A

PROJECT REPORT
ON
DIGITAL MARKETING – AMAZON INDIA
submitted in the partial fulfillment of

BACHELOR DEGREE
in
COMMERCE

Submitted by
OMKAR MOHAPATRA
Roll No : BC-20-169
Exam Roll No : 42031169

Under the guidance of

Prof. Mr. Ratikanta Sa
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
BJB AUTONOMOUS COLLEGE

BJB AUTONOMOUS COLLEGE

BHUBANESWAR, ODISHA
2023
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

“It is not possible to prepare a project report without the assistance and encouragement of other
people. This one is certainly no exception.”
At the very outset of this project. I would like to express my deep sense of
gratitude to all those people without whom this project could have never been
completed. With immense pride and a sense of gratitude, I take this golden
opportunity to express my sincere regards to Prof. Gulam Moinuddin Khan,
Principal, B.J.B Autonomous College, Bhubaneswar.
I am extremely thankful to my project guide Sri Manoj Kumar Das, Head
of the Department of Commerce, and Dr. U.C Lal, Bachler in Commerce for
their conscientious guidance enthusiastic suggestions, and invaluable
encouragement throughout the project which helped me in the completion of the
project.
I extend my heartful thanks to Mr. Ratikanta Sir, Faculty in Commerce,
and Mr. Soumya Ranjan Swain, Faculty in Commerce for their constant
encouragement and moral support without which I would have never been able to
give my best. I also acknowledge with a deep sense of reverence, my gratitude
towards my parents and all members of my family who have always supported
me morally as well as economically.
Last but not the list, I would like to thank our Librarian sir, and all my
friends who directly or indirectly helped me to complete this project report.

Their guidance and supervision were very helpful in bringing this work to a
conclusion.

OMKAR MOHAPATRA
 B.J.B. (AUTONOMOUS) COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
BJB Nagar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, Pin - 751014
Phone No: +91- 0674-2436971, Fax No: +91-674-2436971
Website: www.bjbcollege.in

Prof. Mr. Ratikanta Sa

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
BJB AUTONOMOUS COLLEGE
BHUBANESAWAR-751014

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project report entitled, “DIGITAL MARKETING –

AMAZON INDIA” is a bonafide research work carried out by Omkar
Mohapatra under my supervision and guidance. If embodies the result of his
original contribution. The project work dissertation has reached the standard of
fulfilling the requirement of regulation relating to the bachelor degree of
Commerce (B.Com), BJB Autonomous College, Bhubaneswar. No part of this
research has been submitted to any other university / institution for the award of
any degree.
I wish him all the best and success in his future endeavours.

Date: Prof. Mr. Ratikanta Sa

Place : Bhubaneswar Dept. of Commerce

BJB Autonomous College
 DECLARATION

I do hereby declare that the project work entitled “DIGITAL MARKETING –

AMAZON INDIA” submitted by me has a partial fulfilment of the requirement
for the degree of Commerce, BJB AUTONOMOUS COLLEGE for the session
2022-23. It is the original piece of research work done by me under the guidance
of Prof. Mr. Ratikanta Sa as my faculty guide and has not been submitted to
any university / institution for the award of any other degree elsewhere in full or
in part.

Date : Omkar Mohapatra

Place : Bhubaneswar Exam Roll No.: 42031169
Roll No.: BC-20-169
Batch : 2020-2023
 CONTENTS
CHAPTERS TITLE PAGE NO
I SUMMARY
CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION 1-6
1.1 Meaning of Online Marketing 1
1.2 Objective of the study 3
1.3 Scope of the Study 3
1.4 Limitations of the study 4
1.5 Methodology of a study 5
CHAPTER-2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 7-13

2.1 Literature Review 8

2.2 Rsearch Gap 13
CHAPTER-3 CONCEPTUAL THEORY 14-24
3.1 Company Profile: Amazon India 15
3.2 Product line 16
3.3 Competitors 16
3.4 SWOT Analysis: Amazon 16
3.5 Digital Strategy 17
3.6 Target Audience of Amazon India 22
3.7 Amazon’s Website Analysis 22
3.8 E-mail Marketing Strategy 23
3.9 Amazon’s 7 Strategies to win India 23
CHAPTER-4 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS 25-40
4.1 Online Marketing 26
4.2 Collection of Data 27
4.3 Sampling Size and techniques 27
4.4 Statistical tools used 27
4.5 Analysis and Interpretations 27
4.6 Role of Amazon: Effect on Consumer expectations 31
4.7 Data Analysis 32
4.8 Method of Data Analysis 32
4.9 Future Prospectus 39
4.10 Impact of COVID-19 on Amazon India 40
CHAPTER-5 FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS & CONCLUSIONS 41-43
5.1 Findings 42
5.2 Suggestions 42
5.3 Conclusions 43
BIBLIOGRAPHY 44
 SUMMARY
In this world of digitization, digital marketing is a vogue that is sweeping across the whole
world. The trend of digital marketing is growing day by day with the concepts of Internet
marketing that is turning into an important platform of digital marketing along with the
electronic gadgets like the digital billboards, mobile, tablets and smart phones, gaming
consoles, and many such gadgets that help in digital marketing. Amazon with its innovative
digital marketing has created a niche market in online stores competing with the conventional
stores showing the power of online marketing. The case study analyses how Amazon.com has
brought in an array digital and online marketing strategies to succeed and make it big in the
digital marketing sector. The case also discusses how Amazon has had a huge success in the
online marketing sector as they brought in new insights into the digital marketing field. And
few years from now it will be eventually seen that the conventional marketing being replaced
by digital marketing. Digital marketing is going to be top on the agenda of many marketers,
and they might be looking for innovative ways to market online, reduce cost per lead, increase
click-through-rates and conversion rates, and discover what's hot in digital marketing.

Marketing executive are most supportive of Digital Marketing because of the

ability to easily track and measure results of the marketing communication. Because of the use
digital technology, the results of a digital marketing effort can be tracked by reach, views,
clicks, visits, response rates, purchases made and so on. I will explore the details and
importance of these types of measurement techniques in the coming weeks, but for now
understand that Digital Marketing requires the ability to measure the results of a digital
marketing campaign.

The use of digital technologies to create an integrated, targeted and measurable

communications which help to acquire and retain customers while building deeper
relationships with them is digital marketing. It must be digital because of the technology. It is
targeted because of the value in the technology allows it to be. It must establish
relationships because marketing using digital technology generally requires input from
potential consumers. It must be measurable because measurability is inherent in the use of
digital technology and inherent in the use of marketing.
A key digital marketing objective is engaging customers and allowing them to
interact with the brand through servicing and delivery of digital media.
CHAPTER-I

1
 INTRODUCTION

1.1. MEANING OF ONLINE MARKETING:

Online marketing is a set of powerful tools and methodologies used for promoting products and service
through the internet. Online marketing includes a wider range of marketing elements than traditional business
marketing due to extra channels and marketing mechanism available on the internet. Online marketing is
advertising and marketing the products or services of a business over Internet. Online marketing relies upon
websites or emails to reach to the users and it is combined with e-commerce to facilitate the business
transactions. In online marketing, you can promote the products and services via websites, blogs, email, social
media, forums, and mobile Apps. Online marketing strategy is critical for organization operating in markets
with high internet penetration. Online shops introduced the physical analogy of goods and services at a regular
“bricks and mortar” shopping centers or retail Centre and many types of online shopping. Business -to-
consumer (B2C) online shopping and business-to-business (B2B) online shopping. Online stores in business
to buy from other business. Online stores enable the customer to check the firm’s product and services to view
the images or photos of the products and informing the product information’s and specifications, price etc.

2
Online marketing strategy is a critical for organization operated with very high internet penetration. Online
marketing strategies are:

• Social media marketing

Social media marketing is the utilization of social media stages and sites to advance an item or administration.
Organizations address a scope of partners through social media marketing, including present and potential
clients, present and potential representatives, columnists, bloggers, and the overall population. On a vital level,
social media marketing incorporates the administration of a marketing effort, administration, setting the
degree.

