Nature, Scope and Importance of Business Policy free essay sample

Mansi Arora Madan (JIMS faculty), for helping me in giving me all relevant information about the product and service. I would hereby, make most of the opportunity by expressing my sincerest thanks to all my faculties whose teachings gave me conceptual understanding and clarity of comprehension, which ultimately made my job more easy. Credit also goes to all my friends whose encouragement kept me in good stead. Their continuous support has given me the strength and confidence to complete the project without any difficulty. Finally I would like thank all lecturers, friends and my family for their kind of support and to all who directly or indirectly helped me in preparing this project report and special thanks to Wikipedia. org. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Electronic commerce or e-Commerce as is known today evolved as businesses (end to end process) started to shift from real time market to digital market. All of the business today as we see is done over the internet and anything which is not there is meant to be wiped off. Ecommerce, the online shopping system has brought down political and physical barriers giving everyone in the world an equal playing ground for their market, everyone can put their products on sale through the e-stores(website dedicated to selling of product, a virtual store). Speaking about the last decade we saw a great market, rise over the internet, online shopping was introduced wherein firstly computer scientists got interested in then it came to general public and gradually became a substitute for the real market place. Ecommerce, as is generally thought of, is not the birth child of â€Å"The Web† but it just got kick’ started by â€Å"The Web†. Online shopping developed with B2B as well as with B2C since everybody is on internet, and development is going on each and every second for grabbing a better share of the market. Even as we write this article on Ecommerce with our exhaustive research!!! May just be not enough. In this study I’ve tried to capture the highlights in the area of e-commerce industries , How it started and Milestones India has achieved in e-commerce history. I’ve also done a brief report on the top 3 players in e-commerce sector in India i. e. ebay, flipkart ,snapdeal like marketing strategies, Value cost analysis which includes Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning of all the 3 players, plus measured the Risk taken by these companies through SWOT analysis. INTRODUCTION OVERVIEW OF THE INDUSTRY India has an internet user base of about 137 million as of June 2012. The penetration of e-commerce is low compared to markets like the United States and the United Kingdom but is growing at a much faster rate with a large number of new entrants. The industry consensus is that growth is at an inflection point with key drivers being: Increasing broadband Internet and 3G penetration, Rising standards of living and a burgeoning, upwardly mobile middle class with high disposable incomes ,Availability of much wider product range (including long tail and Direct Imports) compared to what is available at brick and mortar retailers, Busy lifestyles, urban traffic congestion and lack of time for offline shopping, Lower prices compared to brick and mortar retail driven by disintermediation and reduced inventory and real estate costs , Increased usage of online classified sites, with more consumer buying and selling second-hand goods , Evolution of the online marketplace model with sites like ebay , flipkart, and snapdeal . Indias e-commerce market was worth about $2. 5 billion in 2009, it went up to $6. 3 billion in 2011 and to $14 billion in 2012. About 75% of this is travel related (airline tickets, railway tickets, hotel bookings, on line mobile recharge etc. ). Online Retailing comprises about 12. 5% ($300 Million as of 2009). India has close to 10 million online shoppers and is growing at an estimated 30% CAGR vis-a-vis a global growth rate of 8–10%. Electronics and Apparel are the biggest categories in terms of sales. Indias retail market is estimated at $470 billion in 2011 and is expected to grow to $675 Bn by 2016 and $850 Bn by 2020, – estimated CAGR of 7%. According to Forrester, the e-commerce market in India is set to grow the fastest within the Asia-Pacific Region at a CAGR of over 57% between 2012–16. Indias e-tailing markct -post/indian-e-tailing-market/ Indian Retail Market Size and Growth Estimates. HISTORY One of the most popular activities on the Web is shopping. It has much allure in it — you can shop at your leisure, anytime, and in your pajamas. Literally anyone can have their pages built to display their specific goods and services. History of ecommerce dates back to the invention of the very old notion of sell and buy, electricity, cables, computers, modems, and