A

PROJECT REPORT
On
“WORK FROM HOME AMAZON”
Submitted towards Partial Fulfillment of
BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
(AFFILIATED TO C.C.S. UNIVERSITY, MEERUT)
(2018-2021)

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

Submitted to: Submitted By:

Dr. Geetika Shukla AMAAN SHAH
H.O.D. of Management Roll No. 180986105014
BBA- VI SEM

DEWAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

STUDIES, MEERUT

1
 STUDENT DECLARATION

I am AMAAN SHAH student of B.B.A. – VI Sem, DIMS, Meerut here by declares that the

project report titled “WORK FROM HOME AMAZON.” is completed and submitted

under the guidance of “Dr. Geetika Shukla , H.O.D of BBA Department DIMS, Meerut”

is my original work.

The imperial finding in this report is based on the data collected by me. This project has been

submitted to CCS, University , Meerut or not any other university for the purpose of compliance of

any requirement of any examination or degree.

AMAAN SHAH

Roll No. 180986105014

BBA- VI SEM

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I take this as an opportunity to thank with bottom of my hear all those without whom the journey of
doing my project would not have been as pleasant as it has been to me. Working on my project was a
constant learning experience with all sweat and tear which was its due but not without being richly
stimulating experience of life time.

I am very thankful to Dr. Geetika Shukla , H.O.D of BBA Department DIMS, Meerut for giving
me their valuable advice and guidance towards fulfillment of the project

For any project to be a success, it is very important to get the right guidance and support which I got
from my Dr. Geetika Shukla , H.O.D of BBA Department DIMS, Meerut. I express my gratitude
to my faculty guide for inspiring me throughout the project.

I want to express my deep gratitude to our institution DIMS Meerut , for giving me the opportunity to
undertake this project and enhance my knowledge.

Finally I would like to convey my heartiest thanks to all my well wishers for their blessing and co-
operation throughout my study. They boosted me up every day to work with a new and high spirit.

AMAAN SHAH

3
 PREFACE

Marketing plays vital role in today’s business scenario in consumer product Company, when

there is such a high competition in the market.

The emphasis in the project is providing the study an insight into Online shopping. The

project is designed to provide participation of M.B.A program as on the job experience. This

has given a chance to try and apply the academic knowledge and gain insight into corporate

culture. This helps in developing decision making abilities and emphasizes on active

participation by the student.

I undertook my project a leading and marketing partner of the online shopping. During the

training, I had work on the project “WORK FROM HOME AMAZON.

I gained valuable experience & knowledge during this survey. This project consists of my

findings after data analysis & conclusions were drawn and recommendations were put

forward.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

S.No. Particulars Page No.

1. Introduction Of The Project

2. Company Profile

3. Objectives Of The Study

4. Research Methodology
5. Data Analysis And Interpretation.
6. Findings
7. Suggestions
8. Limitations Of The Study
9. Conclusion
10. Bibliography
11. Annexure

5
 Executive summary

Online shopping is one of the fast growing industries in India. The Leather

goods can be further classified segments. Marketing includes all the fulfill the

all segment of Employee. Marketing is also to convert social needs into

profitable opportunities.

So this topic provides the entire essential to theoretical knowledge and to

inculcate the efficiency. It is also requirement for the company to improve their

service and quality for achieving their ultimate goal.

Project Title: IMPACT OF DIGITAL MARKETING OF AMAZON

INDIA PVT. LTD. The topic has been already given by the company to collect

information about current status of the Leather goods that is given by the

company to the retailer for selling of every brand of Online shopping.

Location: Lucknow

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INTRODUCTION OF JEFF BEZOS

Who doesn’t love a startup story and what better than knowing about the men in the
world?

A person who was born on January 12 1964, in New Mexico. His first love is
computer and studied computer science and electrical engineering at Princeton
University. After graduation he worked on Wall Street.

In 1990, He became the youngest senior vice president at the investment firm
D.E.Shaw. After four years, he quit his job to open amazon.com. This person is none
other than JEFFERY P. BEZOS.

Bezos started his first business at school. It was called the dream institute and it was
an educational summer camp for fourth, fifth, sixth standard students. There were
some books that bezos required his participants to read.

Bezos initially name his new company Cadabra but later changed the name to amazon
after the Amazon River in South America, in part because the name begins with the
letter A, which is at the beginning of the alphabet. He accepted an estimated $300000
from his parent and invested in Amazon. He warned many early investors that there
was 70% chance that Amazon would fail or go bankrupt. Although Amazon was
originally an online bookstore, Bezos had always planned to expand to other products.
Three years after Bezos founded Amazon, he took it with an initial public offerings
(IPO). In response to critical reports from fortune and Barrons, Bezos maintained that
growth of the internet would overtake competition from larger book retailers such as
Borders and Barnes & Noble.
In 1998, Bezos diversified into the online sale of music and video; by the end of the
year, he had also expanded the company products to include a variety of consumer
goods. Bezos used the $54 million raised during the company’s 1997 equity offerings
to finance aggressive acquisition of smaller competitors. In 2000, Bezos borrowed $2

7
billion from banks, as its cash balances dipped only $350 million. In 2002 Bezos led
amazon to launch Amazon Web Series, which complied data from weather channels
and website traffic. In late 2002, rapid spending from Amazon caused its financial
distress when revenue stagnated. After the company nearly went bankrupt, he closed
distribution centers and laid off 14% of the amazon workforce. In 2003, Amazon
rebounded from financial instability and turned a profit of $400 million. In November
2007, Bezos launched the Amazon Kindle. According to a 2008 time profile, Bezos
wished to create same flow state found in video game stimulation in books; he wished
readers would fully engaged with books. In 2013, Bezos secured a $600 million
contract with the Central intelligence agency on behalf of Amazon Web Services. In
October that year, Amazon was recognized as the largest online shopping retailer in
the world.

