E-commerce & Marketing: Situational Analysis, Objectives, and Strategies

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This report discusses the situational analysis, objectives, and strategies for managing E-commerce and marketing for AV Direct in Ireland. It includes SWOT analysis, PEST analysis, competitor analysis, and market size.

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Running head: E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
E-Commerce & Marketing
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
About the company......................................................................................................................3
1. Situational analysis......................................................................................................................4
SWOT analysis............................................................................................................................4
PEST analysis..............................................................................................................................6
Competitor analysis and market size...........................................................................................9
2. Objectives....................................................................................................................................9
3. eStrategy....................................................................................................................................12
SIT..............................................................................................................................................12
Chaffey’s 5 S..............................................................................................................................15
4. Tactics........................................................................................................................................16
Sequence....................................................................................................................................17
Integration..................................................................................................................................18
Tools...........................................................................................................................................18
5. Actions.......................................................................................................................................19
6. Control.......................................................................................................................................20
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
References......................................................................................................................................22
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E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
Introduction
The report is prepared to discuss about the various aspects of managing E-Commerce and
marketing considering the business organization AV Direct in Ireland. The situational analysis of
the organisation will be done for both the macro and micro environment by utilizing the PEST
analysis and SWOT analysis. It will not only help in identify the strengths and weaknesses of the
company regarding its E-commerce and marketing strategies, but will also determine the
opportunities, threats and probable solutions that can be imposed for accomplishing the business
goals and objectives with ease and effectiveness. The marketing strategy will be created by
linking with the target market segments and probable budget and action plans will be developed
for implementing the business tactics properly and achieve the desired positive outcomes
(Laudon and Traver 2013).
About the company
AV Direct is one of the leading and most reputed organizations n Ireland that supplies
chemicals, hospitality, catering and janitorial products along with packaging disposables to the
customers for their fulfillment of the needs and requirements with ease and effectiveness. The
company also supplies wholesale goods for the catering and hospitality industries and even to the
health care organizations and public bodies all over Ireland. The company has been working with
multiple brands such as Clover Chemicals Ltd., Araven, GenWare, Zodiac, Anchor Packaging,
Utopia, etc (Mata and Quesada 2014). The most important objectives of the company will be to
attract as well as retain new and existing customers, create an effective online presence, create
brand awareness among the customers, increase the level of customer satisfaction and finally
make the E-marketing strategy and E-commerce successful and noteworthy.
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E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
1. Situational analysis
The situational analysis is done for analyzing the macro and micro environment by using
the PEST analysis and SWOT analysis tools. The PEST analysis would help in determining the
political, economic, social and technological factors affecting the business whereas the SWOT
analysis framework would assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats faced by
the company (Chiu et al. 2014).
Key trends
The key trends of the organization are to manage a good store with complete
infrastructures and at the same time, maintain a proper company website to create an online
present in the marketplace. The company's stores have displayed the good range of products and
services available at both Utopia and Genware, which has aroused interest among the customers.
The company website has been launched few days back only and it has shown a craze among the
customers and it could be seen from the sales achieved by the company during the last few
weeks. Creating an online presence is one of the major recent trends that has allowed the
companies to attract more customers and influence their buying behaviors too. Another key trend
is to involve the social media platforms, which allows huge number of people to check the
websites of the companies and look for the products that they want. The features and probable
functions of the product are displayed along with the prices and discounts offered on the website,
which creates ease for the customers to make purchases. Therefore, these are the major trends
that have been kept into consideration by the brands.

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SWOT analysis
The company has a good brand image and reputation, because of which, the customers
are quite inclined to the kinds of products and services delivered by AV Direct in Ireland. With
its great quality products and services offered, the company has managed to establish positive
mindsets among the customers and through word of mouth promotions, the brand image has
further improved. It has also included social media platforms to remain connected with the
customers and the price sensitive approaches have also helped in setting the right prices for the
products and services. This has not only lead to high level of customer satisfaction but also has
strengthened the brand image, name and influenced the purchasing behaviors of the customers
too all over Ireland (Huang and Benyoucef 2013).