the Internet. Ecommerce became possible in 1991 when the Internet was opened to commercial use. Since that date thousands of businesses have taken up residence at web sites. At first, the term ecommerce meant the process of execution of commercial transactions electronically with the help of the leading technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) which gave an opportunity for users to exchange business information and do electronic transactions. The ability to use these technologies appeared in the late 1970s and allowed business companies and organizations to send commercial documentation electronically. Although the Internet began to advance in popularity among the general public in 1994, it took approximately four years to develop the security protocols (for example, HTTP) and DSL which allowed rapid access and a persistent connection to the Internet. In 2000 a great number of business companies in the United States and Western Europe represented their services in the World Wide Web. At this time the meaning of the word ecommerce was changed. People began to define the term ecommerce as the process of purchasing of available goods and services over the Internet using secure connections and electronic payment services. Although the dot-com collapse in 2000 led to unfortunate results and many of ecommerce companies disappeared, the brick and mortar retailers recognized the advantages of electronic commerce and began to add such capabilities to their web sites (e. g. after the online grocery store Webvan came to ruin, two supermarket chains, Albertsons and Safeway, began to use ecomme rce to enable their customers to buy groceries online). By the end of 2001, the largest form of ecommerce, Business-to-Business (B2B) model, had around $700 billion in transactions. According to all available data, ecommerce sales continued to grow in the next few years and, by the end of 2007, ecommerce sales accounted for 3. 4 percent of total sales. Ecommerce has a great deal of advantages over brick and mortar stores and mail order catalogs. Consumers can easily search through a large database of products and services. They can see actual prices, build an order over several days and email it as a wish list hoping that someone will pay for their selected goods. Customers can compare prices with a click of the mouse and buy the selected product at best prices. Online vendors, in their turn, also get distinct advantages. The web and its search engines provide a way to be found by customers without expensive advertising campaign. Even small online shops can reach global markets. Web technology also allows to track customer preferences and to deliver individually-tailored marketing. History of ecommerce is unthinkable without Amazon and Ebay which were among the first Internet companies to allow electronic transactions. Thanks to their founders we now have a handsome ecommerce sector and enjoy the buying and selling advantages of the Internet. Currently there are 5 largest and most famous worldwide Internet retailers: Amazon, Dell, Staples, Office Depot and Hewlett Packard. According to statistics, the most popular categories of products sold in the World Wide Web are music, books, computers, office supplies and other consumer electronics. Amazon. com, Inc. is one of the most famous ecommerce companies and is located in Seattle, Washington (USA). It was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos and was one of the first American ecommerce companies to sell products over the Internet. After the dot-com collapse Amazon lost its position as a successful business model, however, in 2003 the company made its first annual profit which was the first step to the further development. At the outset Amazon. om was considered as an online bookstore, but in time it extended a variety of goods by adding electronics, software, DVDs, video games, music CDs, MP3s, apparel, footwear, health products, etc. The original name of the company was Cadabra. co m, but shortly after it become popular in the Internet Bezos decided to rename his business Amazon after the worlds most voluminous river. In 1999 Jeff Bezos was entitled as the Person of the Year by Time Magazine in recognition of the companys success. Although the companys main headquarters is located in the USA, WA, Amazon has set up separate websites in other economically developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and China. The company supports and operates retail web sites for many famous businesses, including Marks Spencer, Lacoste, the NBA, Bebe Stores, Target, etc. Amazon is one of the first ecommerce businesses to establish an affiliate marketing program, and nowadays the company gets about 40% of its sales from affiliates and third party sellers who list and sell goods on the web site. In 2008 Amazon penetrated into the cinema and is currently