A

RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT

ON

THE STUDY OF ONLINE CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR ON

FLIPKART IN GHAZIABAD CITY
Submitted to

Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow

In the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

(2024-2025)

Under the guidance of: Submitted By:

Dr. VINAYAKA TRIPATHI MUSKAN GARG

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MBA-4th SEM
2300330700040

Page 1
 Date: ……………….

TO WHOM SOEVER IT MY CONCERN

This is to certify that Ms. MUSKAN GARG is a Bonafide student of MBA 2nd year of this institute
for the session 2024-2025 and she has prepared the Research Project Report titled A STUDY OF
ONLINE CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR ON FLIPKART IN GHAZIABAD CITY for
partial fulfillment of Master of Business administration (MBA) affiliated to Dr A P J Abdul Kalam
Technical University, Lucknow.
I wish her all the best for her future endeavors.

Dr. Vinayaka Tripathi Dr Vibhuti Tyagi

Assistant Professor Professor and Head
(Department of Management Studies)

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 Declaration
I MUSKAN GARG D/O Mr. ANIL GARG am pursuing Master of Business Administration
(MBA) 2nd year from Department of Management studies, Raj Kumar Goel Institute of
Technology, Ghaziabad in the session 2024-2025. I hereby declare that this Research Project
Report t it le d “ THE S T U D Y O F O N L I N E C O S U M E R B U Y I N G B E H A V I O R
O N FLIPKART IN GHAZIABAD CITY” is the outcome of my own effort under the guidance of Dr.
VINAYAKA TRIPATHI, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR. The same report has not been submitted earlier
to any Institute/University for awarding any degree/diploma of MBA or any other professional’s course. If
there will be any violation of IPR, I will be solely responsible to that and Institute/University has right to
cancel my degree.

Date: …………………… Muskan Garg

Place: RKGIT, Ghaziabad 2300330700040

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Research Project is a bridge connecting the educational qualification and professional use. It is the
path leading to success by shouldering responsibilities under the careful guidance of seniors and
experienced personnel without fear and failure.

It gives me immense pleasure to take the opportunities to remember and thanks the personalities
who have involved with this project work. I express my sincere thanks and deep gratitude who are
directly and indirectly associated in completion of this project.

I would like to thanks to Dr. Vinayaka Tripathi, Assistant Professor for assigning an interesting
project, titled THE STUDY OF ONLINE CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR ON
FLIPKART IN GHAZIABAD CITY without his help the project would have not added enough
value. I am extremely grateful for the time he spent from his busy schedule.

MUSKAN GARG

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 ABSTRACT

PURPOSE:
The purpose of this study is to analyze online consumer buying behavior on Flipkart among residents
of Ghaziabad city. With the rapid growth of e-commerce in India, understanding local consumer
preferences, motivations, and challenges is crucial for platforms like Flipkart. This research aims to
explore key factors influencing purchasing decisions, such as convenience, price sensitivity, trust in
online transactions, and product variety. By focusing on Ghaziabad, the study seeks to provide region-
specific insights that can help businesses improve customer experience, tailor marketing strategies,
and enhance consumer satisfaction in online shopping environments.

RESEARCH DESIGN:
This study uses a descriptive research design to investigate online consumer buying behavior on
Flipkart in Ghaziabad city. A structured questionnaire was developed to collect primary data from 200
Flipkart users selected through purposive sampling. The questionnaire focused on factors like
convenience, price, trust, product variety, and user satisfaction. Quantitative methods were applied to
analyze consumer responses and identify key trends. Secondary data from articles, reports, and
previous studies supported the analysis. This design helps in understanding the buying patterns and
preferences of consumers in a specific geographic location and draws actionable conclusions for e-
commerce strategies.

FINDINGS:
The study found that consumers in Ghaziabad prefer Flipkart for its convenience, wide product range,
and frequent discounts. Young adults aged 20–35 are the most active users, primarily purchasing
electronics, clothing, and household items. Competitive pricing, fast delivery, and user-friendly
interface were key drivers of satisfaction. However, concerns about product quality and delivery delays
affected repeat purchases. Trust in online payment methods was moderate, especially among older
consumers. Return policies and app usability positively influenced buying frequency. Overall,
Flipkart’s promotional strategies and service quality play a significant role in shaping consumer buying
behavior in the region.
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS:
This study is limited to consumers residing in Ghaziabad city, which may restrict the generalizability
of the findings to other regions with different demographics and online shopping behaviors. The
sample size of 200 respondents, though useful for initial insights, may not fully capture the diversity
of Flipkart users. Additionally, the use of self-reported data through structured questionnaires may
introduce response bias or inaccuracies. The study also focuses solely on Flipkart, excluding
comparisons with other e-commerce platforms. These limitations suggest the need for broader, more
comparative future research to strengthen the findings and conclusions.
 TABLE OF CONTENT
Part I:
I. Certification from Institution
II. Declaration
III. Acknowledgement
IV. Abstract
 Purpose
 Design Methodology
 Findings
 Research Implications/Limitations
V. Table of Content
Topic Page Number
Part II: Research Work
1. Introduction 2-6
 About the industry/Organization 7-22
 Literature Review 23-38
 Significance of Problems 39
 Concept & Practices 40
 Theory & Models related with Problems 41
 Research Gap 42
 Objectives 43
2. Research Methodology 44-46
3. Data Analysis 47-67
4. Data Findings 68-69
5. Discussion and Conclusion 70-71
6. Suggestions 72-73
7. Bibliography/Reference 74-75
Part III: Annexure 76
1. Questionnaire 77-83
INTRODUCTION OF THE TOPIC

1
 INTRODUCTION OF THE TOPIC

How significant is Internet marketing to businesses? Today, the answer to this question varies
dramatically for different products and markets. For companies such as electronics equipment
manufacturer Cisco, the answer is ‘very significant’ – some companies now gain over 90% of
its multi-billion-dollar global revenue online. It also conducts many of its other business
processes such as new product development and customer service online. Similarly, the low-
cost European airline gains 90% of its tickets sales online and aims to fulfill the majority of its
customer service requests via the Internet. However, the picture is quite different for the
manufacturers of high-involvement purchases such as cars or fast-moving consumer goods
brands. Here the impact is less significant – the majority of their consumer sales still occur
through traditional retail channels. However, the influence cannot be described as insignificant
any longer since the Internet is becoming increasingly important in influencing purchase
decisions - many new car purchasers will research their purchase online, so manufacturers need
to invest in Internet marketing to persuade customers of the features and benefits of their
brands. The manufacturer finds that consumers are spending an increasing proportion of their
time on the Internet and less time using other media so the Internet has become an effective
way of reaching its target markets. The Internet can be used to increase the frequency and depth
of interactions with the brand, particularly for brand loyalists who are the advocates of these
brands. For example, drinks brand Tango uses competitions and games on its web site to
encourage interactions of the consumer with the brand.

The Internet and the Marketing concept

The word marketing has two distinct meanings in modern management practice. It describes:

2
 1. The range of specialist marketing functions carried out within many organizations.
Such functions include market research, brand/product management, public relations
and customer service.
2. An approach or concept that can be used as the guiding philosophy for all functions
and activities of an organization. Such a philosophy encompasses all aspects of a
business. Business strategy is guided by an organization’s market and competitor focus
and everyone in an organization should be required to have a customer focus in their
job.
The modern marketing concept unites these two meanings and stresses that marketing
encompasses the range of organizational functions and processes that seek to determine the
needs of target markets and deliver products and services to customers and other key
stakeholders such as employees and financial institutions. Increasingly the importance of
marketing is being recognized both as a vital function and as a guiding management philosophy
within organizations. Marketing has to be seen as the essential focus of all activities within an
organization. The marketing concept should lie at the heart of the organization, and the actions
of directors, managers and employees should be guided by its philosophy. Modern marketing
requires organizations to be committed to a market/customer orientation. All parts of the
organization should co-ordinate activities to ensure that customer needs are met efficiently,
effectively and profitably. Marketing encompasses activities traditionally seen as the sole
domain of Accountants, Production, Human Resources Management (HRM) and Information
Technology (IT). Many of these functions had little regard for customer considerations.
Increasingly such functions are being re-orientated, evidenced by the importance of initiatives
such as Total Quality Management, Business Process Reengineering, Just in Time and supply
chain management. Individuals’ functional roles are undergoing change, from being solely
functional to having a greater emphasis on

3
process. Individuals are therefore being encouraged to become part-time marketers. Processes
have a significant impact on an organization’s ability to service its customers’ needs. The
Internet can be applied by companies as an integral part of the modern marketing concept since:
 It can be used to support the full range of organizational functions and processes that
deliver products and services to customers and other key stakeholders.