Few major strengths of the company are extensive and best cu0stomers’ services to
provide solutions to the queries of the customers, introducing a wide range of new products and
services in the market, potential to grow and develop with time. The company also has a strong
brand image and reputation, and showrooms that consist of the most advanced technologies and
tech savvy products required to fulfill the needs and preferences of the customers. Due to this,
the company has also maintained a positive culture and become the market leader in terms of
profit and gaining competitive advantage in business as well (Gangeshwer 2013).
The major weaknesses of the organization could be the lack of managing a proper
company website, large market leader competitors, due to which, it had been difficult to survive
in the competitive business environment, smaller sales teams ad just focusing on making profit,
rather than customer satisfaction. The weaknesses of the organization could also be the targeting
of smaller market segments, lesser brand awareness and inability to manage a proper online
website from where the customers could easily access the products and services. Smaller teams
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E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
and only two major outlets of the company present in Ireland could be a weakness, due to which,
the sales revenue would decline gradually. There are not much research and development
activities managed by the organization, which has hindered the development of a future plan for
managing global business expansion conveniently (Bamborough et al. 2014).
The opportunities and scopes of the company include the use of social media platforms,
which can enhance the company’s ability to attract more customers while the need for extending
outside Ireland would also facilitate the global business expansion with much convenience.
There are also other opportunities to excel in the different market segments through entering new
markets and creating brand awareness too. The low rate of tax and geographical advantage could
allow the organization to become one of the major suppliers and manufacturers of chemicals,
hospitality services, janitorial and catering services. AV Direct, Ireland has been serving
countries like Monaghan, Dublin, Louth, Meath, etc., which has also created ease in expanding
the targeted market segments, generate more revenue and increase the market share too (Turban
et al. 2017). As there are no such policies that may restrict the business, the company would
unlikely get affected with the BREXIT and other crisis situations, thereby chances are more to
survive in the competitive business environment.
The threats are mainly caused by the competitors and due to the similar kinds of products
offered by other companies within the marketplace. The lack of managing a proper online
website would also be considered as major threat due to lesser exposure to multiple market
segments. This would not only reduce the sales revenue but would also result in loss faced in
business for AV Direct, Ireland. Other threats faced by the organization could be the complex
European Union laws, rules and regulations, bad climatic conditions, which could delay the
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E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
delivery of products and service and the fluctuations in currency along with economic instability
(Barnes 2013).
PEST analysis
The PEST analysis framework could be used as an effective tool or framework for
analyzing the macro environment and assess the benefits of moving beyond the geographical and
political boundaries for ensuring vitality and competitive advantage in business. AV Direct,
Ireland, could assess the political, economic, social and technological factors with the use of this
framework.
Political factors
The political condition is quite stable and due to thus, it would be easy for managing
trade activities with the other European Union countries while the BREXIT can also influence
the business activities in case the company will want to start global business at UK. Due to the
Government laws, rules and regulations related to the employment contract, there would be equal
employment opportunities for the people in Ireland as well as for the people belonging from their
nations included in the European Union (Niranjanamurthy et al. 2013). There are direct business
scopes and opportunities for the customers as well as the colleagues, which can also help in
meeting up to the business standards and bring excellence in terms of profit, competitive
advantage in business.
Economic factors
The growth in economy and lower tax rates could contribute to the proper setting of
prices along with good economic growth through the improvement of sales and profit in
business. The supply chain activities are also influenced by the changes in economic conditions,

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E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
which has further helped in catering the needs and preference of the customer effectively. The
revision of taxes and fluctuations in rate of interest could sometimes affect the business
functioning by creating difficulties through increased cost of raw materials and resources,
clients’ advertising budgets, which might create complexities during the project cost
management (Mohapatra 2013). Due to the retail account for more than 10 percebt of the GDP,
AV Direct aims to achieve a higher market share through better consumer spending in the future.