• Email marketing

Email marketing is the act of sending a business message, commonly to a gathering of individuals, utilizing
email. In its broadest sense, each email sent to a potential or current client could be considered email marketing

• Content marketing

Content marketing implies pulling in and changing prospects into clients by making and sharing important
free content. Digital content marketing is a management process that uses digital products through different
electronic channels to identify, forecast and satisfy the content requirements of a particular audience. It must
be consistently updated and added to in order to influence the behavior of customers.

1.2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

• To know the online marketing strategies of the Amazon

• To analyze the promotional strategies of Amazon

• To find the level of satisfaction to the customers of Amazon

• To study the effectiveness of online marketing strategies in increasing the sale of products of Amazon

1.3. SCOPE OF STUDY

This study is done with reference to the Amazon. Which helps to understand about implementation of online
marketing strategies for increasing sales of consumable products in Amazon. This study can be further used
to examine the customer satisfaction of Amazon by considering the sample taken for completion of this piece
of work. In this report, an overview of Amazon India is taken in which the company structure, the directors,

3
capital structure, etc. are discussed. the SWOT analysis is done with respect to the digital marketing pursued
by Amazon India.

A small view of the product line in which the company deals is also discussed in this project report. After this
the various ways by which the company promotes its products through online marketing is also discussed.
The data analysis regarding customer distribution is also considered.

1.4. ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES

Advantages:

• Global Reach to Audience

• Increase Engagement
• No Time Barriers
• Brand Development
• Online Digital Marketing is Cost-Effective
• Easy to Setup and Manage
• Online Sale
• Online Digital Marketing is Super-Fast

• Online Digital Marketing is Measurable

• Personalized Approaches

Disadvantages:

• Global Competition
• Different skills and Training
• Reliance on technology
• Time Consuming
• Security and Privacy Issues
• Online Digital Marketing will not be taken Seriously
• Online Digital Marketing May Not Be Acceptable for Your Products
• Maintenance Cost
• It Can Take Control Out of Your Hand

4
1.5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research methodology used in this study is mainly designed as an empirical work based on both secondary
data and primary data, obtained through pre-tested questionnaire, internet browsing, direct personal interviews
of selected persons involved in this sector as well as.

• SOURCES OF DATA
a) Primary Data

Primary data are those data which are collected for the first time. They are original in character and
are collected by the researcher. The primary data has been collected with the help of questionnaire which is
distributed and collected from the respondents.

b) Secondary Data

Secondary data are those data which have been already collected, tabulated and presented in some
form by someone else for some specific purpose. Secondary data are collected from various websites,
magazines, etc.

➢ Universe

Universe means the total population available for the study. In this study, the universe constitutes all Indian,
who have online presences.

➢ Sample

Sample means a representation of the whole universe by a small population. Samples for this research are
under Indian youth and young Indians, who come under 17 to 45-year age groups and who have online
presences.

➢ Sample size

The number of sample units selected from the total population is called sample size. Sample
size selected for this study is 200. Among them 146 are males and 54 are females.

➢ Tools

Tools used for this research is an online questionnaire, which consist of 21 questions.

5
 • LIMITATIONS
 Sample size is very low

 Opinion is based on a particular area

 Respondent’s bias might have influenced

 Same customers refused to co-operate

 Customer’s response is deemed and believed to true to their knowledge

 Average response by respondents

6
CHAPTER-II

7
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 LITREATURE REVIEW:

The research builds upon the literature in electronic commerce and past research in marketing with the
objective of understanding factors that impact a product's adaptability to online marketing. A review of
marketing channel choice literature reveals a set of factors and channel choice functions that are considered
important in making channel decisions. Using this as a basis, four major channel functions, namely, product
customization, availability, logistics, and transaction complexity are considered relevant in understanding the
implications for Internet marketing. By building upon previous research in the area of channel selection, we
provide a means of classifying Internet marketing initiatives based on product characteristics.
The classification scheme based on product characteristics can help analyze the significance of each factor on
the success of a firm's online marketing approach. Further, the classification scheme is used to discuss decision
support implications.

• Rajeev Kamineni (2004), in his study finds that World Wide Web can change human behavior
and human interactions to a very large extent. Web based shopping behavior is one major example to
point out the trends in this direction. This study is of a very exploratory nature and it intends to
establish the differences between several web-based shoppers from different parts of the world.
Several critical factors associated with online shopping behavior have been explored. A cross cultural

8
 dataset has been collected and an illustrative description of the shoppers has been provided. As a final
step the cross-cultural differences between several shoppers explored.

• Archana Shrivastava, UjwalLanjewar, (2011), in online buying, the rate of diffusion and
adoption of the online buying amongst consumers is still relatively low in India. In a view of above
problem an empirical International Journal of Finance and Management In view of above problem an
empirical study of online buying behavior was undertaken. Based on literature review, four
predominant psychographic parameters namely attitude, motivation, personality and trust were
studied with respect to online buying. The online buying decision process models based on all the four
parameters were designed after statistical analysis. These models were integrated with business
intelligence, knowledge management and data mining to design Behavioral Business Intelligence
framework with a cohesive view of online buyer behavior. For better understanding the factors of
internet and consumer shopping behaviors‟ towards internet shopping, this chapter would provide
academic research reviews and relative ideas expressed in the literature that associated with this
subject. Furthermore, a number of hypotheses will be tested to answer the research questions that
mentioned already in the introduction. Due to the recent research shows that internet shopping
becomes a full and effective business model (Black, 2005), therefore there are several studies that
already investigated more or less related on internet shopping and consumer behavior. In the following
chapter, some point of view will be taken from literatures, and needs careful review to achieve them
as the basis of the subsequent search investigation.

• J. SINHA (2010), The number of people engaged in various online activities is increasing every
day. While the number of online shoppers is increasing, it is not proportional to that of brick -and-
mortar shoppers. Research has tried to explain the dismal performance of online shopping as
compared to the physical shopping format. Reasons for the lower level of Internet sales have been
cited as being perceived risk in carrying out an online transaction, socio-psychological factors (Like
- influence of friends and relatives) and infrastructural limitations (Availability of Internet, computers,
credit-cards, cyber laws etc.). Under the purview of a fore mentioned factors this study tried
understanding the online shopping behavior of Indian consumers. Socio-psychological factors and
infrastructure have been found influential factors while the perceived risk surprisingly is not
significant as a whole but at gender level there was significant difference between the online behavior
of male and female due to risk perception.
• Burke, R.R. (2002), Trust is a key factor that determines the success of Business to Consumer
(B2C) e-commerce transactions. Previous researchers have identified several critical factors that
influence trust in the context of online shopping. This research focuses on available security measures

9
 which assure online shoppers’ safety and great sales promotions and online deals which stimulate
customers to shop online.

• Abel Stephen (2003), in his paper represents the findings of research studies that address e-
commerce design and associated consumer behavior. The innovation of e-commerce has affected not
only the market place through the facilitation of the exchange of goods and services, but also human
behavior in response to the mechanisms of online services. Researchers have identified and
hypothesized on relevant subject matters ranging from Web Dr. K. Murugan 20 Emperor Journal of
Economics and Social Science Research Research Emperor International Journal of Finance and
Management Reusability, marketing channels and other factors influencing online buying behavior.
Though researchers have focused on what appear different aspects of online buying behavior, their
studies may be shown to be interrelated and interdependent, even to the extent of revealing constructs
upon which e-commerce, in terms of future design and research, could be bu ilt.

• Balasubramanian, S., Konana, P. and Menon, N.M. (2003), In this

environment, some traditional service quality dimensions that determine customer satisfaction, such
as the Physical appearance of facilities, employees, and equipment, and employee “responsiveness
and empathy are unobservable. In contrast, trust may play a central role here in enhancing customer
satisfaction. Model trust as an endogenously formed entity that ultimately impacts customer
satisfaction and we elucidate the linkages between trust and other factors related to the performance
of the online service provider and to the service environment.

