Merchandising strategy Case Study Web-Design Marketing and Promotion Optimisation

Merchandising strategy Case Study Web-Design Marketing and Promotion Optimisation
February 11, 2015 Rob Abdul

This Case Study is a brief outlook on what you should be thinking about if you want to start a business on the Internet and join the doc com phenomenon.

CHALLENGE

The challenge in this case study is do the following

  • Suggestions for Cost Analysis for a perceived virtual business
  • Design, creation, & implementation of your multi-page interactive, fully functional web site
  • Developing your Merchandising strategy
  • Promotion Optimisation

SOLUTION

Suggestions for Cost Analysis for a perceived virtual business

The e part of the “eBusiness”

  • Domain name registration (.co.uk, .com)
  • Hosting Costs
  • SSL Certificate registration with a CA Authority
  • Payment system
  • Developing your Brand guidelines, logo, mission statement

Business part of the “eBusiness”

  • Registering a Ltd company (If required)
  • Hiring an Accountant to file your records
  • Legal costs may apply (partnership agreement).
  • Supply Chain and Logistics
  • Developing your Merchandising strategy
  • Developing your Web site design
  • Design, creation, & implementation of your multi-page interactive, fully functional web site.

Design, creation, & implementation of your multi-page interactive, fully functional web site

  • Deciding the content of your site
  • Create a sitemap illustration your pages and links
  • Develop templates
  • Validated your templates for quality (W3C WIA)
  • Create a Wire Frame
  • User acceptance testing
  • Propagate content to the wire frame using templates
  • Make a final quality check by Re-validating your pages

Developing your Merchandising strategy

Retail merchandising is a science. Traditional retail store chains pay millions of pounds every year to have merchandising experts lay out stores and handle product placement. Online retail merchandising is no less difficult – but the variables are different. Some of the questions you need to ask yourself:

  • Which products are ideal “leaders” to bring in traffic?
  • Should you use “loss leaders”?
  • How should you arrange your cross-sell, and secondary items?
  • Where will you find the best advertising opportunities online for your leaders?
  • How should your site’s merchandising be laid out for each of your main product types?
  • What types of pricing?

Price is a key component but value is the overall package you are providing your consumer and it is important to review the different aspects that effect this proposition:

  • What is the return policy?
  • How easy it is for a consumer to return a product that is defective or unsuitable?
  • What risk is being put on the consumer?
  • How can the consumer purchase the product and what payment options are available to them?
  • Is it easy for the consumer to purchase the product?
  • Are services offered during the purchase process?
  • Do they fully understand what they are purchasing?
  • What warranty options are available for the consumer to protect their purchase? Are these included or are they an additional charge?
  • How is the product delivered? Can additional services like next day shipping, installation or white glove services be purchased?
  • Is the purchase/delivery process considered a positive experience, something your visitors cannot get anywhere else?

Promotion Optimisation

Online marketing budget

  • Adwords with Google
  • Overture
  • Direct Mail Marketing
  • Viral Marketing

Get listed with:

  • Dmoz.org
  • Yell.com
  • Blogs relating to your site

Offline marketing budget

  • Leaflets
  • Newspaper
  • Radio
  • Referral scheme (Merchandising Strategy)

The Goal of all of these is to bring visitors to your Landing page

On you ladning page you want to:

  • Attract click and drive traffic
  • Retain traffic
  • Make it easy for user to take the desired action
  • If the user takes the desired action it is know as a conversion

How to design a landing page to capture your visitors and lead the visitors to take action?
Interesting Headline

  • Prominent images or graphics
  • Simple promotional text
  • Call to action such as add to cart
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