Social factors
With the use of internet facilities, the company could easily connect with the customers
and make them know about the kinds of products and services offered. This would also establish
a sense of trust and loyalty among the customers, furthermore customize the products and service
according to the changing needs of their. The company should focus on the present generation
without compromising on their future needs and preferences by utilizing the most effective tools
to target every market segments consisting of different kinds of customers with varied buying
behaviors (Boone and Kurtz 2013). Involving the social media platforms could be beneficial as
well for responding to the queries and feedbacks provided by them on the social networking
websites, furthermore create a positive mindset among them, which would make the company
socialized and more connected with the customers. The company should adopt the Irish culture
and even spread health awareness through the promotion of products and services.
Technological factors
With the technological advancements, the social media marketing could be managed
quite easily, thereby better scopes would arise for creating good relationships with the customers
and responding to their queries comprehensively to deliver the best quality customers’ services.
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This is how; AV Direct could utilize various advanced technologies not only to attract the
customers and influence them, but also to improve the marketing techniques’ efficiency in order
to spread more brand awareness among the customers (Mackey, Miner and Cuomo 2015).
Legal factors
Due to the emergence of many complex EU laws, rules and regulations introduced by the
Government, the company should remain flexible to adjust to the changes in the current market
conditions and provide the products and services to the customer accordingly. There is negligible
impact of Government in Ireland, due to which, the company should remain consumer centric
and focus on managing the obligations to function properly. Legal factors should also contribute
to the management of health and safety of worker and ensuring that the company maintains the
quality standards to increase the level of satisfaction among the customers (Mazzarol 2015).
Environmental factors
The company must consider the environmental laws and acts to make sure that the
company function in such a manner that lesser impact should be created on the environment. AV
Direct, being a manufacturer and supplier of chemicals and other services related to hospitality,
catering and packaging, should also carry out environment friendly practices for creating an
ecological balance in nature and remain sustainable.
Competitor analysis and market size
The competitor’s analysis would assess the competitors of AV Direct such as Dunlevy,
Kendermar Distributors, Nisbets, Brenan catering supplies, Hugh Jordan and Co., etc. The
company should consider the differentiation leadership competitive strategy the most to set the
best prices and even analyze the market conditions properly through surveys. The company
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should also be committed to provide excellent services considering the good quality of products
and services along with faster delivery of those to meet the expectations of the customers. The
size of market is low considering lower expansion in the market and lack of brand awareness
(Iglesias-Pradas et al. 2013). The company though has a good market share because of its
extensive brands like Zodiac, Genware, Utopia, etc. Specific market choices could be the
chemical manufacturing companies and the hospitality industry. The positioning would help in
distributing the products and services in the right market segments and ensuring that those could
be differentiated from the similar kinds of products offered by other companies in the market.
Overview of the market
The market segments that the company serves include the chemicals, hospitality,
catering, packaging disposals and janitorial products. The wholesale goods are provided to the
hospitality industry while other services include sanitary and cleaning services. The ecommerce
services are also managed by the company through the management of a proper website, that can
make more customers influenced and enhance the brand image reputation too. The market
consists of few major brands like Genware, Utopia, Zodiac, etc. that are served by AV Direct to
ensure gaining a good market share and sustain in business. The Australian hospitality market is
highly changing and demographics often change from time to change. Thus, it creates more
opportunities for AV Direct and its brands Utopia and Genware to serve the hotels and
restaurants by providing the best quality services with much ease.
2. Objectives
As the topic focuses on the concepts of E-commerce and electronic marketing, AV Direct
has set various goals and objectives to remain connected with the customers and improve the

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profit level too. The company wants to go online not only to reach a wider group of customers,
but also create trust and loyalty among the customers, furthermore create convenience for the
customers to access the products and services from the website. By going online, the marketing
approaches’ efficiency would increase that should be much more effective than the traditional
marketing procedures while the operational costs would tend to be lower as well, thereby
resulting in saving a lot of money (Fang et al. 2014).
