Marketing and Promoting E-commerce Mobile App

Question: Discuss about the Marketing and Promoting E-commerce Mobile App. Answer: Introduction E-commerce is considered to make marketing and the business simpler through efficient service delivery that satisfies the consumers and the investors. A mobile application is developed for the supermarkets that use the e-commerce concepts and the mobile technology. Franchise supermarket is a major business that is considered in this paper and this uses the concepts of e-commerce and mobile technology (Turban, Strauss and Lai 2015). The marketing and promotional strategy developed for the supermarkets will make sure to promote the goal to offer a mobile application that will facilitate consumers to make purchases through mobile applications. The objective of the current paper is to develop marketing and promotional strategy for the new mobile application of the supermarkets. The developed marketing strategies and storyboard for online advertisement promote that the new mobile applications for supermarkets will use location-based services that will alert the users in the nearby supermarket branches and certain associated services (Einav et al. 2014). Moreover, Michael Porters Four Ps model including product, pricing, place and promotion based strategies will also be developed for the new e-commerce business. Storyboard that will be prepared for online advertisement intends to examine distinct approaches employed by the supermarkets through developing video adverts for marketing the e-commerce mobile applications. Marketing Strategy Proposal An effective marketing strategy is considered to be prepared for the new e-commerce mobile applications through employing Michael Porter 4Ps model. Product- The supermarkets offer a great range of products to all its target consumers. The product mix of the supermarkets identifies the outputs of the supermarkets (Hew et al. 2016). The supermarkets tends to have a diverse range of product mix and also keeps on expanding its product offerings that includes major categories mentioned under: 1. Appliances2. Clothing and handbags3. Computers and printers4. Grocery5. Jewellery and watches6. Health and beauty7. Furniture8. Home services9. Sports and fitness 10. Gasoline11. Health and beauty12. Furniture13. Baby products Along with offering the following products that is found within the supermarkets stores and warehouses, the supermarkets offers certain services that includes photo printing services, payroll services within business services and life insurance within life services. Such aspect of marketing mix indicates that the supermarkets have made great expansion of its products mix to a significant diversification degree (Strm, Vendel and Bredican 2014). The product aspect of the marketing mix affects the supermarkets through defining consumer experience. The supermarkets attain convenience as it offers a wide range of goods within its stores and the e-commerce websites of the supermarkets are developed in a better manner for assisting the shoppers in finding goods those are required by them. Pricing- The supermarkets employ market-based pricing strategy. Such pricing strategy employs mart conditions and use of its e-commerce and mobile applications as a basis for setting suitable prices. Generally, the supermarkets intends to offer lowest possible prices for the bulk or wholesale purchases through e-commerce platform in consideration to the prices set by other supermarkets within the retail market. In such conditions, pricing strategy of the supermarket is deemed an advanced version of the high-low pricing strategy that considers offering discounts for facilitating the consumers to save money (Cao et al. 2014). Supermarkets have made sure that great discounts can be attained if the consumers make bulk or wholesale purchases through its mobile applications and e-commerce platform. If the consumers consider making purchase through mobile applications and e-commerce platform, supermarkets will use everyday low price pricing strategy. The objective of such pricing strategy will be to attract huge consumer populations. Such strategy supports the supermarkets cost leadership strategy. Within the marketing mix, the pricing component serves as the major contributor of the supermarkets competitiveness (Liu et al. 2015). Place- Warehouse-style stores are the major places where the supermarkets sell all its products. This aspect of the marketing mix strategy indicates the venues through which the supermarkets sells and distributes all its products to its target consumers. The major venues of the supermarkets product distribution is through warehouse-style stores, supermarkets online store and supermarkets online application. The consumers of the supermarkets will be capable to find out several products from several stores through employing their mobile application. Moreover, with shopping from the supermarkets mobile applications the consumers will be able to have enhanced options and superior comparisons (Ziliani and Ieva 2015). The mobile application and the supermarkets e-commerce websites are deemed convenient for the target consumers. Moreover, the mobile users might use the supermarkets mobile application for gaining relevant information about the products and for taking a purchase decision. Consumers can also decide to have their online and mobile purchases delivered to the consumers at their doorstep. In this aspect of marketing mix, the supermarkets can make great use of information technology for wide market reach. Promotion- The promotional mix of the supermarkets includes advertisements, personal selling, sales promotions and the public relations (Hofacker et al. 2016). The supermarkets have developed mobile applications that come with special tabs for advertising the products that the business can use for gaining high revenue from the products offered by the businesses. The supermarket use bulk and wholesale discounts as a form of advertising strategy for the consumers those shop through mobile application and e-commerce websites. The supermarkets have also developed public relations advertisement for enhancing business and brand image (Einav et al. 2014). With the advancement of application market, supermarkets can consider advertising through usage of mobile application. Mobile marketing can be used by the supermarkets, through which the consumers can directly click on the advertisement and get to know about the offers or special discounts if they ordered products through mobile app. or e- commerce platform. Social media can also be end for