I have to admit I am an Amazon addict. Almost everyday I surf this website looking for new offers in several products and I have bought almost everything through this company: books, perfumes, electronic gadgets and even the case of my laptop are among the goods I have acquired through them. But why have I become such a fanatic of this company? the answer, they have decoded and even anticipated my taste.
Like I do, there are a lot of people that purchase almost everything through Amazon and talking to them I could find several reasons we share:
1. First of all, security. When you buy in Amazon you know the system is safe and that you are not going to experience any kind of trouble with your credit card balance.
2. Reliability: what you order is what you get! this helps to relax the customer experience which it is not a sure thing in the internet.
3. The "wish list": I think this is one of the most successful features Amazon has. This feature allows customers to share their favorite products. This has allowed Amazon to hear their customers as not other retailer company has done before. See link below.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_43/b4152047039565.htm
4. Relevance of the customers opinions: I think it is very brave and bold from Amazon to permit their customers not only to post their opinions of the items acquired through this website, but to grade them. In my opinion this makes easier the buying experience because one can rely in the other buyers opinion and decide to purchase or not. See link below.
http://www.davechaffey.com/E-commerce-Internet-marketing-case-studies/Amazon-case-study/
5. Marketplace: the participation in this e-market encourages people to do business through a safety and reliable environment. It is amazing how easy it is to access to this feature and be able to sell again goods you purchased previously through this website. See link below.
http://www.writing-world.com/promotion/amazon.shtml
6. Post-sale customer service: one of the main reasons why this company has earned my trust and fidelity; it is wonderful not only to receive confirmation of your purchase and to be able to track your order, but to receive news from possible items that generally match your taste. I know this might seem obvious, but every time I receive in my email offers from Wall-Mart or Staple, just to mention two examples, it really annoys me to watch several products that does not match my taste. Therefore these emails go straight to the Trash folder without even checking them.
Finally, as I mentioned in my last blog, behind successful companies like this one there is always an integral organizational system that back up the marketing efforts; so this is not just the outcome of an e-marketing strategy, but the entire work of several coherent strategies.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Is really profitable to advertise in Online social media?
I don't want to be a "party pooper" but, does somebody have real figures that show the profits consequence of advertise, market or whatever term is used for marketing in social networks? Again, I declare myself as an eternal apprentice of this subject, but I think organizations that use social networks as their only way to improve sells aim for failure.
As I commented in Professor Miyazaki's blog, I think e-marketing is one of the mandatory tools organizations must use in order to reach possible customers and let them know the goods they intent to sell, but it's not the only one. Just remember the early 90's when internet bubble started to grow and e-companies began to flourish, based on cheap costs and thin organization structures. The final chapter of this history was the disappearance of these companies because didn't have the structure to back up the sales. Maybe some of you think this has not relation with the subject of this blog, but my point is one organization that wants to sell can't rely just in an internet strategy like social network or even rely just in the internet as the strategy to reach customers; it has to use an integral strategy, because let's face it: customers are more sophisticated now than 20 years ago.
Another point I want to address is the real benefit of social networks as mean to improve sales. I think they can be very helpful in the brand recall, but as I read in Damilola's blog I don't think I'm going to join a group in facebook just to see what Sears has to offers me. If I need a blender, for example, I'll look in the websites of Sears, Wallmart, Kmart and Target (just to mention some of the retailers) to compare brands and prices; and even after that you can be pretty sure I'm going to log into Amazon and e-bay's websites just to get it cheaper. I think social networks are used for social life and unless you are an addict shopper, I really don't think it's going to be very helpful.
As I commented in Professor Miyazaki's blog, I think e-marketing is one of the mandatory tools organizations must use in order to reach possible customers and let them know the goods they intent to sell, but it's not the only one. Just remember the early 90's when internet bubble started to grow and e-companies began to flourish, based on cheap costs and thin organization structures. The final chapter of this history was the disappearance of these companies because didn't have the structure to back up the sales. Maybe some of you think this has not relation with the subject of this blog, but my point is one organization that wants to sell can't rely just in an internet strategy like social network or even rely just in the internet as the strategy to reach customers; it has to use an integral strategy, because let's face it: customers are more sophisticated now than 20 years ago.
Another point I want to address is the real benefit of social networks as mean to improve sales. I think they can be very helpful in the brand recall, but as I read in Damilola's blog I don't think I'm going to join a group in facebook just to see what Sears has to offers me. If I need a blender, for example, I'll look in the websites of Sears, Wallmart, Kmart and Target (just to mention some of the retailers) to compare brands and prices; and even after that you can be pretty sure I'm going to log into Amazon and e-bay's websites just to get it cheaper. I think social networks are used for social life and unless you are an addict shopper, I really don't think it's going to be very helpful.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Facebook: money maker social network
Since the birth of the internet organizations have tried to use the world wide web as a tool to reach the largest amount of customers in order to sell their products. Although at first they accomplish to get significant market share, these numbers started to decrease because companies kept (and still keep) sending emails with thousands of "offers" to the customers inbox which finally ended up in the trash folder, at least this is my case and my relatives one.
When companies realized that publicity sent to the personal emails weren't reaching the target, this is catching people's attention, then they started looking the search engines in order to reach more people in more efficient way and and that was the start of the big profits for search engines as Yahoo, but especially Google. These web companies developed sophisticated algorithms in order to allow wholesalers and retailers to be "found" in an easier way for the customers, but this became a cost prohibitive strategy for SME's that didn't have large budgets to expend as big MNE's.
When web based social networks started, they allowed SME's and even private persons to develop a way to let themselves know to the entire market, but in my subjective opinion, Facebook has revolutionized the way e-businesses have and will evolve. Not only is the most visited social network in the world, but also it is free and allows a series of applications that makes it more flexible and attractive for the regular person.
If everything continues within the same behavior, I think Facebook will grow from a social network to a multi-functional service provider, with the ability and capacity to face other strong players, principally Google and even Microsoft.
Here in this blog I attach a link where you can see the way Facebook can be used to create and develop businesses, even without having one, just by being an intermediary.
http://www.facebook.com/crowdconversion#!/video/video.php?v=165875910880
When companies realized that publicity sent to the personal emails weren't reaching the target, this is catching people's attention, then they started looking the search engines in order to reach more people in more efficient way and and that was the start of the big profits for search engines as Yahoo, but especially Google. These web companies developed sophisticated algorithms in order to allow wholesalers and retailers to be "found" in an easier way for the customers, but this became a cost prohibitive strategy for SME's that didn't have large budgets to expend as big MNE's.
When web based social networks started, they allowed SME's and even private persons to develop a way to let themselves know to the entire market, but in my subjective opinion, Facebook has revolutionized the way e-businesses have and will evolve. Not only is the most visited social network in the world, but also it is free and allows a series of applications that makes it more flexible and attractive for the regular person.
If everything continues within the same behavior, I think Facebook will grow from a social network to a multi-functional service provider, with the ability and capacity to face other strong players, principally Google and even Microsoft.
Here in this blog I attach a link where you can see the way Facebook can be used to create and develop businesses, even without having one, just by being an intermediary.
http://www.facebook.com/crowdconversion#!/video/video.php?v=165875910880
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