The objectives are as follows:
To increase the number of visitors in the website to 1500 every month within the year
2019
To attract 15 new customers through spreading brand awareness by involving social
media within the year 2019
To increase the overall customer satisfaction by analyzing the feedbacks and opinions
obtained from them and present in the reports
To increase brand awareness and retain the existing customers too
To increase the net profit by 1400 EUR through the adoption of new business strategies
for both Utopia and Genware by 2019
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Figure: SMART objectives (Fang et al. 2014)
The company also has a major objective of getting closer to the customers, remain
connected and ensure fulfilling their needs and preferences in an effective way too. This could be
possible by enhancing the electronic marketing procedures and make sure that the new customers
were attracted and existing loyal customer could be retained as well (Akter and Wamba 2016).
The Chaffey’s 5 S’s has been incorporated in respect to the context for facilitated the five
major components of the electronic marketing at AV Direct, Ireland. The five major components
are selling, serving the customers, speaking, saving and sizzling.
Selling – The use of internet would assist in reducing the operations’ costs largely and provide
more financial scopes and opportunities to increase the revenue through online campaigns. The
profit level would increase when more customers would be attracted through the online
marketing techniques and the websites managed by the company could leverage donations for a
SMART
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charity as well as generate enough funds through awareness among people (Maity and Dass
2014).
Serving - It is important to analyze the advantages that can be obtained by becoming online and
the same could happen for AV Direct. The electronic marketing would ease down the ways of
managing the users and their accessibility to the website, furthermore create positive mindsets
among the customers by making charitable contributions through involvement in a local project.
Speaking – It means spreading brand awareness and remaining connected with the members,
business partners and allow them to access the organization. This would be possible with the use
of mobile technologies and even create a convenient shopping experience for the customers
(Walsh and Ling 2014).
Saving – The E-Marketing would reduce the overhead costs and with the systems and functions;
integration, there could be better customer relationship management system and management of
databases much more accurately. It could even analyze the budget and make a feasibility study
about how much the project could be successful and overcome the issues relate to higher
administration costs too.
Sizzling - With the creation of an online presence, AV Direct needs to make recommendations
about what can be the necessity of becoming a member or what may be the tangible values and
benefits associated with the organization (Yoo, Sanders and Moon 2013).
According to Chaffey, social media involvement could be directly associated with the
better distribution of products and services and even making people aware of those, furthermore
creating more brand awareness. Proper channels of communication could help to utilize the right
kinds of resources and even respond to the queries, feedbacks and questions of the customs

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regarding the products and services that they might have bought from the organization (Yadav et
al. 2013).
3. eStrategy
eStrategy allowed the company to fulfill the objectives properly and even helped in
spreading awareness among the customers to influence their buying behaviors. The company
would also opt for involving the social media platforms to ensure targeting the right market
segments for facilitating the attraction of new customers and retaining the existing customers too.
The major targeted segments could include the chemical manufacturing companies, hospitality
sectors and even the companies focused on the packaging of products. Social media involvement
could also be beneficial for obtaining the feedbacks and responses of the customers and provide
relevant solutions to them for ensuring successful E-Marketing. To make the E-marketing
strategy successful, a variety of e-tools are used such as websites, emails, online advertising,
sponsorship and viral marketing to create awareness among the customers rapidly (Rahimnia and
Hassanzadeh 2013).
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Figure: Costs associated with ecommerce website development (Rahimnia and
Hassanzadeh 2013)
Figure: Probable Budget for subscription acquisition program (Vallier et al. 2016)
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SIT
Sequence – At first, it would be important to check the feasibility of the eStrategy considering
the use of social media and then target the various market segments comprising of the customers.
To target the multiple market segments, one of the most effective marketing strategies could be
the use of social media marketing where social media platforms should be involved and people
would be able to gain access to the website managed by AV Direct, Ireland. There are various
stages are followed by assessing the different principles of the marketing such as product, price,
place, promotion, people and performance (Vallier et al. 2016).
Products- The products of the company are mainly the chemicals, janitorial and pharmaceutical
products and the services related to the hospitality, catering and packaging disposables. The
company also provides sanitary and cleaning services along with healthcare facilities and
wholesale items. The company aims to grow into e-commerce to enhance its brand image and
reputation and meet up to the expectations of the customers with ease and effectiveness too.
