Chapter Five

Web Marketing Concepts

Definition: E-Tailing
• “E-tailing is the selling of retail goods on the
Internet.

• E-tailing has resulted in the development of e-

tailware –
• software tools for creating online catalogs and
managing the business connected with doing E-
tailing

• The word E-tail has its roots in the word ‘retail’.

• With the use of a web-space:
• a virtual shop is created and the products are
displayed through images in this space with the
features and price tags.
• By accessing this shopping site a customer can
choose his/her products into a cart.

• The payment to this product can be done in various

modes as mentioned by the shopping site (E-payment
or PoD).
• Electronic retailing is the sale of goods and services
through the Internet. 

• E-tailing can include business-to-business (B2B) and

business-to-consumer (B2C) sales of products and services.

• Amazon.com (AMZN) is by far the largest online retailer

providing consumer products and subscriptions through its
website

• Many traditional brick-and-mortar stores are investing in

e-tailing through their websites.
• refers to a traditional street-side business that offers
Steps involved in E-tailing:-

The shopping process through internet media happens in 5

steps generally.
1.Customer visit: The customer accesses the website of
the e-tailer through his/her mobile or PC or laptop.
2.Choice of product: customer visits the site he/she
would choose a product based on the image and valid
information available on the web page.
3.Payment online: Payments to the product can be made
online through credit or debit card or even cash on
4. Product delivery: The delivery of the product would be
based on the availability of the product in the inventory
closest to the customer’s delivery address. This process
may also involve shipment of the product.

5. Customer feedback: The experience of the customer can

be accessed through proper customer service for feed
backs and the problems faced by the customer should be
corrected by the e-tailer. Late delivery, wrong product,
damaged product etc can be some of the customer
complaints which the e-tailer would have to sort out.
Benefits of e-tailing:

• Less Space: It reduces the space occupied by retail

outlets in the real world.

• Easy Access: It gives quick and easy access to a

shopping space at any time and from any place where
there is access to internet.

• Saves time: It saves time of the customer that is spent

on travelling to a shopping place in real world.

• Platform for various goods: It creates a new platform

for goods from different parts of the world which could
• There are certain essential ingredients for an electronic
retailing business to be successful:
• Attractive business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce
portal
• Right revenue model
• Penetration of the Internet 

• E-Catalog: It is a database of products with prices and

available stock.

• Shopping Cart: The customers select their goodies and fill

shopping cart.  Finally, as in a real store, at the time of
checkout, the system calculates the price to be paid for
Support Services in E-Retailing:

• The electronic retail business requires support services,

as a prerequisite for successful operations. 

• These services are required to support the business,

online or offline, throughout the complete transaction-
processing phases. 

• The following are the essential support services:

•  Communication backbone
• Payment mechanism
• Order fulfillment
There are five key factors that retailers should be addressing
now, if they’re to stay ahead of the game.
1.With shoppers consolidating their spending on fewer
retailers, the winners will be those who ensure they make
it onto the ‘most favoured’ list for their target customers.
2.Operating in a multi-channel world makes it even more
important to understand your most valuable customers,
and to be able to serve them when they want, and how
they want.

• winning retailers will be those who rapidly develop a

‘single view of product’ - enabling them to instantly
locate available stock across all channels and locations,
 3.The digital space provides a raft of new opportunities to
engage consumers, and to learn from their comments and
behaviors - from Twitter and Facebook, to online
campaigns and consumer reviews, the opportunities to
have conversations with customers are growing every
day.

• The winners will be those who listen carefully to their

customers, becoming tuned to their needs; and those
who find creative opportunities to encourage consumer
contribution, making shoppers feel like an integral part
 4.New performance measures that reflect the realities of
this new multi-channel world are the next essential
building block to making profitable decisions and
choices.

• Developing the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to

evaluate a store’s effectiveness as a showroom,
compared to its effectiveness as a transaction space, and
capturing the value of websites as a research tool and in
driving footfall to stores, are examples of areas that
leading retailers are beginning to focus on today.
 5.The winners will be those who can deliver a sustainable
advantage by developing new operating models, designed
to handle the realities of multichannel retailing.

