable encryption over the data
transferred online. This later became the necessity of online shopping. In 1995, Amazon
started operation, one of the largest online shopping mall now. Then in 1996 eBay started its
online shopping portal.

1998 witnessed use of electronic postage stamps, where people can download and print postal
stamps after paying nominal fee. In 1999 the first online shop in UK launched.

Online Shopping in India

Online shopping is quite common these days in the developed world than it was about 5 years
ago but it is not the same in India for its own set of reasons. In developed economies
consumers find the worldwide web a great place for bargain-hunting, with most goods
available at lower prices than in a bricks-and-mortar store. But convenience appears to be an

42
even bigger attraction as revealed in surveys because most online shoppers find the crowded
high street too stressful.

Though online shopping has witnessed growth in India but it is still not pervasive like the
west and the growth is also limited to certain areas like online travel booking and perhaps
stock trading (which actually is not pure e-commerce). The main reason why shoppers in
India are not willing to shop online is that they don't get any real value or incentive. Also they
are wary about fraud, delivery and customer service and their fears are not imaginary.

Online shopping India sites offer a wide variety of products to choose according to your
tastes and budget. Shopping online in India always offer benefit of price as online stores do
not have to spend on building and maintaining showrooms. In addition heavy discounts are
offered on various popular products to attract worldwide customers to one site. Some online
shopping India sites also offer online coupons, gift certificates and promotional codes as
special offers through which the products prices are reduced to a great extent. Online
shopping in India is easy and quick as wide variety of products are categorized in a very
convenient manner, so that it will be easy for you to find the exact product you want.

One of the biggest advantages of online stores is that they provide complete and
specific information like, product description, specification, model, size, colours, prices,
customer reviews and various other details about each and every product offered by them.
The best part is that they are available 24*7; therefore, you can shop at your own
convenience.

Today more and more people prefer to buy products from online stores in India, as you can
find wide categories of products right from gadgets, clothes, footwear, furniture, jewellery,
books, music, and gifts to many more. So, whichever product you wish to buy, you simply
need few clicks and the product will be delivered to your doorstep.

E-COMMERCE: A MAJOR INDUSTRY TREND

Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, involves the sale of goods and services via electronic
means—principally over the internet, although sales via television (terrestrial, cable, and
satellite) are also included. E-commerce can be further divided into the following sectors:
business-to-business (B2B), business-to-government (B2G), consumer-to-consumer (C2C),

43
government-to-business (G2B), government-to-citizen (G2C), and business-to-consumer
(B2C). Retailers that rely primarily on e-commerce to sell goods or services are often referred
to as e-tailers.

The term "Electronic commerce" (or e-Commerce) refers to the use of an electronic medium
to carry out commercial transactions. Most of the time, it refers to the sale of products via
Internet, but the term ecommercealso covers purchasing mechanisms via Internet (for B-To-
B).

A client who purchases on the Internet is called a cyber- consumer.E-commerce is not only
limited to online sales, but also covers:

 Preparation of estimates online

 Consulting of users

 Provision of an electronic catalogue

 Access plan to point of sales

 Real-time management of product availability (stock)

 Online payment

 Delivery tracking

 After-sales service

In certain cases, electronic commerce makes it possible to highly customize products, in

particular when the electronic commerce site is linked with the production system of the
enterprise (e.g. business cards, customized items such as T-shirts, cups, caps, etc.)

Finally, insofar as electronic services and products are concerned (mp3files, software
programs, e-books, etc.), electronic commerce makes it possible to receive the purchase in a
very short time, if not immediately.

3.1.3.1Online stores

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Most electronic commerce sites are online stores which have at least the following elements
at the front-office level:

 An online electronic catalogue listing all products for sale, their price and sometimes
their availability (product in stock or number of days before delivery);

 A search engine which makes it possible to easily locate a product via search criteria
(brand, price range, key word, etc.) ;

 A virtual caddy system (sometimes called virtual cart): This is the heart of the e-
commerce system. The virtual caddy makes it possible to trace the purchases of the
client along the way and modify the quantities for each reference;

 Secure online payment (accounting) is often ensured by a trusted third party (a bank)
via a secure transaction;

 An order tracking system, which allows tracking of order processing and sometimes
provides information on pickup of the package by the shipper.

A back office system allows the online dealer to organize its offerings online, modify prices,
add or remove product references as well as manage and handle client orders.

Retailing over the internet generally takes one of two forms:

 Cybermalls—the most famous cybermall is eBay, which offers access to products

from a variety of independent retailers.
 Individual websites—most major retailers now have their own websites, which
complement their traditional “bricks-and-mortar” outlets. Some retailers operate
solely over the internet.

In terms of television sales, programs on dedicated shopping channels generally feature a

presenter who demonstrates products on air. Viewers can buy these products by telephoning
an order line with their credit card details, or, in the case of interactive television services, by
using their remote control. Recent years have seen the development of a variety of selling
techniques, including on-air auctions.

[Link] About E-commerce

45
E-commerce is most closely associated with the internet, and has developed in tandem with
the growth of the medium. Indeed, e-commerce initially became possible with the opening up
of the internet to commercial users in the early 1990s. However, it wasn’t until the latter half
of the decade that companies really began to exploit the internet’s commercial potential.

A number of start-up companies, such as Amazon and eBay, have exploited the power of the
internet to emerge as retailing behemoths in their own right. However, e-commerce has
largely been developed by established large retailers, which regard it as simply another sales
channel. The gigantic grocery retailers that have expanded away from food and into a wide
variety of other areas, such as clothing and electronic goods, have been particularly quick to
appreciate its potential. The medium has also created opportunities for very small businesses.
It is now possible to buy over the internet a wide range of specialized products that are not
available in shopping malls. Thus, the internet has provided a lifeline for many small
producers, and has allowed entrepreneurs to enter the retailing sector without the need to
invest heavily in physical retail outlets.

