Introduction: Online marketing to target potential customers

You are an e-commerce consultant and have been contacted by the owner of a large local jewellery store named ‘Luxury Jewellery’, which is based on the high street in a large city in your region.

The store has been established for many years and has earned a well-deserved reputation for selling a range of high quality jewellery items, all made out of gold or silver. These include:

• Rings

• Necklaces • Bracelets • Earrings

A major part of the store’s success is the level of customer service it offers; all members of staff are experts in particular fields of jewellery and are able to offer knowledgeable guidance to customers. This is together with high levels of after-sales and repair services.

The owner of the store has built up considerable knowledge of the luxury jewellery market together with a wide range of supplier contacts and is now keen to exploit this further by launching an e-commerce site that will offer a similar range of items to the store (although she proposes that the store will continue to operate in its current form).

She believes that the introduction of the e-commerce service will enable her to reach wider geographical markets for her jewellery products, whilst also adding value to her company’s overall brand and image. She proposes to call the e-commerce service ‘Luxury Jewellery Online’ (LJO).

As part of her plans for the launch of the new e-commerce service, she has asked you to provide her with detailed information on the following issues:

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• A summary of the potential opportunities associated with launching the new e-commerce service. She is particularly keen to ensure it is accessible for users of smartphones and tablets as she believes that her potential customers will be regular users of such devices.
• How a range of innovative online marketing solutions could be used to target potential customers in new territories.
• How to ensure that the new e-commerce service can offer a comparable level of customer service, support and guidance as that which is already provided in her high street store.
• In addition to the above, she believes there is a significant opportunity to launch an online auction as part of the e-commerce service, since experience with many of her existing customers indicates there is a significant demand to both buy and sell second hand quality jewellery items.
• Prior to moving forward with the development and launch of the e-commerce service, she is also keen to establish what the major objectives of the new site should be, particularly in terms of return on investment and the value it can potentially add to her overall business.

Finally, she is aware of the potential cyber security threats posed to online businesses and so wishes to ensure that good security practices are followed as part of the ongoing operation of the site. She has therefore asked you to put together a short presentation to outline a range of key security-related issues.

Task 1

Make report of that focuses on the business opportunities that the proposed e-commerce service could provide. Your report should:

• Indicate how the LJO e-commerce service could help to increase overall sales and revenue by attracting new customers from a wide geographic region.
• Consider the potential benefits of ensuring that the new e-commerce site can be used effectively by users of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
• Identify and briefly describe FIVE (5) key factors to consider when optimising an e- commerce site for mobile usage (you should use the Internet for research purposes to assist in identifying these factors).
• Task 2
• Produce a report that focuses on the marketing channels that could be used by LJO to promote the new e-commerce service. Your report should:
• Describe the potential role of email in the online marketing activities.
• Consider the role of social media in the online marketing activities.
• Identify and describe one other potential marketing channel that could be used,
• giving the reasons for your choice.
• In addition, the report should explain how the brand of the existing ‘Luxury Jewellery’ high street store could, potentially, add value to the overall brand and image of the new LJO e-commerce site.
• Your report should also identify TWO (2) potential problems if the marketing campaigns for the online (LJO) and offline (Luxury Jewellery) retail activities are not closely coordinated.
• Task 3
• Compile a report that considers the levels of service that will be provided to LJO customers, ensuring that such levels maintain the excellent reputation for customer service that the ‘Luxury Jewellery’ high street store has developed over the past few years. Your report should:
• Briefly describe THREE (3) ways in which high levels of support and service could be provided to online customers.
• Explain the importance of maintaining sufficiently high levels of stock to meet customer demand.
• Outline how effective links with suppliers of jewellery items can help to streamline the ordering and delivery processes and ensure that inventory levels are neither under- or over-stocked.

Task 4

Using the internet for research purposes, make a briefing document report that explains the importance of the following features when selecting appropriate online auction software for the LJO e-commerce site:

• User management
• User search tools
• Customised branding and layout
• Integrated payment processing
• Task 5
• Put together a report that focuses upon what you believe are the THREE (3) key objectives of the LJO e-commerce site, together with your reasons for selecting these specific objectives.
• In addition, you should specify how the success of these objectives will be measured as part of a post-implementation audit.