sponsoring the film The Stolen Child with 20th Century Fox. According to the research conducted in 2008, the domain Amazon. com attracted about 615 million customers every year. The most popular feature of the web site is the review system, i. e. he ability for visitors to submit their reviews and rate any product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Amazon. com is also well-known for its clear and user-friendly advanced search facility which enables visitors to search for keywords in the full text of many books in the database. One more company which has contributed much to the process of ecommerce development is Dell Inc. , an American company located in Texas, which stands third in computer sales within the industry behind Hewlett-Packard and Acer. Launched in 1994 as a static page, Dell. com has made rapid strides, and by the end of 1997 was the first company to record a million dollars in online sales. The companys unique strategy of selling goods over the World Wide Web with no retail outlets and no middlemen has been admired by a lot of customers and imitated by a great number of ecommerce businesses. The key factor of Dells success is that Dell. com enables customers to choose and to control, i. e. visitors can browse the site and assemble PCs piece by piece choosing each single component based on their budget and requirements. According to statistics, approximately half of the companys profit comes from the web site. In 2007, Fortune magazine ranked Dell as the 34th-largest company in the Fortune 500 list and 8th on its annual Top 20 list of the most successful and admired companies in the USA in recognition of the companys business model. History of ecommerce is a history of a new, virtual world which is evolving according to the customer advantage. It is a world which we are all building together brick by brick, laying a secure foundation for the future generations. OBJECTIVES  ·To study the performance of ecommerce Industry in India  ·To study the strength, weakness threats of the player’s in ecommerce Industry.  ·To study the customer profile of the player’s in ecommerce Industry.  ·To study the market share owned by the player’s in ecommerce industry in India. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Methodology is the basic framework and the approach that has to be followed to carry out the approach used to collect the data, the sources of primary data, i. e. from where and how it has been collected. Research is a diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications etc. Methodology is system of methods followed by particular discip line. Thus, Research Methodology is the way how we conduct our research. In the present project report type of research conducted is Quantitative research. Exploratory research is undertaken which involves extensive scanning of secondary data. The best websites are considered which gives all the efficient and effective information. References for the project are from the websites and books and the company’s . COMPETITORS India has the fastest growing ecommerce sector with its high population and development potential. flipkart, snapdeal ,yebhi. com , ebay, amazon, fashion and you, myntra, jabong, naaptol, homeshop18 are major sites in India. In this project report I’ll be discussing the top 3 sites in ecommerce sector in India. Flipkart was founded in 2007 by Sachin and Binny Bansal, both alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. They worked for Amazon. com before quitting and founding their own company. Initially they used word of mouth marketing to popularise their company. A few months later, the company sold its first book on flipkart. com—John Woods Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. Today, as per Alexa traffic rankings, Flipkart is amongst the top 20 Indian Web sites and has been credited with being Indias largest online bookseller with over 11 million titles on offer. 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 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 more than 4500 people. Marketing Strategies 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. Flipkart. com 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. 