• The current supply chain was built to get stuff to stores -

it’s not ideal for a system that’s 10% online & growing -
and as direct channels continue to gain scale, there will be
opportunities flex operations to improve margins.

• But it’s not just about the supply chain - rethinking

organization structures, roles, incentives and governance
are key to delivering a seamless customer experience
Shortcomings of e-retailing

1.It has no theatrical ambience which can be the customer.

2.It lacks an emotional shopping experience that the

customer can get in a personal shopping store.

3.It being container of intangible merchandise (i.e., virtual

display of merchandise) does not provide sensory support

to the customer, these the customer cannot hold, small,

4. It provides, to a large extent, impersonal services
which most customers are not exposed to; they are rather
used to the tangible personalized services which's they
miss in online retailing services.
5. On line customers are reluctant to part with their credit
card details on net, fearing they may be misused. It
arises security issues. The customers are not yet
convinced about the foolproof status of this method.
6. It is lacking in family shopping experience which the
customers enjoy at the weekends, and particularly
Success factors for e-retailing 
Strong Branding, Unique Merchandising

Value Addition

Competitive Pricing: competitive pricing finds scope

from potential decrease in charges and expenditures that
he had to bear while in brick-and-mortar mode of
marketing.

Better CRM

Better Distribution Efficiency

Soothing Website Design

 The aesthetic and easy handling facilities are two important terms in

this relation.  The aesthetic provides initial attraction along with keeping

the visitor long held with the site. 

 The maneuvering easiness keeps the visitor surfing it for long.

 The aesthetics of the website must provide soothing look and feel and

clarity of objects or scripts to the visitor along with sufficient ergonomic

considerations, so that the visitor does not feel tired at the earliest. 

 The careful placement of buttons and links provides ease in handling it.

 Finally, the transparency of services creates faith on the visitor of the

site as well as on the customer of the business.

Challenges of E-Retailing:

1. Unproven Business Models

• Most of the businesses on the Net were experiments in
new areas and did not provide enduring sources of profit. 
This was the primary reason behind closing down of 90
per cent of the purely e-commerce companies in the
beginning of this century.  Today, dot-com businesses
have matured a little.  Still some of the businesses are at
experimental level and do not guarantee regular revenue.
2. Requirement to Change Business Process:

• The traditional business may require the goods to be present at the warehouse and
inspected before being shipped to the customer, but in electronic retailing,
shipping of goods from one place to another to a customer would not be
possible. 

• The retailer may appoint a local supplier at the city where the customer resides
and instruct the supplier to deliver the goods. 

• This would require by passing certain business rules and a lot of faith on the local
supplier. 

• It would require business confidence that the supplier would follow the
instructions and deliver the same product in good quantity and perfect quality. 

• Merchandise planning and demand analysis is also difficult in e-retailing, as

compared to traditional retail businesses.
3. Channel Conflicts

• Companies selling through the Internet as well as through brick

stores may find their interest conflicting at many places. 

• In electronic storefront orders, the goods directly reach the

end-consumer and so the distributors and sellers may feel the
threat to their existence.  Most of the time, it is seen that
retailers tend to reduce price over the Net. 

• The sale at the brick store may store may drop because the
retailer may tend to sell more through the Internet as a result of
reduction of prices.
4. Legal Issues:

• Proper laws have not yet evolved for Internet base transactions. E-
mail and digital signatures are now being recognized as valid for any
legal purpose.

• Value Added Tax (VAT) is yet another area that creates problems. 

• Taxes on goods and services are still an issue.  Since the taxes are
levied and shared by multiple government agencies at local, state or
federal level, there are no clear rules to guide retailers on that. 

• In e-retailing, the place of billing, the place of dispatch of goods and

the place of delivery all differ.  If these three places fall in different
jurisdictions of governments, levy and submission of taxes would be
a problem.
5. Security and Privacy:

• Despite a lot of security arrangements, such as passwords

and firewalls, we come across the news of website hacking
and data pilferages. 
• The Internet being on public domain is more susceptible to
unauthorized peeping. 
• People are wary of revealing information regarding their
credit cards and personal details on the Net because they can
be misused. 
• Security of payment gateway is a major concern, which has
to be taken care of by the retailer by putting up pro
 Characteristics of Well-Designed E-Commerce Websites

1. Ease of Navigation

• When attempting to sell products to visitors, the first

requirement for selling a product is that the shopper has
to be able to find specifically what he or she is looking
for.