E-commerce has proven so successful because it offers significant advantages to both

consumers and retailers. Consumers can compare a vast array of retailers in a few minutes—
something that it would be impossible to do physically. Online retailers often sell products
and services at a significant discount to those offered by traditional outlets, and buying online
is convenient: consumers can make their purchases from the comfort of their own home, and
have them delivered to their door. Furthermore, online shopping appeals to the
environmentally conscious. In March 2009, researchers at Heriot-Watt University in the
United Kingdom revealed that online shopping is 24 times “greener” than taking the car to
the shops, and seven times “greener” than taking the bus. The researchers compared the
carbon footprint of a typical delivery from a local depot with average carbon footprints for
shopping trips by car and bus, and found that home deliveries involved much lower levels of
carbon emissions. In June 2009, a study by the Carnegie Mellon Green Design Institute in the
United States found that shopping online can reduce “our environmental impact by as much
as 66%.”

For businesses, the advantages of e-commerce lie mainly in the low cost of setting up and
maintaining a business. Firms do not need to invest heavily in a physical presence, or in sales
staff. However, they do have to organize payment systems, distribution, and returns.
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3.1.3.3E-commerce today

Ecommerce today is a remarkable experience. It has transformed traditional shopping beyond

recognition. It is so much better than any other way of shopping that it has already attracted a
great many of ecommerce-lovers.

If some years ago ecommerce was a buzz word, now it has become the order of the day.
People seem to shop literally everywhere – at their workplaces during lunch times, in rush
hour when there is nothing else to do but switch on their laptops and start surfing.

Ecommerce today gained so much popularity because its underlying technologies are
evolving at giant steps. We are even offered to “feel” the product with a 3D mouse to better
understand its shape, size and texture. Why go somewhere out when all you have to do is
make an order, choose the shipping method, put up your feet and wait till the order is
delivered right to your door-step?

Ecommerce today offers so much luxury that even conventional stores have already signalled
the alarm. Although, everyone agrees that it is a long way for an ecommerce to replace
“brick-and-mortar” stores, it has every chance to happen in the future. Ecommerce which we
are witnessing today brings in so much adventure into our lives that it is enjoyed by the
whole online community.

Ecommerce today does have some drawbacks but they say “he that fears every bush must
never go a birding”. A lot of consumers do put up with minuses since they trust the online
world and want it to be a better place.

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Future of E-commerce

Experts predict a promising and glorious future of ecommerce in the 21st century. In the
foreseeable future ecommerce will further confirm itself a major tool of sale. Successful
ecommerce will become a notion absolutely inseparable from the web, because e-shopping is
becoming more and more popular and natural. At the same time severe rivalry in the sphere
of ecommerce services will intensify their development. Thus prevailing future trends of
ecommerce will be the growth of Internet sales and evolution.

Each year number of ecommerce deals grows enormously. Sales volumes of on-line stores
are more than comparable with those of “brick-and-mortar” ones. And the tendency will
continue, because a lot of people are “imprisoned” by work and household duties, while
Internet saves a lot of time and gives opportunity to choose goods at the best prices. Present-
day Internet sales boom is the foundation for magnificent ecommerce future.

The “quantity to quality” tendency of ecommerce is also becoming more and more obvious,
as the Internet has excluded geographical factor from the sale. So it doesn’t matter anymore
whether your store is situated in New York or London or in a small town. To survive,
merchants will have to adapt rapidly to the new conditions. To attract more customers e-
store-owners will have not only to increase the number of available services, but to pay more
attention to such elements like attractive design, user-friendliness, appealing goods
presentation, they will have to opportunely employ modern technologies for their businesses
to become parts of ecommerce future.

Of course, those, who acquire e-stores earlier, get better chance for future success and
prosperity, though an ecommerce site itself doesn’t guarantee you anything. Only an
appropriate ecommerce solution in combination with thorough emarketing and advertising
can buy the business insurance.

3.1.4Leading online websites in India

Online shopping has become a popular trend in India now. People have been enjoying the
convenience of having their order shipped right to their doorstep. But people often get
confused in selection of reliable sites as there are a plethora of sites, and everyone claims to

48
be reliable. But in actual only few are up to the mark. Thus to facilitate you, here is our pick
of leading 10 online shopping sites.

[Link] is one of India's leading online marketplace. It is an online marketplace where

anyone can trade practically anything. It is a platform for the sale of goods and services by a
diverse community of individuals and businesses. eBay users trade in more than 50,000
categories including collectibles, antiques, sports memorabilia, computers, IT and office, art,
antiques, toys, dolls, stamps, comics, magazines, music, pottery, glass, photography,
electronics, jewellery and gemstones, claims the company.

Fashion and You is an invitation-only online destination. It features the best International &
Indian designer brands in luxury, hi-fashion and lifestyle experiences for men, women,
children and your home.

[Link] is an online chopping site that lets users shop various items including books,
mobile accessories, cameras, game consoles, MP3 players, home and kitchen appliances and
much more, online at discounted prices. It offers multiple methods to make payments for
order: credit card, debit card, net Banking, e-gift voucher and cash on delivery. The order is
generally delivered within 3-4 working days.

[Link] is said to be India's largest online Supermarket. It sells a wide range of

products like FMCG, Food, Non Food, Grocery, Rice, Gourmets and others. Attractive offers
are also available for shopping online at [Link]

[Link] is one of India's largest online retailers and is part of Future Group owner
of brands like Big Bazaar, Pantaloons & Central. It offers a wide range in cameras, consumer
durables, home decor, home entertainment, appliances and electronics, mobile.