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 ustomer experience. | Foundation date|2007| Headquarters[-gt;0]|Bangalore[-gt;1], India| Area served|India[-gt;2]| Founder(s)[-gt;3]| ·Sachin Bansal ·Binny Bansal| Key people|Sachin Bansal Binny Bansal| Industry[-gt;4]|Internet[-gt;5], Online retailing[-gt;6]| Products[-gt;7]|Flipkart. com, Electronic Wallet[-gt ;8], Mime360. com, Chakpak. com, Flyte Digital Music Store| Services[-gt;9]|Electronic commerce[-gt;10]| Revenue[-gt;11]| 500 crore[-gt;12] (US$92 million) (FY[-gt;13] 2011–12)[1]| Employees[-gt;14]|4500| Slogan(s)[-gt;15]|The Online Megastore| Website[-gt;16]|Flipkart. com[-gt;17]| Alexa[-gt;18] rank| 209; India: 12 (April 2013)[2]| Type of site|Online shopping[-gt;19]| Advertising[-gt;20]|yes| Registration|Optional (required for buying Digital Content)| Available in[-gt;21]|English[-gt;22]| Launched|2007; 6 years ago| Current status|Online| Snapdeal. com was started in February 2010, as a daily deal platform, but later expanded into product retailing across various categories. Snapdeal claims to have a subscriber base of more than 20 million and has a presence across 4000+ towns and cities. Snapdeal. com is a online retail website, headquartered in New Delhi, India. The company was started by Kunal Bahl, a Wharton graduate and Rohit Bansal, alumnus of IIT Delhi, in February 2010. In January 2011, Snapdeal received a funding of $12 million from Nexus Venture Partners and Indo-US Venture Partners. Subsequently, in July 2011, the company raised a further $45 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, along with existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Indo-US Venture Partners, taking the total investment in the company to $52 million. In June 2010, Snapdeal acquired Bangalore-based group buying site, Grabbon. com. In April 2012, Snapdeal acquired esportsbuy. com, an online sports goods retailer based out of Delhi. Marketing Strategies Snapdeal does three things effectively which pretty few start-ups do. The following simple strategies could help you promote your new company with good results. 1. Customer Data is GOLD! Using Facebook and history of customers purchases helps a lot for a small business to target effectively. In the Sponsored Ads category of Facebook, different ads of Snapdeal appear in different user-profiles. Personalization helps in gaining positive attention and real customers. 2. Effective Social Media Marketing! I would mention one example here. Earlier one social media enthusiast blogged about Snapdeal’s cheap advertising strategy in one of her blogs. The brand got a lot of negative buzz due to this. After the negative buzz, Snapdeal replied back apologizing for such advertisements. It was so positive that is created good vibes for the brand. To ERR IS HUMAN. But, how quick you (the brand / business) are to admit, accept and rectify it makes the difference. Snapdeal also created a lot of buzz on the Valentines Day of 2011 with an innovative Date With Me-Gul Panag campaign. It created a lot of excitement and positive word of mouth for the brand. Thus, effective social media marketing[-gt;23] is absolutely essential for a start-up to gain awareness. 3. Personalized E-mail Marketing! Effective usage of customer-data to personalize e-mail messages has also helped Snapdeal gain a lot of momentum. For example, Snapdeal has used my preferences and interests to target particular offers to me. Thats why, I lways get weekly travel offers from Snapdeal. Thus, start-ups who use mass-emailing tools beware your emails will be rarely opened and more often than not, theyll land in the Spam folder. These three simple methods could take your small business to the top. If you are a start-up and want help in marketing, or want to suggest anything, you are w elcome to connect with us. | URL[-gt;24]|www. snapdeal. com[-gt;25]| Type of site|Online shopping[-gt;26](Online marketplace[-gt;27])| Available language[-gt;28](s)|English| Users[-gt;29]|18+ Million Users| Owner|Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal| Launched|2010; 3 years ago| Alexa[-gt;30] rank| 508 (April 2012)[1]| Headquaters| New delhi| AuctionWeb was founded in San Jose, California, on September 5, 1995, by French-born Iranian-American computer programmer Pierre Omidyar (born on June 21, 1967) as part of a larger personal site that included, among other things, Omidyars own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus. One of the first items sold on AuctionWeb was a broken laser pointer for $14. 83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: Im a collector of broken laser pointers. The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyars fiancee trade Pez candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media, which were not interested in the companys previous explanation about wanting to create a perfect market. This was revealed in Adam Cohens 2002 book, The Perfect Store, and confirmed by eBay. Chris Agarpao was hired as eBays first employee and Jeffrey Skoll was hired as the first president of the company in early 1996. In November 1996, eBay entered into its first third-party licensing deal, with a company called Electronic Travel Auction to use SmartMarket Technology to sell plane tickets and other travel products. Growth was phenomenal; in January 1997 the site hosted 2,000,000 auctions, compared with 250,000 during the whole of 1996. The company officially changed the name of its service from AuctionWeb to eBay in September 1997. Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyars consulting firm. Omidyar had tried to register the domain name echobay. com, but found it already taken by the Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, so he shortened it to his second choice, eBay. com. In 1997, the company received $6. 7 million in funding from the venture capital firm Benchmark Capital. Meg Whitman was hired as eBay President and CEO in March 1998. At the time, the company had 30 employees, half a million users and revenues of $4. 7 million in the United States. eBay went public on September 21, 1998,and both Omidyar and Skoll became instant billionaires. eBays target share price of $18 was all but ignored as the price went to $53. 50 on the first day of trading. As the company expanded product categories beyond collectibles into almost any saleable item, business grew quickly. In February 2002, the company purchased IBazar, a similar European auction web site founded in 1998 and then bought PayPal on October 14, 2002. By early 2008, the company had expanded worldwide, counted hundreds of millions of registered users, 15,000+ employees and revenues of almost $7. 7 billion. [15] After nearly ten years at eBay, Whitman decided to enter politics. On January 23, 2008 the company announced that Whitman would step down on March 31, 2008 and John Donahoe was selected to become President and CEO. Whitman remained on the Board of Directors and continued to advise Donahoe through 2008. In late 2009, eBay completed the sale of Skype for $2. 75 billion, but will still own 30% equity in the company. In July 2010, eBay was sued for $3. 8 billion by XPRT Ventures that accused eBay of stealing information shared in confidence by the inventors on XPRTs own patents, and incorporated it into features in its own payment systems, such as PayPal Pay Later and PayPal Buyer Credit. On December 20, 2010, eBay announced its acquisition of a German online shopping club, brands4friends. de, for â‚ ¬150 million ($197 million) to strengthen the companys interests in the fashion industry in Europe. It is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close it in the Q1 2011. Marketing Strategies Bay India one of the largest e commerce stores in India has launched a price challenge an age old marketing trick wherein they are challenging people to find prices lower than those advertised by eBay India. The challenge is focused on a select range of gadgets, including mobile handsets, MP 3 players and digital cameras. Most young Indian men are passionate about three things women, cars/bikes and gadgets . This campaign is targeted at tech savvy young men who take an interest in gadgets and reside in the top 10 metros of the country. Men in the age group of 18-35 years account for 70-75 per cent of the traffic on eBay. The site claims that men prefer buying gadgets, while women prefer buying jewelery from the site. According to afaqs eBay will use outdoor extensively in cities such as Lucknow, Coimbatore, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai while Radio advertising will be used in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. While it will also use display advertising across major portals such as Yahoo. co. in and Rediff. com. Search marketing will also be used. Very recently Subhiksha used a TV campaign to highlight lowest prices for mobiles and they pulled it off quite well and that might have been motivation for EBay to launch this campaign. Indians being so price conscious I am sure this one month long campaign is definitely going to give eBay a good boost. If you are going to go for this campaign do keep a look out for Terms and Conditions wherein lies the catch Vodafone (Highlights) Type|Private| Industry|Telecommunications| Predecessor(s)|Hutchison Essar| Founded|1994| Headquarters|Mumbai, Maharashtra, India| Products|Mobile telephonyWireless broadband services| Owner(s)|Vodafone GroupTakshi Group| Parent|Vodafone International Holdings BV (VIH)| DEMAND AND SUPPLY RELATIONSHIP MARKET SHARE CUSTOMER PROFILE SEGMENTATION TARGETING ANALYSIS FLIPKART STP Segmentation:  ·All internet users and shoppers Target:  ·Flipkart concentrates on more Psychographic, which helps in deciding where to display ads online  ·They target online shoppers and people who don’t online shop (thus TVC to encourage them) Positioning: Customer delight (low price, free shipping, replacement of faulty products)  ·No kidding no worries  ·Online megastore  ·one stop solution snapdeal Snapdeal is Indias leading online marketplace. It offers shipping to over 4000 towns and cities in India covering 3000 plus brands in close to 200 different categories. It sells over 25000 units per day from more than 50000 different merchants. Snapdeal has been growing exponentially in customer base too with close to 1. 