Discuss with THREE (3) relevant examples how the company of your choice is using e-marketplaces to boost sales and marketing and find out the obstacle(s) faced in this course of action.

Example 1: Live chat system

Nowadays, business should achieve customer’s expectation by understand what they want and what they need. Most of the companies choose to use e-commerce to boost their sales and marketing. Alibaba has grown into global leader in online and mobile commerce company in terms of gross merchandise volume. Alibaba choose to use e-commerce to help their company to boost sales and marketing. Live chat can be say as important tools use in e-commerce. It can help the customer quickly get the information about the product.

Alibaba use live chat system to response quickly over the response, problem or compliant of the customer. By using live chat system, it can provide immediate response to the customer as compared with email. Customer can ask the service agent about the problem they faced when shopping in Alibaba. Service agent need to understand customer problem quickly and help them to solve the problem. The way of service agent to reply customer are important to satisfy the customer expectation. Live chat can help the customer to better understand the product and receive the answer immediately so that they can continue their online purchase by using Alibaba.

By having live chat on the site, the customer can solve queries immediately when they having problem when shopping in Alibaba. This can help Alibaba to boost sales and marketing because after the customer get the information and understand the details of the product they want to purchase, they will make purchase in the website. Live chat is the easy way for customer to ask question since most of the customer are available to chat through the day. It also can gain trust and confidence of the customer when the service agent answer their question immediately. Using live chat is faster and convenience as compared with email. Email need to take few days to reach customer while live chat not need. Live chat can response the customer immediately when the service agent be aware of their problem.

 Obstacles faced

In the way to boost sales and marketing by using live chat system, Alibaba may face some obstacles. The obstacles faced by Alibaba is unstable network connection. As Alibaba is the global leader in online and mobile commerce which means that network connection must be stable enough so that the customer can get the correct information about the website and also the product.  Network connection is very important for an e-commerce company because all the process of buying, selling, make payment or exchange information must be done by using network connection. The poor network connection will cause the consumer unable to receive the information provided by the service agent thus cause the consumer lose their confidence about Alibaba. The service agent also cannot receive any of the question that send by the customers.  This will causes the services agent failed to solve the problem and complaint that made by the customer. From this, customer might create dissatisfaction about Alibaba and thus change to deal with other company that may satisfied them. 

Example 2: Grow active buyer

Next, Alibaba can boost it sales and marketing by grow active buyer. Grow active buyer is important for Alibaba so that they can maintain the customer confident about Alibaba. Alibaba can grow active buyer by focus on global imports, rural expansion and Chinese centers of commerce. This three represents the strong opportunities to expand Alibaba’s user base. Active buyer of Alibaba increased by 18 % in year 2016 to 434 million help Alibaba to boost it sales.

Active buyer means that they will visit the website or make their purchase at least one time every month. Alibaba need to retain this active buyer since this is the way for Alibaba to increase the revenue. Alibaba conduct some activities such as in Single Day, also known as “11.11”. This is online shopping days, most of the retailer will offering discounts at least 50%. Alibaba offering higher discount compared with other seller. During this days, the product that sell buy Alibaba are cheaper than before. Active buyer will use this chance to get the products in the cheaper price and thus sales of the Alibaba will increase.

In year 2009, Alibaba encouraged merchant on Tmall. Tmall also an Alibaba platform that similar to Amazon. Alibaba encouraged Tmall to offer promotion on the Single Day as a way to boost sales between two holiday seasons in China – Golden Week and Lunar New Year. Alibaba also grow active buyer by giving promotion when Valentine’s Day and most other popular holidays in China, where the customer will focus on buying gifts or others. Active buyer will be aware of which products offer and share with their family or people surrounding them to make purchase. Action of Alibaba often encourage group purchase of the active buyer.

Obstacles faced

In the process of grow active buyer, Alibaba will face some obstacles certainty. The obstacles faced by Alibaba is lack of man power when grow active buyer. Alibaba need to hired many service agent to solve the problem and complaint of the active buyer to avoid giving opportunity for competitor to bring away Alibaba’s potential customer. This is because active buyer are too many so that the service agent unable to solve their problem as soon as possible. This might lose to their competitor as the competitor provide many service agent to solve their problem as compared with Alibaba. Customer who want dealing with them may be switch to other competitor as Alibaba cannot fulfill their requirement. When Alibaba conduct promotional activities, they need many man power as the active buyer will participate in this activities. In this case, Alibaba need to hire extra man power to solve problem of active buyer so that they will not switch to other competitor. Hire extra man power also can help Alibaba to boost sales and marketing as the man power can help the company improve the confident of active buyer to purchase more in Alibaba. This action is very important for Alibaba.

Example 3: Improve shipping system

Besides, Alibaba can boost sales and marketing by improve shipping system. Shipping system is very important process for a company because it will affect the reputation of the company if the product are delivery take longer time to reach. Customer will satisfied if they receive their purchased good in shorten time and this may encourage them to make purchase again by using Alibaba. This also can give the customer good impression about Alibaba in term of shipping system.

Shipping cost is the important factor for the customer to decide whether purchase good online because some of the website required higher shipping cost. Alibaba offer the shipping cost in the reasonable price in order to fulfill satisfaction of the customer. Customer will continue shopping in the site because Alibaba will help them to save a lot of shipping cost as compared with other online retail shop. This may encourage the customer to purchase more because Alibaba will offer lower shipping fee for those who purchase over the particular amount.  Customer will feel satisfied when they purchased good in the lower price. Although there is shipping fee but it is also cheaper than buy from other retail shop.

By improve shipping system, sales and marketing of the Alibaba can be increased. Because of it lower shipping cost, the customer will introduced Alibaba website for their family, friend or people surrounding them to make purchase. Alibaba can earn revenue in this side instead of offering high shipping cost for the customer. Customer will not make their purchase if the site offer high shipping cost because they will think unworthy. The price of the purchased good is almost same with the retail shop, they will choose to purchase in the retail shop because they still can see and try it.

Obstacles faced

In the process of boost sales and marketing, Alibaba will face some obstacles. The obstacles faced by Alibaba is they need to undertake the high shipping cost of the customer. Customer only need to pay the shipping cost in the reasonable price, while the other shipping cost required pay by Alibaba. The cost of shipping sometimes might be higher because some required fast shipping service by using aeroplane instead of ship. Alibaba also need to form better logistics department since the process of delivery is very important for a company. Mistake will be exist when the order are too many and they unable to send to the customer by time because of in rushing condition. Professional team is required by Alibaba because it can help Alibaba to deliver the purchased good in ordered condition that can avoid uncertainty. If the purchased good unable to send to customer by time, the customer will complaint and loss their confident about Alibaba. In this case, Alibaba need to ensure that there is no mistake done by the employees so that the impression and confident of the customer can be maintained. By this, sales and marketing of Alibaba will continue increased rather than drop.