Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

1
Chapter 14

• Establishing and Promoting The Virtual Store

2
In Creating the Virtual Store, the Best Advice is
Go Slow

• The marketer as the merchant should investigate
  the pitfalls before he begins to extol the
  potentials of e-commerce and become blinded by
  its advantages
• To avoid commerce overconfidence, the general
  strategy of setting up commercial units should
  not be any different for e-commerce activities
• Traditional organizational responsibilities for
  establishing financial affairs, production
  concerns and marketing actions should be
  determined in the same manner for virtual
  commerce companies

3
The Triad in Action

• The virtual marketer must arrange for financing
  to purchase hardware and software material
• Establish an office
• Arrange for personnel and business necessities
• Rounding out the triad of finance and
  operations is the marketing function working to
  investigate consumer wants and the proper,
  highly-exposed delivery process for those bundles
  of benefits

4
Do It Yourself or Hire a Developer

• One of the biggest decisions, particularly for
  the small company or individual, is how to set up
  the online store
• The decision usually revolves around the answers
  to the following questions
• How experienced in business is the person
  responsible for setting up the online storefront?
• How technology-savvy is this individual?

5
Do It Yourself or Hire a Developer

• Intangible qualities in establishing a virtual
  storefront
• Finding a niche to fill
• Attracting and training good people
• Creating an attractive company culture
• To establish an electronic presence, it will also
  require some tangible equipment to access the Web

6
Do It Yourself or Hire a Developer

• Whether or not the e-marketer employs a developer
  or does it herself, the storefront must have
  reliable access to the Web as well as these
  elements
• Virtual store-building software
• Virtual online information sources
• A 350 MHz or faster PC
• A large hard disk, perhaps 4 gigabytes in memory
  or larger
• 16 or more megs of ROM memory
• A large color monitor, 17 inches diagonal screen

7
Do It Yourself or Hire a Developer

• Reliable access elements continued
• 56.6 baud modem, cable modem if possible, 28.8 at
  minimum
• A 4.x version browser
• Printers
• Scanners
• Telephone service and an Internet Service Provider

8
Engaging a Storefront Developer

• Service companies have evolved to produce the
  entire virtual storefront in a turnkey fashion
• The marketer supplies the developer with a
  marketing plan
• He directs the company according to his
  understanding of the target market
• The developer should design the site for the most
  popular browsers and specify the necessary
  equipment to implement the design on the Web

9
Engaging a Storefront Developer

• It is easy to be dazzled by graphics, however,
  the marketer must ask himself the following
  questions
• Does the design and copy fit the objectives for
  the online marketing?
• Is the design attractive, memorable, and
  motivating?
• Does the design ask or require the viewer to do
  something, such as click through a site, register
  for a promotion, or visit a dealership or retail
  store?
• Is the site reflective of other company marketing
  materials?
• Can the site be produced for the budget allotted
  and within the time frame aloud?
• Do the site strategies match the corporate
  strategies of the company?

10
Joining a Cybermall?

• After the site is created and the meta tags are
  tested, the next decision for the marketer is how
  to maintain an optimal awareness for the site
• Step one in this process is to register with the
  variety of search engines so that the consumer
  can locate merchandise and offerings
• Step two might be an assessment in maintaining a
  stand-alone site as opposed to participating in
  the bundling of cybermall retailers

11
Joining a Cybermall?

• The cybermall is a virtual collection of sites,
  usually bringing apparel, financial, insurance,
  or automobile sites together that offer the
  shopper many hyperlinked addresses to follow from
  one page

12
Joining a Cybermall?

• The major benefits of signing on with a cybermall
  are
• Expanded exposure over and above the efforts of a
  single site
• The selection to be found at the cybermalls
  address
• The site maintenance services by the cybermall
  operator
• The major disadvantages are
• The cost of joining and renting space monthly
• Heavy competition

13
The Marketing Duties of a Web Site Manager

• What are the necessary elements to begin setting
  up an online presence?
• A detailed study of the Internet and the Web as
  well as the peripheral promotions and
  communications capabilities nested on the company
  desktop
• Proficiency at a word processing program
• An understanding of advertising procedures,
  graphics, and copy is also helpful
• Communicating effectively with advertising
  suppliers

14
The Marketing Duties of a Web Site Manager

• Elements for setting up online presence
  continued
• Being cognizant of technology changes in hardware
  or software
• Being able to judge if new equipment or
  applications would improve a sites performance
• Familiarity with HTML editing, linking
  hyperlinks, and acquaintance with frames and
  tables page construction
• An appreciation of customer service and conflict
  resolution are pluses
• A general proficiency in basic communications

15
The Marketing Duties of a Web Site Manager

• The Web master has many duties in maintaining the
  e-commerce site, and a sense of organization is
  absolutely necessary

