1.0 INTRODUCTION:

In the era of globalization, not only nations are coming closer to each other, but also different sectors are undergoing significant changes. And this affects the marketing sector too and has continuously undergone so many changes. The E-Marketing is known for promoting products online or in digital media. Web marketing and online marketing are also known as E-Marketing. E-Marketing helps to identify the right audience to whom business companies are supposed to provide goods and services. It comprises every process and activity for the attraction, place, acquisition and retention of customers.

Creating Internet technologies creates captured ads, forms and e-shops where the product could be promoted, viewed and sold by various multimedia, text, graphics etc. As the Internet expands, the way an item is purchased is changed from traditional to e-purchasing and forms of reception of data are modified. All the information can be received by the customers and even the order can be placed at home. The market has intensified as consumers can easily access data that helps them to compare and choose the best products.

E-Marketing is known to be wide-ranging not only in case of promotional activities and advertising on the Internet, but also through e-mail and mobile media. Website use is achieved through E-Marketing in conjunction with online promotions such as social media marketing, search marketing (SEM), interactive online advertising, e-mail marketing, online directories, viral marketing etc.

E-Marketing strategy involves using existing and emerging communications and data networks to communicate with customers uninterruptedly and in a personalized way to offer value over traditional networking (Watson et al., 2002). Electronic business solutions are emerging internationally and all companies would like to increase their market share and broaden their customer base, thereby growing their participation. IBM regards e-business as a way of using Internet technologies aiming at improving and transforming important business processes (Olhager and Rudberg, 2003). Relationships at individual and organizational level are critical (the company selling the information and the consumers for which the information is meant). Relationships between both organizations and organizations in the value chain are vital for creating competitive advantage and making single customer value proposals (Rowley, 2004).

The underlying problem is finding new ways in which marketing managers can connect with their consumers and change their views on E-Marketing with their existing buying habits and perspectives. This scope needs to be studied, because the communication methods are changing with technological advancement. The research is useful to marketing managers and researchers who want to work in this field in practice and want to explore further in this area. This helps them find ways to attract more customers and to enforce their E-Marketing strategies. Qualitative research is carried out so that the interactions between consumers which develop trends and digital advertising and the improvements in the interaction among buyers and sellers can be established. The performance of customers and E-Marketing sellers is also observed in this study. This is an empirical and cross-sectional study. The unit of analysis for this study are general public and the interviews are taken to gather the required information that is primary data.

On the basis of these arguments, the aim of this research is therefore to explore the scope of E-Marketing in Bangladesh. More specifically this study has two purposes: to identify the customer preferences for using E-Marketing and their buying patterns. And to discover the impact of customer’s perception of online marketing and their reliability on the seller. The primary and secondary data has been used throughout this research paper to meet this objective. For this reason, previous research on these topics of E-Marketing has been examined systematically.

The research paper is constructed as follows: After the brief introduction in Section 1, Section 2 includes review of the literature, while Section 3 shows the research methodology of this study. Results are presented in Section 4. Section 5 discussion and analysis. Finally, Section 6 concludes the paper.

2.0. LITERATURE REVIEW

Ching and Ellis (2004) argued that Internet use has rapidly been increased to demand and provide information, to place orders and packaging, to submit goods and to perform services. A study showed that the Internet was large but that its profit was questionable, with limited sales produced openly due to online marketing; although many expected that they would have positive interaction in the future. (Gallagher and Gilmore, 2004). As the Internet becomes available throughout the world and becomes an important communication tool, E-Marketing becomes an important part of every marketing store of the international organizations. Culture plays an important role in international E-Marketing as people adapt new things to their values and expectations (Krishnamurthy and Singh, 2005). In terms of promoting products, services, information and ideas via Internet and other electronic means, E-Marketing is regarded as a new business activity (El Gohary, 2010).

E-marketing is characterized as online purchasing and online sales, giving intermediaries virtual spaces, shopping fronts, creating digital values and different distribution channels (Strauss and Frost, 2001). The need for this advanced company is growing in E-Marketing, which is why companies are looking closely at it. The business can thus boost its customer loyalty with the product and retain and increased market share (Khan et al, 2012).

