Background:

E-marketing is a modern method to market products and services. It involves the use of the internet to reach customers. It is a quite vast field of marketing. From e-mail marketing to wireless media marketing, all is part of this marketing. Allen and Fjermestad (2001) stated that concept like data of customers and customer relationship management are also its part. According to Jobber (1997), it is an important component of e-commerce. Like e-commerce, it uses only electronic means to perform all activities. The desired goals and objectives are also achieved with the use of the internet. Allen and Fjermestad (2001) mentioned that mobile marketing and interactive marketing is also the same thing like e-marketing. According to Bayne (2000), it is to directly stimulate the response of an individual with marketing efforts. The difference in e-marketing and traditional marketing is that in e-marketing marketing efforts are customized for the targeted group of customers. Unlike, traditional marketing it does not target mass population with marketing efforts. The important role is played by information technology in e-marketing. Its content is same like traditional marketing content e.g. information about products, services, promotion and other activities (Ryan and Jones, 2009). According to Thorelli and Cavusgil (1990) sales volume is the sum of sales in terms of units or dollars. Sales volume provides an important figure that provides an important estimation or projection about organizational performance. Many researchers e.g. Zikmund and D'amico (2012), Ansari et al., (2000) and Ryan and Jones (2009), state that e-marketing strategies are important for increasing sales of a company and e-marketing strategy positively influences the sales of a company.

Problem Statement

In today’s business world, all organizations have understood the significance of e-marketing. Considering its importance and effectiveness, all marketers are intending to use e-marketing strategies. As said by Š?eulovs and Gaile-Sarkane (2010), the internet use has become famous in all business and marketing activities. Focusing on the same issue, Baker (2007) mentioned that e-marketing is something that cannot be ignored now. It has modified the ways of communication, the information sharing, and to convey the message to customers. Many researchers, i.e. Li and Bernoff (2008), Mangold, (2009), Andrews, et al. (2007), have stated that e-marketing is very significant for businesses now. Through e-marketing, organizations can achieve their financial objectives. But Baker (2007) mentioned that there is a need of clear evidence with respect to a particular company that how e-marketing is resulting in increased sales. Thus, considering the suggestion of Baker (2007), a study will be conducted to investigate the impact of e-marketing strategies on sales volume of an organization. For this study, River Island UK will be selected.

Research Aim and Objectives

This research will aim to explore the impact of e-marketing strategies on volume of sales of retailers. This aim will be fulfilled by following objectives:

1. To review literature on e-marketing strategies and its impact on sales volume
2. To find whether e-marketing strategies significantly influence volume of sales of retailers or not
3. To provide recommendations for organizations for the use of e-marketing strategies

Research Questions

In research, following research questions will be answered.

1. According to literature, what is the impact of e-marketing strategies on sales volume?
2. Do e-marketing strategies significantly influence volume of sales or not?
3. What are the recommendations for organizations regarding the use of e-marketing strategies? 

Scope of the Study

The study will only consider two variables. E-marketing strategy will be considered as independent variable while sales volume will be considered as dependent variable. This study will only consider one organization i.e. River Island UK. The time for study will be very limited i.e. 4-5 months.

The Significance of the Study

This research will be beneficial for organizations, marketers, scholars and the general public as well. All organizations either want to cut their costs or to differentiate it from others. By using results of this study, they will become better able to understand that how they can achieve their objectives through e-marketing strategy. Similarly, the aim of marketers is to target their customers in a best possible way and to increase their sales volume. The results of this study will shed light on this issue and will clarify to marketers that whether they should use e-marketing strategies to increase sales or not. For scholars, this study will be a contribution to the available literature in internet marketing, digital marketing and online marketing. Along with this, it will provide practical evidence to scholars regarding e-marketing strategy and its impact on sales. For the public, it will be a source of knowledge of marketing.