8 crore registered users in September 2012. Employee base of Snapdeal has also grown from 20 in February 2010 to over 1500 in September 2012. Let us now look at the STP strategy followed by Snapdeal. Segmentation : Identify desirable market segments Segmentation involves grouping consumers based on certain criteria. Snapdeal has done a very broad segmentation by grouping people who have internet access into one segment. There are other parameters for segmentation based on demographics, location, psychographic and behavioral pattern of people. Demographic segmentation Teens and young adults are grouped together into one segment. People in the age group of 16 to 30 years typically forms this segment. These people are either college students or people who have recently started earning. People having moderate to high family income are segmented together. Geographic segmentation Indian urban class Psychographic segmentat People in upper middle class Behavioral segmentation  · Internet savvy users  · People who are not afraid of online shopping  · People who love to get discounts  · People who want to try new products or services Targeting : Target your product for that segment Snapdeal focuses on mass online marketing but uses customer history to give a more personalized experience. Some of the strategies followed by Snapdeal are:  · Large base of internet users easily reached via o Customized email based on historic data o Social media o Online advertisements o Word of mouth Use of mobile apps to increase customer base  · Target people relying on internet for shopping  · Increase target market by partnering with corporate houses for bulk selling  · Target small and medium enterprises to showcase their product / service online for greater visibility. Besides following these strategies Snapdeal plans to target new marke ts by tying up with retailers in smaller towns and rural areas. Customers reluctant in shopping online can also be persuaded by keeping customer transactions data secure. Positioning : Position your brand to segment’s desires Snapdeal is currently positioned as best advertising and discount platform in the online Indian market. For product and service providers it acts as a great advertising platform and for consumers it acts as a low price online market. Snapdeal is trying to reposition itself with greater focus on quality. All the products showcased on the website are genuine. Each and every product is quality checked before being delivered to the customers. Even after repositioning its marketing strategy, Snapdeal aims to offer good value for money to consumers and remain highly competitive in the market. By following above mentioned STP strategy Snapdeal has been able to grow at a fast pace and has increased its customer base exponentially. ebay RISK SWOT ANALYSIS Vodafone have better technology so it can capture the customers of the other networks as well. | RECOMMENDATIONS By virtue of its service, customer satifaction and advertising strategy ebay. inc is successful in grabbing the highest market share in India, but there are still some recommendations from my study point of view is that ebay. inc needs to make its customer service more stronger than other service providers to dominate the market in future too. ebay. inc should introduce fast delivery service than the other because its competitor flipkart. com had introduced it. Low supports in promotion have lead to fluctuation in sale. It has affected the sale service brand image of ebay. inc especially in Cities. Persuasive Advertising, Advertising, Technical Expertise, Media, Sales promotion and Occasional discount can help snapdeal to give a tuff competition to ebay. inc and flipkart. com. The future of flipkart. com is getting brighter day by day. Their immense customer based services are adding to the value and goodwill of the company. Their services such as flyte music and electronic wallet etc. are very much capable of gathering interest of their customers and even attracting new customers. Their sense of innovation can be seen in their innovative ads, which takes them distinctly ahead of their competitors. They engage innovators all over the world to bring the customers the best communications technologies and products. Innovations in mobile advertising are gaining momentum, along with developing mobile TV services. Further interest for the future is in rich ecommerce within community and other applications, which will allow their customers to make calls, share pictures and other media all within single application. CONCLUSION The Indian Telecom Service provider industry is gearing for a revolution. The customer is driving this revolution and will see more unique and sophisticated offerings coming his way. The 3G which will pave the way for 3. 5G, 3. 75G and the next big thing-4G and the VAS services will keep the customer asking for more. The rural areas which have remained untapped will see an insurgence of services.