Price- The prices of the products are competitive, because of which, it has become easy for the
organization to attract the customers and this influenced their buying behaviors too. The Irish
people are quite price conscious and so to meet the expectations of the customers; AV Direct
managed to set proper prices for the products and services and even provided discounts on wide
range of hospitality and packaging services.
Place – The products are distributed all over Ireland and in other countries too such as UK and
France, due to which the company has immense potential to gain competitive advantage. The
stores in Ireland are located at populated paces, which has created convenience for the customers
to make purchases.

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Promotion – As the organization wanted to grow into e-commerce, so the most effective
marketing techniques could be the use of social media and even allowing for online
advertisements and promotions. The promotions are done by sending emails to the concerned
customers and through viral marketing, which has grabbed the attention of many customers and
let them know about the new range of products and services offered (Turban et al. 2015).
People- The people are the potential customers, both internal and external, who are associated
with the purchasing decision-making. The human resources including the staffs and employees
of the organization along with the end users whose purchasing behaviors are influenced are
considered as people in the 6Ps of marketing.
Performance- The strategic objectives of the company are to grow into e-commerce and manage
an online presence for attracting new customers and retaining the existing customers. The
financial objectives are to generate more revenue in business by creating loyal customers and
through word of mouth promotions influence the buying behaviors of the other individuals. The
performance objectives could be evaluated by measuring the profit margin, i.e., by checking
whether the company had been able to create a wider profit margin considering the previous
year’s profit and present year’s profit achieved. As soon as these objectives would be achieved, it
could be determined whether the company had been performing efficiently or not (Mittal 2013).
Integration – The site should be integrated with offline activity as well so that the customers
would surf the website and look for the products and services in case of network disturbance or
absence of internet. Integrated databases could be used for analyzing various statistical
procedures and developing frameworks to influence the consumer buying behaviors.
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Tools – The major tools used to make the online or electronic marketing successful could be the
use of social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and even by using Gmail, Yahoo,
etc. All these tools could not only act as effective channels for the management of online
marketing but could support the feedbacks and responses provided by the customers regarding
any products and services properly. This would enable more brand exposure and make the
customers inclined with the products offered by AV Direct properly too (Zheng, Zhu and Lin
2013).
Chaffey’s 5 S
The Chaffey’s 5 S’s would allow for determining the on-line objectives of the company
such as growing into e-commerce to increase the customer base and generating more revenue in
business. The five major components of the model are sell, serve, speak, save and sizzle.
Sell – AV Direct could sell the products and make those accessible to the customers through
online purchases. The online website could allow them to look for the products and its feature
and then make a purchasing decision considering whether their needs and requirements would be
fulfilled or not.
Serve- The online shopping experience would provide convenience for them as well as get the
products delivered at their doorsteps once they would make the orders online. Thus, the company
would be able to serve their customers both offline and online and increase the sales (Chaffey
2015).
Speak – The online marketing could create huge scopes for AV Direct to maintain contacts with
its customers through emails, chat support and this would strengthen the relationship between the
business and its customers too.
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Saving – A lot of time would be saved as the queries of the customers could be provided as
comments and the business would respond to that by providing some necessary suggestions
accordingly (Sila 2013).
Sizzle- The use of internet and social media could also make more customers connect with the
business and a positive online shopping experience could be created, not only for the sake of
establishing good relationships with the customers but also for enhancing the brand awareness
among them.
4. Tactics
There are various methods and techniques used for implementing the eStrategy. It is
important to conduct a market research by using the right digital platforms and channels for
knowing the targeted groups and selecting the most suitable channel afterwards to reach them
effectively. The market research could be done through market surveys and by obtaining updated
and relevant information and data about the market conditions to plan for an effective course of
action in online marketing.
The email marketing, search marketing, mobile marketing and affiliate marketing should
be included for making sure that the marketing strategies are implemented properly and positive
outcomes are obtained (Eid and El-Gohary 2013).