Rationale for selecting River Island

River Island has dominant presence in British High street from last 60 years. It has stores spreading all over the Asia, Middle East and Europe. It has embraced e-commerce from many years. According to Corry (2013), recently, it has started an affiliate marketing campaign. In this campaign, it has collaborated with famous fashion bloggers and publishers, for example ShopStyle and Fashion Beans. In this campaign, River Island is working with Rakuten LinkShare. It is planning to upload interactive videos of Rihanna on its website to attract more online shoppers. Basically, it has hired Rihanna and Chelsea Girl for creating fashion buzz on internet. According to Marketing Director of River Island, e-commerce is very important to target international customers. Steve Borges, Co-founder of e-commerce has mentioned that it is going to work with River Island for developing effective online strategies.  These all facts make it interesting to study River Island e-marketing strategies and its impact on sales. In fact, these are innovative and unique e-marketing strategies. Therefore, in this study this retail store is selected to be studied.

 

 

Literature Review

E-Marketing

According to Wind and Mahajan (2001), the concept of e-marketing, online marketing and digital marketing has become famous. It has opened new doors of opportunities for marketers to target customers in a more effective manner. Previously, the internet was used only as a tool to contact customers, but now, the whole marketing is about to shift to this internet. Considering the effectiveness and efficiency of the internet, marketers have realized its importance. So they are adopting this to market products and services and achieve their objectives. Even though, the many concepts of traditional marketing are outdated, but still the 4P’s are considered the base of marketing. These 4P’s (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) were introduced by Jerome McCarthy in 1960. Later on these 4P’s were extended to 7P’s (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Physical Evidence, Process and People). To stimulate demand for a particular product promotion plays an important role. In this study, the researcher will only focus on ‘Promotion’ because e-marketing strategies are more relevant to the ‘Promotion’. Basically, promotion is about methods that marketers use to communicate their message to targeted customers. Ryan and Jones (2011) stated that marketers can use the internet for all promotional strategies. The communication mix, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing can become more effective with the use of the internet. 

Internet Advertising:

Previously, advertising was only done through traditional means, but now, the internet is used as a mean to attract and retain customers. Now, the websites are used to deliver the message. Instead of billboards, graffiti and banners, advertising banners are used. The website is also used a source of branding, customer service, and customer relationship management. With the help of well-designed, well-organized and friendly user interface website, marketers attract customers and sales occur (Schumann and Thoson, 2007).  

Sales Promotion:

According to Wertime and Fenwick (2008), there was a time when sales promotion was used to increase sales but marketers always considered it an expensive method to increase sales, but now, the sales promotion activities are also shifted to the internet. As said by Schumann and Thoson (2007), now competitions, promotional activities, price reductions, discounts, bundle offers and other sales promotion activities are shifted to the internet. Interestingly, now it is done with a cost effective manner. With such activities, customers revisit websites and they are always willing to build a long term relationship with organizations because of such promotional activities.

Public Relations

It is another important tool of promotion of products and services. Like other promotional activities, public relation activities are also shifted towards the internet. Through blogs, podcasts and online press rooms, marketers manage public relation activities (Schumann and Thoson, 2007).

Direct Marketing

Now the direct marketing has become easier and cost effective because of the internet. Organizations get the email addresses of target customers and marketers directly send their messages to targeted customers. This has allowed the marketers to develop two-way communication (Wertime and Fenwick, 2008).

Sales Volume

According to Hisrich and Jackson (1993), sales volume is basically the number of sales that occurred during a specific period. It can be in terms of the number of units of a product or dollar amount. It is known as the most accurate measure to understand organizational performance and profitability of an organization. All organizations aim to increase their sales because sales and profits are directly related to each other. The increase sales volume is always desirable for an organization. Declining sales volume is always problematic for organizations.