Homeshop18 is a virtual retailer operating in a multimedia environment that includes

television, web, catalogue and print to sell high quality products and services directly to
consumers across the country. It deals in books, movies and music, gifts and flowers, mobiles
and accessories, camera and camcoders, electronics, computers and peripherals, toys and
games and much more.

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[Link] is an online shopping destination for fashion and lifestyle products. It lets you
shop online from the latest catalogue of original branded products in apparel, footwear and
accessories for men, women and kids.

[Link] website claims to offer 50-90 per cent off daily discount deals in major cities
of India. It is touted to be the one-stop-shop for availing discount coupons/vouchers for
restaurants, spa, gyms, travel/holiday packages and other cool things in your city.

[Link] is an Internet retailer of branded Consumer electronics and IT products, which

claims to offer more than 9000 products from top international and domestic brands. The
company deals in technology products like notebooks, printers, networking, digital cameras,
storage and Consumer electronics such as LCD TVs, mobile phones, MP3 players, gaming
and home electronics.

[Link] is a platform which gets you great deals you want in your city. It claims to offer
deals each day - 40-95 per cent off on the best of restaurants, shopping, and salons in your
city.

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COMPANY
PROFILE

51
 COMPANY PROFILE

Introduction

[Link], Inc. is an American multinational technology company based in Seattle,

Washington, that focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial
intelligence. It is considered one of the Big Four technology companies along with Google,
Apple, and Facebook.

Amazon is known for its disruption of well-established industries through technological

innovation and mass scale. It is the world's largest e-commerce marketplace, AI assistant
provider, and cloud computing platform as measured by revenue and market capitalization.
Amazon is the largest Internet company by revenue in the world. It is the second largest
private employer in the United States and one of the world's most valuable companies.
Amazon is the second largest technology company by revenue.

[Link], Inc.[7] (/ˈæməzɒn/ AM-ə-zon) is an American multinational technology

company based in Seattle, Washington, which focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing,
digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It is one of the Big Five companies in the U.S.
information technology industry, along with Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook.[8][9]
[10][11] The company has been referred to as "one of the most influential economic and
cultural forces in the world", as well as the world's most valuable brand.[12][13]

Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington, on July 5, 1994. It started as an
online marketplace for books but expanded to sell electronics, software, video games,
apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most
valuable retailer in the United States by market capitalization.[14] In 2017, Amazon acquired
Whole Foods Market for US$13.4 billion, which substantially increased its footprint as a
physical retailer.[15] In 2018, its two-day delivery service, Amazon Prime, surpassed 100
million subscribers worldwide.[16]

52
Amazon is known for its disruption of well-established industries through technological
innovation and mass scale.[17][18][19] It is the world's largest online marketplace, AI
assistant provider, live-streaming platform and cloud computing platform[20] as measured by
revenue and market capitalization.[21] Amazon is the largest Internet company by revenue in
the world.[22] It is the second largest private employer in the United States[23] and one of
the world's most valuable companies. As of 2020, Amazon has the highest global brand
valuation.[24]

Amazon distributes downloads and streaming of video, music, and audiobooks through its
Prime Video, Amazon Music, Twitch, and Audible subsidiaries. Amazon also has a
publishing arm, Amazon Publishing, a film and television studio, Amazon Studios, and a
cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services. It produces consumer electronics
including Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo devices. Its acquisitions over the
years include Ring, Twitch, Whole Foods Market, and IMDb.

Amazon has been criticized for practices including technological surveillance overreach,[25]
a hyper-competitive and demanding work culture,[26] tax avoidance,[27] and anti-
competitive behavior.[28][29]

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in July 1994. He chose Seattle because of technical talent as
Microsoft is located there.[30] In May 1997, Amazon went public. It began selling music and
videos in 1998, at which time it began operations internationally by acquiring online sellers
of books in United Kingdom and Germany. The following year, Amazon began selling items
including video games, consumer electronics, home improvement items, software, games,
and toys.

In 2002, Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provided data on website
popularity, Internet traffic patterns and other statistics for marketers and developers. In 2006,
Amazon grew its AWS portfolio when Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which rents computer
processing power as well as Simple Storage Service (S3), that rents data storage via the
Internet, were made available. That same year, Amazon started Fulfillment by Amazon which
managed the inventory of individuals and small companies selling their belongings through
the company internet site. In 2012, Amazon bought Kiva Systems to automate its inventory-

53
management business, purchasing Whole Foods Market supermarket chain five years later in
2017.

Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos on July 5, 1994, in Bellevue, Washington. The company
initially started as an online marketplace for books but later expanded to sell electronics,
software, video games, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewellery. In 2015, Amazon
surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the United States by market capitalization.

In 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market for $13.4 billion, which vastly increased
Amazon's presence as a brick-and-mortar retailer. In 2018, Bezos announced that its two-day
delivery service, Amazon Prime, had surpassed 100 million subscribers worldwide.

54
Amazon distributes downloads and streaming of video, music, audiobook through its
Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, and Audible subsidiaries. Amazon also has a
publishing arm, Amazon Publishing, a film and television studio, Amazon Studios, and a
cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services. It produces consumer electronics
including Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo devices. In addition, Amazon
subsidiaries include Ring, [Link], Whole Foods Market, and IMDb. Among various
controversies, the company has been criticized for technological surveillance overreach, a
hyper-competitive and demanding work culture, tax avoidance, and anti-competitive
practices.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Keyword Ranking

55
Traffic

Domain Overview

56
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

57
58
Overview of how Amazon operates:

[Link] works on an interactive technology which is very smart. It naturally focusses on

servicing the high value customers. The regular shoppers are favoured but at the same time
not neglecting the low value shopper.