 It is a powerful communications medium that can act as ‘corporate glue’ that integrates
the different functional parts of the organization.

 It facilitates information management, which is now increasingly recognized as a

critical marketing support tool to strategy formulation and implementation.

 The future role of the Internet should form part of the vision of a company since its
future impact will be significant to most businesses.

 Without adequate information, organizations are at a disadvantage with respect to

competitors and the external environment. Up-to-date, timely and accessible
information about the industry, markets, new technology, competitors and customers is
a critical factor in an organization’s ability to plan and compete in an increasingly
competitive marketplace.
Avoiding Internet Marketing Myopia

Theodore Levitt, writing in the Harvard Business Review (Levitt, 1960), outlined the factors
that underlie the demise of many organizations and at best seriously weaken their longer-term
competitiveness. These factors still provide a timely reminder of traps that should be avoided
when embarking on Internet marketing.

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1) Wrong definition which business they are in.

2) Focusing on:

 Products (many web sites are still product-centric rather than customer-centric);

 Production;

 Technology (technology is only an enabler, not an objective);

 Selling (the culture on the Internet is based on customers seeking information to make
informed buying decisions rather than strong exhortations to buy); rather than:

 Customer needs (the need for market orientation is a critical aspect of web site design
and Internet marketing strategy); and

 Market opportunities (the Internet should not just be used as another channel, but new
opportunities for adding value should be explored).
3 Unwillingness to innovate and ‘creatively destruct’ existing product/service lines.
4 Shortsightedness in terms of strategic thinking.
5 The lack of a strong and visionary CEO (Baker (1998) found that this was important to
companies’ using the Internet effectively).
6 Giving marketing only ‘stepchild status’, behind finance, production and technology. Any
organization that sees and hence defines its business in anything other than customer benefit
terms has not taken the first step in achieving a market orientation. Any organization that
defines its business by what it produces is said to be suffering from ‘MARKETING

5
MYOPIA’. Such myopia results from a company having a shortsighted and narrow view of

the business that it is in.

If Internet marketing is to become integrated and fully established as a strategic marketing

management tool, then the focus of attention needs to move towards understanding its broader
applications within the total marketing process rather than just using it as a communication and
selling tool. This is not to detract from the capability of the Internet to communicate and sell,
but recognizes that this is only one important aspect of the marketing process to which the
Internet can contribute. The danger for those currently considering developing Internet
technology is that the focus of such involvement will be too narrow and the true power of the
Internet and its potential contribution to the marketing process will be missed. One of the
elements of developing an Internet marketing strategy is deciding which marketing functions
can be assisted by the Internet.

6
COMPANY PROFILE

7
 COMPANY PROFILE

[Link] is an Indian e-commerce company headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka. It

was founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007. In its initial years, Flipkart focused

on online sales of books but it later expanded to electronic goods and a variety of other products.

Flipkart offers multiple payment methods like credit card, debit card, net banking, e-gift

voucher, and Cash on Delivery.

The cash-on-delivery model adopted by Flipkart has proven to be of great significance since

the credit card and net banking penetration is very low in India.

History:

Flipkart was founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, both alumni of the Indian

Institute of Technology Delhi. They worked for [Link] before quitting and founding

their own company. Initially they used word of mouth marketing to popularize their company.

A few months later, the company sold its first book on [Link]—John Woods ‘Leaving

Microsoft to Change the World’. Today, as per Alexa traffic rankings, Flipkart is among the

top 20 Indian Web sites and has been credited with being India's largest online bookseller with

over 11 million titles on offer. Flipkart broke even in March 2010 and claims to have had at

least 100% growth every quarter since its founding. The store started with selling books and in

2010 branched out to selling CDs, DVDs, mobile phones and accessories, cameras, computers,

computer accessories and peripherals, and in 2011, pens &

8
stationery, other electronic items such as home appliances, kitchen appliances, personal care

gadgets, health care products etc. Further in 2012, Flipkart added A.C, air coolers, school

supplies, office supplies, art supplies & life style products to its product portfolio. As of today,

Flipkart employs over 4500 people.

Funding

Initially funded by the Bansal’s themselves with 400,000, Flipkart has raised funding from

venture capital funds Accel India in 2009 and Tiger Global (US$10 million in 2010

and US$20 million in June 2011). [Link], on August 24, 2012 announced the completion

of its 4th round of $150 million funding from MIH (part of Naspers Group) and ICONIQ

Capital.

Acquisitions

 2010: We read, a social book discovery tool. The stated goal was to give Flipkart a

social recommendation platform for buyers to make informed decisions based on

recommendations from people within their social network.

 2011: Mime360, a digital content platform company.

 2011: [Link] is a Bollywood news site that offers updates, news, photos and

videos. Flipkart acquired the rights to Chakpak’s digital catalogue which includes

40,000 filmographies, 10,000 movies and close to 50,000 ratings. Flipkart has

categorically said that it will not be involved with the original site and will not use the

brand name.

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  2012: [Link] is India's second largest e-retailer in electronics. Flipkart has bought

the company for an estimated US$25 million. [Link] had been closed down and

all the traffic of Lets buy is diverted to Flipkart.

Flipkart Marketing

It’s being touted as India’s answer to Amazon. Founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal

(not related to each other) in Oct 2007, Flipkart has catapulted to one of India’s most popular

e-commerce sites and undoubtedly as the most popular online destination for books within a

short span of three years. With expected revenues of Rs. 75 crores this FY, Flipkart plans to

generate a whopping Rs. 4,500 crores by FY2015. Now that’s pretty impressive for any

business.

Flipkart’s initial success can be pegged down to the experience of its founders, both of whom

had worked with Amazon. They also successfully used word of mouth marketing and social

media to get word out. But there are literally millions of retail websites. And not many have

achieved even a fraction of the attention that Flipkart has. So what is it that makes Flipkart

stand out? For one, they offer a huge range of titles (more than 7 million) which really sets

them apart from the rest of the crowd.

But is simply offering so many titles enough? I don’t think so. I mean, how difficult is it for

someone with deep pockets to simply replicate this? Not very. In fact, the Bansal’s started their

venture with just Rs. 5 lakhs. So what does Flipkart have that makes its model so robust? An

amazingly well-oiled warehousing and delivery system. This ensures that deliveries occur

within promised times all over India. And with a business volume of nearly 2 lakh books every

year, one can imagine how important logistics is to this business.

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So what’s my take on Flipkart? I personally didn’t like the website interface so much. And this

one’s supposed to be a newer one. It didn’t inspire me at all. And they still haven’t turned a

profit yet. But on the positive side, they have the scope and the scale. They are adding new

product lines such as movies, music, games, cameras and computers. They are coming up with

creative ads and improving operations. They have just received another round of funding. All

in all, there’s no doubt that Flipkart has tremendous potential.

Flipkart began with selling books, since books are easy to procure, target market which reads

books is in abundance, books provide more margin, are easy to pack and deliver, do not get

damaged in transit and most importantly books are not very expensive, so the amount of money

a customer has to spend to try out one's service for one time is very minimal. Flipkart sold only

books for the first two years. Flipkart started with the consignment model (procurement based

on demand) i.e. they had ties with 2 distributors in Bangalore, whenever a customer ordered a

book, they used to personally procure the book from the dealer, pack the book in their office

and then courier the same. In the initial months the founder's personal cell numbers used to be

the customer support numbers. So, in the start they tried their best to provide good service,

focus on the website - easy to browse and order and hassle-free, and strove hard to resolve any

customer issues. Since there were not any established players in the market, this allowed them

a lot of space to grow, and they did in fact grew very rapidly.

Flipkart had a revenue of 4 crore in FY 2008 - 2009, 20 crore in FY 2009 - 2010, 75 crore in

FY 2010 - 2011, and the revenue for FY 2011 - 2012 which ends on 31 Mar 2012 is expected

to be 500 crore. This is indeed a massive growth. The company targets revenues of 5000 crore

by 2015.

The company started from 2 employees and now has around 4500 employees. Flipkart started

with consignment model as discussed above, since most of the customer issues like delivery

11
delays etc. result from procurement model, the company started opening its own warehouses

as it started getting more investments. The company opened its first warehouse in Bangalore

and later on opened warehouses in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. Today the company works

with more than 500 suppliers. As on date more than 80% orders of Flipkart are handled via

warehouses which help in quick and efficient service.