the e-commerce and mobile application advertising (Holmes, Byrne and Rowley 2013). To promote their mobile applications, the supermarkets can get involved in e-commerce advertising through implementing several marketing techniques such as pay-per click ads, you tube channels, face book and other social media channels. E-commerce businesses of the supermarkets also considers advertising through social media channels as this can facilitate the business to generate CPM ads which can target people based on data that they have offered about themselves. Storyboard for Online Advertisement Problem Addressed by the App There are several problems those are addressed by the newly launched e-commerce application those are explained below: Supermarkets deals with issues in expanding their market and easily gain huge consumer base. The current e-commerce application developed by the supermarkets intends to decrease its cost of generating process along with managing and retrieving manual information through digitizing information (Taylor and Levin 2014). It becomes extremely difficult for the consumers to gin any-time enquiry regarding a particular product and view all its product options quickly and getting prompt delivery. Moreover, it has been observed that the consumers have a hectic life for which they do not get enough time to visit supermarkets for shopping and consider ordering through e-commerce platforms. The newly launched mobile application for the supermarkets will help in addressing the issues such as reducing expenses of the store font (Turban et al. 2015). This is because a traditional supermarket might experience huge overhead costs in maintaining a storefront. However, the e-commerce business of supermarkets does not experience such overhead expenses and automated billing through the mobile application can help in cut additional labour cost. Consequences of the Problem Certain consequences can arise because of the problems identified and this includes: The mobile application of the e-commerce business is that the app. comes in just one language. If the supermarkets launch the application, it can be used by it consumers all through the world and this cannot be highly successful unless the app supports multiple languages that will be understandable by all its consumers (Izquierdo-Yusta, Olarte-Pascual and Reinares-Lara 2015). There can be an issue of ineffective user interface that an impact the popularity of the mobile application. The mobile application indicates that it is less interactive and just comes with certain basic features. If the mobile application is not that interactive then it will not be popular among the target consumers of the supermarkets. If the mobile applications sensor is not that high-tech then it might not prove to be user friendly for the consumers. If the supermarkets are not that efficient in offering e-commerce and mobile applications services to its consumers those prefer shopping online because of their hectic lifestyle then, they the supermarkets tend lose its sales (West, Ford and Ibrahim 2015). Problem Solved by Mobile E-commerce Application The aforementioned identified issues can be solved by the mobile e-commerce application and these are mentioned under: The new mobile application of the supermarkets is so prepared that it is quite user-friendly for its consumers and the consumers can easily purchase goods from the application that will further enhance the supermarkets sales (Kim, Wang and Malthouse 2015). For making the new mobile application of the supermarket highly reliable and understandable for the consumers, supermarkets must consider launching the app in multiple languages. This is possible if the deigning of the application is conducted through understand the demographic of users and through launching app in regional languages. To make the mobile application highly interactive the new application must encompass more options along with tap and swipe. Moreover, the new application also includes interactive options much as shake, flip and tilt (Almeida, Santos and Monteiro 2014). As it is a new mobile application for the supermarkets, there must be tutorials, guidelines, instructions for making it easy for the consumers to understand the application in details. Moreover, introducing the thumbnail and icons can also facilitate the consumers in using the application effectively for purchasing goods. Conclusion The marketing and promotional strategy developed for the supermarkets has made sure to promote the goal to offer a mobile application that will facilitate consumers to make purchases through mobile applications. The objective of the current paper is to develop marketing and promotional strategy for the new mobile application of the supermarkets. From analysis of the marketing strategy for new mobile application, it has been gathered that the product aspect of the marketing mix affects the supermarkets through defining consumer experience. The supermarkets attain convenience as it offers a wide range of goods within its stores and the e-commerce websites of the supermarkets are developed in a better manner for assisting the shoppers in finding goods those are required by them. The supermarkets have developed mobile applications that come with special tabs for advertising the products that the business can use for gaining high revenue from the products offered by the businesses. The new mobile application of the supermarkets is so prepared that it is quite user-friendly for its consumers and the consumers can easily purchase goods from the application that will further enhance the supermarkets sales. Supermarkets deals with issues in expanding their market and easily gain huge consumer base. The current e-commerce application developed by the supermarkets intends to decrease its cost of generating process along with managing and retrieving manual information through digitizing information. Along with offering the following products that is found within the supermarkets stores and warehouses, the supermarkets offers certain services that includes photo printing services, payroll services within business services and life insurance within life services. Such aspect of marketing mix indicates that the supermarkets have made great expansion of its products mix to a significant diversification degree. The new mobile application of the supermarkets is so prepared that it is quite user-friendly for its consumers and the consumers can easily purchase goods from the application that will further enhance the supermarkets sales. 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