[Link] works on the principle of direct marketing. For the regular customer, it captures
the browsing information based on cookies. Hence the customer gets a personalised view on
his system. Also the recommendations made to the customer are tailored. All the books and
products of [Link] have category information about them and whenever a customer
buys any such product, there is a buying history maintained. This again helps [Link] to
recommend books or any product that could be relevant to that particular customer.

Whenever a customer registers on [Link], the interests which he mentions are

used in profiling. This again helps in sending customer specific information in the form of
newsletters. On the website, the customer can view display prompts and advice about
birthday gifts. All this can be received if the customer has registered to allow for these. A
customer can also put up information about himself for others to read. This brings about more
customer involvement. This practice is known as permission marketing.

[Link] provides for customers to interact with one another on their website. This is
quite beneficial as they get to review books and products for and through each other. These
reviews can be recorded and scored or graded by others. [Link] then rewards those
who provide many valued reviews. This kind of direct marketing also enables consumer word
of mouth.

[Link] works on ways how to increase the sense of customer community and
belonging. It provides interesting information about other customers like the most preferred
books for people in say, Detroit or how many people are currently online from New York.

Also not to forget the beautifully managed website; [Link] follows a step by step
process of selling books to customers in the minimum time possible and with the easiest of
navigation. It also provides information on what else the customers who purchased that
particular book or product purchased.

59
Amazon’s customer Centre for Integrated Marketing, focused implementation of technology
registers a high score on many of these, including on the following essential factors:

 Customers feel that all their brand experiences come from one identity.

 Customers trust the brand’s promises.

 The brand treats different kinds of customers in ways appropriate to them.

 Whenever appropriate, the brand recognises individual customers wherever they

interact or do business.

 Customers are happy with the brand experience.

 There is a service-oriented ideal that encourages aligned commitment across the

organisation.

 Everyone nurtures what the brand means to committed customers.

 The brand organisation is excellent at realising high value propositions.

 Objectives are coherent with the brand/company’s competence.

 There are no silos.

 Practices ensure shared learning across the organisation.

 The organisation works in effective partnership with the members of its value stream.

 Business processes are actively aligned to the brand value promise.

 Quality customer information is available in a timely way at every point of need.

 There is a profound shared knowledge of key customer groups.

 Customer management focuses on the value of customers over their lifetime.

 The company and agencies all work together in partnership.

 Evaluation is managed as a learning discipline across the participants

60
Board Of Directors

 Jeff Bezos, President, CEO, and Chairman

 Keith B. Alexander, CEO IronNet Cybersecurity, former NSA Director
 Rosalind Brewer, Group President, and COO, Starbucks
 Jamie Gorelick, partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale, and Dorr
 Daniel P. Huttenlocher, Dean of the Schwarzman College of Computing at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Judy McGrath, former CEO, MTV Networks
 Indra Nooyi, former CEO, PepsiCo
 Jon Rubinstein, former Chairman, and CEO, Palm, Inc.
 Thomas O. Ryder, former Chairman, and CEO, Reader's Digest Association
 Patty Stonesifer, President, and CEO, Martha's Table
 Wendell P. Weeks, Chairman, President, and CEO, Corning Inc.

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OBJECTIVES OF
THE STUDY

62
 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1. To discover the key factors that influence online buying behaviour of consumers in
India

2. To identify who are the online shoppers in terms of demography

3. To understand the customer awareness on [Link]

4. To determine the factors responsible for customer satisfaction

63
SCOPE OF THE STUDY

64
 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

India has an internet user base of about 354 million as of June of 2015. Despite being the
second largest user base in world, only behind China (650 million, 48% of population),
the penetration of e-commerce is low compared to markets like the United States (266 M,
84%), or France (54 M, 81%), but is growing at an unprecedented rate, adding around 6
million new entrants every month. The industry consensus is that growth is at an inflection
point.

In India, cash on delivery is the most preferred payment method, accumulating 75% of the e-
retail activities. Demand for international consumer products is growing much faster than in-
country supply from authorized distributors and e-commerce offerings.

Largest e-commerce companies in India are Amazon, Snapdeal, Amazon India, Paytm.

Things are easier said than done! To realize our dreams and that also in such a grand manner
is really a tough task. The founders of Amazon have probably conquered their dreams with
the amazing success of Amazon. Amazon is something which has really opened up the Indian
e-commerce market and that also in a big way. Amazon was co-founded by Sachin Bansal
and Binny Bansal in Oct 2007. Both are graduates from IIT-Delhi and have prior work
experience in [Link] They both were solid coders and wanted to open a portal that
compared different e-commerce websites, but there were hardly any such sites in India and
they decided to give birth to their own e-commerce venture - [Link]
This project on Advertising strategies used by Amazon will help us to know the approaches and the
importance of advertising in the field of ecommerce. People getting affected by it and the result
getting out of it will be in front of us with this study. What people think about ecommerce, Amazon
and there responses on

65
 RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY

66
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Objectives

• To study the advertising strategies used by Amazon.

• To analyze the factors and their effect on the consumers in AMITY UNIVERSITY,
HARYANA.

Research Design

The research design is descriptive in nature.

Sample Design

Population: All consumers of Amazon

Sampling Frame: Consumers in AMITY

Sample Size: 150 (Male: 90, Female: 60)

Sampling technique: Non-probability sampling, Convenience Sampling

Location: AMITY UNIVERSITY, HARYANA

Duration: 3 weeks

Data Collection method: Survey and General

Observations Instrument: Questionnaire

Data Collection

Primary data collected with the help of survey conducted on AMITY UNIVERSITY,
HARYANA consumers using a questionnaire.