A humble beginning from books, Flipkart now has a gamut of products ranging from: Cell

phones, laptops, computers, cameras, games, music, audio players, TV's, healthcare products,

washing machines etc. etc. Still, Flipkart derives around 50% of its revenue from selling books

online. Flipkart is the Indian market leader in selling books both offline and online, it enjoys

an online share of around 80%. The electronic items have a large number of players like

Naaptol, Lets buy, India plaza, Tradus, Infibeam, Yebhi etc. The electronic market share is

distributed among them in different unknown proportions.

India has around 13.5 crore internet users today where as the number of homes with Cable and

Satellite (C&S) television is 10.5 crore. The expected internet users will reach a figure of 30

crore by 2014 and C&S homes are expected to be 14 crore by 2014. Thus India has a

tremendous internet growth and with the customers getting accustomed to e-commerce, the

future of e-commerce sector is definitely rosy. An approximated 25 lac people have transacted

online this year, the number is all set to increase with time.

Also to mention most of the Flipkart customers use internet from PC's/Laptops to order goods.

The use of mobile internet is very less at the moment, but with the advent of smart phones the

use of mobile internet for e-commerce transactions will soar with time. India has 8 crore mobile

net users at the moment, the number is expected to swell to 22.5 crore by 2014.

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Let’s discuss the factors that lead to the grand success of Flipkart:

1.) They always strove to provide great customer service. Flipkart customers are happier than

with some of their competitors like [Link], [Link]; i have myself experienced this

couple of times.

2.) Their website is great, easy to use, easy to browse through the products, add products to

wish list or to a cart, get product reviews and opinions, pre-order products, make payments

using different methods, in short hassle- free and convenient.

3.) A very important point is that they introduced the option of cash on delivery and card on

delivery. This way people demonstrated more confidence in buying products. An interesting

fact, today Flipkart sells 20 products/min and has a massive customer base, still more than 60%

of the Flipkart's customers use Cash on Delivery and card on delivery methods. This is because

of two reasons, one is many people do not know how to make payments online. And secondly

people do not have immense trust in e-commerce in India. Flipkart also provides a 30 day

replacement guarantee on its products and EMI options to its customers for making payments.

4.) Flipkart's reason of success is that it has a great customer retention rate, it has around 15 lac

individual customers and more than 70% customers are repeat customers i.e. they shop various

times each year. The company targets to have a customer base of 1 crore by 2015.

FLIPKART MARKETING STRATEGY

Flipkart has been mostly marketed by word of mouth advertising. Customer satisfaction has

been their best marketing medium. Flipkart very wisely used SEO (Search Engine

Optimization) and Google Ad-words as the marketing tools to have a far reach in the online

world. [Link] official Facebook page has close to 9 lac 'likes'. Flipkart recently

13
launched a series of 3 ads with the tag line - "No Kidding No worries". Kids were used to create

the adverts to send out the message - if a kid can do it, you can also do it.

The message is very clear to make people more comfortable with Flipkart, to generate a great

customer relationship and loyalty on the basis of great product prices and excellent customer

service. All in all to create a great customer experience.

Future Road Map

Going forward electronics will be given more focus. Flipkart has recently added a string of

electronic items like calculators, water purifiers, microwave ovens, washing machines, dish

washers, vacuum cleaners etc.

Flipkart has opened a music store which sells CD's and DVD's of movies' music releases and

music albums. Flipkart has also acquired Bollywood movie content from Chakpak. Since

digital media in going to rise in near future, Flipkart is geared up for the same. Soon it will start

offering digital content like movies and songs online, as in the customers can pay and stream

online digital content. Flipkart will also provide e-books very soon.

Threats in future

There are no major foreseeable threats in the future.

The company has built a great brand name, they just have to maintain and enhance the same. It

needs to keep introducing more products, adapting to the changing needs of the customer with

time. The entry of [Link] in 2012 in the Indian e-commerce space has been cited as a

big challenge to Flipkart. However I think that Flipkart is a respected Brand name in India and

should be able to compete with Amazon. Remember Amazon being a very big company can

bring in serious competition to Flipkart, since Amazon can bear more losses in

14
the beginning to gain customer base. But again Indian market is growing at a rapid pace as

access to internet increases and people become more aware of e-commerce sites and start

trusting the same; hence Indian market is sufficiently big at-least for these two giants to co-

exist beneficially.

Thus in the end I would like to congratulate Flipkart founders for the determination and hard

work they have put in to realize their dream. The rewards they are reaping are a natural follow

up. The company is currently valued at around 1 billion dollars i.e. 5000 crore. More

importantly Flipkart has ushered in the e-commerce era in India. This has generated massive

interest in e-commerce sector, people are opening websites to sell anything from shoes to

apparels to jewels to baby care products etc. This has helped in creating a lot of job

opportunities and thus helps the Indian Inc. growth story as well.

Cash-on-Delivery a good strategic move

On the face of it, it has increased sales. But

1.) It has eroded margins by increasing cost of delivery and payment collection.

2.) It allowed for other less-trusted players to enter the market - had Cod not been offered,

Flipkart could have commanded higher prices for the trust they had built. Now with

everyone offering Cod, trust has a lesser role to play in buying decisions ("hey I anyway

don't have to pay until they actually deliver") - making it easier for customers to

migrate/try out less-trusted sellers.

Development of Marketing Strategy

Primarily, Customer Focus. It seems like something Captain Obvious might say, but it's an easy

component to overlook, unintentionally. Even technologically; developers are probably the

most in a vacuum ... in that they don't directly interact with customers or books or

15
suppliers. But every little change impacts the end user in a big way. Impact in that regard is

another value we look for. The same can be said for Customer Support as well, because they

impact customers directly. Selflessness is also what we look for. Again, given that we "reverse

engineer" from the customer's point of view, we need people who'll volunteer for tasks at hand,

even if it's "not their job" or if they have a lot on their plate. And everyone does it (without

being told, in as many words as I just have). Communication and Honesty are also implicit

traits. By nature, we aren't an organization that witch-hunts, probably because we've learned by

making mistakes. It's not mistakes that worry us, its cover-ups and not owning up. This also

holds true in terms of giving feedback, either to your bosses/peers or about a particular strategy

or piece of technology employed by Flipkart. Most of all, we don't want anybody in an "I told

you so" position. And lastly, Innovation. Sure, it's a misunderstood buzzword ... but a lot of

problems we solve at Flipkart are by innovation, and most of it is under the hood. It's not

brilliant or stunning, but it's innovative in the given context.

Some other marketing Strategies

[Link] bases its marketing stratagem on six pillars.

1. It freely proffers products and services.

2. It uses a customer-friendly interface.

3. It scales easily from small to large.

4. It exploits its affiliate’s products and resources.

5. It uses existing communication systems.

6. It utilizes universal behaviors and mentalities.

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Marketing Strategies: [Link]

 Hitting the Right Spot!

Buy it or not- we believe in doing things the BIG way and exposing it to the wide audience.

Buzz and hit the right spot describes our first marketing strategy.

 Gul Panag on Discount!

Snapdeal created a lot of excitement the last Valentine’s Day with an innovative ‘Date with

Me’-Gul Panag campaign. The offer was quite simple, stating anyone can buy a date with Gul

Panag at a special price. But, the kind of buzz it created in the market was incomparable.

 ‘Owning the space’

Snap deal’s next big thing is to hit the outdoors. This year the team came up with a massive

Snap deal banner which stands imprinted on a building in Gurgaon’s-DLF Cyber City. Many

thought and still think, that it is Snap deal’s office! That’s what you call “owning the space”

and the “mind”. Quite audacious an attempt since it has never even been tried before by an

online portal!

17
 It’s close to Our Heart!

And how can we forget the best thing the team did this year. Very close to the heart and

special. Wondering what? Read below and you will get to know!

[Link] Nagar-does this ring a bell? Since we were planning to do something in our own

small way to the society, we thought it was a good opportunity to support a village, where one

of our colleagues comes from, by enabling easy access to portable drinking water and the

villagers expressed their gratitude by naming the village after Snap deal! So, here it is –

[Link] Nagar

Uber cool and bold are a few understatements for Snap deal’s excellent marketing strategies.

We know the tricks and techniques of the trade. But going to the ground level and executing it;

is really, really tough and so it is more fun!

In short, Snap deal’s dynamic marketing approach includes doing things the big way and

creating the buzz through innovative ways.

 You live only once!