• Effective navigation is important to any website, but it’s

especially critical for e-commerce sites.

• Lost visitors will result in lost sales, so every effort

• Examples:

• Nike’s online shop uses a vertical navigation

menu. When you glide over an item, such as
“Men”, you will then be presented with options
for different product types, brands, collections,
and sports, making it easier to narrow it down
and find what you want quickly.
2. The Design Does Not Overpower the Products:

• A design that is excessive for no valid reason will

usually do more harm than good, as it will draw
attention to the design of the site and away from the
products.

• There sites have chosen to keep the design simple so that

the products don’t have to compete for the attention of
visitors.
• Examples:

• Apple uses simplicity in the design of their products as well as

anyone. Their online store takes the same approach with a clean,
attractive design that does not provide any distractions for shoppers.

• Shoe Guru is another very well-designed site that avoids anything

excessive. The page shown below lists the men’s athletic shoes that
are available. The page simply provides a product photo, name, and
price, as well as a link to the product page for more details and
purchase options.
3. Easy Checkout:
• If the checkout process involves too many steps or is
confusing, shoppers will wind up abandoning their cart
with items left unpurchased. Ideally, the checkout should
involve a minimal amount of steps and should be as easy
as possible for shoppers.

Examples:

• Add an item to your cart at White and Warren and you will
immediately see the contents of your shopping cart. You
will be presented with the options to continue shopping or
4. Branded:
• Many shoppers are influenced in their purchasing decisions by
the brand, and so the need to establish a strong brand is import
for both online and offline selling.

Examples:
• Oakley is a well-established brand that is recognized as a leader
in their industry. Their website does an effective job of working
with their existing brand. It is an attractive website that stands
out from many of the others that are selling sunglasses online.
Brand should be displayed:
5. The Design Style Matches the Products:

• when designing an e-commerce site it’s important to

consider the style of the products that will be available
on the site.

• This is a little bit more relevant for smaller stores with a

specific type of product and for websites of a particular
brand or company that has established a certain identity.

• If the design style does not match very well with the
particular products that are for sale, there will be a
disconnect that exists and visitors may have a hard time
Examples:

• Innovative Baby sells clothing, furniture and other items

for kids. The design and color scheme of their website
does a good job of matching up with their products, but
it still looks professional and appealing to the adults
who are likely to be the ones doing the shopping.
Design of the website matches the product:
6. Showcases the Most Popular Products:

• Many e-commerce sites make an effort to showcase items

that are likely to be of interest to visitors, obviously with the
intention of helping visitors to find something that they will
buy.

Examples:

• Eddie Bauer uses a large portion of the homepage to

promote an end-of-season sale. There is a very large image
and links to sale items in several categories: men, women,
bags and gear, and white sale.
Showcases the most popular products:
7. Promotes Related Products:

• promotion of related products that the customer may

also be interested in. Promoting the right products that
buyers are likely to be interested in is key regardless of
the approach that is used.

Examples:

• The Company Store, visitors will be presented with

related products such as cleaning and storage products.
Promotes related products:
8. Effective, Accurate Product Photos:

• Providing quality photos that accurately portray the

product can help to overcome this challenge and can
make the buying decision easier on visitors.

Examples:

• REI includes many different pictures of products. The

pictures show the product from several different angles
and stages, as well as packed up. Potential buyers will be
able to get a very good feel for the product based on these
photos, and not buying it because of a fear of the
Effective product photos:
9. Effective Site-Wide Search:

• The type of search and the amount of options that should be

offered to narrow the search should be based on the size of
the site and the items that are available.

Example:

• At Lee, after choosing the type of product you would like to

look at, the left sidebar will include some advanced search
options that will narrow down the products being displayed
if you are having trouble with the items that are shown.
Effective wide search: