Digital Marketing Research & Report

19th Aug 2014

[2nd May 14 – 31st July 14] | Masters of Management Studies

RAMYA KHOSLA SUMMER PROJECT REPORT

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Content

Acknowledgement Page 3

Introduction Page 4

SYNOPSIS

Digital Marketing Page 5 – 8

E-‐Commerce Page 9 – 11

Consumer Behavior Page 12

Different Personality Traits Page 13 – 15

FINDINGS & OBSERVATIONS

Primary Research Page 16 – 26

Secondary Research Page 27 – 33

Social Media Comparison Chart Page 34

RECOMMENDATIONS Page 35 – 37

Road Map for Instagram Page 38 – 44

Appendix (Questionnaire) Page 45 – 48

Bibliography Page 49

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Every project big or small is successful largely due to the effort of a number of wonderful people who have always given their valuable advice or lent a helping hand. I sincerely appreciate the inspiration; support and guidance of all those people who have been instrumental in making this project a success. I, Ramya Khosla, the student of Lala Lajpatrai Institute of Management, am extremely grateful to “PARX” for the confidence bestowed in me and entrusting my project entitled “DIGITAL MARKETING” with special reference to RAYMOND APPAREL LIMITED. At this juncture I feel deeply honored in expressing my sincere thanks to Mr. SHAWN CHANDY for making the resources available at right time and providing valuable insights leading to the successful completion of my project. It will not be fine if I don’t thank Mr. TRUSHAL PRAJAPATI for his whole hearted support during the project. I would also like to thank all the faculty members of Lala Lajpatrai Institute of Management for their critical advice and guidance without which this project would not have been possible. Ramya Khosla 19th Aug 2014

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eed of the Study

With increasing popularity of online shopping the competition is getting escalated and thus it has become imperative for e-‐retailers to understand the motivators, which bring consumers to shop online. Moreover Indian markets are still untapped in terms of

online shopping phenomena and this trend is still gaining popularity among consumers. Also the recently done surveys have also indicated the huge growth expected from non-‐ metros in the near future. As the online buying trend is gaining popularity in India and many companies aim to capitalize on it, it becomes significant to get insight about the why, how and what of online consumer behavior. So this study tries to understand the antecedents behind the online purchase that too in Indian context.

Objective

• To study the online consumer buying behavior. • To understand the role of social networking sites/apps in customer

engagement.

Methodology • Primary Research

Ø Questionnaire – To understand the online consumer buying behavior, a questionnaire was developed which also includes the demographic profile of the respondents which was distributed online through social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and also distributed through emails and Google +.

Ø Store Visits – To observe the consumer engagement with the store staff.

• Secondary Research

Ø To study the existing data of Digital Marketing available in different research reports.

Limitations of the Study

The results of a study should always be seen in the light of its limitations. Like, in this study the sample size is an issue, as to make the findings more generalized the sample size should have been larger.

N

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Synopsis Digital Marketing According to media reports, Indian organizations use social media much more than the global average and their counterparts in emerging economies. Our study of social media marketing practices among various social media-‐savvy organizations in India has thrown up some good insights. The study answers key questions that many marketers have in India such as what is the business objective for using social media, what are some of the best tactics, what is the average social media budget, how do you measure social media, and what is the future of social media.

Social media:

• Most social media-‐savvy organizations in India use the medium to build communities

Objective of Social media Engagement:

95.7% of the surveyed social media-‐savvy organizations in India use the medium to build communities and advocate usage while 76.1% use social media as a platform to highlight brand news. Around 16% of organizations, which use social media for both the above reasons, also use it for customer service, lead generation, and research indicating high social maturity and moving toward getting business meanings out of engagements.

Social media platform:

• Facebook most important platform for marketers in India for engaging customers, followed by Twitter, YouTube and blogging

Almost half of the social media-‐savvy organizations are already using emerging

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platforms such as Pinterest, Google Plus, and Foursquare. More than half of the social media-‐savvy organizations surveyed regularly engage with bloggers or online influencers who have authority and strong following.

Social media fit in with other marketing/communications campaigns:

• Social media-‐savvy organizations in India have conducted campaigns where social media is the leading component

Social media-‐savvy organizations in India speed up processes or show special favor for online fans

Among the respondents 87.5% said they have conducted campaigns where social media was the leading component. More than half of the surveyed organizations have speeded up processes or have shown a special favour for their online fans and followers that they wouldn’t normally do for their offline customers.

Organizations engage with their social communities:

• Popular practices

Type of content: A majority of social media savvy organizations prefer to post generic updates instead of brand updates.

Frequency of updates and responses: Social media-‐savvy organizations post multiple updates a day.

Majority of social media-‐savvy organizations respond to fan queries within 30 to 60 minutes on Twitter and within 30 minutes to a few hours on Facebook.

• Contests/promotions: Picture contests are the most popular contests among social media-‐savvy organizations in India — most contests are organized monthly.

• Policies: Majority of social media-‐savvy organizations in India surveyed have social media guidelines for better governance and online monitoring programs to listen to conversations; however, less than half have crisis manuals.

• Tools used: Many social media-‐savvy organizations in India use tools for online monitoring, response management, or managing social media platforms.

• Social media for research: Almost half of the social media-‐savvy organizations in India have conducted research using social media tools to get customer feedback and understand more about customer behavior.

• Mobile: Half of the social media-‐savvy organizations in India have created mobile phone apps and one-‐fourth plans to create one.

Organizations use social media ads:

• Majority of social media-‐savvy organizations use social media ads to promote online campaigns and brand awareness, and find them beneficial

83% of the social media-‐savvy organizations surveyed said that they have used

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social media ads, with majority of the ads being used to promote a contest/promotion or for brand awareness. 88.6% said they find social media ads to be beneficial in achieving those objectives.

Measure social media success:

• Majority of social media-‐savvy organizations in India measure social media efforts through platform-‐specific parameters

81% of the social media-‐savvy organizations surveyed said that they measure their social media efforts through platform-‐specific parameters such as likes, people talking about this, etc. 46.7% of the organizations surveyed said they have not measured revenue from their social media efforts. On the positive side, some organizations are already measuring social media efforts through leads, sentiment, brand visibility and have seen increase in revenue from social media efforts.

Social media budget:

• Almost half of social media-‐savvy organizations spend 1%–5% of their marketing budget on social media, most social media budgets are below INR10 million

41.5% of social media-‐savvy organizations said that around 1%–5% of their marketing budget in spent on social media. Three-‐fourths of the organizations surveyed have their social media budget below INR10 million, while a little above a quarter of the organizations surveyed have social media budgets exceeding INR20 million.

Department manages social media:

• Majority of social media efforts in India are managed by marketing teams

76.7% of social media-‐savvy organizations said they have their marketing

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department handling social media with the rest being handled by a cross-‐functional team/across functions or by the PR/communications team. Other than marketing, 34.6% said they use social media for thought leadership and 26.9% said they use social media for CSR. A majority (70.2%) said they have an in house social media expert in middle management.

Agency structure:

• Majority of social media-‐savvy organizations in India use standalone digital agencies as compared to PR or ad agencies

73.8% of surveyed social media-‐savvy organizations have chosen standalone digital agencies as compared to PR, ad agencies, or freelancers. 59.1% of the organizations surveyed also said that they are happy with their current agencies while 40.9% responded with either a ”maybe” or a ”no.”

• Future of social media:

Social media-‐savvy organizations in India are very optimistic about the future

Social media-‐savvy organizations are very optimistic about the role of social media in their organizations. Though measures such as sales and leads are not very evident for all organizations, they have realized that it plays an important role in generating insights and engaging with customers on a continued basis. Social media has helped organizations to create their own communities of fans, customers or prospects. In the future, organizations hope to focus more on social media and are looking forward greater adoption within their organizations.

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E-‐Commerce

The e-‐Commerce industry was in its infancy for the larger part of the previous decade. However, in last three years, the industry has witnessed an incredible growth of 150 percent. A number of business models for e-‐Commerce have evolved and are in varying stages of maturity.

Online shopping of physical goods in India will grow to $8.5Bn in 2016. Number of online shoppers in India.

Executive summary

4

$2Bn 2013

$8.5Bn 2016P

Online Shopping defined in this presentation does not include travel, ticketing and food ordering – only physical goods commerce

Online shopping of physical goods in India, will grow to $8.5Bn in 2016. Number of online shoppers in India will more than double to 40M.

Key finding

2x Indian shoppers X 1.1x number of orders per year per shopper X 2x average order value

63% CAGR

KEY FINDING

25% CAGR

20M

40M

CY2013 CY2016P

Indian online shoppers will double

Accel estimates and Industry sources

Average order values climbing up rapidly

1. Last year there was a significant jump in average order value as there was a penetration of new categories like jewelry, home décor etc.

2. Also, users are becoming more comfortable buying higher priced items online.

Fashion category doubled last year

$278 M $559 M

$2,811 M

CY2012 CY2013 CY2016P

Fashion + Footwear + Accessories GMV

INR 1,080

INR 1,860

INR 3,600

CY2012 CY2013 CY2016P

Increasing average order value

Executive summary Key findings

5

67%

25% CAGR

KEY FINDING

1.  Last year there was a significant jump in average order value as there was a penetration of new categories like jewellery, home décor etc.

2. Also, users are becoming more comfortable buying higher priced items online.

100% Growth

71% CAGR

1.  Last year was the rise of the fashion category – fashion e-commerce GMV doubled since 2012.

2. Given the young demographic which is shopping for latest looks online and increasing choice online – we estimate that this category will see 400% growth in the next 3 years and rival electronics and mobile category in GMV.




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1. Last year was the rise of the fashion category – fashion e-‐commerce GMV doubled since 2012.

2. Given the young demographic, which is shopping for latest looks online and increasing choice online – we estimate that this category will see 400% growth in the next 3 years and rival electronics and mobile category in GMV.

Online retail is still a very small portion of retail in India Enough headroom for growth Online retail is still a very small portion of retail in India

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Online sales, 4 Mn, 2%

Offline sales, 243 Mn, 98%

247Mn mobiles shipments in India CY2013

Online sales, 45 Mn, 7%

Offline sales, 555 Mn,

93%

600Mn books sold in India CY 2013 Online sales,

$0.08 Bn, 0.2%

Offline sales, $44.92 Bn,

99.8%

USD 45Bn jewellery sales in India CY 2013

Online sales, $0.5 Bn, 1%

Offline sales, $42 Bn, 99%

USD 43Bn fashion + footwear sales in India CY 2013

Accel estimates, Accel portfolio companies and industry sources: CMR, FICCI, Deloitte

GROWTH FACTORS

It is estimated that the e-‐Commerce industry is expected to contribute around 4 percent to the GDP by 2020. In comparison, by 2020, the IT-‐BPO industry is expected to account for 10 percent of India’s GDP, according to a NASSCOM report, while the share of telecommunication services in India’s GDP is expected to increase to 15 percent by 2015. However, with enabling support, the e-‐Commerce industry too can contribute much more to the GDP.

The growing industry will also have a positive spillover effect on associated industries such as logistics, online advertising, media and IT/ ITeS. Currently e-‐Commerce accounts for 15-‐20 percent of the total revenues for some of the big logistics companies. The revenue for logistics industry from inventory based consumer e-‐Commerce alone may grow by 70 times to USD 2.6 Billion (INR 14,300 crores) by 2020. Currently, the inventory based consumer e-‐Commerce model alone provides direct employment to approximately 40,000 people and is

$278 M $559 M

$2,811 M

CY2012 CY2013 CY2016P

Fashion + Footwear + Accessories GMV

INR 1,080

INR 1,860

INR 3,600

CY2012 CY2013 CY2016P

Increasing average order value

Executive summary Key findings

5

67%

25% CAGR

KEY FINDING

1.  Last year there was a significant jump in average order value as there was a penetration of new categories like jewellery, home décor etc.

2. Also, users are becoming more comfortable buying higher priced items online.

100% Growth

71% CAGR

1.  Last year was the rise of the fashion category – fashion e-commerce GMV doubled since 2012.

2. Given the young demographic which is shopping for latest looks online and increasing choice online – we estimate that this category will see 400% growth in the next 3 years and rival electronics and mobile category in GMV.




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estimated to create 1 million direct and another 0.5 Million indirect jobs by 2020. Low entry barriers have attracted many young and enterprising individuals to try their hand at entrepreneurship. First time entrepreneurs have started a significant 63 percent of e-‐Commerce ventures.

E-‐commerce is a small sliver of Indian retail E-commerce is a small sliver of Indian retail

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91.0%

8.7%

0.3%

Unorganized retail Organized retail - offline Organized retail - online

92.0%

7.8%

0.2%

2012 2013

Market Trends Growth Factors Payments BRICS

Accel estimates & Deloitte

Although many factors support the growth of e-‐Commerce in India, the fledgling industry is faced with significant hurdles with respect to infrastructure, governance and regulation. Low Internet penetration of 11 percent as compared to world average of 34 percent impedes the growth of e-‐Commerce by limiting the Internet access to a broader segment of the population. Poor ‘last mile connectivity’ due to missing links in supply chain infrastructure is limiting the access to far-‐flung areas where a significant portion of the population resides. High drop-‐ out rates (25-‐30 percent) on payment gateways, consumer trust deficit and slow adoption of online payments are compelling e-‐Commerce companies to rely on costlier payment methods such as COD (Cash on Delivery). (Access, logistics, payments are part of infrastructure).

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Consumer Behavior

“Consumer behavior is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have

on the consumer and society.

With the reference of above cite; Consumer behavior of every individual is different from other depending on buying choices which is influenced by buying habits and choices that are turn tampered by psychological and social drivers that affects

purchase decision process.

“We’re not aware of changing our minds even when we do change our minds. And most people, after they change their minds, reconstruct their past opinion — they believe they always thought that.”

As quoted above, consumer behavior about decision-‐making is difficult to define and is a system of short cuts and rule of thumb, which is unpredictable. The short cuts in decision making vary from person to person and focusing on the past experience of consumers; we can predict the future trends by bringing profitable products and services into the market. In this modern world, the popularity of interactive media like the World Wide Web is increasing day by day with rapid pace. With reference to marketing it is continuously realized that the main two factors observed due to WWW are:

1) Most of the companies are doing their business online and make their website as showroom of their product and services.

2) Fast increment of consumer segments due to increase needs and demand including online shopping as well.

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Different Online Shopper Personality Traits:

Online shopping continues to gain popularity. Every day more and more people make the leap to buy online. Many businesses wish to capitalize on the momentum in the online retail sector. Thanks to new technology that measures the way consumers behave when they are engaging in commerce activities, retailers are now beginning to understand the various ways that people shop. These consumer insights can provide targeted incentives to those customers, in an attempt to gain their business.

There are many different online shopper personality types, or behavioral characteristics of shoppers. Each has certain traits, and skillful marketing professionals stress the importance of learning each type in order to design shopping services that are attractive to members of each type or customer segment. Because of the large number of online retailers, online shoppers need to be wooed with an online shopping experience that is tailored to their specific online shopping personality type, so they do not look elsewhere for their purchases. The following is a list of some of the most common Online Shopping Personality Types, based on consumer research of online shoppers, in no particular order:

Recreational Shoppers:

Recreational shoppers are all over the place. They flit from one website to another very quickly, and only stop when a truly significant deal catches their eye. You have to really come up with something eye-‐catching if you hope to catch these customers. These are customers that like to click on ‘similar product’ links, and that are likely to spend a great deal of time at your online retail store if your present enough engaging content to keep them there.

Deal Hunters:

Deal hunters are in search of the holy grail of deals. They purchase items used or refurbished if it will get them a better deal. These are customers who might buy an item they don’t actually need if you present them with a good enough deal for it. Deal hunters are also often on the lookout for free shipping deals. Many deal hunters refuse to make purchases at online stores that do not offer free shipping if they can find a competing online store that offers the same product

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with free shipping.

The Flitter:

These shoppers can be ‘the fish that got away’ if you are not careful. One way to keep them shopping is to ensure that the shopping cart on your website remains active for a long time, so that if they are in another window and forget that they are in the middle of a transaction, they can simply return and finish it. If the shopping cart at your online retail store times out and the items are no longer there, the customer is less likely to re-‐add the items to the cart and purchase them.

The Researcher:

Researchers love to learn everything they can about a product before purchasing it online. They may watch a product for a while on various websites, to see what the average price is, so that they can know for sure when they are presented with a price whether or not it is a good deal. Researchers also enjoy reading reviews from other customers, and regularly rely on ratings and reviews when deciding what to purchase online.

Impatient Shoppers:

Impatient shoppers will not stick around if your checkout process is lengthy and complicated. They do not want to waste time signing up for an account, they want to buy their items immediately, and if you cannot provide them with immediate checkout, they will go to another website that will. To capture this type of online shopper, make sure that your website loads quickly, and that your checkout process is as streamlined as possible.

Rewards Shoppers:

Many online shoppers like to patronize the same online retail stores repeatedly. These brand loyalists enjoy customer loyalty programs that give rewards or points for purchases, and love to take part in deals and promotions that make them feel like they are working towards a goal with

their purchases. Rewards shoppers enjoy taking part in SMS Text Message Marketing campaigns, where they can receive messages about sales and

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specials they qualify for send directly to their personal mobile devices.

Hipsters:

Some online shoppers only purchase high-‐end retail brands. These customers will purchase these brands from various sellers, but only buy the very best and premium brand names, and also generally wish to purchase the latest and newest models of items. You will find that these customers are willing to spend a great deal of money in order to get top of the line items that are hot, fresh, and in style.

Day Dreamers:

Some people really love to make wish lists. This type of shopper will typically have wish lists at several online retail stores, and enjoys dreaming about their ideal purchases, but needs a push in order to actualize the transaction. You can convince them to purchase by lowering the price of items on their wish list, so that they can’t help but take advantage of the savings you are offering.

Intrepid Explorers:

Some online shoppers are after one thing, and only one thing. Those shoppers will not purchase anything else and will not deviate from their quest for the specific item until they find it. Once they find the product they are looking for, they may reward you by purchasing additional items from your online store because they are so happy that they found what they are looking for. This type of shopper typically enjoys websites that have search functionality, or site maps that can make it easy to pinpoint the item they are seeking.

Consumer insights are only of benefit to you – if you use it. If you are the owner or operator of an online retail entity, you should definitely take into account the variety of online shopping personality types. Shoppers will reward you by making more purchases, and your profit margins will most definitely rise! If you are looking to increase the amount of customers who purchase items from your online store, you should definitely use this information to your advantage.

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Findings and Observations:

Primary Research

§ FIGURE -‐ I

60%$

29%$

7%$

2%$ 2%$

AGE$

16#25&

26#30&

31#39&

40#45&

Other&

From the figure named as AGE analysis, it is clear that in this research we have 41 frequencies in the age of 16-‐25 with percentage 60%, which is the highest percentage among other age distribution. In age distribution of 26-‐30 we have 29% and 7% fall in 31-‐39 age and rest percentage fall in more than 40-‐45 years old respondents. The questionnaire responses mainly show the young generation, which is actively part of the research.

§ FIGURE -‐ II

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From the above table and figure, we can easily analyze that majority of the males are respondents of the survey as compared to females, we have 72% of males and 28% percentage of females have participated in this survey.

§ FIGURE – III

Among all the respondents 44% are the students, 29% are the professionals, 14% are doing their own business and the 10% are self-‐employed.

§ FIGURE -‐ IV

Majority of the respondents that is 94% of the total respondents are using the Internet from more then 3 years.

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§ FIGURE – V

From the above figure we can see that 55% that is 36 respondents spend more then 2 hours on internet in a day and the second largest majority is of 18 respondents that is 28% which spends 1-‐2 hour a day on internet.

§ FIGURE – VI

Above figure talks about the Internet services respondents used for, so from the given options in the questionnaire we can say that social websites has the leading share that is 21% and communication via email has a share of 19%. Respondents use Internet to do shopping and have a share of 17%, product/service information got 15% of share among the given options and at the end research/education has 16% and E-‐newspaper/magazine had a 12% of the share.

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§ FIGURE – VI

This figure shows that 54% of the respondents like to do shopping from the stores and 46% of the total respondents prefer to do online shopping.

§ FIGURE – VII

This shows that 40 respondents that is 61% gets influenced by the advertisement done by the social sites and 26 respondents that is 39% didn’t get influenced.

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§ FIGURE – VIII

Majority of the respondents that is 33% sometimes use Internet for information prior to purchase and 31% use Internet very often for the same.

§ FIGURE – IX

E-‐tickets got the leading share of 28% where respondents also shop apparels online and got a share of 27%. Electronics and computer products also get the share of 21% and 14%. Respondents don’t like to shop jewelry and furniture online which got the share of 2% and 3% respectively.

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§ FIGURE – X

Above graph says that 37% of the respondents usually spend 2000-‐5000 on a single purchase which is a good amount and 34% spends 1000-‐2000 and the interesting figure is that 14% of the respondents spend more than 5000 on a single purchase.

§ FIGURE – XI

We can easily interpret from the above figure that Flipkart.com has the leading share of frequently preferred pages that is 28%. Ebay.in and Amazaon.in has the same share that is 16%. Fashionandyou.com has the least share of frequently preferred pages of just 5% which means that respondents don’t like to buy from is page.

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§ FIGURE – XII

From the above figure we can analyze that 30% of the respondents are influenced by the best deal factor whereas 28% said that they are influenced by promotions/offers.19% of the total consider EMI option/COD as a influencing factor and rest 23% thinks that buying online saves their time which is an important factor.

§ FIGURE – XIII

The above figure shows that Prices are the major factor which effects buying decision with 34% whereas second leading factor is Reputation of the company with 22%. 19% respondents said that Guarantees and Warrantees effect their buying decision. 14% and 11% of the respondents believe that Product

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description and Delivery time are the factors, which effect their online buying decision.

§ FIGURE – XIV

22% of the total respondents respond that due to difficulty in returning products/items they don’t buy online whereas 19% of respondents have a fear of fake products. Intangible buying is also a factor for 17% of respondents and 15% believe that lack of trust is the major factor.

§ FIGURE – XV

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We can interpret the above figure like 45% of the respondents said that they shop apparel online sometimes and 24% shop rarely. 14% of the respondents often shop apparel online and only 8% shop apparel frequently.

§ FIGURE – XVI

This figure shows that 52% of the total respondents mostly buy T-‐shirts and 25% used to buy Shirts whereas 10% of the respondents buy some other products and 8% respondents mostly buy denims.

§ FIGURE – XVII

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Social networks influence 41% of the respondents while buying apparels and 29% said that Fashion websites influence them while buying apparel.

§ FIGURE – XVIII

The above figure shows that 47% of the respondents believe that Variety of collection is the important factor while buying apparel online and the second leading factor, which 21% of the respondents believe, is Product information. 12% of the respondents said Ease of returns is the important factor while buying apparel online. 9% of the total respondents said that Visual content is the factor.

• FIGURE – XIX

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From the last figure of the survey we can interpret that majority of respondents that is 45% of the total believe that the Sizes and fits are the important factor which effects online apparel buying. Second factor is Quality of product which 41% of the respondents agreed to. According to 8% Quality of fabric is the factor and the rest 6% believe in some other factors which effects online apparel buying.

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Secondary Research Understanding Consumer Online buying Behavior

Researchers have proved that consumers’ decision making is based on utility concept. They postulated that functional and non-‐functional motives are the two personal determinants shaping consumer-‐shopping behavior. Functional motive reflects utilitarian functions or task related functions such as convenience, product quality, variety of product offered and price required possessing that product. Non-‐functional motives include satisfaction of social and emotional needs. They are often termed as hedonic motives and include enjoyable or interesting shopping experience. Prior researches on virtual shopping have suggested that most online shoppers are goal directed and hence there is a dominance of function-‐ al motives over non-‐functional motives. It is important for virtual stores to identify the key motivators that attract Indian consumers in order to determine key areas where things must go right. Below mentioned are some critical reasons derived on the basis of literature review and study of market statistics that makes Indian consumers go shopping online.

A. Product Offerings

An easy reach to the hottest brands of various parts of the world with doorstep delivery and ease of payment facilities in home currency is a great motivator that prompts traditional Indian customers to move online. As per research conducted by a US based research firm Harris interactive about 74 % adult Indian customers go for brand while purchasing clothing or accessories. One other research proved that a large percentage of people turn to the Internet to look for the products that they cannot find anywhere else. The penetration of branded outlets in tier II/III cities is much lower than in tier I cities. The desire of branded products turn people of tier II/III cities to go online as virtual stores have the capability to solve this availability issues faced in these cities. This is well supported by the statistics that says 30-‐40% of total sales revenue of e-‐tailing industry comes from tier II/III cities.

B. Convenience

Internet provides 24/7 nonstop services, which is not limited by time, space or weather. Convenience is a prime motivator in online shopping and virtual stores provide a comfortable and convenient shopping environment. The comfort of shopping at home excites customers but above that they like the medium because it prevents them from standing in long queue. Products or services that may require a long waiting time if opted through traditional modes like movie tickets, train or flight reservations or various banking services have gained easy and huge acceptance by Indian consumers. Although online shopping is new for Indian and they are apprehensive regarding reliability and trust issues, the benefit of convenience particularly for these products increases the total utility customers perceive about using online medium. Online travel hence dominates in total e commerce revenue. 28% of travel today in India gets booked online

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where IRCTC alone accounts for 117 million transactions. Sites like BookmyShow.com, makemytrip.com, flipcart.com etc. understood this motive of Indian consumers and provided them with excellent customer experience, which made them a hit in the country.

C. Cost Saving

It is said that one of the important motivator for online consumers is cost saving. Indian goes online in search of good discounts and offers. It is in fact a belief that Indian E-‐commerce industry is growing on the back of deep discounting. Discounts on product price and free shipping is perceived as a premium for the risk they take on buying a product without inspection and price war among different websites have made it an expected feature. According to a discount site snapdeal.com they sold 300 Gucci wallets in just 45 minutes on a day when they offered 77% discount and on an average they are able to sell 25000 deals in a day. The same fact is also supported by the report of Comscore that says coupon sites are gaining popularity in India with 16.5% of Indian online population visiting these sites.

D. Richness of Information

The most confusing and costly stage in respect to time and money in consumer decision-‐making process is evaluation of different alternatives, which becomes even more prominent when the products are of high involvement nature. Comparison websites and customers information sites by helping customers at this stage not only acts as the first in the transaction series of buyer and seller but also reduces customers frustration by helping him locate a range of products with detailed price and feature comparison without much physical or monetary loss. Indian statistics revealed that comparison sites have witnessed a growth of 25% in 2012 as compared to previous year with 5.8 million online users visiting these sites for their deals. They have 75% year on year and are dominating Indian retail online market with a penetration rate of 15%. Portals and classifieds that provide customized information are very popular in Indian market. Portals attract high traffic with more than 50% of Internet users visiting top portals.

Some Facts of Digital India

• Indian online population grows steadily with a growth of 31% over one year.

• India has 205 million Internet users, which will increase up to 350 million by 2015 in which 61% of the total are men and rest 39% are women.

• India’s online population skews significantly younger than other BRIC countries with 75% under the age of 35.

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• 21 million users visit online sites/social media • 40 million check online reviews • 57 million wants Brand related Information • Fastest Growing Web categories in India

Blogs category showed phenomenal growth, adding 11.6 million new users.

• 86% of the Indian web users visit a social networking site. • India has 950 million Mobile users, which is the fastest growing Mobile

Subscriber Base in the World. • Almost half of the Mobile Internet users are less than 25 years that is 48%

of the total users. • 110 million are active users, which uses Internet on their mobile. • Messaging and Social apps have a year-‐on-‐year growth of 203% whereas

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lifestyle and shopping had a growth of 77%. • 95% of smart phone users used to search for local information, 91% of

the total used to research their products and 54% of the smart phone users made a purchase via their phones.

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Some facts from KPMG report on Emerging Consumer Segments in India (Feb 2014)

According to the above figure, it’s clear that the 87% of the total online population users access the Internet from their mobiles, which is the huge percentage. One fact can also see from the above figure that 36% of the total online population i.e. 164.81 million (Mar – 13) is of age group 15-‐24 years which is significantly a larger share than the global internet users of the same age group. This research of KPMG also says that 50% of the consumers used to buy mobile phones online whereas 25% of the online population used to buy apparel/accessories /shoes.

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The above given data of KPMG report says that there is a increase in Internet penetration in smaller cities which acted as a key enabler for the growth of e-‐commerce in such regions. Share of revenues of the e-‐commerce websites from these smaller cities are very interesting like Jabong.com has a share of 50% from such cities and Myntra.com has a share of 55% from these smaller cities. We can also find that from the research that there is 27% increase in consumer complaints for e-‐commerce firms. There key issues we can analyze are wrong delivery, defective products, lack of warranty and delay in delivery/funds.

Consumer Behaviors Changing Online Marketing

i. Consumers shift to More Sophisticated Queries

As the Internet and e-‐commerce have evolved, consumers have been conditioned to be more specific about what they are searching for online. This increases the chance of finding the exact product they desire. Studies consistently show that search queries are becoming longer. Hit wise reported that queries that were less than three words were declining and those between four to eight words were growing year-‐over-‐year from 3%-‐20%. What’s more, the longer the query the more likely the searcher was to convert.

ii. Consumers Embrace A Visual Culture

Whether consumers are shopping for a camera, shoes or a specific bolt, one way to verify what they are getting is through imagery. Shoppers, bombarded with data, seek the simplicity of images as short hand. Images validate and capture interest, hence the rise of sites like Pintrest, Instagram and others. According to the Search Engine Journal, images ranked higher than product-‐specific details, descriptions, ratings or reviews in driving purchase decisions. Yahoo’s recent billion-‐dollar acquisition of Tumblr reaffirms that search and content companies believe this is the way of the future.

iii. Consumers Rely on the Opinion of Others

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While images help validate that shoppers have found the right product, reviews and recommendations validate the quality of the product that consumers are shopping for. Hub Spot found that 71% of people were more likely to make a purchase based on friends’ social media suggestions and 70% trusted consumer reviews. Social media and reviews engender consumer trust.

iv. Consumers Want the Facts

Armed with the information gleaned from social networks and reviews, consumers want specific details about products quickly. Moreover, they want data—not marketing spin. Customers would rather see “18-‐mega-‐pixel” than “crystal clear images.” This information ensures that the shopper is getting exactly what they want, not an imitation or variation of the product.

v. Consumers Feel that Price Matters

Queries, images, reviews and specs, guide consumers along the purchase path. However, price is critical to that last step—purchase. Consumers are willing to put some effort into this step as is evident by the emergence of programs like Red Laser and the recent trend of show rooming. Whether browsing in store or online, consumers don’t want to overspend.

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Social Media Comparison Chart:

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Recommendations

From the findings from the Primary and Secondary Research below are the following recommendations:

• Target the age group of 16-‐35, as this is the only age group, which has a greater percentage in terms of online buying.

• Advertise more on social sites because consumers are influenced by the advertisement done on social sites.

• Provide consumers the best deal as well as price comparatively to other brands.

• Difficulty in returning of products/items is a barrier/reason, consumers don’t want to buy online. So, brand should come up with a policy to overcome this barrier.

• Consumer expects a variety of collection while buying online, so brand make sure that its complete merchandise of SS/AW must be available online specially t-‐shirts and shirts because most of the consumer buy t-‐shirts and shirts only.

• To gain the trust of the consumers brand must make sure that it doesn’t compromise with the quality of the product and focus on the sizes and fits because consumers had a perception that if they are getting a good deal online so its not a quality product.

• As figured from the secondary research there are a lot consumers which uses and shop through mobile. So, brand should come up with a mobile app through which consumers can browse and shop products.

Instagram for Business Branding -‐ A New Superhero in Social Platforms

While many people are busy promoting themselves with selfies all over the social networks, Instagram specifically is gaining recognition in another arena. Business Branding. As this platform continues to grow, more and more companies are realizing that it can be a super tool to generate exposure for their business. So much so we were inspired to research and share some tips, which will help, make it work for you and may give your branding a boost of power:

START

Get started! First and foremost, get it going. Be sure to optimize your profile… include your brand identification, information and contact details. Create a clear presence and goal for your business through your new super powered social account.

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QUALITY

Make sure that the pictures you post look great! Washed out, grainy, or just plain lousy looking photos of your products/services are a sure way not to sell anything. Also be aware of the background… is there a lot going on in the background that will take away from what you want to feature? Is there a small child sucking his thumb? Watch for things like that and make them fun with a balance of business. CONTESTS Instagram is a great place for contests and giveaways so why not take advantage of it? Create the campaign you want and what you will be giving away, just keep it simple. The most popular types of contests involve users submitting photos of them using your product or possibly sharing a picture that you designate. Don’t forget to promote the right contest #hashtag. REWARDS

Reward your followers with discounts. Most users follow your company because they like your product, right? Why not reward them for it? Happy followers are more likely to let their friends know that they should be following you too!

DISCOUNTS

Let’s say that you don’t want to offer a discount to every person that follows you though, maybe just a select few that always engage with you? Take advantage of Instagram Direct then. Create a group that consists of your best followers and use this direct messaging feature to make them privy of discounts, new products that available, etc. LINK TO NOWHERE

Nothing worse than seeing something that you want and then has to search endlessly for where to buy it! It’s a guaranteed way to lose business as people lose patience quickly, so do yourself and your followers a favor by making it easy. Simply include a link that will take them right where they need to be to spend that money! DON’T OVER SELFIE

Don’t over do the self-‐promotion. Obviously the primary objective is to sell your product but don’t drive it down your followers throats! Posting other industry related photos and even photos that show your personal interests is a great addition, as they can give a glimpse behind the curtain, so to speak. But remember that everything you post, on any social network, represents your

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business so keep it respectable. VIDEO

And don’t forget about those videos. The new Video on Instagram feature is a big hit with its length and filter functionality. Next, be sure to embed your Instagram Video on your blog and website. You know what you’re doing creating that cross promotion between you’re social marketing and your end goals.

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Road Map for Instagram

• Create your Instagram for Business account -‐ It’s easy to make a business account on Instagram.

• Make a business username -‐ Use your business name as your username. If it is taken, choose a username that is instantly recognized with your brand.

• Complete your profile -‐ Include a cool, branded photo, a short informative bio, and a link to your website.

• Connect your account to Facebook -‐ Instagram is owned by Facebook. Connect these two very powerful social media sites to boost your marketing efforts.

• Make an Instagram tab on your Facebook page -‐ this enables you to instantly share your Instagram photos to your Facebook Fans.

• Create a brand specific strategy -‐ Keep your Instagram content strategy focused on your brand’s unique way of seeing the world. Instagram is a photo (and now video) sharing site. Connect your business with your ‘tribe’ on Instagram in a consistent and particular visual way.

Use Hashtags

• Use hashtags (#’s) in your updates -‐ Hashtags are a major part of Instagram. It’s a big way of how users can find you through their mobile Instagram searches. Unlike on other sites (such as Twitter), you’re not limited by character count. Include a few tags (but not too many -‐ or you’ll look desperate) in your posts to get connected.

• Use brand specific #’s -‐ Include your business name in some of your post hashtags. Also, use unique tags for particular marketing campaigns you run. For example, if you’re hosting a photo contest on Instagram, make a unique tag just for that campaign. This tactic both promotes your contest, and it gives your consumers a distinct tag to connect with others participants (so they can see their competition!).