• Bellman, Dobie et al. (2001), The paper (Jena, 2017) found that most of the respondents were
largely found to be satisfied with their online purchase experience. It was mentioned by both the
student’s respondents and the private sector employees that the existence of the wide variety of
products and brands is the most important attribute of an online retail store for making a purchase.
Moreover, the web has primarily used an instrument for information searching rather than as a route
to purchase products (Weisman, 2001). Customers mostly prefer searching for product information
and thereby, compare alternatives online, but it is seen in most of the cases that they choose the
conventional stores to make the purchases.
• Das (2016), This research paper found that the demographic variables like age, gender, income have
a significant impact or influence on Digital and Social Media Marketing (DSMM) engagements. For
constructing the DSMM strategies, the social media marketing conceptual model can be very much
beneficial to provide practical propositions on the major components and the various aspects of
engagement pattern. A detailed examination shows that factor analysis method was used and the
findings established that there is a positive relationship between Internet Savvy and Innovativeness

10
 with their Internet utilization and the Internet utilization shows a positive relationship with sales
performance as identified by them.

• Goel (2016), The article brings to light few factors affecting digital marketing from the marketer’s
perspective. These factors are the target market, channels, technology, content, social media, talent,
and budget. For instance, the first and foremost factor from the marketer’s point of view is to decide
the target market. Moreover, the content should form an alliance with the interests of the target market.
• Vachani &Vallabbhai (2014), The study analyzes the various distinctions between the
traditional marketing and e-Marketing effectiveness. The e-Marketing preferences and usefulness
among the customers are measured. The study highlights the online consumer’s level of satisfaction
and the various drawbacks of the online businesses. There is a shift in the marketing trend all over the
world from a purely traditional store format to a mix of both physical and virtual stores. A crucial part
of the range of services that a marketer has to offer is through the web. Over the world, the number
of people using the internet as a medium is growing exponentially, and India is no exception.
Customer satisfaction plays a predominant role in the success and sustenance of any business
organization. Hence, the study examines the critical success factors in digital purchases, marketing
and retailing from the perspective of the customers.
• Guru (2013), The study’s stresses on the fact that to enhance the credibility is very important for
vendors in -order to excel in an e-commerce environment where transactions are mostly objective and
anonymous. Greater tailor-made products, services, and promotional messages are enabled by the
digital technologies than the traditional marketing tools. These digital technologies allow marketers
to adopt the various elements of the marketing mix to consumer’s needs more rapidly and efficiently,
and thereby build and maintain cordial relationships with clients on a much greater scale.
• Soutar & Turner (2002); Petruzzellis & Romanazzi (2010) & Phang (2013), The
study shows that there is excessive competition in the higher education sector. The countries like
Sweden are actively engaged in international student recruitment and various factors influence the
decision-making process of the young aspirants in the international arena. The study reveals that the
number of analysis into the process that influences international student’s decision for higher
education abroad had increased due to extensive proliferation and a rising competition i n the higher
education sector.

• Dashaputre (2012), The paper intends to study the various phenomena related to the growth and
the recent trends in e-marketing. The study focused on various aspects like the user privacy and
propensity and consumer personalization.

11
• Hee- Woong Kim (2011), The paper highlights six factors from the following three dimensions
of customer value: functional, social and emotional. The findings show that the effect of value on the
buying intention of members plays a significant role from the emotional and social perspective. The
results should assist the social networking community service providers to enhance their sales of the
digital items.
• Durmaz and Efendioglu (2016), tried to explain digital marketing periods and advantages,
experienced transitions and differences between traditional and digital marketing. SEM and SEO were
considered to be the two most important bases for digital marketing. The research suggested that in
digital marketing, building good communication with customers, determining their needs and requests
are crucial. While companies using digital marketing make difference with dual communication,
others who do not get involved in this race, become distanced from competition gradually. The biggest
advantage of digital marketing mentioned in their research is reaching the target audience in the right
way by using social media and search engines.
• Davidson Alistair et al (2006), in his paper vividly describe how users would respond to online
purchases. Various key factors such as price, feature, technology etc. which influenced the decision-
making process of the users. The customers, in turn, seek advice from web mavens which provide
product information. In many situations, the users would utilize the internet for purchase with the web
maven and in this way, they can review the factors that would impact their mindset.
• George Joey F (2002), explains the factors which could actually influence the consumer’s
behavior in taking the purchase decision. The study found that certain factors like purchase intention,
previous experience and attitude of consumer largely influence their behavior. The study extensively
focused on the privacy concerns and thereby, provided valuable propositions on the same. A few
purchases made helps to add confidence amongst the users and in many instances, the users are
conscious about their privacy and hence they are reluctant to share their private information without
their consent. The amount of confidence in the company boosts them to take the online purchase
decision.

• Adam (2004), had pointed out that there are nine distinct consumer perceptions that impacts or
influences satisfaction. They are --- Design of the Web, price, promotion, delivery-on-time, product
availability, return policy, expectations that are met, customer service and tracking of the order. These
nine perceptions are mostly seen to occur in the two purchase or buying phases like pre-order and
post-order. Schefter and Reichheld (2000) had stated that satisfaction is the attitude of the customers
about the quality, it adopts customer support, on-time delivery, clear and trustworthy privacy policies
and reasonably priced shipping and handling.
• Marcel Gommans, et al (2001), highlighted that e-customer adherence depends upon various
factors such as- Usage of the website and technology, value to be delivered, branding, customer
12
 service and trust and security. These broad factors embrace various other factors such as speed,
customized features, easy payment methods, quick delivery, trust, and authentication etc.

2.2 RESEARCH GAP: -

Scholarly literature suggests digital marketing skills gaps in industry, but these skills gaps are not clearly
identified. The research aims to specify any digital marketing skills gaps encountered by professionals
working in communication industries. In-depth interviews were undertaken with 20 communication industry
professionals. A focus group followed, testing the rigour of the data.

We find that a lack of specific technical skills; a need for best practice guidance on evaluation metrics, and a
lack of intelligent futureproofing for dynamic technological change and development are skills gaps currently
challenging the communication industry. However, the challenge of integrating digital marketing approaches
with established marketing practice emerges as the key skills gap.

Emerging from the key findings, a Digital Marketer Model was developed, highlighting the key competencies
and skills needed by an excellent digital marketer.

The research concludes that guidance on best practice, focusing upon evaluation metrics, futureproofing and
strategic integration, needs to be developed for the communication industry. The Digital Marketing Model
should be subject to further testing in industry and academia. Suggestions for further research are discussed.

13
CHAPTER-III

14
 CONCEPTUAL THEORY: AMAZON INDIA

3.1. COMPANY PROFILE-AMAZON INDIA

Amazon India Limited is an unlisted public company incorporated on 22 December, 1994. It is classified as a
public limited company and is located in East Delhi, Delhi. Its authorized share capital is INR 2.50 cr. and the
total paid-up capital is INR 5.17 lac.

Amazon India Limited's operating revenues range is Under INR 1 cr. for the financial year ending on 31
March, 2021. It's EBITDA has decreased by -48.22 % over the previous year. At the same time, it's book net
worth has decreased by -0.56 %.

Amazon Retail India Private Limited's Annual General Meeting (AGM) was last held on 29 September 2021
and as per records from Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), its balance sheet was last filed on 31 March
2021.

Amazon India Limited has three directors – Atul Jain, Ashish Jain and Perinchery Vasudevanraman Elayath

15
Vision:

“Our vision is to be earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find
and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

Mission:

“Our mission is to continually raise the bar of the customer experience by using the internet and technology
to help consumers find, discover and buy anything, and empower businesses and content creators to maximize
their success.

3.2. PRODUCT LINE:

Amazon product lines include (books, DVDs, music CDs, vediotapes, and software), apparel, baby
products, consumer electronics, beauty products, gourmet food, groceries, health and personal-care items,
industrial & scientific supplies, kitchen items, jewelry and watches, lawn and garden items, musical
instruments, sporting goods, tools, automotive items and toys/games.

