• Posted on April 12, 2021
• Unique Submission Team

E-Business Strategy and Implementation

Introduction

The current report is developing a budgeted improvement strategy for the Bookish.com- content discovery and e-commerce website incorporated in March 2013. It a limited liability company that provides its users with a large database of books and authors. The site provides recommendations along with editorial content to its readers. Moreover, this company is also acting as an e-commerce platform for book lovers for buying books and e-books (Mitchell, 2018).

Section 1: Budget Improvement Strategy Document

a. Management summary including outline budget estimate

Over the past few years, the website seems to be a bit off in achieving its objectives which are worsening the overall position of this start-up day after day. It is high time to construct a budget to rectify this situation before the downfall is beyond repair. Budgeting means allotting a well-calculated fixed amount of money for spending it on various sectors of improvements in the business plan of the company.

A particular set of goals must be fixed to be attained in a particular frame of time. It is also important to identify and single out the weak links in the business strategy and come up with a well-defined plan n which will be financed by the budget. It is important to focus on more than one area of improvement to diversify for ensuring smooth returns with healthy growth reducing the overall risk.

The spending decisions and execution of the plan depend on the entire management. At first, the company is required to find the financial stability required for the expansion of the business. For this, the management of the company should look for some new investments say around $5 million which can assist in restructuring the overall organisational capacities of the company.

A budgeting will help in articulating the company vision by devising a strategy towards a fixed set of goals. A fixed amount of budget and corresponding plan will help to predict income and profit in the next fiscal period. The company management is directly responsible to reach the benchmarks against the fixed budget plan. A particular set of factors should be identified where change and modifications are necessary. The management of the company should focus on a particular section of customers that are untapped by big companies.

Further, the management should improve the service quality of its website for better customer support (Mitchell, 2018). Better customer service will promote the company gaining loyalty among the customers which will in course increase the sales. The management should expend some amount in improving the technological resources of the company to provide a new and amiable user interface and features that can create a new customer base (Maher, 2013).

Also, the company should allocate the newly invested amount in a planned manner to gain maximum advantage in the industry. In short, the expected benefits of this budget improvement strategy are effective marketing through new channels; making the website more user friendly and attractive; increasing website traffic; enhancing customer experience to create a loyal customer base; incorporating technology to specially cater to the virtually impaired; putting efficient cyber security in place and lastly releasing reading devices to generated more revenue.

All of these expedited to capture customers and increase sales which will lead to a more profitable business. These are the necessary measures that are introduced for evaluating how many investments are to be made and to determine how the changes are implemented to get better results. They are the important aspects that would be used for determining how the relevant changes in the improvement of the business conduct are decided and implemented for improving the operational works.

The table below elaborates the allocation of funds.

Table 1: Outline of the Estimated Budget

Estimated Budget Outline
Particulars	Amount ($)	ROI ($)
Initial Investment	5000000
Fund Allocation
New Marketing channels Cost	1500000	1875000
Conversion Cost	750000	562500
Traffic increment cost	750000	787500
Technological cost	1200000	1560000
Total	4200000	4785000

(Source: Author’s Creation)

The above table states how the financial planning is done to collect the funds and to increase the costs of the services. There are different aspects that would be considered while planning for increasing the marketing’s strategies and in rendering the expected value of services to the customers. These funds are properly planned so that the best value services and in rendering the exact process to improve the marketing process and strategies are decided and implemented.

The fund allocation has to be properly followed and it is accurately implemented so that the technological factors and the right process to implement the changes in the task conduct and in handling the financial management are decided.

b. Outline of the proposed idea

With the aim to improve the content discovery option and e-commerce business of the website Bookish, there are a few ideas that management can incorporate. The website can integrate a text-to-speech option where visually impaired readers will have the privilege to hear the content of the books they wish to listen to (Schofield, 2017). The users will feel inclusive creating a dedicated customer base. Besides, all the new plants are just so that the customer is satisfied. Satisfied customers mean more sales. The commodity of sales is fixed which eBooks are so the only game-changer here is creating a loyal customer base. Moreover, the company can launch their reading device similar to a tablet computer, which readers need to purchase to access a large range of e-books. The device should also have an audio e-reading option for the better convenience of the readers. Bookish can feature the device with a touch-sensitive facility along with lighted and high-resolution screens.

The demand for e-book reading devices has been seen rising at a steep rate continuously. Due to such, the physical libraries are facing difficulties to generate revenue with printed books. For this reason, it has been observed that libraries in the US have incorporated e-book reading devices into their premises with a collection budget of 27%. Moreover, it has been observed that many publishers have also shifted their operations to e-book publishing from printed books (Kelly, 2019).

c. Review against competitors

There are many rivals of the Bookish in e-commerce as well as the reader’s industry. Since many giant businesses like Amazon and Kindle are also participants in the same industry which endangers the survival of the company. Amazon being one of the oldest participants in E-commerce has put a strong foot in this industry by acquiring Goodreads in 2012 and ComiXology -a digital comic book retailer in 2014.

Amazon is a US-based company incorporated in 1994. The giant e-commerce retailer started its business operation by selling books but eventually grew into a multi-industry business empire. However, there is another rival that has grown into a global company and has a separate reputation in the industry. Kindle launched in 2007 has revolutionised the concept of reading a book by proving a virtual platform to read books on an electronic device (Owen, 2014). Later on, this company was also acquired by Amazon which has given a significant boost to the company’s business operation.

Amazon has successfully kept itself ahead in the competition by such strategic and bold moves. They have successfully created an illusion in the market among the readers that they have the best prices and services. A proper planning process is needed for promoting the products and services in the decided market and this helps in successfully approach the clients.

The strategies are needed for acquiring the relevant changes are introduced for improving the deciding the exact method and techniques that would be used for increasing the quality of the communication process. A proper method and processes are required for acquiring the business goals of approaching the clients and in sharing the relevant product and service-based information.

The internal and external analysis has to be considered as this would be useful in handling the business based issues.

So without a shred of doubt, the competition in this field of business is very high due to giants dominating and being one of the few players for a long time. Other competitors are also in the field like Barnes and Nobles though Amazon is currently dominating. Even if Amazon is only thirteen per cent cheaper than Barnes and Nobles Amazon has more sales all thanks to the bold red prices screaming they are cheaper (Mozendez, 2014).

So it is not a matter of quality and quantity only business strategy makes a huge difference in getting the customers attention.  To reach more customers without being overshadowed by the competitor’s creative solutions and features are necessary. A proper communication channel is required as this would be used for dealing with the business based required for handling the client requirements.

Bookish needs to promote itself from the view of a small business to contend with the big contenders. Readers are also hooked to the usual like Amazon, Kindle, Barnes and Noble just because they have been around for a long time and so they find reliability in their services. So creative strategies will attract the customer to try a different option and if they are satisfied with the services they are back for more.

Now the competitors are not just popular because they have been around for more, they change and update their services and invest in their growth continuously adding new features or utilizing a new technology. But even then this competition can contend with an effective strategy.  A competitive analysis is required for developing and implementing a proper method for evaluating the competitive analysis is implemented.

The above diagram reflects how the company analyse the competitors and undertake the necessary steps to deal with the essential challenges that exist in the market. In this process, the relevance of the competitive analysis is presented, which is the key requirement for undertaking the necessary steps and processes that are used for promoting the services. The internal and external aspects are examined as this helps in dealing with the business based issues, where the client needs and the requirements are properly and effectively conducted.

Through a proper analysis, the leaders are able to deal with the associated challenges, where the required changes are implemented in a proper manner. These strategic values and goals are determined and accurately implemented in order to deal with the issues that arise due to competitive factors.

The internal and external strengths of the company are closely examined and this is used for promoting the services in the competitive market. An in-depth analysis is needed as the leaders would be able to overcome the business based challenges, where the relevant changes are implemented to get better results in the long run.

d. Top-level technology plan including choices for technological component

Bookish is an e-commerce and online content discovery website that should focus on improving its overall technological efficiency along with innovation to make an astounding impact on these business operations. For gaining a competitive edge within the digital business environment it is necessary to invest in technology.

Better technology will offer heightened operation, proper dispersal of content-related information and an easy way of conducting business with customers. Customers can be effectively served by the strategic allocation and positioning of complementary resources. The company should develop its website such that it can reach out to its customers in the most convenient way possible.

Further, the company should bring in technological innovation such as developing software that could transcribe any book into an audiobook (Maher, 2013). This will make it more users friendly and more books accessible for on-screen reading. Besides, the company could invest its resource in some research and development to build an electronic device superior to Kindle 4 by providing an enhanced digital book experience with features like text extractions, media embedding, amazing annotations, and easy sharing options.

A device will draw in more customers and increase the profit for the company. It might even set precedence for kindle if the investment in the research and development of the device yields a more personalized and user-friendly device with built-in new features. However, the company could simply outsource these technological tools and commodities so the company should decide to across whether it should build or buy such resources from the market.

Machine learning techniques

Machine learning techniques are quite widely used by companies in order to identify the problem and then solve it in a proper manner. There are different types of problems that could be easily and properly solved with the help of this technique. With this process, the contextualised experiences of the problem solver go beyond the analysis part, where the data are accurately used for evaluating the type of issues and then resolving the same in an accurate manner. Through this process, the level of predictability and the performances are highly increased, and this leads to an improved user experience that is needed for dealing with different issues.

The right type of application and devices are used and it is properly connected with the internet of things, where the higher volume of data are generated and it would be successfully used for connecting with the people and in resolving the problem in an effective manner.  The data are used for determining how the relevant changes could be introduced for getting better results and in implementing an accurate solution.

This technique is successfully used by retailers and others who are highly involved in the business improvement process, where the historical data are collected and used for the proper conduct of the operations.  This method is also used as it provides the statistical process to identify the issue and solve it BT creating different segments that consist of the data analysis and solving process.

Blockchain techniques

This is another method, where the users could evaluate the challenges and then recommend a proper and accurate solution through this technique. This technique is highly recommended for the companies that face issues with the technology selection and in setting the viable means that would be used for recording the transactions and in doing the tasks in an accurate manner.

The data about the business based issues could be identified and accurate measures to deal with the related issues are developed and introduced with the process of the blockchain process. The accurate process for identifying the problem and in dealing with the associated issues and then recommend a proper solution to identify the issues and then recommend a solution for the same.

The objective is to identify the problem and recommend a solution based on the blocks and then improve the strategic values and the goal settings that would be useful for dealing with the associated issues. With this technology, the direct transformation of the trade assets is identified and the value of the assets is increased within the provenance system.

This makes it possible for dealing with the related issues, where a unique solution to the issue is identified and it is implemented. In this process, the type of the problem is identified and the solution is introduced in the block system. This is the most important part of the problem solving where the necessary changes are introduced for dealing with the associated based challenges.

The best part of this situation is that the users could store in a larger number of data and then use it for resolving the business based issues. This makes it possible for resolving the operational based challenges, where the relevant changes are accurately introduced for dealing with the business based issues.

e. Website improvement strategy to increase the influence for customers to buy

Bookish cannot improve its revenue unless it incorporates the approaches like traffic generation, on-site observation and customer retention into its business. Being an e-commerce business, the company needs to understand the high-level and standard considerations of the website that includes purchasing, stock, supply chain management, control, pricing, profit margins, staff resources and customer service. The focus of the managers should be on the TCR lifecycle, Traffic, Conversion, and Retention(IRP Commerce, 2020).

For increasing the traffic, the company can consider the incorporation of paid search engines like PPC search traffic and content and display networks. Moreover, Bookish can communicate with the customers and increase its direct traffic by focussing more on bookmarked products and repeated customers.

Furthermore, for conversion, the company can offer a diverse price ranged books for retailing, where the shipping cost will be minimum. The customers will be allowed to navigate their order delivery through GPS navigation. Moreover, Bookish can also offer on-site copies of the bestselling books to the customers through events and loyalty programs.

In order to retain the customers, the company can improve its customer service by resolving the issues of the customers promptly. It should also focus on customising the website content by providing exclusive discount offers for the readers.

Moreover, the Marketing 2.0 model is an essential model that focuses mainly on advertising the content of the website through social media platforms (Chaban, 2017). Through “promoted newsfeeds” on Facebook, Bookish can advertise its website to a large range of audiences using the Marketing 2.0 model.

Further, for better visibility, the website can use the model of Social 2.0, which is a social media search engine, which is going to take the content publishing of Bookish to next level by amplifying its digital presence (Brand Manual & Media Kit, 2020). By doing so, the readers can get access to a large range of digital publications of the Bookish website by using a single search engine.

Relevance of the digital marketing

An SEO process is highly recommended for promoting the services and in dealing with the challenges that rises due to the inaccurate information sharing process. The SEO process allows the company to get the below-enticed benefits 0

1. Approach the targeted clients
2. Share the relevant product and service-based information
3. Determine the channels that would be used for sharing the relevant product based information
4. Implement a two-way communicative process that would be used for sharing the product and service-based information

Through the SEO process, the leaders ensure to get the maximum information and share the relevant factors that would be used for attracting the clients. In this case, it is necessary to choose the quality of the information that would be shared with the customers and increase their curiosity to improve the business performance.

The strategic process has to be selected through the SEO process, where the relevant changes in the business conduct and in getting the better and valued services are determined. This was the most important factor, where the accurate process would be used for dealing with the associated challenges that are required for handling the information sharing process.

Through the SEO process, the leaders are encouraged to deal with the associated challenges where the client can be easily get connected with the company. Some of the aspects that would be useful in improving the business performances are –

1. Readily share the business based information
2. Highlight the product and service-based information so that their buying capacity is increased
3. Costs and the product and services that are readily shared as this would be useful in increasing the sales
4. Increase the quality of the client interaction process, which helps in dealing with the best sales process
5. Improve the quality of the client interaction and then render the valued services that would be useful for increasing the sales.
6. Deal with the client conflicts and then improve the sales and the awareness of the products that are needed for providing the right type of information with the clients.

The other option is the selection of the SEM process, where the quality of the communication is improved and the relevant changes are introduced for dealing with the related business issues. Through a proper channel, the marketing and the product promotional strategies are developed and implemented and accurately introduced for getting better results. In this process, the below-mentioned factors are highly considered by the companies-

• Selecting the Instagram modem for promoting the services
• Facebook channels are used as this would be useful in sharing the relevant product based information
• Increase the value for the services, and in acquiring the goals that are necessary for increasing the sales
• Determine the challenges faced by the clients in getting the relevant product-based information and in improving the sales
• Regularise the time by when the information is to be shared with the clients and in increasing the sales and the customer awareness that is needed for increasing the brand name
• Promote the problem promotional activities as this would be helpful in dealing with the client requirements are properly and accurately handled.
• Ensure that the right type of infraction is shared through the selected channel, which is the most important part of the promotional activities that are accurately implemented in a proper process.
• Fast implementation of the changes of the information that would be used for improving the quality of the communication process, where the needs of the clients are examined, and the reliant strategies are adopted for providing or sharing the product based information.
• Implement an accurate process for sharing the product and service-based information and in getting the allude feedback that would be useful in attracting the clients.

f. Storyboard for user experience

The customer journey is generally divided into three parts, which are awareness, the decision for purchase and purchase of the final product (Voorhees, et al., 2017). In the awareness stage, the customers will realise their need for purchasing a particular e-book for which will visit the online website of Bookish via advertisement.

The advertisements must be carefully designed to express just the kind of content Bookish offers. Content discovery by the customer happens in two ways- ads and website. Bookish should use Pay per Click ads because they are easy to make, modify and experiment with. This enables the management to find the perfect way to hook the customers. Next is the website.

The website design and user interface will create a great impact on the customer’s mind. It has to be decided whether the website should be overcrowded with offers creating the illusion of a better bargain compared to the competitors or it should be a simple and straightforward one. Bookish should go for a simple and straightforward one because most of the customers are already aware of the other companies offering the same products bad Bookish is quite new to them. They will do their own research before making a purchase.

Hence a simple clear-cut website is the one for bookish that will help the customer to go from finding the perfect content to purchasing it smoothly. Bookish should try to make a large portion of the content visible to the customer through the homepage of the website, where a filter search option will be provided for searching e-books using appropriate titles, categories or author names. In the consideration stage, the customer will select a particular option for purchasing out of the given range of products.

In this stage, Bookish should provide attractive promotional offers to the customers to support their choice of consideration. Bookish could make direct sales without promotions but promotions will encourage customers to buy out of their comfort zone. Anything new is confusing and not very reassuring to cust6omers.

Promotions will help counteract that create long term success by bringing in more customers resulting in more profits. Lastly, in the stage of decision, the customer will purchase the book by accepting the promotional offers provided by the company. Planned promotional activities are needed as this enables the leaders to apprehend the client needs and then provide the relevant and useful facts.

In the promotional activities, it is necessary to indulge in the best information sharing process where the clients requirement to get the required facts would be collected and properly shared with the clients. This is an important aspect where the needs of the clients are accurately and properly shared with the clients and the relevant curiosity is created as this helps in dealing with the changing business requirements.

The promotional activities have to be –

1. Simple and effective
2. Strategically prepared
3. Accurately implemented
4. Deal with the business based issues, where the right type of information is properly and accurately shared with the information.
5. Share the facts and the product based information as this would be used for getting better results.

It has been observed that in the e-book retailing industry, companies have always put more focus on customer experience by designing the website innovatively. Moreover, by using the capture strategy, the company should offer its products at high as well as low prices based on the demand (Gilbert, 2015).

For enhancing the customer experience, the company should include some details of the products beyond the home page that will assist users to make a repeated purchase. The design of the website should be simple and easily accessible so that users with a wide age range can access the website. The right strategies for website creation are designed and implemented and the accurate process for getting the customer involved is planned and implemented.

This is the most important part of the strategies where the marketing strategies are developed and accurate measures are implemented. In order to get better results, the strategic values for marketing the products and in getting the client attention are done, and this helps in getting the customers engaged in the task conduct.

There are different strategies and processes that are associated with goal setting and in implementing the relevant changes that are required for handling the business based challenges. The proper planning process is needed as this would be useful in dealing with the operational based issues, where the necessary changes are introduced for getting the expected results.

The last step of the customer’s journey is making the purchase. With purchase comes payment options and customer service. The whole process should be simple and clutter-free to ensure a smooth journey for the customer. The check-out process must have as few steps as possible so that once a customer decides to make a purchase he should be easily led to the payment and check out option. If the checkout process is lengthy and confusing a customer will abandon the transaction. So the key here is to ask for only the essential information from the customer.

Now a day’s mane eCommerce sites have made it obligatory for the customers to create a profile before making any purchase. This is irritating to some customers because that means accessing the email and verifying and maybe some other steps. So even though the website will have an option to create a profile, it should not be mandatory but customers should be encouraged to open a profile rather forcing them into it.

Another trick into capturing the customer in making the purchase is to send them abandonment emails for the products t5hey checked out or added to the cart but never got around to buying it. They are just one click away from making the purchase and they are interested in the particular eBook. So sending them emails will reinstall their interest and lead to a purchase3. The website will have various purchasing options for payment.

Lack of adequate payment options again leads to the abandonment at the moment of purchase because different people use different modes of payment. So a wide range of common payment options will be available so that no customer leaves without purchasing just or the issue of inconvenience. After the purchase is made the customer service will ensure the product was received and enjoyed by the customer.

This simple process makes the customer feel physical satisfaction with the virtual service ready to resolve any issues and committed to making the experience a better one. This is also what makes the customer return for making more purchases because now trust has been built and there’s no fear of any hassle.

Next comes personalization and rewarding returning customers. This will create a more loyal customer base because they will look forward to gaining more reward points. Personalization will cater to the customers’ individual choices. For example, leading him to contents according to his preferences based on the purchase he made or the contents he checked out.

This will accelerate the decision-making process because his choice of contents is already displayed to him without needing him to search extensively to find something of his choice. Often customers get frustrated if they have to keep searching without yielding any result satisfying their choice and leading them to not making a purchase. So various features will be available in the website for making the experience a more personalized one.

The website will also have features like a history of all the purchases made, all the books checked and what’s new in trend. Besides being simple the website will be fun to use engaging the customer to spend more time on it leading to making him spend more money. Other special services enjoyed by the customer will be special birthday discounts or discounts on special occasions.

A feedback and review section will also be there so that any dissatisfactions and concerns can be resolved swiftly. After building a lasting relationship with the3 customers comes the reading devices. The special features for the visually impaired and text to audio features will attract a targeted clientele increasing sales as well as promoting the brand for then-innovative special features.

The device will have a large number of eBooks accessible and features for annotations, adding notes even sharing g highlighted texts again making the interface super friendly to readers and fun as well. More and more customers will be intrigued to buy the device not only for the vast collection of books but because it will keep them engaged in a fun way.

g. Security management and technology decisions

Due to the abundance of personal and financial data in e-commerce sites, it is important to take proper measures for security incorporating technology. A security breach might shake the very foundation of the business losing its clientele and creating a bad reputation for it. Trust once gone is very difficult to regain. So the company should fortify its firewall, servers, and websites from all the malware and cyber threats.

The company should enforce a strong security protocol to maintain the confidentiality of the information regarding its customers. The company must use an encrypted login page to stop data theft and store data that are relevant for the business Apart from this, Bookish should choose a reputable and secure web hosting company for its websites and must store data in any backup form available.

As for its employees, the company should protect from any unauthorised access by a person or any device to the main server. Moreover, the company should organise its database or applications in a structural format and should remove all the files or data which are obsolete. The management team should update its website from time to time and review all the plugins and third-party integration.

This security management is an ongoing process that should be reviewed and accessed regularly (Raghavan, Desai and Rajkumar, 2017). A proper security process is needed as the leaders would be able to deal with the business based issues, where the below-mentioned tasks could be considered –

1. develop a proper security factor
2. communalise the procedure with the members
3. ensure that there are fewer involved in techs security conduct process
4. ensure that the risks based factors are properly and accurately conducted and the associated challenges are designed
5. introduce a proper system that would be used for dealing with the infraction sharing risks that affect the task conduct
6. develop a proper strategy that would be used for dealing with the associated issues that are related to the security factors
7. Analyse the tie needed for the conduct of the risks and in implementing the reliant changes.

h. A critical review of the feasibility

The company, to incorporate the strategies for improvement should assess the feasibility of the ideas. By incorporating a text-to-speech facility for its e-books, books can develop software through which it can convert the e-books to audio. The software will be able to convert any book to speech and thus, it can satisfy the different preferences of the customers by winding its range.

Moreover, by developing its software using advanced technology, the company can reduce its cost and will pay the minimum amount of publishing the e-books to the publishers. Therefore, this strategy to make audio reading is feasible for the company. Moreover, if the company develop their e-book reading tablet, it will able to improve its revenue with the sale of those devices.

It will also give a competitive edge to the company. Moreover, for developing the website, the capture strategy will be feasible, as it will offer customers to purchase e-books and hardcopies at a reasonable rate depending on the demand. However, it has been observed that the competitors of Bookish are also using the same strategy for attracting new customers, which might act as a barrier to Bookish. To over such barriers, the company should reach the maximum audience by utilising the Marketing 2.0 and Social 2.0 model.

Proper static planning is reared as this would be useful in securing the information and in providing the best information that would be useful in promoting the services. The strategies adopted have to be effective as this would help in handling the various business-based issues, where the relevant factors are accurately introduced.

In the policy formation strategies, the management develops and introduce a proper method and processes that would be used for collecting and sharing the relevant information with the clients. It is an essential factor that would be useful in sharing the relevant information. Some of the aspects that are considered are –

1. evaluate the relevant changes that are enquired for securing the information
2. develop the best strategies that would be used for increasing the quality of the fact information
3. analyse the relevance of the system that is beige selected for the conduct of the research work
4. introduce a proper system and in implementing the better process that would be used for increasing the quality of the information sharing
5. Analyse how the acceptable system could be adopted and implemented by the management.

Section 2: Extensive Justification Document

Due to the emergence of information and communication technology, the electronic book is now easily available to the readers or purchaser through various mediums such as e-readers with electronic ink, smartphones, and tablets. Almost everyone is hooked on their devices now which have become an impertinent part of our life.

With access to devices comes portability. Any avid or casual reader would love to read a book on the go. There’s never enough free time on hand for going through a paperback. Carrying around physical books is also impossible which is why the ebook culture has gained popularity due to the ease of portability. Not to mention the ease of accessibility. Any book is available for download just with a click.

On top of that, there are various features to make the experience of reading a book more fun. With access to e-books through websites and e-reader, the trend of the book market has changed significantly. People, nowadays have shifted from paperback books to electronic readings with the help of the Internet. The Internet plays a vital role in e-book marketing as the books are readable only over devices that are connected with the Internet.

The internet is either provided by the telecommunication provider or broadband Wi-Fi service provider. Moreover, it has been found that these e-books that are readable on devices can be found in the marketplaces like internet libraries, e-book retailing company websites and even traditional libraries are having them to retain the customers (Zubac and Tominac, 2014). Hence, the internet trend in the e-book retailing domain is significantly rising.

It is very difficult for Bookish to compete globally. Thus, operating in the local areas and providing the local literature and books would help in tapping some untapped resources. Focusing on a local base will offer something more intimate and interesting to the customers. It will create a loyal community of readers who will feel a connection with the specific content.

Moreover, the management needs to improve its customer service quality as it is one of the basic pillars of e-commerce business which can improve the review of the website in its customer base and help in making amiable and loyal customers. Customer service is crucial to the success of any e-commerce business.

There are many eBook services out there. To really stand out customer service is the key. With a large number of customers due to easy accessibility, communication with the actual brand is limited. A lack of personal interaction between the customers and the company leads to customer frustration. It is common to often run into issues for the customers. There must be easy accessibility to a system or representative that will respond swiftly and resolve the issue.

When customer concerns are left unanswered or responded to not quickly enough, the customers don’t opt to make any further purchases no matter how good the contents are than the other competitors. It is actually more costly to attract new customers than retaining existing customers. So excellent customer service will increase the sales and profits. Further, creating a loyal customer base at a smaller scale is less challenging than creating on a large scale which is why the management should focus its business operation on local areas.

Also, the costs incurred in this estimated budget are apportioned bases on the level of the requirement by the management. In this the marketing and technological needs of the company’s prioritized due to the objectives set up by the Bookish top-level management.

Amidst all the improvement strategies and alterations in the business plan, the first and foremost is drawing in customers. PPC is the key here. PPC enables small businesses to compete with the big ones. Content discovery leads to scaling sales. For bookish to thrive with PPC and limited budget finding the right keywords and targeted managed placements will help in successful customer acquisition.

Finding the right keywords mean hyper-targeted keyword niches that catch the reader’s attention compelling the person to check it out. For properly targeted placements, researching demographics yield the perfect strategy. This ensures the target customers can be effectively reached. PPC has been emphasized here because rather than advertising to just everyone PPC only shows up to the target audience.

Also, PPC makes it easier for the company to regulate how much of the budget is to be utilized for it as well as changing the budget as per need. This flexibility on the spending limit helps the company to budget more effectively and also to test out different approaches. If one isn’t good enough it can be discontinued. On the contrary, based on analytics if the perfect ad can be identified the brand can be promoted to a large audience effectively. This process requires relevant data to be analysed continuously.

When this step is a success, the organic traffic on the website goes higher. The increased traffic gets more business done by gaining more exposure. A problem with not so well known or small businesses is that they are confines within their own community or customer base. People who aren’t aware of the company will never look for the company. But as explained if the target clientele looks for related keywords the PPC ad will pop up in their feeds.

Even if they are not interested at first it creates a curiosity among the customers creating brand awareness. Now they know about the company they never heard of before.  Gradually they check it out even if to feed their curiosity only and that is budget well utilized. When the customers are in the consideration stage they have already been influenced and encouraged to make a purchase. If they get satisfactory service they are coming back. Another benefit of PPC is the data can be documented, accessed and analysed for formulating a more effective strategy.

Considering the latest trend and the key features adopted by the rival e-book retailers, Bookish has been suggested to adopt the audible book reading into its website. The main reason behind this idea is to expand the target customer base to people who are visually impaired. As discussed before the competitors are ahead in the game because of their ever-changing strategies which are constantly updating.

So incorporating new features will help bookish to up its game in the competition. The text-to-speech facility will provide visually impaired people with equal opportunity to read their favourite books. Moreover, if Bookish builds an e-book reader, it can compete with the biggest e-book reader, Kindle (Bounie, et al., 2013). The e-book reader will also drive more revenue to the company. One of the major reasons for the success of Amazon in this industry is Amazon already has the advantage of catering to diverse customers which helps it in selling more and more books across the globe.

However, Kindle has explored and innovated its product and services by providing virtual books or e-books which has now overthrown the demand for physical books. The company also provides a designated e tab that gives a better reading experience to its consumers (Owen, 2014). Further, the acquisition of big companies like Goodreads and ComiXology in this sector made Amazon almost invisible as it proves diversity along with its global reach.

One of the main reasons for the Bookish to improve its technological infrastructure is its rivals’ technological strengths. The technological strength needs to be enhanced for better personalization, a friendlier user interface and easily accessible customer services. Personalization sets a company apart from others.

Personalization in e-commerce helps in building long term relationships with the customers through customized choices available to them. Simple and straightforward personalization helps keep the customer’s attention log enough to entice repeated sales. The internet is teeming with the competition with a very wide range of customers. There is never an average customer even with the taste in the same genre of books. So personalization is impertinent to connect to diverse customers.

The company has to remain at Par in terms of technical assistance to its customers to remain in contention of competing with big companies. Moreover, Bookish has many influential publishers as its partners are in a unique position to heighten its success by exercising these strategies. Also, to give something out of the box to its customers bookish must provide a glitch-free and easily accessible open standard platform. This would also help the company in providing faith and reliability to its customers by providing transparency in promotional activities (Maher, 2013).

Nowadays most of the customers seek personalised web or online assistance instead of conventional help which is why upgrading technology infrastructure would increase not only its sales but also helps in marinating better customers’ relations. Better customer relation is the key to increasing sales. It also helps in promoting the company as satisfied customers share their experiences with others.

In order to develop a website improvement strategy, an e-commerce company must indent the ways through which it can improve its traffic, conversions and retention. By focussing on these three factors, Bookish will be able to increase more users and conversions and can retain the existing customers efficiently, which in return will help to increase the revenue for the business.

The TCR model will help the company to identify the section in which more focus on management is needed. The benefit of the TCR lifecycle is that it is easy to deploy the different aspects separately or as a whole and thus can create an absolute and successful digital marketing channel for the business (Chaffey and Patron, 2012).

Moreover, with the incorporation of Web 2.0 models, which are Marketing 2.0 and Social 2.0, the company can get benefitted from its promotional activities. The channels will make the company visible to a large audience base.  Further, the customer journey map will help Bookish to get insights into the thought process of customers while purchasing their products.  Moreover, by designing the website simple and convenient, the company will be able to attract more readers and potential purchasers (Jiang, Yang, and Jun 2013).

A good website will increase engagement with the customer. Websites that are difficult or confusing to operate leads to irritation and customer frustration. This leads to losing potential customers. So if the customers can relate to the website better it will compel them to linger longer. They will automatically tend to spend more time here and ultimately more money. For e-commerce, the website is the sales point. It is the backbone of the business. Besides sales, the website also serves the purpose of marketing itself.

A customer visits the website because he is a potential buyer. The website should convince the customer to make a purchase. A first impression lingers forever and the customer will be back for more purchase provided that he gets uninterrupted and good service. An important component of a better website is simple and straightforward design. The customer must easily find the contents and purchase information without any fuss.

Secondly, an attractive design will be appealing to the eyes making the whole experience a notable one. It is also an important part of the online marketing presence. An unappealing and outdated website will automatically create a negative impression in the customer’s mind. An unappealing website will deter them from the page and lead them to the competitors’ page. So there should be a balance between attractive design and the contents offered on it which is easy to go through as well a load.

Besides people will judge how they will be treated from the look of the website. If the website shows some efforts in the making that will mean effort will be put into serving them. Thirdly is the optimization process a good website but lack of optimization will lead to faulty user experience. With so many search engines out there optimization should be ensured so that customers’ can find everything online easily.

Android optimization is also essential. Everyone uses mobile phones for pretty much everything these days.  So the website must be optimized for phones as well for a great user experience and also because other competitors in this field are already reaping the benefits of it.  Finally, the process of shopping should be easy with a simple checkout process.

Bookish holds a lot of crucial and sensitive information about its customers and that makes these e-businesses a potential target for hackers and crackers. So cyber security is of the utmost importance. In an e-commerce platform, lots of personalized data’s are stored as well as payment information that makes it vulnerable to security breaches.

To tackle it, it is necessary to understand the significance of cyber security and why spending money on it is an investment. Besides identifying security threats the best practices should also be adopted for high security. E-business hoards a huge amount of data. A cyber-secure environment is important to ensure compliance and customer trust.

If it is breached the company will face dire consequences in terms of losing customers which will lead to financial loss. So investing in the customer’s safety is in the best interest is of the company even when a loss to the business is insignificant. The effort and care put into serving the customer is what puts a company above other competitors. Further, any breach of security if such e-commerce companies not only affect the firms financially but also dissolves the customer trust made by the company.

Moreover, this would also affect the customers as their info gets public and they have to suffer some casualties such as personality theft, finical problems, etc. Therefore it is a serious matter of concern for Bookish (Raghavan, Desai and Rajkumar, 2017). However, there lies an option with the company to hand over its security concern to another company that specialises in that arena such as Dashlane, Yoti or the company could hire a security expert in its organisation whose sole task is to ensure the security of data of the company.

Conclusion

From the above study, it can be concluded that Bookish should follow the budget improvement document for improving its website long with its operation. The outline budget suggests the costs that the company is going to bear for making improvements. Further, it has been suggested the company should incorporate the audio reading facility and develop an e-book reader in order to increase its customer base and sales.

Learning

The learning stated that a company needed accurate processes and methods that would be required for handling the business activities. A proper SEO process is required for improving the business process and in sharing the relevant business-based issues. In this process, the management develops and introduce a proper strategy that would be useful in dealing with various operational and marketing based challenges.

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