The Relationship between E-Marketing Strategies and Sales Volume

Rothman (2013) and Chung and Lee (2003) stated that the most significant motivation for using e-marketing strategy is to increase the sales of retailers. It is a best method to increase the sales because with the help of the internet, the communication between marketers and customers become fast. With a very minimum effort, marketers become able to target a large number of customers. Today, the competition in all industries has become intense. It is not possible for organizations to survive in such competition without using something unique and innovative for marketing products and services. Those who use e-marketing strategy in an effective way becomes able to attract customers and motivate them to purchase something from their website. Keegan et al, (2013) stated that there are various techniques of e-marketing. By using the most effective ones, marketers successfully target customers. Thus, marketing efforts motivate customers to purchase particular products and services. Kim et al (2003) mentioned that sales through the internet have more chances to occur because customers feel more convenient through it. Nor only the time and cost of marketers is saved, but the time and cost of customers is also saved.

On the basis of above literature, the following framework is developed.

 

 

E-Marketing Strategy

Sales Volume

 

 

 

 

 

H1: E-marketing positively and significantly positively influences the sales volume.

 

 

 

Methodology

This research will follow the Saunder’s et al., (2003) research onion.

 

 

Source: Saunder et al (2003)

Research Philosophy:

This study will use positivism philosophy. The assumptions of this philosophy are realist ontology (objective reality) and representational epistemology (human can understand it accurately) are fulfilled in this research. Along with this, there exists cause and effect relationship between e-marketing strategies and sales volume. It will also involve the hypothesis testing, and it will be done on the basis of quantitative data. These all are assumptions and beliefs of positivism research philosophy.

Research Approach

This research will be based on deductive research approach. It will involve hypothesis testing. The focus will be on causality and it will be a quantitative study. The research will move from ‘specific to general’. First, it will study theories from literature review, and then the hypothesis will be developed on the basis of theories. This hypothesis will be tested through statistical analysis. Then theory will be accepted or rejected on the basis of results of hypothesis testing. As stated by Gulati (2009), these characteristics and process tells that this research will be using the deductive approach.

Research Strategy

There are many possible alternatives for selecting a research strategy. As this is a quantitative study and it will intent to test the hypothesis so the most appropriate research strategy is to conduct a survey. A survey will be conducted for this study.

Research Choice

This study uses a mono-method choice. It will be based on quantitative research method. As stated by Kumar (2005) quantitative research involves the use of numeric. It uses a large sample size. The representation of data is done through charts, tables and graphs. It involves statistical analysis as well. This study will use quantitative research only.

Time Horizon

It will be a cross sectional study.

Data Collection Techniques

According to Ramamurthy (2011), there are two possible ways to collect the data i.e. primary and secondary. In this research, both secondary and primary data will be collected. To collect the primary data, a questionnaire will be used. For secondary sources, books, journals, newspaper, press releases and articles will be consulted.

Population

The population of this study is customers of River Island UK.

Sample

The sample for this study is 170 customers of River Island UK.

Sampling Technique:

For this study, convenience sampling technique will be used. Only those customers of River Island UK will become the participant of this study who will be easily available.

Ethical Considerations

The researcher will make sure to follow all research ethics. As suggested by Tharenou et al (2007), only those respondents will be selected who will have no problem to be part of this study. Those who will become part of this study will be clearly informed about the research aim and objectives. Researcher will ensure all respondents that their data will be kept confidential. It will be ensured that respondents are kept safe from any kind of physical, health or emotional harm. Along with this, the researcher will ensure that it does not use any data without acknowledging the original researcher. So to avoid plagiarism, everything will be referenced properly.

Table: Summary of Research Methods

Research Philosophy	Positivism
Research Approach	Deductive
Research Strategy	Survey
Research Choice	Mono-Method i.e. Quantitative
Time Horizon	Cross-Sectional
Data Collection Technique	Primary Data and Secondary Data
Population	All customers of River Island
Sample	Customers of River Island
Sample Size	170
Ethics Followed	Yes

Source: developed by researcher (2014)

Data Analysis

SPSS 13.0 will be used for data analysis. For assessing data normality, K-S test, Shaprio Wilk test, kurtosis and Skewness will be used. For reliability of data, Chronbach’s alpha value will be used. For investigating the relationship between e-marketing strategy and sales volume, Pearson’s correlation analysis will be conducted. For hypothesis testing, regression analysis will be conducted.

