Recommendations for ShopHere: Enhancing Ethical Consumer Engagement

This report offers strategic recommendations for ShopHere, a multichannel retailer focusing on ethically sourced products, based on a marketing assignment. The recommendations are centered around three key areas: transparency, advertising, and pricing. For transparency, the report suggests engaging consumers through online surveys, such as those available on SurveyMonkey, to gather feedback and build trust, and also recommends proactive communication regarding product imperfections. The advertising recommendation focuses on creating impactful ads highlighting the benefits of shopping at ShopHere, utilizing high-traffic internet sites like YouTube and Facebook to increase brand awareness. Regarding pricing, the report suggests charging higher prices for ethical goods to reflect their superior quality, aligning with consumer willingness to pay more for ethically sourced products. These recommendations are supported by both quantitative and qualitative research findings, emphasizing the impact of these factors on ethical consumer behavior and purchase intentions, with references to academic and online sources to support each recommendation.

Running head: RECOMMENDATIONS 1
Recommendations
Student Name
Institution

RECOMMENDATIONS 2
Transparency
Consumers and potential customers expect high transparency levels from manufacturing
companies. Transparency refers to openness in business operation, excellent communication, and
accountability of an institution or manufacturing company to the consumers of its products
(Blackshaw, 2008). In management, radical management requires the involvement of the
consumers of end-product in decision making through public participation. From the study
results, transparency significantly affects the purchase intention of the ethical consumer with a
Pearson Chi-Square of 611.977 and a p-value of 0.000. Therefore, businesses and companies
should show high levels of transparency in their business operation and the authenticity of the
products or services on their shelves.
I would recommend ShopHere to engage the consumers of their end products in the
product review process at least once a year through conducting online surveys such as
www.surveymonkey.com. Soliciting customers and potential customers’ feedback with their
permission to use the feedback to improve the services delivery, or better company products
creates trust and builds a strong relationship, which eventually breeds loyalty (Lipman, 2013;
Ryan, 2016).
Moreover, I would recommend ShopHere to show their imperfection and make an
admission of improving their products in the shortest time possible through SMS notification to
ethical consumers in case of system failure or delivery of low quality products. By doing so,
ShopHere would not only exercise honesty but also build trust and strengthen their customer
relationships and brand image. The qualitative part of the study findings reveals that
transparency enables customers to determine the ethics of the product they consume from the

RECOMMENDATIONS 3
shelves. Most feedback shows that most consumers prefer buying from companies whose
exercise transparency.
Advertising
Advertising is one of the most efficient ways of introducing new products in the market.
There are various forms of advertisement. The choice of advertisement media is determined by
factors, such as the target audience and the cost of advertising. An excellent, catchy, and comic
advert increases brand awareness resulting in high sales volume (Okoe & Boateng, 2015; Luna-
Nevarez & Torres, 2015). The quantitative study findings show that advertisement is an
important factor that affects the purchase intention of the ethical consumer with a Pearson Chi-
Square value of 569.654 and a p-value of 0.000.
One of the efficient ways of advertising is by the use of ads on the internet. Therefore, I
would recommend ShopHere to create a strong advertising ad that highlights the advantages of
shopping at ShopHere for all consmers and sponsor them on internet sites with high traffics such
as youtube and facebook. Such would create brand awareness, inform, remind potential
customers of the existence of ShopHere brand, and highlight the advantages that come along
with their brand products. Moreover, the qualitative findings of the study show that most
customers gain interest in most products after seeing adverts and lead to purchases.
Price
In a competitive market, the price of a product plays a significant role in the number of
sales. In a normal business environment, people would never pay high prices for a product where
there exists exactly the same product with similar qualities. A significant positive relationship
exists between price and consumer purchasing behavior (Al-Salamin & Al-Hassan, 2016). A

RECOMMENDATIONS 4
relatively higher price than the competitors’ prices is perceived as high quality of products and
services.
The study findings a show that price is affecting the purchase intention of the ethical
consumer with a Pearson Chi-Square value of 375.354 and p-value) of 0.000. Therefore, I would
recommend ShopHere to charge relatively higher prices for ethical goods than the price of
normal goods which reflect the quality of their services and products they offer. For instance,
consumers pay higher prices to buy ShopHere Paint sprayers when there are cheaper sprayers in
the market from other companies. The qualitative study findings of the research study show that
consumers can pay higher prices for quality products.

RECOMMENDATIONS 5
References
Al-Salamin, H., & Al-Hassan, E. (2016). The Impact of Pricing on Consumer Buying Behavior
in Saudi Arabia: Al-Hassa Case Study. European Journal of Business and
Management, 8(12). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hussain_Al-
Salamin/publication/
301753990_The_Impact_of_Pricing_on_Consumer_Buying_Behavior_in_Saudi_Arabia
_Al-Hassa_Case_Study/links/5725bf9308aee491cb3aa505/The-Impact-of-Pricing-on-
Consumer-Buying-Behavior-in-Saudi-Arabia-Al-Hassa-Case-Study.pdf
Luna-Nevarez, C., & Torres, I. (2015). Consumer Attitudes toward Social Network
Advertising. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 36(1), 1-19. doi:
10.1080/10641734.2014.912595
Okoe, A., & Boateng, H. (2015). Consumer attitudes toward and intentions to accept mobile
advertising. Management Science Letters, 833-842. doi: 10.5267/j.msl.2015.7.002
Lipman, V. (2013). New Study Shows Transparency Isn't Just Good Ethics - It's Good Business.
Retrieved 22 July 2019, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/12/11/new-study-shows-transparency-
isnt-just-good-ethics-its-good-business/
Blackshaw, P. (2014). Satisfied customers tell three friends, angry customers tell 3,000. New
York: Doubleday.
Ryan, M. (2016). Teaching the Common Good in Business Ethics: A Case Study
Approach. Journal of Business Ethics, 147(4), 693-704. doi: 10.1007/s10551-016-3303-7