• Use general #’s -‐ Include general tags on your posts, to be found for your products or lifestyle posts. For example, if your business is a coffee shop, and you post an image of your scrumptious latte, include tags like #latte or even #coffee.

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• Use trending #’s -‐ Trends on Instagram can happen at lightning speed -‐ and they are often even quicker to go. If you spot a trend, and it fits with your brand, use it. Your post could literally be seen by thousands of interested consumers in a matter a minutes.

• Explore and engage on #’s -‐ Be sure to keep exploring for new and relevant hashtags on Instagram. Use them in your posts. If they are active tags, take your social media marketing time to connect with users of it by loving their posts and commenting. It can be a very cool way to get connected with (and market to) even more Instagram users around the world.

• Monitor your brand #hashtags -‐ Your consumers are using your tags to connect with you. Be sure to keep checking your Instagram #’s, just like you would your Facebook Page and Twitter mentions. Respond to comments and concerns quickly, and you’ll build happy customer relationships.

Focus on Your Customers

• Make your followers famous -‐ Share follower’s photos on your social sites. Show your customers you appreciate them by acknowledging their cool photos, and share them with your Facebook fan or Twitter followers. NOTE: be sure to ask permission to use their photo first!

• Embed followers’ photos -‐ Instagram now enables you to embed Instagram photos on your website and other sites. Use this, like Starbucks, to show cool images of your brand and product from your Instagram followers by embedding the entire post. Make sure you tell them you’re showcasing their image, to make them feel appreciated, and to get their permission to use it.

• Like your Follower’s photos -‐ Acknowledge your customers’ awesomeness by liking their photos -‐ particularly if they include your product, or emulate your brand.

• Comment on Followers’ photos -‐ Engage with your consumers by commenting on cool product related photos they post.

• Respond to comments on all your posts -‐ If someone comments on your posts, respond to them. This is particularly true when then comment is a question, or even something negative about your brand.

• @mention your customers -‐ @mentioning is another huge part of Instagram. @mention your followers, your customers, and any other user with great photos of your products. You show appreciation for them, and you get to engage with your market.

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• @mention celebrities and other related industry leaders -‐ If your images are about celebs -‐ let them know. They may just appreciate it enough to share it with their followers!

• Focus on engaging your customer -‐ Post images with your customer in mind. Post about more than your product. Make your business Instagram about lifestyle, and authentically connecting with your customers.

Show Your Stuff

• Be creative with your photos -‐ Use filters to enhance your photos. Use cool angles, lighting and other photography tricks -‐ whether you hire a photographer, or learn a few tricks on your own. Use photoshop, Diptic, or photoshake to edit your pics, or combine a number of photos into one.

• Make videos -‐ Instagram now has short video capabilities. Use this to make 15 second videos on your Instagram feed.

• Post photos and short videos of your products -‐ take and post cool photos of your goods to share with Instagram users.

• Show your products authentically -‐ Show photos of your products as they are used in real life.

• Show your products creatively -‐ Be cool and creative on this hip mobile site.

• Show your brand story -‐ post cool photos and videos to show your company’s core values and brand.

• Show who you are -‐ feature fun photos and videos of your employees. Give your Instagrammers a behind the scenes look at your company. This makes you look like a cool company.

• Post fun, authentic videos of your CEO -‐ make your top executives look personable. Make short, quirky videos of them to post on Instagram. For example, get them show one thing they like to do when not working, or doing something fun at the office.

• Share exclusive content -‐ Use your Instagram feed to show photos you haven’t shared on your Facebook, Twitter or blog (and vice versa). This makes your followers feel special.

• Launch a product live on Instagram -‐ If you’re launching a new product, taking your music group on tour, or opening a new store, etc. -‐ do it live on Instagram. For example, the day you launch your product, make a few 15 second videos of you and staff behind the scenes preparing for the launch, and the actual launch with excited customers. Post this to Instagram.

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• Build pre-‐launch momentum -‐ If you’re launching a new product through Instagram, be sure to build excitement. Tease your followers with a 15 second video behind-‐the-‐scenes looks at how you’re preparing for the new product -‐ without giving away exactly what it is.

• Show your post-‐launch staff party (or clean up) -‐ Dare to show you and your employees authentically, by posting a short video of you after a product launch.

• Partner with other Brands on Instagram -‐ Whether you’re a small one-‐shop business, or a large multinational, you have relationships with other businesses. If they’re on Instagram too, partner up, and get them to post your products on their Instagram feed.

• Ask for comments on your photos and videos -‐ If you want more engagement on your posts, ask for it. Questions open up conversations. Ask your followers what they think of a new post you made, and more.

• Ask questions about your business or products -‐ Use questions to get your people talking about your business. For example, ask your Followers if they have used your product today. Add a unique hashtag and give your consumers a hub to share photos of how they used your goods with each other.

• Ask questions about lifestyles -‐ Ask a question about lifestyles or how to solve common problems. For example, if you’re a fashion store -‐ ask what boots your followers would wear with a new line of jeans you have.

• Use “fill in the blank” posts -‐ Make updates with sentence followers can complete. For example, if you sell groceries, create a post with an image of breakfast cereals. Include a “fill in the blank” post such as “I love starting my day with a bowl of ______”.

• Use photo caption posts -‐ Another great way to get engagement on your Instagram posts is through photo caption questions. Take a cool image of your products, or something related to your brand lifestyle. Ask your followers to have fun by captioning it. Tip: You can even make a photo caption contest, to entice engagement in your followers through a cool prize.

• Crowd source photos -‐ Ask followers to submit photos of how they use your product. This could help your business gain customer insight, and future product development research. It’s pretty easy to do, but you may need to up the ante. To entice lots of consumers to give you their photos, run an Instagram photo contest.

Run Instagram Photo Contests

• Run photo contests -‐ To get a lot of user-‐generated content, to crowd source product ideas, or to just get your fans engaged by letting them share their best photos with you -‐ run cool Instagram photo contests.

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Make contest themes that get photos and videos for your business objectives.

• Run Instagram photo contests with cool prizes -‐ When you host an Instagram photo contest, make sure your prize provides the right incentive to get your customers entering, and sharing with their friends, too. The right prize that connects with your market can easily make your contest go viral.

• Run Instagram photo contests with voting -‐ Include a voting element in your Instagram photo contest. This will get your contestants vying for the most votes. They will spread the word about your contest to their friends, and friends of friends.

Make Use of Mobile

• Geotag your posts -‐ Target your local consumers by using Photo Map to tag where you are.

• Bring offline online -‐ use QR codes to entice your in-‐store traffic to engage with you instantly on Instagram. Entice them with group offers and coupon codes.

• Bring offline events online -‐ Are you hosting a live event? Promote a hashtag for attendees to use to share their photos of it.

• Bring online offline -‐ Host an Instagram meetup to engage in real life with local Instagram enthusiasts -‐ and potential customers.

Improve Your ROI

• Post consistently -‐ Regardless of your follower count, post consistently. This gets your brand seen regularly by your followers. They will be more apt to become more regular customers this way too.

• Determine post frequency -‐ You might need to post 2-‐3 times a day, or 2-‐3 times a week. Monitor your account to determine your post frequency.

• Find your perfect Instagram posting time -‐ Not all brands have the same best time to post on Instagram. Not all products do either. Use analytic tools to monitor when your photos are getting liked and commented on. Find out when your hashtags are being used. Then post your fresh content at these most active times.

• Monitor your Instagram results -‐ use third party analytics, or track your followers, your hashtag post numbers, your post likes and comments.

• Continuously improve -‐ Based on your content results, keep improving

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your photo and video posts. If a particular type of image drives tons of engagement, keep using those types of posts. If using general hashtags get your posts interacted with a lot, keep searching for and using general hashtags.

• Keep on top of Instagram trends -‐ Instagram is constantly developing new and innovative ways to engage on this application. Keep learning to stay knowledgeable about the coolest ways to connect.

Running an Instagram Photo Contest

Run weekly and monthly contest because this will build momentum for us, as the contest spreads through “online word-‐of-‐mouth” via our contestants social networks. If we’re giving something away every week, we’ll build a habit in your consumers.

• Goal – To engage them and to build trust/interest among the users so that they can create user generated content for the brand.

• Target market -‐ Our Consumers and the age group of 20-‐35.

• Prize -‐ The prize of a contest is what gives people motivation to enter. o Weekly – Gift Vouchers, Discount Vouchers o Monthly – A holiday trip to Bangkok

• Type of Contest – Photo contest and Video Contest

• Theme of the Contest -‐ Every weekly and monthly contest will be having different themes for example monsoon is going on these days so we can create a theme MONSOON TIME and then later on according to the upcoming seasons and festivals.

• Create Hastag for a specific theme for example #monsoontime

• Make a campaign specific hashtag -‐ Create a hashtag for your promotional campaign. Hashtags are super important on Instagram -‐ it’s an amazing way to connect with any Instagrammer. Using a unique tag for our campaign, we can make a community for our entrants and everyone who enters can see the other photos directly on their mobile Instagram search.

• Make an attention grabbing title -‐ Make a title for your contest that grabs people’s interest. Include the prize you’re giving, your company

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name, and your contest theme. Keep it short and witty -‐ as best you can.

• Create an appealing visual of your prize -‐ The prize is very important for the success of your marketing. Get or make a cool image of your incentive, and include it in your contest and contest promotional material.

• Include details about your contest rules -‐ Make sure you include the

details of your contest, such as when it starts and ends, what the photo theme is, and the mandatory use of your campaign hashtag. If you have more legal stuff you need to include.

• How a winner will be chosen – User having the maximum likes and comments will be declared as a winner.

• Promote the contest via emails, messages, and social networks.

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Appendix

Questionnaire: Consumer Behavior for Online Shopping

Name:

……………………………………………

Age:

o 16-‐25 o 26-‐30 o 31-‐39 o 40-‐45 o Other……………….

Sex:

o Male o Female

City/Current Location:

……………………………………………

Occupation:

o Student o Professional o Self Employed o Business o Other…………………….

You have been using Internet for:

o Less than 1 year o 1 to 2 year o 2 to 3 year o More than 3 years

Time spend on Internet in a day:

o 0 -‐ 30 min o 30 -‐ 60 min o 1 -‐ 2 hour o More than 2 hour

You use Internet services for:

o E-‐Newspaper/Magazine o Research/Education o Product/Service Information

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o Shopping o Communication via e-‐mail o Social websites o Other………………………………

Which will you prefer?

o In store buying o Online buying

Are you influenced by the advertisement done by social sites?

o Yes o No

How often do you use Internet for information prior to a purchase?

o Very Often o Often o Sometimes o Rarely o Never

You mostly shop:

o E-‐tickets o Groceries o Electronics o Furniture o Computer products o Jewelry o Apparels o Other………………………………

Approximate amount you would spend on a single online purchase:

o 500 – 1000 o 1000 – 2000 o 2000 – 5000 o Above 5000

Frequently preferred pages:

o Flipkart.com o Myntra.com o Jabong.com o Ebay.in o Fashionandyou.com o Amazon.in o Other……………………….

Factors influence you to buy online:

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o Promotions/Offers o Saves time o Best deal o EMI option/COD o Other…………………………….

Factors, which effect your decision while buying:

o Delivery time o Reputation of the company o Guarantees and Warrantees o Prices o Product description o Other………………………

Reasons for not shopping online:

o Late delivery o Lack of trust o Fear of fake Products o Difficulty in returning products/items o Risk of online transactions o Intangible buying o Other………………………

How often you shop apparel online?

o Very Often o Often o Sometimes o Rarely o Never

Within apparel you mostly buy:

o T-‐shirts o Shirts o Trousers o Denims o Other…………………….

Which marketing channels influence you when buying clothing?

o Blogs o Magazines o Emails/newsletters o Social networks o Mobile apps o Fashion websites

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o Other………………………………

Factors that are important while buying apparel online:

o Variety of collection o Product information o Ease of returns o Customer reviews o Promotions o Visual content o Other…………………………….

Factors which effect online apparel buying:

o Quality of product o Sizes and fits o Quality of fabric o Other……………………………

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