3.3. COMPETITORS

o Flipkart
o Myntra
o Snapdeal
o Jabong
o E-bay

3.4. SWOT ANALYSIS OF AMAZON

Strengths

o Strong brand name.

o Customer oriented
o Cost Leadership
o Largest Merchandise Selection
o Large number of third-party sellers
o Market Leader
o Superior logistics and distribution systems

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Weaknesses
o Easily imitable business model
o Product Flops and Failures
o Declining consumer safety
o Overdependence on distributors

Opportunities

o By expanding physical stores

o Amazon has the opportunity to improve technological measures and organizational policies
o More acquisitions of e-commerce
o Launch of electric rickshaws in India

Threats

o Increasing cybercrime
o Aggressive competition
o Fake reviews

3.5 DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY OF AMAZON INDIA

As we all know, Amazon is an internet eCommerce company, this alone makes its business capable of utilizing
all the tools of digital marketing to its full potential and it has been doing well on these aspects’ way better
than its competitors.
We will understand Amazon India’s marketing strategy one by one in the coming sections. Let’s start by
knowing how it implements its social media marketing strategies.

➢ AMAZON’S SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY

Amazon promotes its products on social media, successfully tapping into the social networks’ audience and
linking them back to their product pages for the sale.

In today’s times, everyone is on social media. To engage with its audience better it has partnered with several
micro and macro-influencers of the country as well.

17
Let’s see how Amazon uses various social media platforms, suffice it to say, they leverage all available
channels. It’s on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest as well.

A. Amazon on Facebook

There are 10 million fans who follow Amazon India on Facebook. It uses Facebook mainly for posting
company updates and promotions. It uses aggressive promotion strategies to promote its Sale Days. It also
stays relevant by putting out topic-based posts. Let’s now understand its Facebook marketing campaigns in
detail.

I. Sale Day Promotions

Amazon announces various sales such as Freedom Sale around Independence Day and various other
sales during a particular year. This year it introduced Book Bazaar Sale, Apni Dukaan Sale, Wardrobe
Refresh Sale, and many more.
Exciting Offers and discounts are used as key USPs to promote Sale Days.

ii. Topical Promotions

Amazon also celebrates festivals and other memorable days such as Doctors Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s
Day, Raksha Bandhan, Holi, Diwali, and many more.
These minimal creatives with simple messages also help consumers engage with the brands. Here Amazon is
also not promoting any of its products or services. It just presents a simple message.

iii. Highlights of Amazon’s Stories

Amazon motivates and supports those with small businesses who become the most inspiring entrepreneurs
and sellers. In the below image, Monika Agarwal is one of the inspiring sellers of Amazon who tells her story-
she owns Swara Creations, in Mumbai, which offers traditional and modern fashion accessories.
This also encourages many small businesses and retailers to sell their products on this platform and thus
resulting in Amazon onboarding more sellers who offer customers everything they need.

B. Amazon on Instagram
Amazon’s marketing strategy on Instagram has mainly been used for interviews with various artists from
different backgrounds and primary promotions. It has about 2.8 million followers on Instagram.

18
Its strategy on Instagram is very similar to how it uses Facebook, except for company news updates, the posts
are almost the same both on Instagram & Facebook.
Here are few notable promotions are done by Amazon to create spread laughs and inspiration.

I. Prime Day Promotion

On Amazon’s recent Amazon Prime Day, it partnered with 14 very popular stand-up comedians in India to
promote their Sale Day.
The caption put up was, “Your 10-minute breather is here. Enjoy your #AmazonPrimeDay shopping with 14
comedians keeping your company, every hour. #DiscoverJoy”, this seemed to be interesting and that attracted
many customers to shop.

ii. Amazon Hand Made

Recently, Amazon celebrated women-owned businesses on @AmazonHandmade Instagram profile. The

women with small businesses are the ones who are inspiring to other women out there.
They have turned their passion and creativity into handcrafted products for customers around the world with
the hashtag #BossBabe. This move encouraged women from all over the globe to start their business and use
Amazon as its distribution channel.

C. Amazon on Twitter
Amazon India uses a very different approach to acquire new customers on Twitter. It keeps its followers
engaged, uses a wide variety of content, creates customer-acquiring contests, uses multiple accounts, and
participates in trends.
It has a fan base of 2 million on Twitter, which is one the best followers count in the industry.
It uses a conversational tone on Twitter that presents content in such a way that seems to us like personal
recommendations than an advertisement. This has made Amazon seem to sell nearly everything and they also
have content for nearly everything. Here are some of the highlights from Amazon India’s Twitter handle.

D. Amazon on YouTube

The best thing about Amazon’s YouTube advertisements is that they Hook people immediately. Amazon
always tries to keep its ads meaningful and engaging usually by trying to connect with the customer using an
emotional message.
In today’s world, where people are worried that the growth of technology is drawing them apart, Amazon
Echo’s new campaign aims to bring Indian families together with their smart speaker technology.
Another very popular campaign released by Amazon with the hashtag – #MomBeAGirlAgain, revolves
around a mother-son relationship, where the son gifts his mother a Camera using Amazon’s services.

19
 YouTube offers brands with various field formats to showcase its advertisement, like skippable in-stream
ads, Non-skippable ads, etc. Amazon uses all these formats from time to time, depending on the purpose.

In India successful campaigns of Amazon are:

#AurDikhao
#DiwaliOnAmazon
#EkBarAmazonTryTohKar

E. Amazon on Pinterest

Amazon’s account on Pinterest has over 1 lakh followers. They utilize their presence on Pinterest by
promoting their products based on various themes.
Amazon makes a collage of its most popular products in several thematic lifestyle buckets such as for wedding
planning, for home, office, kitchen, etc to lure a wide range of consumer groups back to the products on its E-
commerce website.

Amazon “Make in India” Initiative

“We are going to use Amazon’s global footprint to export $10 billion of ‘Make in India’ goods by the year
2025”
- Jeff Bezos (Founder & CEO, Amazon)

➢ Amazon claims Great Indian Festival biggest shopping event ever

Amazon India says it had grabbed a 44% share of total customers and shopping volumes, which was higher
than any of its competitors

Amazon says more customers shopped on its online marketplace during the Great Indian Festival sale than on
any other e-commerce site

Online retailer Amazon India claimed that its flagship festive season sale, the Great Indian Festival, was its
biggest ever shopping event, and said that more customers shopped on its online marketplace during the sale
than on any other e-commerce site.
Amazon India on Friday claimed that it had grabbed a 44% share of total customers and shopping volumes,
which was higher than any of its competitors.

20
Amazon said it saw the highest number of transacting customers and number of orders placed during the sale
event, driven primarily by its Prime subscription service that saw a fourfold jump in the number of subscribers.
Amazon held three separate sale events as part of its Diwali season sale.
“We are humbled by the tremendous response from customers making Amazon.in the undisputed leader in
the e-commerce industry with most number of transacting customers and order share. More customers shopped
on Amazon.in than anywhere else, with orders received from 99.7% of India’s pin codes. Customers shopped
across mobile phones, TVs, large appliances, home décor, furniture, sports equipment and everyday essentials,
making the ‘Great Indian Festival’ the biggest shopping event for Amazon.in in history," said Amit Agarwal,
senior vice-president and country head of Amazon India.
The latest claim by Amazon further escalates a bitter market share battle for supremacy between the company
and arch-rival Flipkart, which for now still remains the market leader.
“The festive shopping season in India, which really takes off every year with the Big Billion Days, is
synonymous with Flipkart. This year, we garnered a disproportionate market share across all parameters,
making everyone else irrelevant. The trends are consistent with the observations of other independent research
and surveys, which have also said Flipkart was the unquestionable leader this festive season," said a Flipkart
spokesperson.
Earlier during the festive season, Flipkart had also claimed that it had beaten all its competitors and had
emerged as the outright winner of the sales season.
Mint had reported in September that Flipkart again beat arch-rival Amazon India in the festive season sales
battle, underlining its tactical superiority, and setting up the e-commerce firm for a strong end to a year in
which it turned around its fortunes.
The festive season may have also marked a turning point for e-commerce in 2017, as online retail is now set
to grow by more than 25% for the full year after a sluggish first-half performance, according to analysts and
executives from both companies.
Mint had reported that Flipkart generated gross sales of more than Rs5,000 crore, driven by booming sales of
Apple Inc.’s iPhones, Xiaomi phones and VU televisions, during its Big Billion Day sale.
Flipkart’s numbers include sales at Myntra and Jabong, its specialty online fashion retail businesses.
Amazon India (Amazon Seller Service Pvt. Ltd) generated gross sales of Rs2,500-2,700 crore during the first
round of its Great Indian Festival that was held between 21 and 24 September.
At the time, Amazon had disputed the figures mentioned above and said it was consistently well ahead of
Flipkart on metrics such as app downloads, desktop visits and mobile website visits.