16
Choosing an Internet Service Provider

• An ISP is a company that can provide you with a
  connection to the Internet as well as
  Internet-based services
• There are also many types and levels of ISPs
• ISPs can be part-time hobbyists who are
  inexpensive but not well equipped to handle a
  business Web site
• Some ISPs are small businesses that are quite
  successful and can be well equipped to handle a
  business Web site that receives moderate traffic
• Large ISPs often provide many services to
  businesses and can have in-house technical
  support
• The downfall to using a large ISP is that they
  may not be as flexible
• Large providers will most likely have the
  equipment and the fastest connections to the
  Internet

17
Choosing an Internet Service Provider

• Commercial providers as AOL, MSN, ATT,
  CompuServe2000, or Prodigy ISPs
• These services may not be flexible enough to run
  the business the way the marketers wants and
  within the approved budget
• To find an ISP
• Search on the Web
• Ask others in your area
• Look in the yellow pages
• Check an ISP reference service

18
Choosing an Internet Service Provider

• Considerations when investigating which one to
  use will depend primarily on why the marketer
  wants an ISP
• If marketer wants one for personal use, a local
  small business might be better as they may be
  more helpful
• If marketer wants one for business purposes,
  reliable service is going to be a major issue

19
Choosing an Internet Service Provider

• Some questions that the marketer might ask when
  looking at ISPs
• Are you able to communicate with the service
  representative of the ISP?
• Are personal and business goals understood?
• Check their references

20
Choosing an Internet Service Provider

• More Questions
• Are you able to do everything that you want with
  this ISP?
• E-mail access
• Host Web sites
• News groups
• Scripting
• What is the pricing structure?

21
Choosing an Internet Service Provider

• More Questions
• What type of connection does the ISP provide?
• What software is provided by the ISP?
• What type of technical support is available?
• Make sure support is available when and how it is
  needed
• See if they offer on-site support

22
Choosing an Internet Service Provider

• Once the marketer has chosen an ISP to host the
  Web pages, there are still a few things the
  marketer needs to be aware of
• What are the limitations set by the ISP on the
  storage size of the Web site?
• If the site is accessed often, check for
  limitations and additional fees for excess hits
  on your pages
• How will the files be transferred to the ISP and
  what type of access will you have for editing
  those pages once they are in place?
• See if scripts are allowed, or if they are
  provided by the ISP themselves

23
Choosing an Internet Service Provider

• Things to be aware of continued
• Is the provider capable of handling the security
  necessary for your type of site?
• What statistics are available from your ISP, how
  easy are they to obtain, and in what form will
  they be provided?
• Make sure that you have ownership of the design
  and content of your pages and that you have
  thoroughly read the contract your ISP should
  happily provide you

24
Promoting the Web Site

• The twist in online promotion is that no one has
  a long history doing it right and doing it well,
  so much experimentation in promotion is ongoing
• The confusion in promotions is that the Web
• Reads like a newspaper, but can you hold the
  pages?
• The Web is like television, but where are the
  programs?
• It has sound like the radio, but where is the
  music?
• Promoters of the Web advertising speak of
  billboards, but try to find one of the huge
  structures along the information highway?

25
Planning and Organization

• Prepare a solid marketing plan focusing on the
  promotional element to expose the product and
  display the discipline to follow it
• What are the elements of the online
  communications marketing plan (your road map to
  marketing on the Web)?
• Online marketing plan
• Online promotional program
• Identify your consumer or business-to-business
  targets

26
Tactical Online Targeting

• The means by which the marketer will use to
  communicate with his primary targets are
  established online vehicles such as e-mail and
  discussion groups
• Mail servers and e-mail
• Electronic or virtual storefronts
• Advertising messages
• Electronic publishing
• Hard copy publishing

27
Tactical Online Targeting

• Means of communication continued..
• Conferences venues
• Cookies
• Sig files
• FAQs
• Usenet newsgroups
• Cross fertilization between your Web site and
  your traditional marketing media to increase the
  success of your Web presence

28
Tactical Online Targeting

• The marketer can increase visibility through the
  following actions
• Register your site with Web search engines,
  listings, and catalogs
• Participate in discussion lists and Usenet
  newsgroups and the use of informative .sig files
• Make online announcements and use news releases
• Study FAQs
• Use cross-linking of your page to other relevant
  pages

29
How Can the Marketer Get Web Surfers Hooked?

• After the initial visits, activity and
  interactivity will encourage your visitor to
  return to your site
• Curiosity and entertainment
• Item turnover
• Indispensable tool or resource
• Unique event or resource
• Explore sources for professional net advertising
  information

30
The Present State of Online Commerce

• What are the dynamics of consumers actually
  buying online?
• 76.2of the GVU Ninth WWW User Survey respondents
  reported that they have ordered a product or
  service by filling out a form on the Web
• Respondents were usually U.S. males familiar with
  the Internet activities
• 1.9 actually had a bad experience with online
  purchasing
• Only 4.5 found the process too complicated or
  thought the process would be too complicated
• Almost 40 of online purchases were software

31
The Present State of Online Commerce

• What are the trends in consumer purchases that
  e-businesses selling online should be aware of
  for the immediate future?
• Computer and accessories
• Entertainment and games
• Securities trading services
• Possibly online gambling