Secondary data present on the websites.

67
 Research Plan
Study of Advertising strategies used by Amazon to
position itself among Consumers of AMITY
UNIVERSITY, HARYANA

Designing the questionnaire

Collection of primary data

Analysis and Interpretation of data

Findings

68
Secondary Data Analysis:

Advertisements Used in Newspapers and Magazines:

Newspaper advertising works on the fundamental of building trust and confidence with the
readers.

Newspapers have the greatest impact because of the following reasons:

1. Experts say the greater the exposure of the advertisement, the longer is the period of its
impact among the readers. Therefore experts feel if an advertisement stays in the memory of
a consumer for a longer time, chances are quite probable that he might opt for purchasing or
availing your services as and when required. This counts for higher sales and brand
awareness.

2. A newspaper reader is so involved in his reading that sometimes the content in the
advertisements creates an emotional impact on him. It is this power of being able to evoke an
emotional response with the reader that goes in favor of newspaper advertising.

3. In other media, especially online media, people get perturbed by the distractions in the
form of pop-ups and other advertisement forms that keep flashing on and off the screen. In
fact experts’ points out that instead of having any favorable impact, these ads serve to distract
the readers. However newspapers, point out experts, involves a focused reading where there
are no disturbing and unwanted flashes of advertisements. As there is no distance between the
reader and the story it seems that the reader actually undergoes all the emotions in the story
himself, leading to increase in the trust factor. Taking advantage of this trust quotient,
advertisers cash on newspapers to send their messages loud and clear among the readers.

Hence, Amazon has used advertisements in newspapers and magazines which are colorful,
bright; most of the images consist of kids, and have clear messages. Here are some of the
adver

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DATA ANALYSIS

70
This chapter aims obtain the objective of the study by critically analysing the qualitative data
through thoroughly examining the interviewee’s responses and beliefs. This has been
achieved through evaluating the most relevant responses by the participants. The data has
been analysed and discussed by comparing the comments made by the respondents with the
literature review keeping in mind the research objective of the study. Thus, the rationale of
this analysis is based on the personal answers provided by the respondents.

An appropriately designed questionnaire was used to collect the primary data for the study.
The data for 100 respondents was organized systematically in tables and graphs and then was
subjected to analysis using appropriate statistical tools. The results of the analysis are
presented in the following section in order to assess the customer perception towards online
shopping on [Link] in India.

Here for analysing, we are considering two factors. That is:

 Demographical factors
 Behavioural factors

71
Demography:

1. Gender of Respondents:

Table 4.1: Gender wise respondents

Male Female Total

Responses 58 42 100
Percentage 58 42 100

Graph 4.1: Gender wise respondents

Gender

42%

Male
Female

58%

Analysis and Interpretation:

According to demography profile, in this study 70 % male and 30% female respondents are
part of my target population and they help me to fulfil my questionnaire from different area of
Bangalore city. From these groups total respondents are 100. So, according to the survey
result,the male respondents are more and can be told that they interested to shop online than
female, even though both of them shop online.

72
2. Age Group:

Table 4.2: Age wise respondents

15 -25 25 -35 35 - 45 45 & above Total

No of respondents 63 24 12 1 100
Percentage 63 24 12 1 100

Graph 4.2: Age wise respondents

Age Group
1%
12%

15 -25
25 -35
24% 35 - 45
45 & above

63%

Analysis and Interpretation:

Below figure shows that 63% respondents are between 15-25 years old, 24% respondents are
between 25-35 years old, 12% respondents between 35-45 years old, and 1% respondents are
between 45&above. Overall result shows that between all of them the respondents who has
age limit between 15 to 35 years (63%+24%= 87%) people are more familiar to shop online
on my target population.

73
3. Occupation:

Table 4.3: Occupation wise respondents

Business House wife Salaried Student Total

person
No. of respondents 8 7 46 39 100
Percentage 8 7 46 39 100

Graph 4.3: Occupation wise respondents

Occupation
7%
8%
39%
Business person
House wife
Salaried
Student

46%

Analysis and Interpretation:

In this survey, 46% of the respondents are salaried and 39% are students. So they both
together made majority of respondent’s percentage (85%). 8% are business persons and 7%
are House wife. Salaried persons and students will always look for new technologies and new
services which make them more comfort.

74
4. Educational Qualification:

Table 4.4: Educational wise respondents

Graduate post SSC or Others

graduate Equivalent (PhD)
Number of respondents 63 36 0 1
Percentage 63 36 0 1

Graph 4.4: Educational wise respondents

Educational Qualifications
1%

36%
Graduate
post graduate
SSC or Equivalent
PhD

63%

Analysis and Interpretation:

All of them in this survey are graduate and above qualified peoples only. Among these 63%
are graduates, 36% are post graduates and one person is PhD.

75
5. Annual Income:

Table 4.5: Income wise respondents

0- 3 L 3-6L 6-9L 9 & above

Number of respondents 60 23 13 4
Percentage 60 23 13 4

Graph 4.5: Income wise respondents

Annual Income
13% 4%

0- 3 L
3-6L
6-9L
9 & above
23%
60%

Analysis and Interpretation:

Since 39% of this survey is students most of them are of 0-3L income range, ie 60%. 23% of
them are in 3-6Lincome range, 13% in 6-9L and 4% is 9 & above.

Behavioural factors:

This survey is conducted on those people who do online shopping and are aware of Amazon.
So everyone answered ‘yes’ for those two questions.