The advantages of choosing the right digital or online marketing channel should be
assessed for fulfilling the marketing goals and objectives, furthermore ensure successful
targeting of the market segments and fulfilling the needs and preferences of the customers from
those segments.

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Activities Objectives Tasks Frequency Budget
Email
marketing
The email
marketing
could be used
for reaching
the target
audiences and
create interest
among the
people by
providing
solutions to
their queries
and even
providing the
most relevant
information to
them for
focusing on the
points of
interest (Hajli
2014).
This would
allow the
company to
send emails to
the customer
and interact
with them to
know about
their needs
and fulfill
those
properly.
Every month 10,000
Search Search It is important Whenever 5000
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E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
marketing marketing
could be
beneficial for
determining
the keywords
and then
searching for
the products
and services
for ensuring
better visibility
and smooth
flow of online
activities in the
form of clicks
and
advertisements.
to cooperate
with the
marketing
team and
enable proper
search engine
optimization
for evolving
in the field of
marketing
and its
possibilities
to reach
larger groups
of customers.
required
Mobile
marketing
Mobile
marketing
could enable
managing an
online website
and ensuring
The mobile
marketing
could also be
considered as
an effective
channel and
Every weeks 20,000
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E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
that the
customers
could access
the website
from their
mobile phones
by searching
through
keywords or by
the product
name.
new trend that
had been
growing n the
market at
present for
reaching the
audiences and
influencing
their
behaviors to
make
purchases
from AV
Direct,
Ireland
(Wang and
Zhang 2013).
YouTube It could act as
an effective
communication
channel and
create
convenience
Unique
content must
be created
along with
sharing and
exchange of
Every week 5000

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for the
customers to
find
information
about the
company and
its services
delivered.
information
for ensuring
management
of the brand
reputation .
Facebook ads It could create
popup that
should emerge
while opening
the facebook
page from
where the
customers
could be
directed at the
website easily.
The ads on
facebook
promote the
company
website and
customers
feel interested
to search for
information
about the
products and
services
offered.
Whenever
required
10,000
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E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
The most important e-tool could be the company website, which would allow the
customers to remain connected with the business. The online distribution channels and online
payment processor could be useful e-tools such as Google checkout or PayPal. For the purpose
of online advertising, the most suitable tools for AV Direct would be Google Adwords,
Facebook Ads, etc. These tools would not only simplify the payment process during the purchase
of products and services, but could even target particular demographics. Text ads could also be
placed on specific websites for targeting the users according to the demographic information and
data provided in the list of their profiles (Chen and Teng 2013).
Sequence
By using the e-tools, it would be easy for AV Direct to follow a series of stages to ensure
that the e-commerce business should be successful. At first, it would be important to develop
information, increase the content on the company website, and then link it with the social media
for arousing interest among the customers. It would take a minimum of 7 to 10 days. After this,
the company must introduce the e-commerce technologies and create an app for easy access by
the customers. This would make the customers use the app and even surf through the website to
gain knowledge about the products and services offered along with its features (Lin 2014). This
would result in generating huge amount of traffic as well as manage execution of ads and
respond to customers’ queries through emails and conversations through chat.
Integration
The website could be integrated with the offline activities so that the customers would be
able to access the website when not using internet and check for the products and services
offered at AV Direct. The integrated databases should also be used for the purpose of holding
data and information about the customers, furthermore make sure to use those while connecting
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with the customers and letting them know about the company and its products with much
convenience (Schniederjans, Cao and Triche 2013).
Tools
The useful tools used for e-marketing are the company website, Facebook ads, Google
Adwords etc. while for managing the online payments during purchases, PayPal and Google
checkout could be effective online payment processors. Emails are also used to provide solutions
to respond to the queries of the customers and even ensure that the customers’ feedbacks are
analyzed properly (Miles 2014).