A sneak peek before I log off - Snap deal just launched its TVC this week…Take a look at—

Yamdude campaign And, if you haven’t come across an interesting e-commerce website, what

are you waiting for? Take a look at Snapdeal.

 Customer is King
Many risk-averse Indians think twice before leaping into a heavily discounted deal. Many
ask: how do retailers gain if they give out products and services at such discounts?
Snapdeal's clients are able to do it because they receive far more customers through the
channel than through traditional channels. "Many of our brands have over 1,000 customers
coming to them on a single day. Merchants spend only on prospective clients rather than
spending upfront on traditional forms of media that do not guarantee any

18
 return on investment or customers. And retailers pass on the customer acquisition cost in
the form of a discount offer." Bahl has focused on creating customer delight. "For instance,
all customer emails to the Snapdeal helpdesk are responded to the same day they are
received. The 100% growth month-on-month since inception is mainly because of our
customer centricity."

They manage the brand through Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and blogs. "There we have

discussions and contests. We have over 3.5 lakh followers on Facebook who see and receive

updates on deals daily. We have noticed that a good number of customers come to Snapdeal

after seeing the deals on Facebook."

Snapdeal eyes Rival Flipkart's specialty space of books

Online retail player Flipkart may have to brace itself for competition in the area that it is known

best for – books. [Link], a ‘daily deals’ e-commerce company spanning categories like

apparels, gizmos, dining, travel and spas, may soon take a call on the media space, that includes

books, music and movies. Rival Flipkart began as a books major and then diversified into other

areas, digital music being the latest.

While the two companies follow different business models, their current revenue and sales

projections are similar. Both are chasing the magic figure of $1 billion in sales in the next two

to three years. But, even as Flipkart has maintained it has no sell-off plans, Snapdeal is candid

about exiting the business at the right time.

“Media is an interesting category, and we are not in it. But we are thinking about it now. He

added the company was looking for the right model and would take a call soon on entering the

books and music space. According to Bahl, the books business is a big money loser, and the

company stayed away from it till now because it’s a “conservative organization”.

19
Flipkart could not be contacted for comment on the competition that Snapdeal may pose if it

chooses to enter the media space. To a query on facing competition from the likes of Flipkart,

Bahl said, “We don’t spend much time looking over our shoulders”.

Snapdeal, a barely two-year old company, pegs its current revenue at Rs 500 crore and projects

sales worth $1 billion (roughly Rs 5,100 crore at the current forex value) by the year 2015.

Flipkart that had gone live in 2007 has crossed the Rs 500-crore mark in revenue in 2011-12,

and is looking at clocking $1 billion ahead of the 2015 deadline that it had set for itself, as CEO

Sachin Bansal had told this newspaper recently.

Even as Snapdeal is exploring stock market listing opportunities, Bahl says, “For us, listing is

just a financial event. We are much more focused on the $1-billion target”.

The execution of the decision (to list the company) is likely around 2014. “Eventually, we

would look at exiting like any responsible entrepreneur,” Bahl said, adding that the company

was “not in a hurry” to sell. Bansal of Flipkart had, however, said that selling the business was

not part of the company’s future plans, and had spoken of building Flipkart as the largest retailer

(not just online) in the country.

Snapdeal is a discount platform for consumers. But Bahl says, “We are not a deals/group buying

company, we are an e-commerce company.” He added that though the company’s philosophy

was to offer “best products at best prices”, that does not necessarily mean everything is on a

“deal”.

Secret of SnapDeal’s success without any Marketing

The service is inherently viral in nature. We firmly believe that if consumers see value in a

service or product, and it can be absolutely anything, they will talk about it. This is how our

Facebook community [Link]/snapdeal zoomed to 20,000+ in less than 60 days –

20
I am sure it’s some sort of record. We have engaged in certain strategic marketing activities

which gave the initial momentum to the service’s awareness. The explosion took place

thereafter. Various media channels reached out to us because our customers sent them mails to

write about SnapDeal – it is an interesting phenomenon for us as well. A prominent journalist,

who I won’t name, used the service as a customer to get an adventure sport deal for his family

and was so pleased with the service that he insisted on doing a feature story on SnapDeal. We

can’t be selling a product or service 24/7 (it is just too tiring) – products need to sell themselves

if they are to become good sized businesses quickly; we can just build the right foundations

and help them on their way.

Email Marketing Strategies

E commerce companies are a dime a dozen today, but very few have been able to actually cash

in on the revolutionary concept. Companies like [Link], [Link], [Link],

[Link], [Link] have all managed to attain optimal success not simply

out of the sales but also with thoroughly calculated and designed Email Marketing campaigns.

According to the recent reports, E-mail marketing budget made by e- commerce companies has

been growing tremendously; it increased by 100 percent in this FY. It has become an imperative

marketing communication tool for e-commerce brands that majority of them are deriving

approximately 30 percent of their overall ROI through solely e- mail marketing.

Commercial email marketing reigns supreme as the best channel for marketers. According to

this year’s Direct Marketing Association’s Power of Direct economic impact study, email

returns higher ROI than search, display, social networking and mobile. Email is bringing in Rs

30.56 for every rupee spent on it. This is compared to catalogs’ ROI of Rs 7.30, search’s return

of Rs 22.24, Internet display advertising’s return of Rs 19.72 and mobile’s return of Rs

21
10.51. It is the highly effective marketing medium over all other digital marketing

communication channels be it social networking, Mobile Marketing The experts expect digital

channels to continue to increase their share of the marketing budget from 19% in 2011 to

21% in 2012. The total spend on digital marketing has increased many folds since 2006, out of

which e-mail marketing contributes maximum.

Email is the only channel where recipients raise their hand and request marketing content. Users

give permission for marketers to contact them, and that relationship produces results. And

Email is one on one conversation, when you are reading an Email your sole attention goes into

the email content and if the product proposition presented is really engaging meeting your

specific requirements, can generate immediate revenue to t h e marketer. Interesting

Email is 100 % track able too.

Email marketing is the best resource for both start up and established companies, especially e-

retail ventures. Everyday updates, announcements, change in patterns, reviews, newsletters,

and so many other factors make the foundation of such companies. Email marketing puts the

ability to connect with potential and existing customers at the touch of a button. Despite this

simplicity, however, deciding how to approach and manage the process of email marketing can

still be a challenge for businesses looking to leverage the channel to communicate competently

and achieve a high return on investment.

Ensuring the technology which can be seamlessly integrated with web and other social channels

is very crucial to the success of your email programs. Proving a robust email marketing business

model which helps your customers track the real ROI from your email programs requires

strategic planning and in-depth understanding of the end user behavior and servicing with

specific product or content propositions.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

23
 LITERATURE REVIEW

"Marketing" is an instructive business domain that serves to inform and educate target markets

about the value and competitive advantage of a company and its products. “Value” is worth

derived by the customer from owning and using the product. “Competitive Advantage” is a

depiction that the company or its products are each doing something better than their

competition in a way that could benefit the customer. Marketing is focused on the task of

conveying pertinent and product related information to specific customers, and there are a

multitude of decisions (strategies) to be made within the marketing domain regarding what

information to deliver, how much information to deliver, to whom to deliver, how to deliver,

when to deliver, and where to deliver. Once the decisions are made, there are numerous ways

(tactics) and processes that could be employed in support of the selected strategies. As

Marketing is often misinterpreted as just advertising or sales, Chris Newton, in what is

marketing? defined marketing as every strategy and decision made in the following twelve

areas:

 Identifying and quantifying the need in the marketplace

 Identifying and quantifying the target markets

 Identifying the optimum cost effective media – online and offline - to reach the target

markets

 Testing to find the optimum pricing strategies

 Developing effective promotional strategies and effective advertising and supporting

collateral, offers, and launch strategies

 Developing and documenting the sales process

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  Finding the optimum execution of the sales process – through testing of selling scripts,

people selection, supporting collateral, skills and attitudinal training, tracking,

measuring and refining

 Ensuring that sales projections reflect realistic production capacities

 Developing nurture programs to optimize the lifetime value of the customer

The goal of marketing is to build and maintain a preference for a company and its products

within the target markets. The goal of any business is to build mutually profitable and

sustainable relationships with its customers. While all business domains are responsible for

accomplishing this goal, the marketing domain bears a significant share of the responsibility.

Within the larger scope of its definition, marketing is performed through the actions of three

coordinated disciplines named: “Product Marketing”, “Corporate Marketing”, and “Marketing

Communications

Two levels of Marketing

 Strategic Marketing

It attempts to determine how an organization competes against its competitors in a market

place. In particular, it aims at generating a competitive advantage relative to its competitors.