76
6) Frequency of purchase from online:

Table 4.6: online shopping usage

Always Often Sometimes Seldom Never Total

Male 5 21 29 3 0 58
Female 4 14 23 1 0 42
Total 9 35 52 4 0 100

Graph 4.6: online shopping usage

35

30 29

25 23
21
20

15 14

10
5 4
5 3
1 0 0
0
Always Often Sometimes Seldom Never

Male Female

Analysis and Interpretation:

More than half of them use online shopping sometimes, ie 52%. People who always and
mostly shop through online shopping are also good in number, 9 and 35, together 44%. And
who use online shopping rarely is very less in number 4%. Since only 44% are mostly using
this, there is a wide space to fill and to make online shopping a great success. And there is not
much gender difference inonline shopping, which means both males and females enjoying
online shopping and its benefits.

77
7) Mode of awareness about [Link]:

Word Advertisement Blog Links from Promoti Search T

of s, newspapers, recomme- other onal engines(like ot
Mouth TV ndations websites emails Google) al
No: of 39 22 2 15 5 17 10
respond 0
ents
Percent 39 22 2 15 5 17 10
age 0
Table 4.7: Modes of awareness about Amazon

Graph 4.7: Modes of awareness about Amazon

No: of respondents
40
39
30
20 22
15 17
10
No: of respondents
0 5
2
th TV ns es ail
s le)
ou s, tio sit og
M er
d a eb l em Go
of ap en rw na
p e o ike
or
d ws m th ti
es
(l
n e om o o
W
ts, r ec om r om gin
fr p n
en og e
em Bl iL n
ks r ch
r tis Se
a
ve
Ad

Analysis and Interpretation:

78
Most of them are awareabout Amazon through word of mouth (39%) followed by television
and online advertisements (22%). Customers got awared through blog recommendations (2%)
and promotional e-mails (5%) are very less in number.

This means a good communicaton about Amazon is going on through friends and families,
which proves that word of mouth strategy by them is the most successful means of making
people aware about their products. Success can only be gained through delighted customers
who act as advocates for their products and there is a wide scope of other digital
advertisement techniques like search engine marketing, email- marketing, providing links and
blog recommendations inorder to make more customers.

79
8) Frequency of [Link] while online purchasing:

Graph 4.8: Frequency of using Amazon

Every Occasionally Most of the Hardly Total

time time ever
No: of 17 45 32 6 100
respondents
Percentage 17 45 32 6 100

Graph 4.8: Frequency of using Amazon

No: of respondents
50
45
45
40
35
32
30 No: of respondents
25
20 17
15
10
6
5
0
Everytime Occasionaly Most of the time Hardly ever

Analysis and Interpretation:

Here on this survey 17% are always choosing Amazon for online shopping, while 45% are
using it occasionally. Hardly ever using members are very less, and 32% are using it most of
the time. Since more than half of them prefer Amazon while thinking of online shopping, it

80
 means branding had done successfully by them either through advertisements, services or
providing good experience to customers.

9) Category that mostly prefer to buy from [Link]:

Graph 4.9: Category mostly prefer to buy from Amazon

Electronic Apparels & Books, Stationarie Healthcare Home & Total

s Accessories Movies s & Kitchen
& Music personalcar items
e
No: of 39 20 3 3 4 4 100
respondent 0
s
Percentage 39 20 3 3 4 4 100
0

Graph 4.9: Category mostly prefer to buy from Amazon

No: of respondents
45
40
39
35
30
30
25
20
20 No: of respondents
15
10
5
3 4 4
0
cs ies ic
rie
s re s
oni or us a lca ite
m
s M a
ctr es & on
so
n en
Ele cc ies ati r ti ch
A v St pe K
& o
r els s,M re
&
e&
pa ok h ca
Ho
m
Ap Bo alt
He

81
Analysis and Interpretation:

Electronic items, Books and Stationery, Apparels& Accessories, cameras, watches and others
(bags, belts, etc.) are purchased more. 39% of respondents are preferred to buy Electronics
items followed by Books and Stationery (30%) and Apparels and Accessories (20%). Books
& stationery and electronics items are more famous among the students and that may be the
reason for large purchase of those items from [Link].

10) Reason for customer’s preference on [Link] than others:

Table 4.10: Customers expecting feature of Amazon

Fast Availability After Sales Easy Portal Total

Delivery Services Payment Features
options
Responses 41 29 8 17 5 100
Percentage 41 29 8 17 5 100

Graph 4.10: Customers expecting feature of Amazon

82
 Responses
45

40 41

35

30
29
25 Responses

20

15 17

10
8
5
5
0
Fast Delivery Availability After Sales Easy Payment Portal Features
Services options

Analysis and Interpretation:

One of the most efficient features in Amazon is fast delivery when compared to other online
shopping websites. So, most of the customers prefer this website for shopping with the
perception of quick delivery (41%) and availability of product (29%), followed by easy
payment options (17%). And there is a scope of increasing after sales services and portal
features when comparing with other features.

11) Product selection from the categories given by [Link]:

Table 4.11: On the basis where product is chosen

Rating of the Discounts and Review about the Brand of the Total
product features product product
No: of 14 48 26 12 100
Responses
Percentage 14 48 26 12 100

Graph 4.11: On the basis where product is chosen

83
 No: of Responses
60

50
48
40

No: of Responses
30

26
20

14
10 12

0
Rating of the Discounts and Review about the Brand of the
product features product product

Analysis and Interpretation:

Customer perception varies while using Amazon; it is one of the online shopping sites
which give high discounts and offers. Most of them in this survey (48%) are looking for
good featured product with high discounts while purchasing products from Amazon. And
also customers more often go through the product review (26%) before making their
decision topurchase. Product review is a kind of word of mouth strategy where product
usersleave their review on their experiences with Amazon. Customers are giving priority to
these two features while brand of product (12%) and rating of product (14%) also taken care
by some other customers.
12) Rating of services on [Link] (in a scale of Excellent, Good, Average,
below average, Poor)
Table 4.12: Rating of Amazon services

Excellent Good Average Below Poor

Average
Cash on delivery 46 45 5 2 2
30 days replacement 23 55 20 2 0
policy
EMI options 21 48 25 5 1
84
 Free shipping 35 34 17 12 2

Graph 4.12: Rating of Amazon services

60

50

40

Cash on delivery
30 30 days replacement policy
EMI options
Free shipping

20

10

0
Excellent Good Average Below Average Poor

85
Analysis and Interpretation:

46% of respondents are rated excellent for cash on delivery service, while for 30 days
replacement policy 55% rated good and 23% rated excellent. For EMI options 48% rated
good and 21% rated excellent, and for free shipping 35% rated excellent.

While analysing the data, customers have more interest in two services of Amazon: That is,
30 days replacement policy and EMI options.

Since Amazon is providing 30 days replacement policy for all the products in the platform.
And this combined mix service increased the customer trust.

In case of EMI options, Amazon is the only site which accepts all credit cards and thus it
provides a better payment options to the customers.

Cash on delivery is a compactable service that provided to the customers and they are much
satisfied on that service also. Even some rated less for this service, may be because of less
customised experience on cash on delivery.

In case of free shipping, Amazon provide this service for total purchase of rupees 300 and
above only. So it may affect some of the customers who purchase less price products
frequently.

86
13) Issues faced by customers while shopping in [Link]?

Table 4.13: Issues faced when purchased from Amazon

Out of Payment Replacement Delay in Faulty No Others Total

stock issues issues Delivery product issues
No of 37 6 6 12 8 30 1 100
Responses
Percentag 37 6 6 12 8 30 1 100
e

Graph 4.13: Issues faced when purchased from Amazon

40 37

35
30
30

25

20

15 12

10 8
6 6

5
1

0
ck s s y t s rs
ue ue er uc ue he
f sto iss iss le iv od iss t
to en
t
en
t D pr No
O
Ou m m in tl y
Pa
y
ac
e le ay Fa
u
epl D
R

No of Responses

Analysis and Interpretation:

87
In this survey, 30% of customers didn’t face any of those problems that mentioned, while
37% of customers faced out of stock issue. This is one of serious issue faced by most of
customers. Since discounts and features are the one feature that most of the customers
looking for and when a good product with high discount is displayed in Amazon platform,
customers brought it as soon as they could. Thus the products will be out of stocked.

Amazon started notifying the customers about the product when the stock got available.

Payment issues and replacement issues are less in number (total 12%) since different
payment options like EMI options, card payments, Cash on delivery, Wallet payments etc…
are provided by Amazon and customers are satisfied with those.

In case of replacement also only less issues are happened, thus shows most of them are
satisfied with that service.

Delay in delivery happens because of shipping and courier service issues. It is a problem
with supply chain. Mostly it happens in the end part of the supply and in rural areas where
courier services are less active.

Faulty product issue also happened to 8% of the customers and one of the policies to
overcome this issue is 30 days replacement policy of Amazon.

88
14) Recommending this website to others:

Table 4.14: Recommending Amazon to others

Yes No Total
No: of 95 5 100
Responses
Percentage 95 5 100

Graph 4.14: Recommending Amazon to others

95
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20 5
10
0
Yes No

No: of Responses

Analysis and Interpretation:

In this survey, most of them (95%) are happy to recommendAmazon to others like friends
and family. And this shows word of mouth publicity is successfully running and this is one of
the great advantages for Amazon.

89
15) Customer’s rating about services [Link]: (in a scale of 5, 5 as highest and 1
asleast)

Table 4.15: Rating the experience fromAmazon

1 2 3 4 5 Total
No of 7 11 16 49 17 100
Responses
Percentag 7 11 16 49 17 100
e

Graph 4.15: Rating the experience fromAmazon

49
50
45
40
35
30
25
16 17
20
15 11
7
10
5
0
1 2 3 4 5

No of Responses

Analysis and Interpretation:

While analysing the rating of experiences, Amazon provides a good and excellent experiences
to most of the customers.

Mode of given data: 4 & Median of given data: 4

49% of customers rated 4 as the experience and more than half of the population (66%) rated
4 & 5 as experience.

90
16) Satisfaction of customers while Amazon services are used:

Table 4.16: Satisfaction on services of Amazon

Yes No Total
No: of responses 81 19 100
Percentage 81 19 100

Graph 4.16: Satisfaction on services of Amazon

81
90
80
70
60
50
40 19
30
20
10
0
Yes No

No: of responses

Analysis and Interpretation:

81% of the population is satisfied with the service of Amazon. This helpsAmazon to retain
the customers and also shows that the branding and marketing techniques of Amazon also got
succeed.

91
FINDINGS

92
FINDINGS:
 There is not much difference in gender for using online shopping.
 Students and salaried persons are most frequent users of Amazon.
 Frequency of purchase for electronics, books and music, apparels and accessoriesare
more in Amazon.
 Word of mouth was more influential in promotion as many people were made aware
by their friends and family when customers recommend this website to them.
 Highly discounted products got out of stock quickly, since customers purchased it as
soon as they could when they see high discount on good featured product.
 The services provided by Amazon are good and even more scope of development is
there for increasing the customer strength.
 Digital marketing techniques like search engine marketing, links providing other
website and advertisement also functioned well for promotion of this website.
 Fast delivery is one of best service Amazon is providing.
 Different payment options available in Amazon made customers more satisfied and
comfort for paying while purchasing product.
 Customers feeling more secured when purchasing through Amazon because of
different policies and services they have.
 In comparison with competitors, Amazon is charging free shipping for the purchase of
300 plus rupees, while others free ship the service without any barrier.
 Out of stock is the main issue faced by Amazon.
 Most of customers have good experience with Amazon while purchasing products.
 Most of them are satisfied with the services of Amazon and so that they succeed in
retaining the customers.
 Advertising is an important way to have the brand and products familiarto consumers.
 Convenience and time saving are two important factors that customer looking for
while purchasing through online.