5. Actions
Action plans are required for outlining the actions that are needed to reach multiple goals
and objectives. The sequence of stages that are followed or activities undertaken to perform well
and effectively have been included in the action plan. The action plans prepared could also allow
the activities to remain feasible and effective enough for achieving the desired results and make

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the eStrategy successful and noteworthy. The action plans include major actions to be undertaken
such as managing the time and budget, management of risks, diagnosing the performance and
finally taking any corrective actions (Li et al. 2013). The risk management procedure would
include identifying the various issues that might be emerging and assessing its impacts and
likelihood or severance. Based on the severity, the contingency plans should be developed for
continuously reviewing the actions undertaken and at the same time, facilitate the execution of
strategies to make the e-commerce successful. After the project is completed, post
implementation reviews should be done to determine the areas where successes had been
achieved and the failures too. The performance diagnosis or performance measurement could
help to assess the performances of the workers and how they had contributed to the business
efficiency. This would not only allow for identify the areas of their weaknesses, but would also
created better opportunities for the employee to excel in terms of their performance through
skills and knowledge enhancement (Chaffey and Smith 2013). By providing training to the
individuals associated with the project related to e-commerce, it would be easy for enhancing
their skills, knowledge and expertise level, furthermore allow them to perform to their potential
and implement the eStrategy successfully.
6. Control
A proper action plan would consist of the things that should be done along with the
measurement of success or failure considering the business outcomes derived. To gain proper
control over the business functions and systems, AV Direct could also identify the key
performance indicators or KPIs through the analysis of sales, enquiries from the customers,
subscriptions to the website, rates of conversion and daily visitors in the website. From the
outcomes, it could be analyzed whether the company had achieved the numbers of customers or
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E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
not who were targeted. The company website experienced quite a large numbers of visitors,
which proved that the company managed its online marketing strategies properly and this had the
potential to evolve with time and strengthen the customer base too (Scott 2015).
The subscriptions to the website and the company’s Facebook webpage would increase
and it could show that more customers had been inclined with the company products and
services. The repetition pf customers could evaluate the company’s ability to maintain strong
bonds with the customers and it would determine the numbers of loyal customers too. The more
the customers would provide their opinions and feedbacks regarding the products and services
that they had purchased, the more would be the conversion rate, which could be effective for AV
Direct to measure the efficiency of its project and functions, furthermore gain the ability and
skills to take immediate actions whenever required (Watson, McCarthy and Rowley 2013). This
would clearly represent that awareness had been spread among the customers and customers
would become more engaged with the brand, thereby improving the brand image and reputation
as a whole. For controlling the entire business, AV Direct must focus on the rate of return on
investments and then prepare a budgetary plan, set proper time schedules for achieving the
objectives within deadline and finally check the resources that should be required for utilization
while growing into e-commerce.
Final budget
Media % in total budget Costs incurred
Email marketing 15% 10,000
Search marketing 10% 5000
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E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
Mobile marketing 20 % 20,000
YouTube 10% 5000
Facebook ads 15% 10,000
Key performance indicators
The key performance indicators should present the feasibility of the approaches
undertaken by the company and how it has brought success for the company.
The website has gained more followers and individuals who have visited the website. The
content and information were appropriate and by posting those in the Facebook page, it
has attracted mass audience and strengthened the relationship between the business and
its customers.
The email marketing and search engine marketing also helped in attracting new clients
and retained the existing customers too.
The ecommerce website management further helped in enhancing awareness among the
customers and increased the brand image and reputation largely.
The company manages the marketing techniques through better promotions and
advertisements for enhancing brand name, image and reputation too.
Therefore, these are the major key performance indicators or KPIs.
Conclusion
The report was prepared to discuss about the E-commerce and marketing considering the
business organization AV Direct in Ireland. The company wanted to manage E-Commerce to

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meet up to the expectations of the customers and at the same time maintained a strong brand
image and name to influence the buying behaviors of the consumers. The company faced certain
issues related to lack of brand awareness, inappropriate brand image, etc, which favored growing
into e-commerce for created an online presence and ensure attracting more customers and
generating more revenue. The situational analysis was done with the use of SWOT and PESTLE
analysis frameworks while the objectives were to create an online marketing strategy and
including the SIT to achieve business success. To implement appropriate actions, KPIs were
identified and budgetary methods were managed along with management of risks to remain
competitive within the business environment.
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E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
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