21
3.6. AMAZON INDIA’S TARGET AUDIENCE

Amazon India offers a wide range of products and services to its customers with the convenience of ordering
from home through their mobile devices. So, to keep it short, Amazon targets every person in the country as
its potential customer. Amazon also has around 40+ subsidiaries that specifically cater to a specific set of
customers. Here’s a breakdown of the same.

Target Group/Audience

Amazon.com General Public

Audible and Kindle Book Readers

Twitch Gaming Community

IMDb, Prime Video, Music General Movies and Entertainment Audience

Amazon Web Services Corporates and Businesses, Bloggers, Freelancers

As you can see from the table, how Amazon India targets its audience broadly with its eCommerce platforms
as well as targeting the audience of specific groups and interests with its other group of companies.
Now that you have an idea of its offerings and audience demographics, let us understand the Digital marketing
strategies and campaigns implemented by Amazon India to retain its existing customers and how they target
new customers.

3.7. AMAZON’S WEBSITE ANALYSIS

In simple terms, SEO means the process of improving your website to increase its visibility for relevant
searches. The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to garner attention
and attract prospective and existing customers to your business.
On analyzing Amazon’s website using the Ubersuggest tool. This is how Amazon.in fares on its SEO audit.

Here are the key metrics that you should consider from the following.
• It has about 7.6 Crore organic keywords which are just insane.
• It gets about 36 Crore organic monthly traffic. This shows that well Amazon has worked upon its
service offerings to give out a better overall better experience to its customers.

22
Talking about Backlinks, to be honest, we all are big fans of those product lists promoted by popular bloggers,
YouTubers promoting products and when you click on the links of one such product it mostly redirects you
to Amazon.in. This process is known as backlinking.
This is why Amazon has about 11 crores of backlinks associated with its site. This helps them bring more and
more customers to its website from various other popular websites and social media platforms.

3.8. AMAZON’S EMAIL MARKETING STRATEGY

Whenever we purchase from Amazon, we receive emails thanking us for our purchase, asking for a product
review, and even offering a discount on our email. This is called Email Marketing.
Amazon’s email marketing strategy is simple, it sends its customers personalized product recommendation
emails, based on various aspects like – purchase history, past order value, location, age, gender, and on-site
browsing.
Here’s an example of one such personalized email.

It also sends very personalized coupons to its customers via its emails which also makes its customers check
every personalized E-mail which Amazon sends.
With this, our case study on Amazon India’s Digital Marketing strategies has come to an end. So, let’s
conclude that case study in the most fitting words possible.

3.9. AMAZON’S 7 STRATEGIES TO WIN IN INDIA

1. Deep customer understanding:

Amazon has invested time, energy, and resources to understand the nuances of India’s consumer
market. For example, Amazon realized that Indian consumers are not comfortable buying online
or they may lack the education to read online product reviews. So, it has established kiosks in small
local retail locations that set up entrepreneurs to offer an “assisted buying” service for consumers.

2. Accommodating bandwidth challenges:

Amazon realized that over 500 million Indian consumers still use feature phones with slow network
connections. So, it has designed a slimmed down version of its app to adjust to slower network
speeds. The modified app still allows for a decent browsing experience, while accommodating the
reality of network constraints.

3. Using Artificial Intelligence to find addresses:

23
Residential addresses in India are often only best guestimates of location, which makes delivery a
challenge. Amazon is using machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to bring better
precision to delivery, including a 0-to-100 confidence score for an address.

4. Ferreting out fake products and fraud.

E-commerce in India has been plagued by a plethora of fake reviews which has made buyers wary.
Amazon is working to improve trust among buyers and sellers by combating fraud and fake reviews
for third-party products on its site, while promoting safer products. Amazon’s Indian team has
designed algorithms to detect fake reviews, fraudulent transactions, and fake products.

5. Expanding logistics and fulfillment:

Amazon is expanding its network of fulfillment center in India by five, raising the total to 67.
Amazon understands the importance of expanding its infrastructure and delivery network to
improve the customer experience and enable tens of thousands of small and medium businesses to
fulfill orders more efficiently.

6. Onboarding assistance for third-party sellers:

In addition to carrying products from major sellers, such as Samsung with promotions for the local
market, Amazon is facilitating e-commerce for smaller retailers that offer unique products.
Amazon has created an innovative initiative called “Tatkal” (which means “instantaneous” in
Hindi) to demonstrate how a small seller can be ready to sell on Amazon’s site within 60 minutes.
Amazon uses vans that visit smaller retailers and suppliers. The vans have a photo studio so
Amazon employees can take pictures of products, catalog them, and get sellers ready to sell.

7. Local R&D:

Amazon’s largest R&D center outside of Seattle is in Bangalore. This signals its commitment for
the long haul to understand the nuances of the market and to create user experience innovations
specifically for the Indian market.

24
CHAPTER-IV

25
 DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

4.1. ONLINE MARKETING

Online shopping is the new trends in the marketing system. In India, it used to refer the computer/ mobile
based shopping. Over the past few years, online shopping has increased the percentage of online buyer’s in
India. The discussion of this study mainly focuses on Customer Satisfaction towards Amazon Online shopping
in Coimbatore district. In this study based on some objectives; the customers satisfaction towards Amazon in
Coimbatore district, the benefits available on online buying through Amazon in addition to analyse the
problem faced by the customers of Amazon. The attitude and preference of customers on purchasing products
through online are affected by various factors. The researcher has used both primary and secondary data. The
researcher has found out “Today internet is the user-friendly communication medium and its awareness and
usage level is progressively increasing
in all segments of the society”.

Web based shopping is the way toward looking into and obtaining items or administrations over the web. The
most punctual online stores started a new business in 1992, and web-based retailing assumed control over a
noteworthy portion of the retail advertise during the main decade of the twenty-first century, as responsibility
for PCs expanded and set up retailers started to offer their items over the Internet. Electronic trade is utilized
for both business to- business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) exchanges. Purchasing items from an
online shop, or virtual store is like obtaining from a mail request inventory. Online stores depict items available
to be purchased with content, photographs, and sight and sound records. Normally the client chooses things

26
to be recorded on a request from known as a "shopping basket," and pays with a Mastercard or some type of
electronic instalment.

4.2. COLLECTION OF DATA

I. PRIMARY DATA: The primary data have been collected directly from the customers through well
structure questionnaire.
II. SECONDARY DATA: The secondary data have been collected from various possible records like
books, magazines, periodicals and web sites.

4.3. SAMPLING SIZE AND TECHNIQUE:

➢ SIZE OF THE SAMPLE
In the present study, 120 respondents were selected as size of the sample.
➢ SAMPLE DESIGN
The sample technique used in this study is convenient sampling method. This is also called as method of
chance election.
AREA OF THE STUDY
The study is conducted only in Coimbatore city.

4.4. STATISTICAL TOOLS USED:

To analyse and interpret collected data the following statistical tools were used,
➢ Simple percentage Method

➢ Likert’s scaling technique

➢Ranking analysis

4.5. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Analysis and interpretation are essential for usefulness and utility of resources finding Analysis of data and
interpretation in a general way involves a number of closely related operations, which are performed with
a purpose of summarizing the collected data, organizing these in such manner that they answer the research
question. Researcher can better be appreciated only through the interpretations why this finding is, what can
make others to understand the real significance his/her research finding. The Tools used for analysis are
• Simple percentage Method
• Likert’s scaling technique value Analysis
• Ranking Analysis

27
SIMPLE PERCENTAGE ANALYSIS
This analysis is carried out for the most of the question givens in questionnaires. This analysis described the
classification of the respondents failing each category. The percentage analysis is used mainly for the
standardization and comparisons are in support with the analysis
FORMULA
Number of Respondents
Percentage = .............................................................................. 100
Total No. of. Respondents
LIKERT SCALE ANALYSIS
A Likert scale analysis is a method of measuring attitudes. Ordinary scale to response to a question or
statement, order in hierarchical sequence from strongly negative to strongly positive, used mainly in
behavioural science and psychiatry. In Likert’s method a person’s attitude is measured by combining
(additional or average) their responses across all items.
FORMULA
ΣFX
Likert scale = ……………………………………………….
Total number of respondents
Where;
F= Number of respondents
X= Likert scale value
FX= Total score
RANKING ANALYSIS
A rank analysis is any of several statistics that measure an ordinal association, the relationship between ranking
of different ordinal variables or different ranking of the same variables, where a “ranking” if the assignment
of the tables “first”, “second”, “third”, etc., To different observation of a particular variable. A rank analysis
measure of similarity between two rankings, and can be used to assess the significance of the relation between
them. It is not necessarily a total order of object because two different them. It is not necessarily a total order
of object because two different objects can have the same ranking. The ranking themselves are totally ordered.