 Operational Marketing

It executes marketing functions to attract and keep customers and to maximize the value

derived for them, as well as to satisfy the customer with prompt services and meeting the

customer expectations. Operational Marketing includes the determination of the porter's five

forces.

25
4 Ps:

In the early 1960s, Professor Neil Borden at Harvard Business School identified a number of

Birla Cement performance actions that can influence the consumer decision to purchase goods

or services. Borden suggested that all those actions of the Birla Cement represented a

“Marketing Mix”. Professor E. Jerome McCarthy, also at the Harvard Business School in the

early 1960s, suggested that the Marketing Mix contained 4 elements: product, price, place and

promotion. In popular usage, "marketing" is the promotion of products, especially advertising

and branding. However, in professional usage the term has a wider meaning which recognizes

that marketing is customer-centered. Products are often developed to meet the desires of groups

of customers or even, in some cases, for specific customers. E. Jerome McCarthy divided

marketing into four general sets of activities. His typology has become so universally

recognized that his four activity sets, the Four Ps, have passed into the language.

 Product:

The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or services,

and how it relates to the end-user's needs and wants. The scope of a product generally includes

supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees, and support.

 Pricing:

This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The price need

not be monetary - it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services, e.g. time,

energy, psychology or attention.

 Promotion:

This includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling, branding and

refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand.

26
 Placement (or Distribution):

It refers to how the product gets to the customer; for example, point of sale placement or

retailing. This fourth P has also sometimes been called Place, referring to the channel by which

a product or services is sold (e.g. online vs. retail), which geographic region or industry, to

which segment (young adults, families, business people), etc. also referring to how the

environment in which the product is sold in can affect sales. These four elements are often

referred to as the marketing mix, which a marketer can use to craft a marketing plan. The four

Ps model is most useful when marketing low value consumer products. Industrial products,

services, high value consumer products require adjustments to this model. Services marketing

must account for the unique nature of services. Industrial or B2B marketing must account for

the long term contractual agreements that are typical in supply chain transactions. Relationship

marketing attempts to do this by looking at marketing from a long term relationship perspective

rather than individual transactions.

As a counter to this, Morgan, in Riding the Waves of Change (Jossey-Bass, 1988), suggests

that one of the greatest limitations of the 4 Ps approach "is that it unconsciously emphasizes

the inside–out view (looking from the Birla Cement outwards), whereas the essence of

marketing should be the outside–in approach". Nevertheless, the 4 Ps offer a memorable and

workable guide to the major categories of marketing activity, as well as a framework within

which these can be used.

7 P’s:

As well as the standard four P's (Product, Pricing, Promotion and Place), services marketing

calls upon an extra three, totaling seven and known together as the extended marketing mix.

These are:

27
 People:

Any person coming into contact with customers can have an impact on overall satisfaction.

Whether as part of a supporting service to a product or involved in a total service, people are

particularly important because, in the customer’s eyes, they are generally inseparable from the

total service. As a result of this, they must be appropriately trained, well-motivated and the

right type of person. Fellow customers are also sometimes referred to under ‘people’, as they

too can affect the customer’s service experience, (e.g., at a sporting event).

 Process:

This is the process involved in providing a service and the behavior of people, which can be

crucial to customer satisfaction.

 Physical evidence:

Unlike a product, a service cannot be experienced before it is delivered, which makes it

intangible. This, therefore, means that potential customers could perceive greater risk when

deciding whether to use a service. To reduce the feeling of risk, thus improving the chance for

success, it is often vital to offer potential customers the chance to see what a service would be

like. This is done by providing physical evidence, such as case studies, testimonials or

demonstrations.

 Personalization:

It is here referred customization of products and services through the use of the Internet. Early

examples include Dell on-line and [Link], but this concept is further extended with

emerging social media and advanced algorithms. Emerging technologies will continue to push

this idea forward.

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 Participation:

This is to allow the customer to participate in what the brand should stand for; what should be

the product directions and even which ads to run. This concept is laying the foundation for

disruptive change through democratization of information.

 Peer-to-Peer:

This refers to customer networks and communities where advocacy happens. The historical

problem with marketing is that it is “interruptive” in nature, trying to impose a brand on the

customer. This is most apparent in TV advertising. These “passive customer bases” will

ultimately be replaced by the “active customer communities”. Brand engagement happens

within those conversations. P2P is now being referred as Social Computing and is likely to be

the most disruptive force in the future of marketing.

 Predictive Modeling:

This refers to algorithms that are being successfully applied in marketing problems (both a

regression as well as a classification problem).

Scope of Marketing:

Marketing is a philosophy that leads to the process by which organizations, groups and

individuals obtain what they need and want by identifying value, providing it, communicating

it and delivering it to others. The core concepts of marketing are customers’ needs, wants and

values; products, exchange, communications and relationships. Marketing is strategically

concerned with the direction and scope of the long-term activities performed by the

organization to obtain a competitive advantage. The organization applies its resources within a

changing environment to satisfy customer needs while meeting stakeholder expectations.

Implied in this view of strategic marketing is the requirement to develop a strategy to cope

29
with competitors, identify market opportunities, develop and commercialize new products and

services, allocate resources among marketing activities and design an appropriate

organizational structure to ensure the performance desired is achieved. There is no unique

strategy that succeeds for all organizations in all situations. In thinking strategically about

marketing many factors must be considered: the extent of product diversity and geographic

coverage in the organization; the number of market segments served, marketing channels used,

the role of branding, the level of marketing effort, and the role of quality. It is also necessary

to consider the organization’s approach to new product development, in particular, its position

as a technology leader or follower, the extent of innovation, the organization’s cost position

and pricing policy, and its relationship to customers, competitors, suppliers and partners. The

challenge of strategic marketing is, therefore, to manage marketing complexity, customer and

stakeholder expectations and to reconcile the influences of a changing environment in the

context of a set of resource capabilities. It is also necessary to create strategic opportunities and

to manage the concomitant changes required within the organization. In this world of

marketing, organizations seek to maximize returns to shareholders by creating a competitive

advantage in identifying, providing, communicating and delivering value to customers, broadly

defined, and in the process developing long-term mutually satisfying relationships with those

customers.

Online Promotion: Current Trends

Online sales promotions are getting more and more popular among the shopping websites and

online retailers. However, it is not clear whether the online promotion activities can influence

the purchasing intention of consumers with different online shopping experience. When online

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Stores aren't found, business is lost. It's a simple concept that shows the dramatic impact

website promotion can have on an online store. With so many online stores crowding the Web,

the competition for customers is fierce. In order to bring traffic to your ecommerce website,

you'll need a strategy that should include some - if not all - of the following ecommerce website

promotion tactics for online stores

 Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

When a user searches for a particular keyword, the search engines generate a search engine

results page that ranks relevant sites. Considering that the majority of users will not look

past the first page of results, achieving a "top 10" ranking should be part of your ecommerce

website promotion plan. To do this, you'll need to "optimize" your site for the search engines

which will crawl its content looking for indicators of relevancy. SEO for online stores is a

multi-faceted website promotion tactic that includes keyword selection, link building,

refreshing content, and tracking visitor behavior.

 Search Engine Submission:

Submitting your Web address to national and local search engines and directories including

Google™, Yahoo!®, and Bing™ can be an especially helpful website promotion tactic

when your ecommerce site is new to the Web - you won't have to wait for the search engines

to find you among all the other online stores. Submissions can include a domain name alone,

a specific page or an entire site. If you do want to submit your entire site, you will need to

submit a sitemap. Keep in mind that, at minimum, you should submit your ecommerce

website homepage.

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 Pay Per Click Advertising:

Perhaps the most time-efficient of the website promotion tactics for online stores, Pay per

Click Advertising (PPC) can typically help your ecommerce website gain ground in search

engines faster than SEO. Pay per click marketing begins with careful keyword selection.

Next, you bid on your selected keywords - the higher your budget allows you to bid, the

higher your ecommerce website will rank on the results page. Once the ad is launched, you'll

pay only when a user clicks on your ad, which makes it important to use highly targeted and

relevant copy. Your ecommerce website promotion plan should also involve creating

customized landing pages for your PPC advertising, which will enhance visitor experience

and increase customer confidence.

 Online Press Releases:

Press releases have long been an effective way to get out the "latest" news about your

company. Online Press Releases accomplish the same goals for online stores, and then some

- they not only help you connect with readers, but with search engines as well. When you

use an online Press Release for ecommerce website promotion, you can boost your website's

ranking, increase traffic and enhance brand recognition.

