Surviving in intense competition, especially against big players

Competitive edge over rivals is a must for survival or any kind of a business in the market. For companies in the organized market, rivals could be the big MNCS or their big brands that enjoy considerable market share in their respective segments. These big players have established track-record of superior performance and enjoy customer loyalty due to the high quality of their brands. Therefore, for entrants in the market, it becomes essential to prove their worth, otherwise there will be no buyers.

Attracting the consumers and creating a demand for their product should be the primary objective of every business firm. To create this kind of demand among the consumers, it is very important to understand the needs and wants of the customers, and accordingly design the products across segments. For instance, if the customers want light and compact air conditioner with provision of instant cooling, the product should be designed accordingly. There is absolutely no point if the air conditioner is light and compact but does not provide instant cooling, as it will not cater to the consumers’ necessities and therefore they will not prefer to buy it.

The following processes are crucial for any establishment that aims success:

Studying requirements:-
To achieve success, a company must define its goals and develop strategies to achieve the targets within a timeframe. These goals and methods formulated to achieve them justify the effort that is being currently put in. This enables to predict the impact of re-engineering that needs implemented to improve processes. The second step is to understand the requirements of the business on the basis of priorities. A well articulated system defining the priorities of an organization helps an organization to focus on the critical issues first.

Workflow analysis:-
This is a detailed study of various stages of the work process i.e. starting from its conception as an idea and its travel through the business process till it culminates as the output. Workflow evaluation effectively unveils opportunities of optimization of systems and processes.

For instance, a workflow analysis can find out how a work is approved in a company. If the project only existed in a hard copy that an employee needed to take it to the approver for seeking an approval, there is a possibility to automate the process. Using an e-mail cold perhaps reduce the approval time, which can yield higher productivity for the organization. You would have however discovered the necessity if automation, if you did not analyze your work processes.

Architecture and system analysis:-
Along with the analyses of workflow processes, analysis of the support system is also necessary. For such a task you can seek the help of a professional architecture analyst or an IT audit. Such a professional can compare your business requirements with all the systems in place and find out whether they can support the requirements. Accordingly, he can suggest upgrading the company’s IT infrastructure through process management methods. He will also indicate the investment required in the area and predict the returns on the investments, so that you can manage your scarce resources.

Selling your products online! How to sell effectively using a website

It is very important to select from the hundreds of ecommerce methods available today, the right one for creating a website and suitably placing it on the internet.

To make the right choice, first of all, you need to plan a structure for your website and visualize the functional areas of your electronic shop. Accordingly, you can make the pages for describing goods and services you are selling, design a trading basket (shopping cart) from which the buyers can choose and store products from your catalog, get payment modes in place for the users to pay through the internet, and obtain a merchant account that will enable you to accept those payments. Focus on the following areas for operating your online store successfully:

Describe your products well:-

Visitors make up their mind on buying products from your website only when feel confident about products’ quality. Therefore, provide them detailed description of your products, supported with relevant diagrams, drawings, and video clips. Specify the conditions of sale and, delivery and other supports.

You can classify the products under various categories and sub-categories on the website according to the industrial standards. Organization your data in such a manner gives the consumers exhaustive information on the products and enables them to pick up correct products under specific categories.

Make placing orders and making payments convenient:-

Most websites accept orders only through the internet, neglecting the user category that prefers placing orders by phone, fax, or an email, by habit. To tap such category, you must obtain telephone facility from your software solutions provider. Make it easier for them to pay by accepting payments by all methods of electronic payments.

Get a trading basket for accounting taxes:-

Trading basket is a complex software that allows you to take orders, calculate tax and shipping, display products, and build an online catalog. You can select from a range of shopping carts programs depending on what products you sell. Some programs are quite simple and others are highly sophisticated with special features such as true order management, catalog building, wish lists, gift registries, and real-time UPS shipping calculations based on weight, ZIP, and type of shipping selected.

Place guarantees of refund:-

You must place the information related to guarantees of refund on the defective products prominently on your site. It is effective in getting a deal by giving the consumers a feeling of security. By offering refunds you also adhere to the law on protection of the rights of consumers that obligates the supplier to make the refund or replacement of the goods.


Specify policy of confidentiality:-

Tell your customers who you are and state your privacy policies. Provide secure transactions and make payments convenient for the customers. You may also use privacy certificates, escrows, and digital security to promote trust among your customers.

Your website must pledge confidentiality regarding the personal information received from clients. When you ask for personal information from the users, make it a point to mention where and why you intend to use such information.

You may seek professional web-designing service to ensure usability of you website. Such services are easily available in the market and offer exciting packages to suit all pockets.

Legal aspects and implications of e-mail marketing and related spam laws

Ecommerce can be best described as a marketplace on the internet, which comprises distributing, marketing, buying, selling, and servicing of products or services through electronic systems such as internet or other computer networks. It can be also viewed as an electronic business application targeted at commercial transactions involving electronic funds transfer, e-marketing, supply chain management, online marketing, online transaction processing, automated inventory management, electronic data interchange, and automated data collection systems.

Ecommerce is indeed the most efficient and convenient mode of transactions nowadays, but this business needs strict compliance with laws and related legalities, particularly dealing with marketing, because you are dealing with others’ money.

If you in the ecommerce business, then strictly avoid fraudulent promotions, otherwise you could be charged for spamming under the new CAN-SPAM Act, which was signed by President George W. Bush on December 16; the Act is a federal initiative designed to regulate the most harmful and annoying practices of spammers. Violation of the Act can result in the following consequences:

• Revenue losses and damage of reputation
• Major e-mail service providers such as AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo! filtering your messages to block them
• ISP may shut down your e-mail account
• Web host may shut down your web site
• Under the new federal CAN-SPAM Act, you can be fined (up to $2 million) or sentenced to jail (up to five years)

Therefore honestly promote a legitimate business to sell real and valuable products or services.

Operate a legitimate business:-

Do not use falsifying headers to force your way into peoples’ inboxes. Avoid using deceptive subject lines, hijacking other peoples' e-mail accounts or computers to send spam, creating e-mail or IP addresses specifically to send spam, and sending unsolicited e-mail with sexual content and emails to people who have requested to be removed from your list. These are malicious ways of forcing messages into the inboxes of people who don't want them, which are not only annoying but are illegal and unprofitable.

Plan responsible e-mail promotions:-

Always obtain permission from the target users before sending them emails. A user must never get a mail that he is not expecting. Avoid buying or renting email lists as they do not promise validity and at times you end up paying for the addresses that are invalid. If you buy email lists, find out how those addresses were collected. If people in your purchased list have not agreed to receive email related to promotion or advertisements, you might land into the troubled waters.

Be very careful while choosing a subject line; it should be self-explanatory about the content within the email. Mention the real return address and place a functional ‘unsubscribe’ link in all the emails. If you have an exhaustive list of emails you will have to seek professional help to install an ASP or any other suitable program to manage ‘opt-ins’ and ‘unsubscribe’ requests. You must send commercial or promotional emails/ newsletters through you’re your company’s official email address.

Finally, stay educated about e-mail marketing and spam laws. Laws and their definitions are changing; therefore obtain regular updates on the related laws.