According to Coviello et al (2001), E-marketing is considered as the key characteristic of marketing practices involving the use of the Internet and other digital technology to establish interaction between the client and consumers, E-Marketing is rising rapidly and has significant implications for clients and the conduct of the business market. As a result, many businesses have begun designing E-Marketing strategies (Sheth and Sharma, 2005). E-Marketing creates a fundamental change in business and consumer behavior, similar to that in smartphones, which reduced immediate channel requirements. E-Marketing is a platform that uses the Internet to allow companies to adapt to clients ' needs, to reduce transaction costs, and to transform customers to non-temporal and non-locational comportments based on time or location. (Watson et al., 2002).

E-Marketing is similar to advertising for farming, with directly ongoing consumer-producer ties, and lower costs (Sheth and Sharma, 2005). Cost reduction and range enhancement are the key benefits of E-Marketing. E-marketing is generally less expensive as other advertising channels, such as person-to-person salespeople or intermediaries. This makes it possible for companies to cut sales officers and create a database that can handle all of their customers and potential customers. Furthermore, E-Marketing enables companies to reach customers who cannot be reached because of existing distribution channels ' limitations on time and location. E-marketing platforms expand scope and cut costs by supplying consumers with three areas of benefit. First, without human intervention, the marketing company can provide consumers with limitless data. Secondly, the E-Marketing company can create experiences by personalizing data that allows consumers to develop products and services that fulfill their specific requirements (Watson et al., 2002).

In the e-retailing industry, the customer's perspective of satisfaction continues to change, first with the convenience shopping and then with the price perception that leads to after-sales services (Jiang and Rosenbloom, 2005). Trust is an important part of E-Marketing, since the buyer will only purchase it if the seller is trustworthy. Trust and satisfaction with customers have a significant impact on brand loyalty. We can improve customer loyalty by securing, making them easy to use and offering attractive websites (Kassim and Abdullah, 2010). Reliability, website design, accessibility and trust contribute to overall service performance and customer satisfaction. To customers buying actions, these play an important role. Customized service, however, is not especially connected to the quality of service or customer satisfaction. The seller must take these points into account, since they directly affect the purchase intentions, in order to increase customers' intention to buy products from online. It should be constructed and designed in order to ensure customers have access to the relevant data and to ensure their privacy (Lee and Lin, 2005).

3.0. METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

The nature of this research demanded a qualitative approach. This method would be helpful to have an insight on the customer’s perceptions towards the new way of interacting with the seller thus explaining to us the scope of E-Marketing in Bangladesh. Considering the fact that in-depth interviews give better understanding of the views of people, one-to-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with the people who are using Internet. In-depth interviews are considered to be appropriate for comprehensive argument while it focuses to understand the dynamic forces behind, performance issues and disadvantages of adopting E-Marketing. The interviews were transliterated to assist in-depth analysis which focused on the following points:

• Discover the customer preferences for using E-Marketing and their buying patterns.

• Discover the impact of customer’s perception of online marketing and their reliability on the seller.

Respondents using the Internet are chosen based on non-probability sampling. The convenient sampling technique is used and a sample of 80 people is considered for the analysis. The interviewees were asked semi-structured questions about their familiarity with E-Marketing and the collected data have been processed manually and report in the present form has been prepare involvement with e-buying. In order to make the study more informative, analytical, and useful for the users. Besides, related books, journals and web sites were also reviewed to prepare this paper.

4.0. RESULTS

The results are mainly focusing on the impact of E-Marketing on the buying behavior of the Internet users. Figure 1 shows the basic linkage among Internet users, E-Marketing and E-Buying. The basic understanding of study implies that Internet is the most imperative element for E-Marketing. Therefore, the availability and growth of Internet will have a direct impact on the scope of E-Marketing in Bangladesh.

Figure 1: The basic linkage among Internet users, E-Marketing and E-Buying

Source: Author’s compilation

Figure 2: The association of E-Marketing with other variables

Source: Author’s compilation

Figure 2 explains the association of E-Marketing with other variables which affect the consumer buying behavior. E-Marketing enables to provide 24*7 services which is convenient to customer because they can browse the online store and place order at any time. Internet being a global hub of information creates scope for consumers to access the details of the products they need and compare different sellers offering it. The availability of post-usage reviews from previous customers makes E-Marketing a reliable platform for consumers. E-Marketing helps a company to personalize offers for customers by studying their purchasing history and preferences. The short chain of middlemen in E-Marketing makes it a very cost effective platform. Marketing through Internet is a better way to improve the relationship of seller and customer. As Internet provides opportunity to customers to place order online in a convenient way rather than physically going to the marketplace, it makes them purchase more resulting in an increase in sales of the company.

Figure 3: Summery of the respondents’ view

Source: Author’s calculation

The summary of the respondent’s view towards the variables are demonstrated in the above figure which provides the basic information about their views. Most people of the current time are using Internet and they are familiar with the E-Marketing. They are aware of the fact that products are advertise and sold on Internet but a few have actually put them into use.

1. DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

E-Marketing has never been quite as popular as it is at this moment among most of the urban population thanks to the availability and growing usage of the Internet. People using the Internet are exposed to E-Marketing on a regular basis. Most of the business organizations are also going for online promotional activities and many of them have opened online shops for enabling easier purchasing options for the consumers. On the other hand, many small business organizations have emerged which are only focused on E-Marketing and Internet based businesses.

In spite of all the efforts and orchestration, a certain percentage of population are still reluctant to use Internet for product information or as a marketplace. The main reason for this can be stated as the lack of trust among the people to the Internet based marketing campaigns and companies selling products through the Internet. Due to some fraudulent activities and unprofessional attitude by some small organizations, many people do not regard Internet as a trusted source. The major points of skepticism are products delivered not having same specifications as the products advertised or sometimes not delivering a product at all.

A crucial part of the buying process for some products is the opportunity of giving a trial. Internet being a virtual platform lacks this vital element which discourages some potential buyers from taking decisions or making a purchase online just by seeing a picture rather than going to a physical store. An important element of convenience is time. Normally it takes around 2-3 days for a consumer to get his product delivered after making an online purchase. On the other hand, in case of urgent requirements, an online store can come handy. Many websites require debit/credit card payments for their online purchases. There is a chance that these websites will sell the debit /credit card information to third parties or some other companies will steal this information from them. Due to this security issue, many people feel that online purchases are often unsafe. There is a certain class in Bangladesh who own a debit or credit card. So many websites that require card payment may restrict some potential buyers who do not have a card. In order to solve issues of increasing fraudulent activities, some major vendors have introduced cash on delivery facility and days return warranty. This facility gives the buyers the opportunity to make the payment after receiving the product in hand.

Even after all these challenges, E-Marketing has a broad scope in Bangladesh. Small and big both companies need to be more professional in their business conducts. Goods delivered must be the same as goods advertised. And information should be shared with consumers to have a clear mutual understanding. A faster lead time will also make E-Marketing a better choice for people who are always in a hurry. Companies can introduce express services to meet faster requirements by customers. As many customers are skeptical to use debit/credit card for making purchases, so companies should make sure the card information is secured. Also as many people do not have these cards where a large amount of websites need online payment, the introduction of mobile payment system will help in this regard. Mobile payment systems being more convenient, has a much wider user base. So this will also help to boost E-Marketing in the country.

6.0. CONCLUSION

E-Marketing is known as a new business method for the promotion and sale through the Internet. E-marketing is growing worldwide and has an enormous effect on consumers and business market behaviors. In recent years, the growth of E-Marketing and advertising in social media has led to numerous business opportunities. Consequently, most companies have started developing E-Marketing strategies for the web to achieve global results and communicate with those virtually who are unable to interact physically. This paper discussed the current scenario of E-Marketing in Bangladesh, the obstacles that it faces and the ways that it can be more impactful in shaping the buying behavior of the consumers. Business organizations engaged in E-Marketing should be more professional in their operations while making sure that the quality mentioned in the description of the product matches with its actual value. The payment system needs to be reworked so that it becomes secure enough to be used as a regular method. E-Marketing campaigns and strategies can be used effectively and quickly to reach customers and offer promotion of a wide range of products and services. Finally, this can be stated that E-Marketing is going through its defining in period in Bangladesh. A well execution of this method will see a radiant future of Internet based business and promotional activities thus boosting the economy of the country.

7.0. REFERENCES

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Received on 10.11.2020 Modified on 28.11.2020

Asian Journal of Management. 2021; 12(1):86-90.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2021.00013.5