Message E-Tailing Is Sometimes Called Electronic Retailing

¶ … Message E-tailing is sometimes called electronic retailing devised to sell retail goods over the internet. Since 1995, etailing has been used in the internet discussion and is almost synonymous to e-business, e-mail and e-commerce, and transaction is mainly business-to-consumer (B2C). As early as 1997, major corporations have started using etailing as major methods of transacting business. The success of Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble's, and Dell Computer has been attributed to etailing.

Besides increasing the choice of consumer products, etailing has become momentous global trend as well as becoming the most cost effective method of conducting business. Typically, etailing could be conducted through auction and etailing assists manufacturers to sell products directly to consumers. Despite the success of e-tailing over the years, the cost-effective method inherent in the e-tailing and its global outreach have made the business to be very competitive.

To gain market advantages, and increase number of customer retention, e-traders need to conduct extensive marketing research to remain competitive in the electronic business. Typically, traders need to conduct extensive marketing research to understand the buying behavior of customers and communication is an inherent process that an e-tailer uses to persuade consumers towards its products. Communication is the process of conveying information, emotions, idea, and attitude from one source to the other for the purpose of influencing the behavior of others.

The objective of this paper is to classify three behaviors inherent in e-tailing and discuss the process each medium enables e-commerce. The rest of the paper is structured as follows: First, the paper aims to analyze the communication medium of each behavior and analysis the communication process which include descriptions of the purpose, receiver, sender, message, environment, noise, technology, and feedback. Finally, the study develops a sample persuasive message aimed for the virtual audience. E-tailing behaviors E-tailing behavior is categorized in three key components: product, process, and partnership.

The product level includes the strategies that etailing employs to enhance product personalization to match customer preferences. (Wang, Head, & Archer (2002). To influence buyer's decision, electronic retailer uses different strategy to influence buyer's decision and to gain buyer's preference and loyalty for the products. Price strategy is included at this level to gain buyer's loyalty since it is considered the main attribute of the product. (Florenthal, 2007). To communicate with buyers, e-tailers use various strategies such as pricing, and advertisement via internet.

E-tailers could also use brand technique and promotional banners to drive customers to make purchase for a specific product. Though the communication model, the sender (consumer) starts searching through the internet for a product (purpose). With advertisement, the internet (technology) returns the information with pricing (receiver). Typically, the internet technology gives the feedback by directing sender to the specific area. Through the communication medium, the e-commerce has been able to link prospective customers to specific websites in order to find more information about specific products and services.

The second behavioral phase is process level which includes e-business strategies to facilitate products level activities. At this level, different type of electronic agents could assist customers in facilitating online shopping process. The attribute is that a search agent assists consumer to sort numerous products at a given period and the process behavior is largely influenced by the electronic agent to offer free shipping to consumers as well as offering price comparison and secure online payments.

At this level, the preference of e-tailer is to offer 15-day or 30-day trial services for customers. Other electronic agents may offer live chat to assist customers to make right choice or provide information for customers in order to feel more comfortable about their products and services especially when a consumer is attempting to make a purchase. Communication medium at this level depend on the e-tailer business communication strategy. E-tailer may use live chat as communication medium or using secure website for financial transaction.

To attract consumers, e-tailer may offer a consumer variety of options such as expressing shipping, free shipping or warranty of purchase. Communication model at this phase is reversed and the e-tailer (sender) provides consumer (receiver) many service advantages (purpose) and variety of purchasing options. Since sender (vendor) wants to make purchasing experience of consumer to be as pleasant as possible, the noise transaction will be minimal at this stage.

At this medium, the e-tailer will like to make consumer purchasing experience as pleasant as possible to ensure that a customer returns to make another purchase. The final phase focuses on partnership or the post-purchase phase which is the e-business strategy aimed to develop long-term relationship with consumers. Through partnership, the e-business agent will like make customers to develop loyalty and trust towards his products. Depending on the amount of information that e-tailer is willing to share, different type of partnership could be established.

For example, consumers sharing their preferences with e-business are likely to develop long-term relationship with e-business than customer not sharing their preferences. On the other hand, e-business could form a weaker partnership with consumers through indirect collection of information about their browsing experience or past purchase. The e-business could collect customer feedback through survey or may offer a discount coupon to customer for future purchase, and the aim is to build customer loyalty.

E-tailer could also use cookies to personalize the website in order to make consumer having nice browsing experience when visiting the website next time. Typically, cookies assist an e-tailer to capture consumer information such as name, buying preference, credit card information for future purchase. To increase the loyalty on related products, the e-tailer could use e-mail promotion and the medium of communication implemented at this phase is email and website. Typically, e-mail is advantageous at this phase because it links consumers to e-commerce to facilitate purchase.

The communication model at this phase is that vendor (sender) would transmit message to customer (receiver) in order to make them making repeat purchase (purpose). Email is the communication system that links consumer to the website, and the noise is minimal at this phase and the feedback is available when consumers open the link. Partnership phase allows consumer to be more comfortable when using the new shopping medium. Sample Persuasive Messages Successful e-business relies on persuasive messages to encourage potential customers to try a product.

The technique is to change the attitude, belief or actions of a potential customer. Persuasive technique is a cornerstone of e-business and it assists the.