AMAZON ONLINE SHOPPING:

Amazon is a big internet-based company that sells music, books, movies, household stuff, electronics, toys
other kinds of stuff. Amazon.com is an online retailer of E-books and online services provider and it has
become the top-level company in the e-commerce world. Amazon’s headquarter in Seattle of Washington
(USA). Amazon works directly or as the middleman between retailers and Amazon’s customers. It’s also
providing internet or web-based services like renting data storage or cloud computing on the internet. Amazon

28
also launched Kindle of the e-book reader. When they started to promote this device in the market, it was a
dramatic growth in e-book publishing and Amazon becomes the main disruptive force for e-book
publisher in the market. Jeff Bezos (Founder) in July 1994, made his company Cadabra and after one year his
lawyer changed its name to Amazon. Jeff Bezos, who named his company so different because of world's
largest river name, is Amazon. Amazon is a company that does not build or manufacture products, but they
buy these products at reasonable prices from different companies, and then sell these products to
customers in all over the world according to the company. Amazon sells books, e-books, electronic items,
every stuff according to needs of kids and adults, home appliances, mobile, computer and tools related to
computer, jewellery, motor vehicle parts, groceries and all other stuff according to customers need. For the
customers, there are many offers every day. In the case of services, there are lots of facilities are available like
cash on delivery, payment by cards, online payments and even other facilities are available e.g. if customers
don’t like product and want to return back then cash back facilities are available and any other mistake or
problem in ordered products then amazon provide return back facilities to their customers.
The digital revolution has changed the ways firms operate, thus significantly transforming
manufacturing with flexible and personalized forms of production (Mourtzis & Doukas, 2014) as well as
service industries by dematerializing all the stages of the consumer buying process (Nylén & Holmström,
2015).
Increasingly more consumers worldwide in fact are buying online. Across the globe, e-
commerce sales approached nearly $3500 trillion in 2019 (with an increase of over 20%), which represents
about 15% of total retail sales (eMarketer, 2019). The Covid_19 pandemic has probably accelerated this
process, as shown by the increase in 32.4% in ecommerce sales in 2020 (eMarketer, 2020). Currently, Amazon
accounts for nearly 40% of all US e-commerce purchases and has driven half of all retail growth in
the last 5 years.
As online shopping becomes more and more popular, the retail landscape is changing rapidly.
In several cases, the gains for e- commerce retailers are at the expenses of “traditional” brick-and mortar shops,
which have to quickly change their models and formats (Hagberg et al., 2016), thus differentiating themselves
from pure ecommerce players. Just in the United States, in 2017 there were 5321 store closures, up 218%
year-over-year (Fung Global Retail & Technology, 2017). The Covid-19 pandemic has worsened these
devastating effects on brick-and-mortar retailers: most stores selling nonessential items were ordered to close
during lockdowns in several parts of the world, and market analysts forecast more than 15,000 store closures
in 2020 in the United States alone (Thomas, 2020). On the other hand, e-commerce sales have been boosted
during the epidemic, with Amazon taking the lion's share by tripling its profits in 2020 with a 37% increase
in sales revenues and 39.1% increase in ecommerce ads year-over-year, which represents 75.7% of the overall e-
commerce ad spending (eMarketer, 2020).
“Death by Amazon” (Solon & Wong, 2018) is the most common expression used to identify the
decline in sales in (or even closing of) physical stores affected directly or indirectly by the e-commerce leader
29
(Blitz, 2016). This effect is usually explained by the perceived customer benefits attributed to Amazon (low
pricing, huge product selection, excellent customer service, efficient shipping and return policy) combined
with the company's “customer obsession” based on the analysis of customer-based metrics (Denning, 2019).
This makes Amazon (and similar e-commerce big players) able to anticipate customer needs and fulfil them
more effectively than any competitor in almost any industry.
The innovation brought about by Amazon has also shaped the way consumers interact with other
retailers. Self-Service Technology (SST), such as Amazon Alexa or Amazon Dash Button, have disrupted the
“traditional” consumer journey, by enabling customers to order products online by simply talking or pressing
a button (Farah & Ramadan, 2017). Beyond impulsive purchasing behaviour, these innovative tools have
generated other effects (e.g., lock-in mechanisms), thus enabling Amazon to sustain their customers'
satisfaction and loyalty (Ramaseshan et al., 2015). The impact of all these changes is likely to be reflected in
higher customer expectations and modified shopping patterns both online and offline, in terms of reducing
consumer search and selection processes (Priporas, 2020), thus enabling consumers to save time and effort
(Alreck et al., 2009; Jiang et al., 2013). Within the field of consumer behaviour, the Amazon effect can be
primarily defined as the impact that Amazon has on the rise in customer expectations regarding both online,
offline and omnichannel retailers.
Heightened consumer expectations increase online manifestations of dissatisfaction with
products/services and generate consumer complaints in the form of negative comments on social media
(Istanbulluoglu, 2017; Weitzl & Einwiller, 2020), especially on Facebook (Kawaf & Istanbulluoglu, 2019;
Rosenmayer et al., 2018). While previous research has explored different aspects of online complaints, such
as the antecedents and consequences of electronic word-of-mouth (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Nam et al.,
2020), the volume and value of online reviews (Purnawirawan et al., 2015), this paper contributes to this
discussion by identifying which triggers of consumer comments and complaints on social media are key to
the Amazon effect.
Although this “Amazon effect” has been (and continues to be) in the spotlight, research
related to consumers is almost non-existent. To the best of our knowledge, no study has analysed exactly how
Ammonification works in concrete terms. Using natural language processing (NLP) techniques, the present
paper aims to fill this gap by analysing consumer conversations, in terms of expectations and post purchase
satisfaction, on three Facebook pages of retailers in the consumer electronics retail industry in Italy. The study
extends the extant research on customer expectations and complaints in the online context by providing the
first evidence of increasing Amazon-related expectations in consumer electronics retailing and identifying the
link with a decline in consumer satisfaction. From a practical standpoint, the paper provides insights for
omnichannel retailers in consumer electronics by examining the interplay of the different factors that have led
to Amazon's success.
The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 clarifies the meaning of the Amazon effect
in various fields of study and specifies the scope of our research. Section 3 reviews the debate on customer
30
expectations, by discussing consumer shopping patterns in online stores, customer complaints in the form of
reviews and comments on social media, and related potential changes in customer satisfaction. The method
and research context (Section 4) are then outlined, by detailing the sampling choices, and the computational
linguistics and sentiment procedures used to analyse the user-generated content related to three leading
consumer electronics retailers in Italy. The results are then reported (Section 5) and discussed (Section 6).
Finally, implications, limitations, and potential avenues for future research are addressed (Section 7).