93
CONCLUSION

94
 CONCLUSION

The thorough study is based on the consumer behaviour analysis which serves a great idea
regarding consumer perception when they go for online shopping. In order to satisfy
themselves consumer perceive many things before buying products and they will be satisfied
if the company meet their expectation.

The Overall Brand Value of Amazon is good, but it is facing some tough competitionfrom its
global competitors like Ebay and Amazon. Talking about domesticmarket i.e India, it is the
most superior E-business portal which is aggressivelyexpanding & planting its roots deep into
the Indian market & at the same time shiftingthe mind-set of the people from going &
shopping from physical store to onlinestores, which is magnificent!.

Be very focused on consumers and build amazing experiences for the customers.

95
RECOMMENDATIONS:

 Amazon has successfully placed itself into the prospects mind making it the India’s
largest online store with huge range of products. But it still needs to work on their
core competence that is books and stationery items.
 Delivery services can be improved mainly in rural areas by selecting appropriate
courier service which has services in customer area for dispatching an item.
 Can make free delivery to all priced products.
 Can include more coupon codes and gift vouchers for increasing the traffic of the
customers.
 Out of stock items can made available as soon as possible and intimate the needed
customers.
 Should look for International/ Overseas markets or Neighbouring Countries.
 Critical mass of Internet users – Internet users in India is increasing at increasing rate,
so Amazon can target more & more cities i.e not only tier 1 & 2 but also tier 3 & 4
cities, which will help generate stronger customer base & more revenues.
 Should clearing focus on the Growing Online Apparel business & it can diversify into
apparel category either organically or inorganically by acquiring other portals.
 User Experience: Portal should continuously aim to work to improve the user
experience by adding more & more innovative features in the website like virtually
shopping basket, virtual trial rooms. In this competitive world to differentiate via user
experience, the ultimate winner will be the Indian online consumer.
 Should comprehensively invest into E-CRM & online reputation management.
 Logistics & Supply Chain: can continuously aim to reduce the delivery time cycle.
 Price will still be a factor as amazon being a huge company will use its economies of
scale to remove their competitors from the market; therefore they need to be more
competitive on that aspect.

96
BIBLIOGRAPHY

97
 BIBLIOGRAPHY:
BOOKS:

 Assael, Henry. (1984.) “Behavior and Market Action”. Boston, Massachusetts: Kent
Publishing Company,
 Belch, G.E., & Belch, M.A. (2001). Advertising and Promotion: An integrated
Marketing Communications Perspective (5th ed.). Boston: Irwin/McGraw- Hill.
 Cooper, Donald R. and Schindler , Pamela S. (1999), Business Research Methods, 6
Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi, India.
 Creswell, J. W. (2003). “Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed
Methods Approaches”. Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage.
JOURNELS AND MAGAZINES:
 Arnould, E.J. and Wallendorf, M. “Market-oriented Ethnography: Interpretation
Building and Marketing Strategy Formulation,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol.
31 (November 1994), pp. 484–504.

 ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ONLINE

Author: DejanPetrovic

 HOT BARGAINS: TIPS TO FIGURE OUT TRAPS FROM THE REAL VALUE
DEALS
SUSHMITA CHOUDHURY AGARWAL, ET Bureau Apr 22, 2013 (The Economic
Times)
WEBSITES:

 [Link]
 [Link]
 [Link]
 [Link]
 [Link]
 [Link]

98
99
QUESTIONNAIRE

100
 QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Gender of Respondents:

 Male
 Female
2. Age Group:

 15 -25
 25 -35
 35 - 45
 45 & above
3. Occupation:

 Business person
 House wife
 Salaried
 Student
4. Educational Qualification:

 Graduate
 post graduate
 SSC or Equivalent
 Others
 (PhD)
5. Annual Income:

 3L
 3-6L
 6-9L
 9 & above
6) Frequency of purchase from online:

 Always
 Often
 Sometimes
 Seldom
 Never
101
7)Mode of awareness about [Link]:

 Word of Mouth
 Advertisements,
 newspapers,
 TV
 Blog
 recommendations Links from other websites
 Promotional emails
 Search engines(like Google)
8) Frequency of [Link] while online purchasing:

 Every time
 Occasionally
 Most of the time
 Hardly ever
9) Category that mostly prefer to buy from [Link]

 Electronics
 Apparels & Accessories Books,
 Movies & Music
 Stationaries
 Healthcare & personal care
 Home & Kitchen items
10) Reason for customer’s preference on [Link] than others

 Fast Delivery
 Availability
 After Sales Services
 Easy Payment options
 Portal Features
11) Product selection from the categories given by [Link]:

 Rating of the product

 Discounts and features
 Review about the product

102
  Brand of the product
12) Rating of services on [Link] (in a scale of Excellent, Good, Average, below average, Poor)

 Cash on delivery
 30 days replacement policy
 EMI options
 Free shipping
13) Issues faced by customers while shopping in [Link]?

 Out of stock
 Payment issues
 Replacement issues
 Delay in Delivery
 Faulty product
 No issues
14) Recommending this website to others:

 Yes
 No
15) Customer’s rating about services [Link]: (in a scale of 5, 5 as highest and 1 asleast)

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
16) Satisfaction of customers while Amazon services are used:

 Yes
 No

103