E-commerce and marketing

RUNNING HEAD: E-commerce and marketing 0
E-commerce and marketing

E-commerce and marketing 1
Activity 1
This report comprises the internet presence and strategy of Coles. The unique sets of
challenges are faced in online shopping. The online grocery is inherently more complex than
other online retails. The grocery store is a major constituent of the retail sector, the online
presence remains in an emerging state. The internet presence of Coles is impressive. Coles is
a powerful grocery store with a projected 24% market share. The website of the company
offers a wide range of product information along with the services like ‘click and collect’
feature. The presence of the company on social media does not clearly allege what it wants to
accomplish (Saha, et al. 2016). Coles is trying and the social network offers supervision to all
the marketers potential of delivering value. Coles uses social media tools on the internet such
as Twitter and Facebook to handle customer replies. The internet presence of Coles provides
informative content. The simple food recipes on Facebook get a large number of likes,
comments, and shares. The company even make use of Twitter to gain some consumer
insight (Abdallah and Jaleel, 2015). The way Coles interact with the customers on the internet
shows that it is curious and cares for customer preferences. It eventually enhances brand
reputation.
Coles is making efforts to improve the customer experience for online grocery shoppers.
Coles online is not perfect and still going on the journey. There is just 2% of grocery sales are
done online which is a very low proportion of sales. It is excessively low when compared
with other e-commerce retailers. The major hurdle faced by the company is in the form of
online operations. It takes time to fill the grocery basket by online shoppers. A fresh shopper
can spend one minute in choosing or searching for each product (Ryan, 2016). This way fifty
products soon become fifty minutes worth of the online grocery shopping. It becomes a real
challenge to maintain the interest of the customers.
The company has incorporated customer’s in store shopping data with an online profile to
address this challenge. The history of recent purchase can be imported with the help of
Flybuys card. It is helpful in cutting the process to twenty minutes. It makes the search and
review process and turns into something which is just adding and updating from the regular
products. The recommendations can also be made relevant to the regular purchase. The
problems faced by Coles in the marketing can be analyzed through the better use of the e-
marketing (Aversa, Haefliger and Reza, 2017).

E-commerce and marketing 2
Increases visibility of the business: The e-marketing increases the visibility of the business. It
can be helpful for Coles to establish a presence on the internet. The e-marketing is supportive
in expanding visibility to a large number of population. It can represent the whole range of
the products online along with the various options (Mazzarol, 2015).
To connect with the customers: Coles can increase the number of customers online by
making better use of the e-marketing. The proportion of customers can be enhanced by
adding the latest features and products to the business. By publicizing upcoming products and
services offers a description to the customers, more customers can be involved in the
transactions. This way, customers can be attracted to the company in the future.
To cope up with the competition: The customers nowadays purchases products online with
the help of e-marketing. It has become crucial for companies like Coles to maintain the
interest of the customers. The e-marketing makes possible to manage the interest of the
consumers by providing a different category of the products. The filter easily identifies the
preferences of the customers (Tan and Carrillo, 2017).
Legitimating itself: The efficient presence online helps companies to show the active
operations of the business. It even enables companies to legitimate themselves as successful
companies. This way, Coles can tackle hurdles in online operations. The company can easily
reduce the time taken to fill the grocery basket (Chong, Bian and Zhang, 2016).
Research and development: Coles can research and develop good keywords which are
suitable for the business. Coles can make use of the keywords to place the site on the top of
search engine outputs. The experts can be hired by the company to enhance the website and
social media. It can even be helpful in reducing the time taken for filling basket and
processing. It is the best way to win new customers along with the experience of the existing
customers. The keywords can easily find the products online.
Coles online presence is comparatively new in the market. The presence of company over internet is
impressive still it inherent more challenges than any other online retailer in the market. Coles is even
facing problem in defining what it want to accomplish on the social media. The company has taken
initiative of incorporating customer’s shopping data is leading successfully. It has reduced the
processing time to twenty minutes. It can increase the visibility of the business; can connect to the
great number of customers, legitimate itself and can cope-up with the competition. The company
can invest more on the research and development to enhance the experience of the customers. The
keywords can possibly find products easily on the website. The marketing problem faced by Coles
like time taken to fill the basket can be easily solved by the better use of e-marketing. The