4.6. ROLE OF AMAZON EFFECT ON CONSUMER EXPECTATION:

In the retail industry, the Amazon effect (or Ammonification) has been used to indicate the progressive
transformation of e-commerce websites and physical retailers to being “more like Amazon” but, by
extension, it also denotes the massive change in consumer expectations and habits (Jelodari Mamaghani &
Davari, 2020), especially from the customer-centric perspective of the supply chain (Melnyk & Stanton,
2017).
The “Amazon effect” is generally associated with logistics, where the implementation of same-day delivery
services (such as Prime Now) and the 30-day return policy have increased “customer impatience”
(Daugherty et al., 2019). This customer impatience, framed as the “Amazon effect,” has also been cited in
Nature with regard to researchers that are “often more interested in how quickly reagents can be delivered
than in searching for antibodies with appropriate validation data” […] It is the Amazon effect: they want it in
2 or 3 days, with free shipping” (Baker, 2015, p. 275). To reach Amazon standards of efficiency in terms of
logistics, some of the biggest US retailers (i.e. Macy's and Office Depot) in fact integrate their delivery system
with parameters including population density and proximity of goods to customers, aimed at offering same-
day delivery from the nearest point when the customer places her/his order (Inbound Logistics, 2017).
In cultural studies, the Amazon effect has been linked to the “filter bubble” (Pariser, 2011). This indicates a
state of intellectual isolation, in which information and content (e.g. recommendations on ecommerce
websites) are shown on the basis of search histories and past online behaviours, and are the result of a
collaborative filtering algorithm, as in the case of Amazon (Linden et al., 2003). This process makes user
searches and queries more personalized and effective, but at the same time tends to make people unaware of
conflicting or different viewpoints, products, and so forth, thus isolating them in their own “cultural bubbles.”
Similar remarks have also been made in design studies to indicate a gradual homogenization towards the
features of the Amazon website (Porter, 2008) and the associated changes in
consumer behaviour in online settings. Showrooming is another example of consumers' shifting behaviour
(Basak et al., 2017). This is when consumers use brick-and-mortar stores to assess product characteristics
before buying the product online, especially for price reasons. Amazon usually varies product prices by
leveraging dynamic pricing algorithms (Chen et al., 2016), thus adapting them in real time on the basis of
demand, competitors, time of day, and customer buying patterns. In macroeconomic terms, such pricing

31
strategies have been studied to analyse the potential pressure on the price discounts of retailers and on inflation
rates (Charbonneau et al., 2017). In the context of our study, the Amazon effect is intended as the
increase in customer expectations regarding all the attributes of retailing and the consequent decrease in
customer satisfaction in relation to retailers. We assume that these effects are due to the heightened service
standards dictated by Amazon and to the fact that customers constantly consider Amazon as a benchmark
when dealing with both online and offline (or omnichannel) retailers.
While there seems to be a relationship between higher service standards (in terms of shipping, customer
service, price, etc.) and customer expectations, and between customer expectations and customer satisfaction,
no study has investigated these links with regard to Amazon.
Our study aims to explore the Amazon effect by analysing the way consumers manifest their complaints about
retailers on the Internet, and in particular on social media. The increasing use of social media, which provide
an immediate and interactive complaint channel for customers, has already changed the way consumers share
their product- and service-related experiences with others
(Istanbulluoglu, 2017; Mei et al., 2019). Consumers in fact frequently voice service failures of omnichannel
retailers (e.g. inconsistent prices, quality issues, poor customer service support, delivery problems, etc.) via
online reviews and comments on social media (Rosenmayer et al., 2018). Our study provides an initial step to
substantiating the Amazon effect, by focusing on the consumer electronics retailing industry, where the
players suffer from their reliance on business models that are still focused on physical stores, while consumers
exhibit increasing expectations related to their online buying journey.

4.7. DATA ANALYSIS

Researcher collected the data in two forms- Primary and Secondary. Methods like questionnaires, observations
and interviews were used to collect primary data. Questionnaire was designed incorporating relevant questions
and was circulated to users of these online websites and their responses were validated. Few customers were
interviewed to get first-hand information of their experiences with these websites. User’s reaction is best
known by observation. Some consumers who have never used amazon was asked to check out the website and
their observations were recorded. Selection of target customers for feedback was based on age group,
purchasing power and gender. Spending trends of consumers in different age group with varied levels of
purchasing power gender wise was analysed.

4.8.Method of Data Analysis:

Factor analysis was performed to determine the correlation between the variables. Exploratory Factor Analysis
using SPSS version 21 has been conducted to group items into factors leading to the phenomenon. Regression
analysis is performed to identify the impact of the factors identified in factor analysis (independent variables)
on customer satisfaction (dependent variable).

32
1.1. Demographic Features
Table 1 Demographics features of the Respondents

Variables Measuring Group Frequency Total Percentage

Age More than 25 33 76.74
Between 25-35 7 16.28
More than 35 3 6.98
Total 43 100.00
Gender Male Female 19 55.81
Total 24 44.19
43 100.00

The above table represents that out of 70 respondents 76.74 % are in the age group of greater than 25years,
16.28 % of people are in the age group of 25-35 and 6.98 % of
peopleareinthegroupof>35.Wearehavinghighestrespondentswhodoonlineshopping are less than25 years and
almost all those belongs to student category. Female respondents are higher as compared to males in terms
of preference of online shopping.

1.2. How Often Respondents Shop Online

Table 2 How often respondents shop online

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent
One in a month 14 32.56 32.56
Once in 2 months 17 39.53 72.09
More frequently 10 23.26 95.35
Very rarely 2 4.65 100.00

Interpretation: From the above table, it can be interpreted that 32.56 % of respondentsshop online
at least once in month. However, there are 4.65% of the respondents who shops rarely through online
platform.

33
1.3. Preferred Online Site by Respondents

Table 3 online e-commerce site preference by respondents

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent
Amazon 20 46.51 46.51
Flipkart 18 41.86 88.37
Snapdeal 1 2.33 90.70
Others 4 9.30 100.00

Interpretation: It can be noticed that both Amazon was selected by 88.37% of the respondents almost
at par. Talking about other e-commerce sites like Snapdeal (2.33%) and others (9.30%) are very low in this
competition to attain that position which Amazon have attained. Snapdeal also offers huge discounts on
products, but still has a very low market share and is quite far from Amazon.

1.4. Respondents Payment Method

Table 4 Respondent method of payment

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent
Cash on delivery 27 62.79 62.79
Credit Card 1 2.33 65.12
Debit Card 9 20.93 86.05
Net Banking 1 2.33 88.37
Third Party 5 11.63 100.00
(Paytm
wallet,
PayPal, etc.)

Interpretation: most of the respondents choose cash on delivery method which is of 62.79%. It can be
analyzed that cash on delivery method of payment is perfect and safer way for customers to proceed for
online buying. Now a day’s delivery agents also carry card swipe machines for making the shopping and
payment process more convenient.

34
1.5. Selection of E-Commerce site

Table 5 Respondents e commerce site selection process

Valid Frequency Percentage Cumulativ

e
Percentag
e
Advertisements 10 23.26 23.26
Online Reviews 19 44.19 67.44
Referral by friends 14 32.56 100.0
0

Interpretation: Which is the perfect way to reach the customers? Or by what basis client is choosing
online site for shopping. According to above table respondents are choosing as peronline reviews. Secondly
selection of e-commerce site is based on referrals by friends. Selectionbased on advertisements is the last
criteria for selection of e-commerce site.

1.6. Respondents Suggestion to Other Customers

Table 6 Respondents suggestion to other customers

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent
Amazon 20 46.51 46.51
Flipkart 21 48.84 95.35
Snapdeal 1 2.33 97.67
Others 1 2.33 100.00

Interpretation: It can be understood that suggestions from friends plays an important role while
purchasing online or while selecting an e-commerce site. From above table it is clear thatbased upon the
respondent’s views which e-commerce site is leading in friends’ suggestions. 48.84% of respondents are
ready to suggest Flipkart to their friends and family. And after Flipkart, Amazon is leading in respondent’s
suggestion box with 46.51%. And rests of them arehaving very minimum importance and occupation in
respondent’s opinion.

1.7. Respondent’s Opinion on Confidentiality

35
 Table 7 Confidentiality table

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

Extremely Confident 9 20.93 20.9
3
Moderately Confident 21 48.84 69.7
7
Not at all confident 5 11.63 81.4
0
Slightly confident 8 18.50 100.00

Interpretation: Security and privacy is a major concern in e-commerce. When data is stored else where
there is always a risk of data getting leaked. A scan be seen from the table above, 48.84% of respondents
are moderately confident about the security and privacy of theirpersonal information. This implies that the
respondents have concerns about their security andprivacy in e-commerce transactions.

1.8. Gender Wise Online Shopping Frequency

Table 8

Gender respondents online shopping Total

One time One time More often Rarely
in every inevery 2
month months
Male 7 7 4 1 19
Female 7 10 6 1 24
Total 14 17 10 2 43

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 Figure 1

Interpretation: From the above table we can interpret that out of 43 respondents, females,as compared
to males are much more interested in online shopping. Female respondents are leading in al most all age
groups.

1.9. Cross Tabulation of Age and Payment Method

Table 9

Age Respondents payment method Total

Debit Credit Cash on Net Other
Card Cardusage Deliver Bankin services
usage y g like Paytm,
service service PayPal,
google pay
etc.
< 25 6 1 21 5 33
25-35 2 4 1 6
>35 1 2 3

Figure 2

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 Interpretation: From above table and graph we can interpret that most of the people opt for cash on
delivery as it is considered as safer and reliable payment option as compared to credit and debit card or net
banking.

A. Gender and Price Satisfaction

Table 10

Age Respondents price satisfaction Total

Amazon Flipkart Snapdeal Others
Female 13 9 1 1 24
Male 6 11 1 1 19

Figure 3

Interpretation: Flipkart is at higher position in male respondent’s survey followed by Amazon.

SnapdealandPaytmhavetheleastnumberofvotes.Whenitcomestofemalerespondents, Amazon is ahead of
other e-commerce platforms in India. Flipkart ranks second with not much difference in the number of
votes. There are many exclusive e- commerce sites especially for girls, but still they are choosing reputed
and leading ecommerce sites such as Amazon and Flipkart.

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 B. Cross Tabulation of Age And occasions

Table 11

Age Occasio Total

n
Festival Offers To Gift
< 25 3 28 2 33
25-35 2 5 7
> 35 1 2 3

Figure 4

Interpretation: From above analysis it can be interpreted that neither gender nor age is a barrier online
shopping. Respondents more than 25 years of age are most interested inpurchasing at the time of availability
of attractive apart from other occasions such as festivals,weddings etc.

4.9. FUTURE PROSPECTS

Businesses in the country are becoming digitally aware, and realising the potential of digital marketing.
Therefore, many of them are investing in digital marketing to have a strong online presence and sell their
product and services to potential customers.

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Digital marketing is affordable as businesses have control over the budget and campaigns can be optimised.
Campaigns can be accurately targeted with measurable results. All of these are difficult with traditional
marketing; hence, businesses are shifting to digital marketing. 40% of today’s businesses depend entirely on
digital marketing and it is estimated that more than 90% of businesses will go digital.

Digital marketing has immense scope in India. It has the power to help businesses grow and tap into potential
customers at a fraction of the price. It also gives students a chance to make creative and technical careers that
pay well and have many opportunities to grow. Digital marketing is going to revolutionize the industry, and
now is the right time to be a part of this revolution.

In today’s world of internet, Digital Marketing is the only one and most guaranteed way of marketing,
which is popularly being the most preferred space for marketing communications and related interactions.

The future of marketing is way beyond the traditional marketing and now, marketing is majorly based on
the Digital Sphere. The scope of Digital Marketing provides some of the most powerful techniques of
marketing where traditional modes of marketing fail.

The great panjandrum on Digital Marketing over industrialists is to empower them and to optimize their
start-ups in the quickest possible and most cost-effective fashion. Future of digital marketing is going to
be more encompassing in 2018. Undoubtedly, it is an undeniable fact that there is a great scope in digital
marketing.

4.10. IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON AMAZON IN INDIA

E-commerce giant Amazon Inc on September 27 highlighted its "positive impact on small businesses", noting
that over three lakh new sellers in India have benefited through the platform amid the COVID -19 crisis.
Amazon, in what appeared to be a rebuttal, said the company has had a "positive impact on small businesses...
including sellers, artisans and weavers, and delivery and logistics partners".

"During the pandemic three lakh new sellers joined us... of which 75,000 were local neighbourhood shops
(dukaans) from 450+ cities (selling) furniture, stationery, consumer electronics, beauty products, mobile
phones, garments, medical products," NDTV quoted the company's statement as saying.

Amazon further noted that it has aided Indian exporters and increased the presence of 'Made in India' products
in the global market. "Amazon's exports program is witnessing rapid momentum... today there are 70,000+
exporters from metros as well as Tier II, III and IV cities, selling crores of 'made in India' products to customers
in 200 countries across the world - truly taking (it) global," the statement said.

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CHAPTER-V

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 FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION

5.1. FINDINGS

The following were found from the above study;

• There are more male customers than female that is 70% of the total customers are male and the rest
30% are females.
• More than 30% of customers are between the age group of 20 -25 years.
• 38% people buys occasionally and less than 5% prefer to buy regularly.
• On an average approximately 70% to 80% people are affected by the online marketing strategy of
Amazon.
• Electronics are the most advertised products with 42%
• Second most reached product is skin and hair care products with 18%
• Office products and footwear are fairly promoted at 16% and 14% respectively
• Most of the public get to know about Amazon’s promotional activities through Instagram and
Facebook
• YouTube ads are also considered as one of the most effective ways of advertising

5.2. SUGGESTIONS

The following are the suggestions that appeared while analyzing the study

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 • Since few of the customers are buying products through offline, awareness needs to be created for
increasing online payment mode
• Usage of products by the customers is required to be more as few of the customers are buying yearly
also
• Promotional strategies need to be improved so as to motivate the customers to make buying decision
• The company has to make ease for searching products what they are looking for
• Special offer needs to be provided for attracting the customers
• Complete information about the product needs to be advertised for better understanding of the product
• Lucky draw, coupons, etc. are required to promote the customers and also to increase the sales
• The company has to give inform all customers for the new products launching time
• Ensure quick delivery
• Lack of out of stock should consider

5.3. CONCLUSION

As generations evolve and technology develops, the advancement in the field of marketing and advertisements
has been immense. No longer are businesses bound by the limitations of traditional marketing techniques. The
old has been heavily replaced by the new. One of the newest and most effective strategies has been of online
marketing, which is the topic that this whole e-book was centered on. Online marketing utilizes the internet
and its wealth of resources for promotional, profile-raising purposes.

Today online marketing strategies are very important for the customers to get to know about the products and
also for the company to increase their sales which in turn helps to achieve their goals like profitability and
survival. Marketing strategies are means for achieving the organizational goals. Social media marketing, e-
mail marketing, content marketing etc. are some of the online marketing strategies that helps consumers in
selecting the right products at the right time and at the right cost where customers can get a clear understanding
of the products. Customer satisfaction is one of the major and significant factors that has to be met with the
help of various marketing tools and techniques. Here an attempt is made to understand the implementation of
online marketing strategies by Amazon in increasing the sale of products. It can be concluded that, Amazon
has adopted various strategies so as to help customers and also to increase the sale of products in the highly
competitive market. Modern market has transferred to the online world where companies can now reach
customers worldwide, using different forms of online marketing. Not only does this increase the potential
market and the number of potential customers, but it also provides companies with the chances of establishing
the position on global market and thus reaching for greater success and achievement of long-term goals.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

• https://iide.co/case-studies/amazon-marketing-strategy/
• https://www.aboutamazon.in/news/company-news/amazon-indias-covid-blog-updates-on-how-were-
addressing-the-pandemics-second-surge
• https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/lockdown-impact-on-amazon
• https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/covid-19-curbs-make-e-commerce-viral-
amazon-flipkart-see-record-sales-120081600958_1.html
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/mohanbirsawhney/2018/04/30/7-ways-that-amazon-is-winning-by-
acting-glocally-in-india/?sh=31ed421361c1
• https://www.innovell.com/amazon-marketing-report/
• https://newspatrolling.com/amazon-india-company-profile/
• https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/72227
• https://www.excelr.com/the-future-scope-of-digital-marketing
• https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/G200332540?language=en_US
• https://www.statista.com/topics/846/amazon/#dossierContents__outerWrapper
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_(company)

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