Ecommerce website promotion can help your business stand out from a crowd of online

stores and reach the customers that you need. When your online store is ready to open for

business, consider creating an ecommerce website promotion strategy balanced to meet your

goals.

Online Advertising

One of the important roles of advertising is to inform customers about his/her choices. In the

context of Internet commerce, search advertising services are sold by intermediaries such as

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Google, Yahoo, and [Link]. Recent work by Baye and Morgan, Bhargava and Feng

and Weber and Zheng has concentrated online trading the optimal fee and the optimal design

for the intermediary. Dewan, Freimer and Nelson study how the ownership of the search

engines impacts the market and social welfare. It shows that low quality search engines can

survive in the market since search services are typically free of cost for the customers. How-

ever, this literature ignores broadcast advertising, which is available to retailers in the form of

banner advertising on the Internet.

If customers are unaware of the quality of the product, the amount of expenditure on advertising

may signal the quality of the retailer's product. Important contributions in this research came

from them. The essence of these papers is that when advertising is useful only for signaling,

wasteful (or excess) advertising is used to signal high product quality. Recently it has shown

that when broadcast advertising plays the dual role of informing customers about the retailer

and signaling, a high quality work will do the reverse of what the previous literature states: It

will reduce advertising to signal high quality. We extend this thread of research to examine the

merits of signaling the quality of the product of a monopolist retailer with search advertising.

Finally, we also model duopoly competition between retailers.

Search advertising has emerged as a preferred way of advertising on the Internet. Its targeting

capability ensures that only the customers who are interested in buying a product are ever

exposed to the advertising message. The payment method is also unique. The advertising fee

becomes due only when customers return their interest in buying the product by clicking on the

link provided by the search advertisement. Should the targeting capability and cost efficiency

of search advertising then enable online retailers to reduce their advertising budgets? The

answer may be in the negative because it might be beneficial to spend more on advertising to

get larger number of customers. Since search advertising allows for better

33
targeting, retailers may want to increase their price. This price increase may cause a reduction

in social welfare. When customers are uncertain about the quality of product being sold by the

retailer, a retailer selling a high quality product may want to use price and advertising as signals

of its product quality. It turns out that utilization of search advertising for signaling is more

likely if the quality differential between the high quality and the alternative low quality product

is small. This shows that the utility of search advertising as a signaling tool is limited and

alternative means of signaling may be required if the quality differential between the high and

low quality product is significant. In a competitive duopoly, both retailers may be better if the

retailer with an established brand value (i.e. who is known to customers) uses its web site as a

portal. The retailer without the brand value lists its web site on the portal for a fee instead of

resorting to advertising. If both retailers are unbranded, the relative amount of search and

broadcast advertising changes as the competing retailer becomes more established in the

market.

Opportunities for E-Commerce in India

A developing country can become industrialized and modernized if it can extensively apply IT

to enhance productivity and international competitiveness, develop e-commerce and e-

governance applications. An information-based society or knowledge based society is

composed of IT products, IT applications in society and economy as a whole. Many countries

in Asia are taking advantage of e-commerce through opening of economies, which is essential

for promoting competition and diffusion of Internet technologies. The Internet is boosting

efficiency and enhancing market integration in developing countries. The developed world has

had a long lead over the developing countries in the telecom infrastructure. The world average

of teledensity is 15 per cent compared to the developed world average of 55 to

34
60 per cent. Same is true of PCs, Internet connections, and the number of Internet hosts. All

these traditional indicators for India as seen above are still small. But the total numbers of

Internet connections are large in absolute numbers. Large enough to have a critical mass of 10

to 20 million users to be able to make an impact on e-commerce and e-governance. In the next

3 to 5 years, India will have 30 to 70 million Internet users which will equal, if not surpass,

many of the developed countries. Internet economy will then become more meaningful in India.

The number of e-transactions will be large enough to sustain the Internet economy.

Benefits of E-Commerce to consumers

Enables customers to shop or conduct other transactions 24 hours a day, all year round from

almost any location. In one case a pop star set up web cameras in every room in his house, so

that he could check the status of his home by logging onto the Internet when he was away from

home on tour. Customers not only have a whole range of products that they can choose from

and customize, but also an international selection of suppliers. Customers can ‘shop’ around

the world and conduct comparisons either directly by visiting different sites, or by visiting a

single site where prices are aggregated from a number of providers and compared (for example

[Link] for inimical products and services). Improved delivery processes. This

can range from the immediate delivery of digitized or electronic goods such as software or

audio-visual ales by downloading via the Internet, to the on-line tracking of the progress of

packages being delivered by mail or courier. An environment of competition where substantial

discounts can be found or value added, as different retailers vie for customers. It also allows

many individual customers to aggregate their orders together into a single order presented to

wholesalers or manufacturers and obtain a more competitive price (aggregate buying), for

example [Link].

35
Benefits of E-Commerce to society

Enables more exile working practices, which enhances the quality of life for a whole host of

people in society, enabling them to work from home, not only is this more convenient and

provides happier and less stressful working environments, it also potentially reduces

environmental pollution as fewer people have to travel to work regularly. Enables people in

developing countries and rural areas to enjoy and access products, services, information and

other people which otherwise would not be so easily available to them. For example, health

services available over the Internet (on-line consultation with doctors or nurses), ling taxes over

the Internet through the Inland Revenue website.

Limitations of E-Commerce to Organizations

Lack of sufficient system security, reliability, standards and communication protocols, there

are numerous reports of websites and databases being hacked into, and security holes in

software. For example, Microsoft has over the years issued many security notices and ‘patches’

for their software. Several banking and other business websites, including Barclays Bank,

Powered and even the Consumers’ Association in the UK, have experienced breaches in

security where ‘a technical oversight’ or ‘a fault in its systems’ led to confidential client

information becoming available to all. Rapidly evolving and changing technology, so there is

always a feeling of trying to ‘catch up’ and not be left behind. Under pressure to innovate and

develop business models to exploit the new opportunities which sometimes leads to strategies

detrimental to the organization, the ease with which business models can be copied and

emulated over the Internet increase that pressure and curtail longer-term competitive advantage.

Facing increased competition from both national and international competitors often leads to

price wars and subsequent unsustainable losses for the organization. There are problems where

older business systems cannot communicate with web based and Internet

36
infrastructures, leading to some organizations running almost two independent systems where

data cannot be shared. This often leads to having to invest in new systems or an infrastructure,

which bridges the different systems. In both cases this is both anemically costly as well as

disruptive to the efficient running of organizations.

Limitations of E-Commerce to Consumers

Computing equipment is needed for individuals to participate in the new ‘digital’ economy,

which means an initial capital cost to customers. A basic technical knowledge is required of

both computing equipment and navigation of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Cost of

access to the Internet, whether dial-up or broadband tariffs. Cost of computing equipment. Not

just the initial cost of buying equipment but making sure that the technology is updated

regularly to be compatible with the changing requirement of the Internet, websites and

applications. There is no real control of data that is collected over the Web or Internet. Data

protection laws are not universal and so websites hosted in different countries may or may not

have laws which protect privacy of personal data. Physical contact and relationships are

replaced by electronic processes. Customers are unable to touch and feel goods being sold on-

line or gauge voices and reactions of human beings. A lack of trust because they are interacting

with faceless computers

Limitations of E-Commerce to Society

As people become more used to interacting electronically there could be an erosion of personal

and social skills which might eventually be detrimental to the world we live in where people

are more comfortable interacting with a screen than face to face. There is a potential danger

that there will be an increase in the social divide between technical haves and have-nots – so

people who do not have technical skills become unable to secure better- paid jobs and could

form an underclass with potentially dangerous implications for social

37
stability. Reliance on telecommunications infrastructure, power and IT skills, which in

developing countries nuclides the beets when power, advanced telecommunications

infrastructures and IT skills are unavailable or scarce or underdeveloped, as new technology

dates quickly how you do dispose of all the old computers, keyboards, monitors, speakers and

other hardware or software? This could potentially cripple an economy in times of crisis as

stocks are kept to a minimum and delivery patterns are based on pre-set levels of stock which

last for days rather than weeks. Difficulty in policing the Internet, which means that numerous

crimes can be perpetrated and often go undetected, there is also an unpleasant rise in the

availability and access of obscene material and ease with which pedophiles and others can

entrap children by masquerading in chat rooms.

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 SIGNIFICANCE OF PROBLEMS

1. Helps Flipkart Improve Services:

By identifying problems consumers face—like delivery delays, poor product quality, or return

issues—Flipkart can improve its services specifically for customers in Ghaziabad.

2. Better Understanding of Local Consumer Preferences:

Ghaziabad consumers may have different preferences or expectations compared to people in

other cities. Knowing these helps Flipkart offer more suitable products, deals, and
advertisements.
3. Builds Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty:
Solving consumer problems leads to higher satisfaction. Happy customers are more likely to
return and recommend the platform to others.
4. Gives Competitive Advantage:
If Flipkart understands and solves consumer issues better than competitors like Amazon or
Meesho, it can attract more customers in Ghaziabad.
5. Helps Sellers Improve Their Offerings:
Local or third-party sellers on Flipkart can also benefit. They can understand what consumers
dislike or want more of and adjust their products and services.
6. Supports Strategic Planning:
Knowing consumer problems helps Flipkart make better decisions on pricing, delivery
networks, and promotions for the Ghaziabad market.

39
 CONCEPT AND PRACTICES

Concept:
Consumer buying behavior refers to the decision-making process and actions of individuals when they
purchase products or services. In this study, the focus is on how consumers in Ghaziabad city behave
while shopping on Flipkart, one of India's leading online marketplaces.
 What influences people to buy on Flipkart (like price, product variety, reviews, discounts).
 How often they shop online.
 What types of products they prefer (electronics, clothing, groceries, etc.).
 How they feel about delivery, return policies, and customer service.
Practices:
 Surveys or Questionnaires: Asking Flipkart users in Ghaziabad about their preferences,
satisfaction, and problems.
 Interviews: Speaking directly with a few selected consumers to get deeper insights into their
shopping experience.
 Data Collection: Gathering information like age, income level, frequency of purchases,
preferred payment methods, etc.
 Observation: Analyzing trends such as peak shopping times, product categories in demand, or
seasonal changes in buying.
 Analysis and Interpretation: Using the collected data to understand patterns and make
conclusions about what drives online purchases in Ghaziabad.

40
 THEORY AND MODELS RELATED WITH PROBLEMS

Consumer Decision-Making Process Model: This model explains the steps a buyer goes through
before making a purchase. It helps in identifying where consumers face problems during online
shopping.
 Need Recognition – Realizing a need for a product.
 Information Search – Looking for product details, reviews, or ratings (problems: lack of clear
info or fake reviews).
 Evaluation of Alternatives – Comparing different products (problem: too many choices or
confusion).
 Purchase Decision – Choosing a product (problem: payment issues, trust issues).
 Post-Purchase Behavior – Experience after buying (problems: delivery delays, return
difficulties, dissatisfaction).
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory: This theory explains that people buy products based on their
needs, from basic to advanced:
 Physiological Needs (food, water, etc.)
 Safety Needs (reliable products, secure payments)
 Social Needs (buying trendy items to fit in)
 Esteem Needs (buying premium products for status)
 Self-Actualization (buying based on personal growth)
Engel-Blackwell-Miniard (EBM) Model: This model focuses on external and internal influences
on buying behavior, such as:
 External – Price, online ads, friends’ opinions, website quality
 Internal – Motivation, perception, past experience

41
 RESEARCH GAP

Lack of Localized Consumer Behavior Studies:

 Problem: Most existing research focuses on national or metro-level online consumer behavior,
not specifically on Ghaziabad city.
 Gap: There is limited data on how consumers in Ghaziabad behave uniquely on Flipkart,
considering their income, culture, and lifestyle.
Limited Insight into Post-Purchase Experience:
 Problem: Many studies focus only on purchase decisions, ignoring post-purchase issues like
return process, product satisfaction, or customer support.
 Gap: There is a need for research on consumer satisfaction and problems after buying,
especially in Tier-2 cities like Ghaziabad.
Underexplored Influence of Digital Literacy and Internet Access:
 Problem: The role of digital knowledge, mobile usage, and internet accessibility in shaping
Flipkart buying behavior in Ghaziabad is not well studied.
 Gap: Research is lacking on how tech-savviness or the lack of it creates barriers or problems
in online shopping.

42
 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

1) To understand the level of awareness & sources of information for online marketing.

2) To understand the online shopping behavior of the customer.

3) To understand the customer preference on online shopping.

4) To understand the online consumer behavior.

5) To understand the marketing strategy of [Link].

6) To understand the customer satisfaction of [Link].

43
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

44
 RESEARCH METHOLOGY

Research methodology is a way to systematically represent a research on any problem. It tends

taken by the researcher in studying the research problem along with the logic behind them. It

tends to define the methodology for the solution of the problem that has been undertaken for

the purpose of the study.

The topic undertaken for project is "TO STUDY THE MARKETING STRATEGY OF

[Link]”

1. Research Design: The research design is the blueprint for the fulfillment of objectives

and answering questions. It is a master plan specifying the method and procedures for collecting

and analyzing needed information.

Descriptive Research Design is used in this study as the main aim is to describe

characteristics of the phenomenon or a situation.

2. Data Collection Methods: The source of data includes primary and secondary data

sources.

Primary Sources: Primary data was co lle ct ed t hr o ug h st r u ct u r e d

q u e st io nna ir e s , GOOGLE FORM with company employees and consumers.

Secondary Sources: Secondary data has been collected from standard text books,

Journals, Newspapers, Magazines & Internet and company`s annual report.

3. Research Instrument: Research instrument used for the primary data collection is

Questionnaire.

45
4. Sample Design: Sample design is definite plan determine before any data is actually

obtaining for a sample from a given population. The researcher must decide the way of

selecting a sample. Samples can be either probability samples or non-probability samples.

The sample in this research is non-probability.

5. Sampling Technique: Convenience.

6. Sample Size: Sample size is of 100 customers with the following consumer
category:

a) Students

b) Executives

c) Families

7. Area of Study: Ghaziabad

46
ANALYSIS & FINDINGS

47
 PRIMARY FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

Q1. Are you aware of online shopping?

No

No

Yes

Interpretation: - 100% respondents replied yes that they are aware about online shopping

48
Q2. From where you come to know about online shopping?

Interpretation: -21% respondents replied that they came to know from advertisement but
47% respondents replied that they came to know from Internet

49
Q3. Have you ever done online shopping?

Interpretation: - 28% respondents did online shopping very frequently but 22%
respondents did it frequently

50
Q4. How often you do online shopping?

Interpretation: - 21% respondents replied that they do online shopping once a week but
18% respondents replied that they do online shopping once a month

51
Q5. Which online shopping site you prefer?

Interpretation: - 18% respondents prefer eBay but 37% respondents prefer Flipkart

52
Q6. Do you think e-commerce has advantages over traditional shopping?

Interpretation: -33% respondents were strongly agreed but 41% respondents were agreed

53
Q7. What kind of products you buy online?

Interpretation: - 23% respondents normally buy mobile and tablet but 16% respondents
normally buy books

54
Q8. Are you able to get all relevant information about the product when
you shop online?

Interpretation: -17% respondents replied that it happens rarely but 27% respondents
replied that it happens sometimes

55
Q9. Have you ever come across with [Link] advertisements?

Interpretation: - 7% respondents replied that it was happened less than once but 38%
respondents replied that it was happened 3 or 4 times.

56
Q10. Does [Link] advertisement provide you the relevant information
about the product?

Interpretation: -2% respondents replied that it happens rarely but 15% respondents
replied that it happens sometimes

57
Q11. Have you ever done shopping on [Link]?

Interpretation: - 9% respondents replied that it was happened less than once but 39%
respondents replied that it was happened 3 or 4 times.
58
Q12. Were you able to find all relevant information about the product on
the [Link] site conveniently?

Interpretation: - 8% respondents replied that it happens rarely but 22% respondents

replied that it happens sometimes

59
Q13. Were you comfortable with the process that you have to follow to
order the product?

Interpretation: - 8% respondents replied that it is slightly but 25% respondents replied

that it is moderately.

60
Q14. Is the product delivered to you on time?

Interpretation: -9% respondents replied that it happens rarely but 19% respondents
replied that it happens sometimes.
61
Q15. What was the condition of the product at the time of delivery?

Interpretation: -5% respondents replied that the condition was very poor but 41%
respondents replied that the condition was good

62
Q16. Do you thing you get better deal on flipkart compare with other
online shopping sites?

Interpretation: -6% respondents replied that it is not at all better but 17% respondents
replied that it is very better

63
Q17. Do you think flipkart should provide more variety of products?

Interpretation: - 97% respondents replied yes that they should provide more variety of
products

64
Q18. Have you ever faced any problem in shopping process on properly
amicably solved?

Interpretation: -13% respondents replied that it happens rarely but 17% respondents
replied that it happens sometimes

65
Q19. Were you satisfied with the solution that was provided to you?

Interpretation: - 5% respondents replied that they were not at all satisfied but 26%
respondents replied that they were very satisfied

66
Q20. How was the overall experience with [Link]?

Interpretation: -Over all experience with [Link] was good.

67
FINDINGS

68
 FINDINGS

 I first found that everyone is aware with the online shopping at present and reason of

awareness most of the 47% people from the Internet primary and the rest of them

from other sources.

 Now a day’s people are busy and time save that why they prefer online shopping for

most of requirement.

 [Link] is an Indian company and it is most preferable online portal in India.

 In India people have a habit of window shopping until they touch and feel the product

they can’t convenes. So [Link] is a portal where people buys Electronic (Ex-

Mobile phones, Accessories) most.

 In case of comparison I found that [Link] provides best deal than other

shopping site.

 I find 31% of respondent were completely satisfied where 27% were very satisfied,

which shows the satisfaction level for [Link] in Delhi/NCR.

 45% out of 100% people have a good experience with [Link] in terms of

Services, Quality, Delivery, &Varieties.

69
CONCLUSION & IMPLICATIONS

70
 CONCLUSION & IMPLICATIONS

India has around 13.5 crore internet users today where as the number of homes with Cable and Satellite

(C&S) television is 10.5 crore. The expected internet users will reach a figure of 30 crore by 2014 and

C&S are expected to be 14 crores in 2014. Thus, India has a tremendous internet growth and with the

customers getting accustomed to e-commerce, the future of e-commerce sites is definitely rosy. An

approximated 25 lac people have transacted online this year, the number is all set to increase withtime.

Also, to mention most of the Flipkart customers use internet from PC's/Laptops to order goods. The use

of mobile internet is very less at the moment, but with the advent of smart phones the use of mobile

internet for e-commerce transactions will soar with time. India has 8 crore mobile net users at the

moment, the number is expected to swell to 22.5 crore by 2014. Flipkart has been mostly marketed by

word of mouth advertising. Customer satisfaction has been their best marketing medium. Flipkart

very wisely used SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Google Ad-words as the marketing tools to

have a far reach in the online world. [Link] official Facebook page has close to 9 lac 'likes'.

Flipkart recently launched a series of 3 ads with the tag line - "No Kidding No worries" The message is

very clear to make people more comfortable with Flipkart, to generate a great customer relationship

and loyalty on the basis of great product prices and excellent customer service. All in all to create a great

customer experience. Going forward electronics will be given more focus. Flipkart has recently added

a string of electronic items like calculators, water purifiers, microwave ovens, washing machines, dish

washers, vacuum cleaners etc. Flipkart has opened a music store which sells CD's and DVD's of

movies' music releases and music albums. Flipkart has also acquired Bollywood movie content from

Chakpak. Since digital media in going to rise in near future, Flipkart is geared up for the same. Soon it

will start offering digital content like movies and songs online, as in the customers can pay and stream

online digital content. Flipkart will also provide e- books very soon.

71
SUGGESTIONS

72
 SUGGESTIONS

[Link] aims mostly at people who would like to buy books online in India. What the

company calls the “steroids” for its website are low prices, free shipping and an intuitive

interface that makes it very convenient to search for books. The site has a young and trendy

look and feel. [Link] was launched by a passionate group of professionals who aimed at

giving Indians a good online shopping experience and excellent customer service.

Technological initiatives were focused on making the search for books faster and more

convenient.

In its social media initiatives, [Link] aims at facilitating an easier conversation channel

for customers and users. Conversations are to the point and are targeted at specific issues,

thoughts and ideas. [Link] began activities to make its presence felt on Facebook and

Twitter about a year ago. The company has also used LinkedIn to connect with people. The

popularity of the site has grown through recommendations... people recommending the site to

their family, friends and co-workers. And what better platform than social media to leverage

‘word-of-mouth’! [Link] recognized that using social media is about being human. The

people who manage their channels infuse Flipkart's culture and personality in what they do or

say in tandem with their own personality.

This industry is in the upswing phase of the business cycle. Thus more competitors will

enter into the field to make profit. For instance [Link] is entering into India which will

be a major threat to Flipkart. Also as more customers are changing to shop online there will be

an increase in the customer target for this industry. Also the advent of mobile internet made it

easy to target the rural mass of the country too. Flipkart wants to venture into every

product except grocery and automobile

73
BIBLIOGRAPHY

74
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Batra, R., J. G. Myers, D. Aaker. 1996. Advertising Management. New Jersey: Prentice

Hall Inc.

 E- Commerce Book By Jenice Reynolds, Service Marketing, Marketing Management By

Philip Kotler.

 Blackwell, R.; Miniard, P.W.; Engel, J.F. (2000), Consumer Behaviour, South-Western

College Pub, ISBN 0030211085

 Darmon, R.; Laroche, M. (1991), Advertising in Canada – a Managerial Approach,

McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, ISBN 0-256-13412-X, Toronto

 Gerard, Tellis J. 1998. Advertising and Sales Promotion Strategy. USA: Addison-Wesley

Educational Publishers, Inc.

Websites
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]

75
ANNEXURE

76
 ANNEXURE

COPY OF QUESTIONNAIRE

NAME

AGE

GENDER

ADDRESS

MOBILE NUMBER

STATE

1.) Are you aware of online shopping?

a.) Yes

b.) No

2.) From where you come to know about online shopping?

a.) Advertisements

b.) Newspaper

c.) Internet

d.) Magazines

e.) Other

77
3.) Have you ever done online shopping?

a.) Very Frequently

b.) Frequently

c.) Neutral

d.) Rarely

4.) How often you do online shopping?

a.) Once a week

b.) More than once a week

c.) Once a month

d.) More than once a month

e.) Once a year

5.) Which online shopping site you prefer?

a.) EBay

b.) Amazon

c.) [Link]

d.) Snap deal

78
6.) Do you think e-commerce has advantages over traditional shopping?

a.) Strongly agree

b.) Agree

c.) Neutral

d.) Disagree

e.) Strongly disagree

7.) What kind of products you buy online?

a.) Mobile and Tablet

b.) Apparel

c.) Accessories

d.) Jewelry

e.) Books

f.) Other

8.) Are you able to get all relevant information about the product when you shop online?

a.) Never

b.) Rarely

c.) Sometimes

d.) Often

e.) Always

79
9.) Have you ever come across with [Link] advertisements?

a.) Less than once

b.) 1 or 2 times

c.) 3 or 4 times

d.) More than 4 times

10.) Does [Link] advertisement provide you the relevant information about the

product?

a.) Never

b.) Rarely

c.) Sometimes

d.) Often

e.) Always

11.) Have you ever done shopping on [Link]?

a.) Less than once

b.) 1 or 2 times

c.) 3 or 4 times

d.) More than 4 times

80
12.) Were you able to find all relevant information about the product on the

[Link] site conveniently?

a.) Never

b.) Rarely

c.) Sometimes

d.) Often

e.) Always

13.) Were you comfortable with the process that you have to follow to order the

product?

a.) Not at all

b.) Slightly

c.) Moderately

d.) Very much

e.) Completely

14.) Is the product delivered to you on time?

a.) Never

b.) Rarely

c.) Sometimes

d.) Often

e.) Always

81
15.) What was the condition of the product at the time of delivery?

a.) Very poor

b.) Poor

c.) Fair

d.) Good

e.) Excellent

16.) Do you thing you get better deal on [Link] compare with other online

shopping sites?

a.) Not at all better

b.) Slightly better

c.) Moderately better

d.) Very better

e.) Completely better

17.) Do you think [Link] should provide more variety of products

a.) Yes

b.) No

If yes then in which category

Specify

82
18.) Have you ever faced any problem in shopping process on properly amicably

solved?

a.) Never

b.) Rarely

c.) Sometimes

d.) Often

e.) Always

19.) Were you satisfied with the solution that was provided to you?

a.) Not at all satisfied

b.) Slightly satisfied

c.) Moderately satisfied

d.) Very satisfied

e.) Completely satisfied

20.) How was the overall experience with [Link]?

a.) Very poor

b.) Poor

c.) Fair

d.) Good

e.) Excellent

83