 

 

Time Plan

 

	1-2th Week	3-4th week	5-6th week	7th -8th week	9th-10th week	11th – 12th week	13-14th week	15-16th week
Introduction
Literature Review
Methodology
Data Collection
SPPS data punching
Data Analysis
Findings and Analysis
Discussion and Conclusion

 
References

Allen, E. and Fjermestad, J. 2001. E-commerce marketing strategies: a framework  and case analysis. Logistics Information Management, Vol.14, pp14-23

Ansari, A.,  Essegaier, S., & Kohli, R., 2000. Internet Recommendation Systems, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 38, pp. 363-375.

Baker, M. J. & Hart, S. 2007. The Marketing Book, Butterworth-Heinemann.

Bayne, K. M. 2000. The Internet Marketing Plan: The completed guide to Instant  Web Presence. 2^nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Chung, I. K., and Lee, M. M. 2003. A study of influencing factors for repurchase intention in Internet shopping malls. In Proceeding of the International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium, Nice, France, 243a

Corry, W., 2013. River Island ramps up international commerce with Rakuten LinkShare, [Online], Available at: http://www.themarketingblog.co.uk/2013/07/river-island-ramps-up-international-commerce-with-rakuten-linkshare/, [Accessed on: 1^st July, 2014]

George, J. F. 2002. Influences on the intent to make Internet purchases. Internet Research, Vol.12, No. 2, pp. 165-180

Gulati, PM, 2009, Research Management: Fundamental and Applied Research, Global India Publications

Hisrich, R.D. & Jackson, R.W. 1993. Selling and Sales Management, New York: Baron’s Educational Series

Jobber, D. 1997, The CIM Handbook of selling and sales strategy, Butterworth Heinemann

Kim, D. J, Ferrin, D. L., and Rao, H. R. 2003. A Study of the effect of consumer trust on consumer expectations and satisfaction: the Korean experience. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Electronic Commerce, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 310-315

Keegan W., Moriarty S., and Duncan, T, 2013. Marketing. 13^th edition, USA: Prentice Hall

Kumar, R. (2005). Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners (2 ed.). SAGE Publications.

Li, C. & Bernoff, J. 2008. Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies, Harvard Business School Press

Mangold, W. G. & Faulds, D. J. 2009. Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business horizons, 52, pp. 357-365

Ramamurthy, G.C., 2011. Research Methodology. New Delhi: DreamTech Press

Rothman, D. 2013. 5 Email Marketing Strategies for Customer Retention. [Online] Available at: http://blog.marketo.com/2013/04/5-email-marketing-strategies-for-customer-retention.html [Accessed on 25th June, 2014]

Ryan, D., & Jones, C., 2009. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation, Kogan Page

Ryan, D., & Jones, C., 2011. The Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in The World, Great Britain: Kogan Pages

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. 2003. Research method for business students, 3^rd edition. New York: Prentice Hall.

Schumann, D.W., & Thorson, E., 2007. Internet Advertising: Theory and Research, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

 

Sceulovs, D. & Gaile-Sarkane, E. 2010. Electronic Tools For Company’s Presence, Identification And Marketing In E-Environment: Theory And Practice

Tharenou, P., Donohueis, R. & Cooper, B., 2007. Management Research Methods. New York: Cambridge University Press

Thorelli, H.B., & Cavusgil, S. T. (1990). International Marketing Strategy, 3rd Edition, Pergamon: Oxford

Wind, J., & Mahajan, V., 2001. Digital Marketing, New York : John Wiley and Sons

Wertime, K., & Fenwick, L., 2008. DigiMarketing: The Essential Guide to New Media and Digital Marketing, England: John Wiley and Sons

Zikmund W. and D'amico M. 2012. Marketing, 3rd edition, USA: John Wiley and Sons