capstone
TRANSCRIPT
Mydeals24x7
2014
CAPSTONE PROJECT VARUN GROVER
PGDM RM | Rol l # 18
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“Understanding Key Aspects of Digital Marketing”
MYDEALS247
Varun Grover (Roll No 18)
Submitted in Partial fulfilment of the
Completion of Capstone Project
PGDM-RM 2013-15
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Contents
Executive Summary................................................................................................................. 17
Industry Profile ......................................................................................................................... 3
Classifying Ecommerce .............................................................................................................. 4
Company Profile ....................................................................................................................... 7
About the CEO .......................................................................................................................... 7
Nature of Business .................................................................................................................... 8
A Real-Time Marketplace .......................................................................................................... 9
Digital Marketing .................................................................................................................... 10
Digital Marketing Aspects ........................................................................................................ 10
Promotion of Mydeals247.com ................................................................................................ 15
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................. 16
References ............................................................................................................................. 17
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Executive Summary
The report gives an overview of my four months of capstone project with MyDeals247. It starts with
a background study of the e-commerce industry followed by a brief introduction about the
company’s profile and its operations. It also explains the various digital marketing strategies that
have been recommended to the company for increasing its online footprint in the Indi a.
The main objective of the project is to increase the awareness among people about MyDeals247
which is world’s first real-time marketplace and thus increasing the traffic on the website.Social
media strategies that can be used for brand building has been put forward. These strategies will not
only help in increasing profit but also establish MyDeals247 as a well known brand in India.
Industry Profile
Electronic commerce, commonly known as E-commerce or eCommerce, is trading in products or
services using computer networks, such as the Internet. Electronic commerce draws on technologies
such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet
marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management
systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses
the World Wide Web for at least one part of the transaction's life cycle, although it may also use
other technologies such as e-mail.
E-commerce businesses usually employ some or all of the following practices:
Provide Etail or virtual storefront on websites with online catalogs, sometimes gathered into
a "virtual mall"
Buy or sell on websites or online marketplaces.
Gather and use demographic data through web contacts and social media.
Use electronic data interchange, the business-to-business exchange of data.
Reach prospective and established customers by e-mail or fax (for example, with
newsletters).
Use business-to-business buying and selling.
Provide secure business transactions
Economists have theorized that e-commerce ought to lead to intensified price competition, as it
increases consumers' ability to gather information about products and prices. Research by four
economists at the University of Chicago has found that the growth of online shopping has also
affected industry structure in two areas that have seen significant growth in e -
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commerce, bookshops and travel agencies. Generally, larger firms are able to use economies of
scale and offer lower prices. The lone exception to this pattern has been the very smallest category
of bookseller, shops with between one and four employees, which appear to have withstood the
trend.
Individual or business involved in e-commerce whether buyers or sellers rely on Internet-based
technology in order to accomplish their transactions. E-commerce is recognized for its ability to
allow business to communicate and to form transaction anytime and anyplace. Whether an
individual is in the US or overseas, business can be conducted through the internet. The power of e-
commerce allows geophysical barriers to disappear, making all consumers and businesses on earth
potential customers and suppliers. eBay is a good example of e-commerce business individuals and
businesses are able to post their items and sell them around the Globe.
E-Commerce is gaining momentum globally with Asian economies like China, India and Indonesia
being the fastest growing e-commerce markets. E-commerce in India is growing at a fast pace with
an estimated size of Rs.43,930 crore in FY13 and a CAGR of 43.8% (FY08-13).
As per the internetworldstats.com – The top 20 countries in the internet by number of users as on
June 30, 2012, India ranks 3rd after China and US. The ecommerce industry is mainly dominated by
the travel segment which accounts for more than 70% of the transactions of industry and e -retail’s
share in e-commerce stands at approximately 12.5%.
In spite of the robust growth, the ecommerce industry is still in a nascent stage with significant e -
commerce ventures being started by young first-time entrepreneurs. The e-commerce industry in
India lags far behind various developed and developing countries (share of ecommerce to total retail
is approximately 1.5% vis-à-vis 5.8% in US) mainly on account of low internet penetration due to
poor infrastructure.
Classifying Ecommerce
The two most common participants in ecommerce are businesses and consumers. Based on this we
can come up with four primary ecommerce types:
Business to Business Ecommerce (B2B Ecommerce)
In this type of ecommerce, both participants are businesses. As a result, the volume and
value of B2B ecommerce can be huge. An example of business to business ecommerce could
be a manufacturer of gadgets sourcing components online.
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Business to Consumer Ecommerce (B2C Ecommerce)
When we hear the term ecommerce, most people think of B2C ecommerce. That is why a
name like Amazon.com pops up in most discussions about ecommerce. Elimination of the
need for physical stores is the biggest rationale for business to consumer ecommerce. But
the complexity and cost of logistics can be a barrier to B2C ecommerce growth.
Consumer to Business Ecommerce (C2B Ecommerce)
On the face of it, C2B ecommerce seems lop-sided. But online commerce has empowered
consumers to originate requirements that businesses fulfill. An example of this could be a
job board where a consumer places her requirements and multiple companies bid for
winning the project, consumer posting his requirements of a holiday package etc
Consumer to Consumer Ecommerce (C2C Ecommerce)
The moment you think of C2C ecommerce eBay.com comes to mind. That is because it is the
most popular platform that enables consumers to sell to other consumers. Since eBay.com is
a business, this form of ecommerce could also be called C2B2C ecommerce (consumer to
business to consumer ecommerce).
M-Commerce
It deals with conducting the transactions with the help of mobile. The mobile device
consumers can interact each other and can lead the business. Mobile Commerce involves
the change of ownership or rights to utilize goods and related services.
Consumer-to-Peer Networks (C-to-P)
This is exactly part of what peer-to-peer networking is and so is a slightly redundant
distinction since consumers offer their computing facilities once they are on the peer
network.
Government-to-Business (G-to-B)
The exchange of information, services and products between government agencies and
business organizations. Government sites now enable the exchange between government
and business of Information, guidance and advice for business on international trading,
sources of funding and support facilities (e.g. www.dti.org.uk). A database of laws,
regulations and government policy for industry sectors. Online application and submission of
official forms (such as company and value added tax). On-line payment facilities. This
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improves accuracy, increases speed and reduces costs, so businesses are given financial
incentives to use electronic-form submission and payment facilities.
Government-to-Consumer (G-to-C) (Also known as e-government)
Government sites offering information, forms and facilities to conduct transactions for
individuals, including paying bills and submitting official forms on-line such as tax returns.
Government-to-Government (G-to-G) (Also known as e-government)
Government- to-government transactions within countries linking local governments
together and also international governments, especially within the European Union, which is
in the early stages of developing coordinated strategies to link up different national systems.
Peer Network-to-Consumer (P-to-C)
This is in effect peer-to-peer networking, offering services to consumers who are an integral
part of the peer network.
Peer Network-to-Government (P-to-G)
This has not yet been used, but if it was, it would be used in a similar capacity to the P-to-B
model (see below), only with the government as the party accepting the transaction.
Peer Network-to-Business (P-to-B)
Peer-to-peer networking provides resources to business. For example, using peer network
resources such as the spare processing capacity of individual machines on the network to
solve mathematical problems or intensive and repetitive DNA analyses which requires very
high capacity processing power. This framework can be used by organizations to segment
their customers and distinguish the different needs, requirements, business processes,
products and services that are needed for each.
That is not all. Employees can be regarded as a special type of consumer. That would give rise to a
new type of ecommerce: B2E (Business to Employee ecommerce).
Likewise if we consider Government to be separate entity, as also Citizens, we can come up with
many more types of ecommerce: B2G (Business to Government), G2B (Government to Business),
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G2E (Government to Employee), G2G (Government to Government), G2C (Government to Citizen),
C2G (Citizen to Government).
Company Profile
Today's most successful e-commerce sites routinely experience transaction closure rates in the
range of 8 to 10 percent of total visitors. The primary reason for the failure of online retailing to
convert customers at acceptable rates is because historically, e-commerce websites have been a
one-size-fits-all proposition. For example, the majority of e-commerce websites contain a great user
interface, deals, offers that remain static for every visitor. This occurs even though we intuitively
know individuals have unique motivations and preferences.
Shoppers rely on different information and different types of websites when making a buying
decision. Therefore, most shoppers spend a significant amount of time by going through multiple
websites and related comparison websites still they cannot make a decision quicker - average time
to make a decision to buy any product online is between 3 hours to a week - there are many online
shopping sites offering too many deals and offers in the local markets - it creates a lot of confusion
among buyer’s community - there is so much frustration from Buyer’s community for not seeing only
the specific deals or offers they wanted on the website.
MyDeals247.com offers revolution technology in the e-commerce industry which identifies an
individual's preferences, interests, then delivers on-the-fly adjustments that make each customer
feel the site was built just for him or her. It's pretty much like having your own e -commerce or online
store to fulfill your own needs on daily basis. MyDeals247 brings the lowest offers from the sellers
based on buyer’s request in the local markets - all the bids from sellers happen real time and very
much live. Also, MyDeals247.com provides the current need analytics (on daily basis) to the sellers in
the local markets. MyDeals247.com is the world’s first personalized E-commerce platform.
About the CEO
Venu G. Somineni Founder & CEO, MyDeals247, is an entrepreneur, inspirational public speaker,
author, success coach, and a mentor. He is the CEO of MyDeals247 (The world's first personalized
shopping platform). Also, he runs TechIntellects, a global management consulting and M&A advisory
firm located in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Venu inspired many individuals and business
leaders from different walks of life. Venu’s passion revolves around accelerate growth and
innovation, coaching, mentoring, inspiring, unlocking individual’s true potential, motivating sales
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teams, transforming businesses to the next level, and more. Venu has B.Tech and M.Tech (Computer
Science & Engineering) from PSG Tech, Coimbatore, India and attended advanced management
courses in the USA.
Nature of Business
Company basically deals with providing a platform for the buyer and seller for making a business.
Daily Deal Model
Seller posts the daily request Admin receives the same and approve (if everything OK) Admin posts
the daily deal to the site Buyer will see the respective deal (if it matches with their interest) on their
dashboard right away Buyer spit the vouchers into multiple Buyer puts the names and email IDs for
his/her friends Buyer buys the deal System sends the voucher confirmation code End-of-Sale.
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Buy/Sell Model
Buyer posts request for sellers to purchase a product. System intimates sellers and they post bids for
requests. System selects top 5 sellers and intimates buyers. Seller posts deal Buyer is able to see the
deals posted by seller only if he is interested in the category. Buyer makes the purchase. Buyer
purchase deals and can also give them to their friends and colleagues. Payment For Buy/Sell Courier
/ Shipping For Daily Deal Print Vouchers through E-Mail. For Buy/Sell Person to Person a Buyer and
Sellers Enjoy. Buy / Sell Model Choose some common categories Buyer post his/her request Seller
posts their offers against the buyer's requests right away Seller changes their prices real-time (to
compete with one and another) along with the offer expiration time-lines Buyer accepts the lowest
price Buyer buys the item System sends the order confirmation details to both the buyer/seller via
email/SMS Buyer and seller exchanges the item(s) or security code based on shipping mode (person-
2-person or courier) Once the seller details are verified, system transfers the money to seller's
account (currently it is a manual process) End-of-Sale .
A Real-Time Marketplace
It is an online buying and selling model and that why it is called as ecommerce Company which is
completely real time market place as it is totally dependent on providing value to customer in terms
of price range with their specific product. Company work on the policy of “Zero inve ntories and zero
operating cost”. Simply customer posts their requirements and their after a waiting time allotted to
customer and meanwhile the requirement is being processed at back end office and the best 5
choices are provided to customer with deadline time and if demand is fulfilled by website the goods
are delivered to consumer destination by the seller directly. Cost Structure -Here company work on
approximately 10-20% margin depending upon who will get the shipping cost.
Volume Based Discounts: This model is an offline business model which is also a profitable one.
Strategy adopted by company – “Buy more, save more”. Deals with only 5 star rated retailers.
Categories involve - general house-hold items, entertainment, education, local events, amusement
parks, professional training, and services companies. Here company have different category like Real
Estate, Schools/Colleges, Boutiques/Spa/Hair Saloon, Hotels etc. So company garbs the
requirements from here having bulk quantity and then delivers the same with competitive prices in
the market. Cost Structure-For this category company work on the margin of approximately 10-15%
but the order should be in bulk.
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Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is marketing that makes use of electronic devices (computers) such as personal
computers, smartphones, cellphones, tablets and game consoles to engage with stakeholders.
Digital marketing applies technologies or platforms such as websites, e -mail, apps (classic and
mobile) and social networks. Digital Marketing can be through Non-internet channels like TV, Radio,
SMS, etc or through Internet channels like Social Media, E-mails ads, Banner ads, etc. Social Media
Marketing is a component of digital marketing. Many organizations use a combination of traditional
and digital marketing channels; however, digital marketing is becoming more popular with
marketers as it allows them to track their Return on investment more accurately compared to other
traditional marketing channels.
According to the Digital Marketing Institute, Digital Marketing is the use of digital channels to
promote or market products and services to consumers and businesses.
One of digital marketing's major advantages over offline marketing is that its impact is more easily
measured. Measurability has been improved by the advent of visible and traceable digital
communications.
In pull digital marketing, the consumer actively seeks the marketing content, often via web searches
or opening an email, text message or web feed Websites, blogs and streaming media (audio and
video) are examples of pull digital marketing. In each of these, users have to navigate to the website
to view the content. Only current web browser technology is required to maintain static content.
Search engine optimization is one tactic used to increase activity.
In push digital marketing the marketer sends a message without the recipient actively seeking the
content, such as display advertising on websites and news blogs. Email, text messaging and web
feeds can also be classed as push digital marketing when the recipient has not actively sought the
marketing message.
Digital Marketing Aspects
1. Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web
page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results. In general, the earlier (or
higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results
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list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. SEO may target different kinds of
search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search,news search and
industry-specific vertical search engines.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for,
the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are
preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its
content, HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to
remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number
of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.
Methods of Search Engine Optimization
Getting indexed: The leading search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo!, use crawlers to find
pages for their algorithmic search results. Pages that are linked from other search engine indexed
pages do not need to be submitted because they are found automatically. Two major directories,
the Yahoo Directory and DMOZ both require manual submission and human editorial review. Google
offers Google Webmaster Tools, for which an XML Sitemap feed can be created and submitted for
free to ensure that all pages are found, especially pages that are not discoverable by automatically
following links. Yahoo! formerly operated a paid submission service that guaranteed crawling for a
cost per click; this was discontinued in 2009.
Search engine crawlers may look at a number of different factors when crawling a site. Not every
page is indexed by the search engines. Distance of pages from the root directory of a site may also
be a factor in whether or not pages get crawled.
Preventing crawling: To avoid undesirable content in the search indexes, webmasters can instruct
spiders not to crawl certain files or directories through the standard robots.txt file in the root
directory of the domain. Additionally, a page can be explicitly excluded from a search engine's
database by using a meta tag specific to robots. When a search engine visits a site, the robots.txt
located in the root directory is the first file crawled. The robots.txt file is then parsed, and will
instruct the robot as to which pages are not to be crawled. As a search engine crawler may keep a
cached copy of this file, it may on occasion crawl pages a webmaster does not wish crawled. Pages
typically prevented from being crawled include login specific pages such as shopping carts and user-
specific content such as search results from internal searches. In March 2007, Google warned
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webmasters that they should prevent indexing of internal search results because those pages are
considered search spam.
Increasing prominence: A variety of methods can increase the prominence of a webpage within the
search results. Cross linking between pages of the same website to provide more links to most
important pages may improve its visibility. Writing content that includes frequently searched
keyword phrase, so as to be relevant to a wide variety of search queries will tend to increase traffic.
Updating content so as to keep search engines crawling back frequently can give additional weight
to a site. Adding relevant keywords to a web page's meta data, including the title tag and meta
description, will tend to improve the relevancy of a site's search listings, thus increasing traffic. URL
normalization of web pages accessible via multiple urls, using the canonical link element or via 301
redirects can help make sure links to different versions of the url all count towards the page's link
popularity score.
2. Search Engine Marketing
The concept behind Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is quite simple: when a consumer or business
person searches the Web through either a text box or by clicking through a directory hierarchy, they
are in "hunt mode." This mode is unique because it indicates that the person is looking for
information, usually of a direct or indirect commercial nature. Marketers understand that this "hunt
mode" means that the searcher may very well be somewhere in the buying cycle, researching a
product or service to try and satisfy an immediate need or future need. That makes search engine
results some of the best sources of targeted traffic, whether that traffic originates from "organic"
unpaid search listings or paid advertising listings.
To leverage the power contained within this targeted traffic source, marketers must understand
how to effectively use both paid and organic SEM and what they can expect each methodology to
achieve. Search engine traffic is unique in the following ways:
Search engine traffic is a non-intrusive method of Internet marketing. The majority of online
and offline advertising intrudes on the audience, interrupting their activities. Search is
unique in tapping a searcher at the exact moment they are seeking knowledge or a solution.
Searchers are on a mission – it's "just-in-time marketing".
Search engine traffic originates from a voluntary, audience-driven search. This means the
visitors from a search results link have not only selected your listing from among your peers,
but chose the search query that resulted in your listing being shown.
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Search engine traffic results from a fixed inventory of searches. To truly qualify as search
engine traffic (or pure search traffic), the search must be one that the searcher initiated as a
search, either by clicking a search link in a directory style portal or by filling out a search
query box. See Contextual Link Inventory for an exception.
3. Content Marketing
Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and
consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving
profitable customer action.
Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating
relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. It is
an ongoing process that is best integrated into your overall marketing strategy, and it focuses
on owning media, not renting it.
4. Social media marketing
It is a form of internet marketing that implements various social media networks in order to achieve
marketing communication and branding goals. Social media marketing primarily covers activities
involving social sharing of content, videos, and images for marketing purposes.
Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another and build relationships.
When companies join these social channels, consumers can interact with them directly. That
interaction can be more personal to users than traditional methods of outbound marketing &
advertising.
Social networking sites act as word of mouth. Social networking sites and blogs allow followers to
“retweet” or “repost” comments made by others about a product being promoted. By repeat ing the
message, the user's connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people.
Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more
traffic is brought to the product/company.
Through social networking sites, companies can interact with individual followers. This personal
interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into followers and potential customers. Also, by choosing
whom to follow on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target audience.
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Social networking sites also include a vast amount of information about what products and services
prospective clients might be interested in. Through the use of new Semantic Analysis technologies,
marketers can detect buying signals, such as content shared by people and questions posted online.
Understanding of buying signals can help sales people target relevant prospects and marketers run
micro-targeted campaigns.
Social Networking is used by 76% of businesses today. Business retailers have seen 133% increases in
their revenues from social media marketing
Mobile phone usage has also become beneficial for social media marketing. Today, most cell phones
have social networking capabilities: individuals are notified of any happenings on social networking
sites through their cell phones, in real-time. This constant connection to social networking sites
means products and companies can constantly remind and update followers about their capabilities,
uses, importance, etc.
Because cell phones are connected to social networking sites, advertisements are always in sight.
Also many companies are now putting QR codes along with products for individuals to access the
company website or online services with their smart-phones.
5. Infographics
Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or
knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition
by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends. The
process of creating infographics can be referred to as data visualization, information design, or
information architecture.
Infographics have been around for many years and recently the proliferation of a number of easy -to-
use, free tools have made the creation of infographics available to a large segment of the
population. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have also allowed for individual
infographics to be spread among many people around the world. Infographics is widely us ed in this
age.
In newspapers, infographics are commonly used to show the weather, as well as maps, site plans,
and graphs for statistical data. Some books are almost entirely made up of information graphics,
such as David Macaulay's The Way Things Work. The Snapshots in USA Today are also an example of
simple infographics used to convey news and current events.
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Modern maps, especially route maps for transit systems, use infographic techniques to integrate a
variety of information, such as the conceptual layout of the transit network, transfer points, and
local landmarks. Public transportation maps, such as those for the Washington Metro and the
London Underground, are well-known infographics. Public places such as transit terminals usually
have some sort of integrated "signage system" with standardized icons and stylized maps.
Promotion of Mydeals247.com
In this step we have started with two types of promotions for the world’s first real -time marketplace
i.e. mydeals247.com which are:
1. Social Media marketing of mydeals247.com
In this activity we have pasted these infographics on our personal wall of the Facebook page and
invited our friends to like and share the picture and read about the website. By this exercise we
managed to get above 100 likes on both the infographics and with that few of our have also shared
these infographics, which will definitely increase the reach in the market and make people aware
about the world’s first real-time marketplace i.e. mydeals247.com.
2. Promotion in the college
In this activity we have pasted these two infographics in different parts of our college i.e. in the
canteen, inside the classrooms, in the amphitheatre, inside the hostel etc. This activity will make all
the students aware about this e-commerce website, which can in turn increase the sales of the
company as a large amount of products are ordered online by the students. So if some of the
students will get impressed by the promotion and they buy from this website, it will be beneficial for
the company in terms of their sales and their promotion of the website.
3. Promote the website and model in tier 2 liberal arts and commerce colleges
After promoting in the college, we have also promoted this website and the model in different tier 2
colleges like various engineering colleges, MBA colleges, Science and Art colleges etc. by pasting
these infographics at various places inside these colleges. This activity will increase the visibility of
this website in various colleges and also creates awareness about this completely new business
model which will be very beneficial for the company.
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Conclusion
Search engine optimization can be vital to a business because 90% of all online traffic is achieved
through the various search engines. Therefore, knowing how to properly market your company
through search engine optimization is virtually the only way to be found on the expansive Internet.
Today's search engines operate much like the phone book used to just on a much larger scale. By
searching a topic, thousands of businesses that are offering the services can be found out. How a
particular company's site is found can be difficult with so many regional, national, and even
international options. That is why utilizing specialized search engine optimization techniques can be
the difference between high visitor frequency and being lost amidst the numerous other businesses
found on the Internet. Companies that rely upon online customers, need to rely upon search engine
optimization from CyberMark International.
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References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce
http://indiamicrofinance.com/ecommerce-business-india-2014-2015-report-pdf.html
http://ecommerce.about.com/od/eCommerce-Basics/a/Types-Of-Ecommerce.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_marketing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
http://www.sempo.org/?page=intro_to_sem
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-
marketing/
http://mydeals247.com/my_deals/