Journalist Nellie Bowles of the New York Times has described the public persona and
personality of Bezos as that of a brilliant but mysterious and coldblooded corporate
titan. During the 1990s Bezos earned a reputation for rentlessly pushing Amazon
forward, often at the expense of the public charity and social welfare. His business
practices projected a public image of prudence and parsimony with his own wealth
and that of Amazon. Bezos was a multi billionare who hung his clothes on a rack in
his Amazon headquarters office and drove a 1996 Honda accord. Throughout the
early 2000s, he was perceived to be geeky and nerdy, which went over well with
observers.

In 1999 Bezos received his first major award when time named him Person of the
Year. In 2008 he was selected by U.S. News & World Report as one the America best
leaders.
Bezos was awarded an honorary doctorate in science and technology from Carnegie
Mellon University in 2008. In 2011 the economist gave Bezos and Gregg Zehr an
innovation award for the Amazon Kindle.

He is also a member of the Bilderberg Group and attended the 2011 Bilderberg
conference in Switzerland, and the 2013 conference in England. He was a member of
the executive committee of the business council for 2011 & 2012.

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Online marketing also known as digital marketing, web marketing, and internetmarketing
or e-marketing is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. Internet marketing
is sometimes considered to be broad in scope because it not only refers to marketing on the
Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Management of
digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems are
also often grouped together under internet marketing.Clearly, marketers are adding on-line
channels to find, reach, communicate, and sell. I-marketing has at least five great advantages.
First, both small and large firms can afford it. Second, there is no real limit on advertising
space, in contrast to print and broadcast media. Third, information access and retrieval are
fast, compared to overnight mail and even fax. Fourth, the site can be visited by anyone from
any place in the world. Fifth, shopping can be done privately and swiftly.Internet marketing
and e-commerce has marked its place in the world of technology. The success of any business
at present strongly depends on Internet marketing . Below gives a graphical view of how
online marketing can effectively be planned .

There are many sources of online marketing or Digital Marketing as described below:
Web Marketing:
Web marketing includes Web sites, Affiliated marketing Web sites, promotional or
informative Web sites, online advertising on search engines, and organic search engine

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results via Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Internet marketing is sometimes considered to
be broad in scope because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes
marketing done via e-mail and wireless media

Web Marketing

Social Media Marketing:Social media marketing involves both advertising and marketing
efforts via social networking sites like Face book, Twitter, YouTube and Digg. This has come
with a most useful source of marketing as there are billions of people reach out these media
and thus make possible to reach the people anywhere in the world with , simple broadcasting
of the product advertisement takes no time to reach the Employee .Internet, but also includes
marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Management of digital customer data and
electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems are also often grouped
together under internet marketing. Clearly, marketers are adding on-line channels to find,
reach, communicate, and sell. I-marketing has at least five great advantages.

10
Social Media Marketing

Email Marketing:

Email marketing involves both advertising and promotional marketing efforts via e-mail
messages to current and prospective customers. Email messaging has made possible to send
promotional messages to the email users acting as a quick mode of online product broad cast
over internet. Digital marketing for ecommerce applies traditional marketing principles to a
multichannel, data-driven environment. Digital marketing for ecommerce applies traditional
marketing principles to a multichannel, data-driven environment. Studying collaborative
research and the accessing of external sources of technology, Hummel found that in deciding
on business partners, it is important to make sure that both parties' business models are
complementary

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Email Marketing
E-commerce Marketing:
E-commerce marketing is the process of driving sales by raising awareness about an online
store's brand such as Amazon, flip kart, snap deal and many other online product services,
product offering companies. Digital marketing for ecommerce applies traditional marketing
principles to a multichannel, data-driven environment.

E-commerce Marketing

Internet marketing is associated to various business models. It comprises of e-commerce

business model where goods and services are sold directly to Employee (B2C), businesses
(B2B) or from one consumer to other consumer (C2C).These business model are described
below. Studying collaborative research and the accessing of external sources of technology,
Hummel found that in deciding on business partners, it is important to make sure that both
parties' business models are complementary. For example, they found that it was important to
identify the value drivers of potential partners by analyzing their business models, and that it
is beneficial to find partner firms that understand key aspects of our own firm's business
model ,one being that it often depends on campaigns' abilities to invoke emotional responses,
rather than solely demonstrating value. Marketers with carefully designed World Wide Web

12
sites are already interacting computer to computer, with prospective customers or an
individual basis, much as ATM does in very primitive fashion
Business-to-customer (B2C):
Business-to-customer marketing refers to the tactics and best practices used to promote
products and services among Employee. B2C marketing differs from B2B marketing in a
number of key ways, one being that it often depends on campaigns' abilities to invoke
emotional responses, rather than solely demonstrating value.

Business-to-Business Model:
B2B (business-to-business) marketing is marketing of products to businesses or other
organizations for use in production of goods, for use in general business operations (such as
office supplies), or for resale to other Employee, such as a wholesaler selling to a retailer.

13
 CONCEPT OF WORK HOME WORK LIFE.

Sigmund Freud is considered to be the father of psychoanalysis. His

prescription for a healthy person is a combination of Lieben and Arbeiten (Love and
Work). The modern version is probably best expressed in terms of Work home
Work life (QWL). The stress of modern work life is often so stressful that it has
become very imperative to strike a balance between work life and personal life. The
underlying assumption is that the work life balance will ultimately ensure QWL.
There is growing recognition among the best employee centered organizations to
accord top priority to QWL. Concepts like flexitime, telecommuting has become
increasingly popular with both employers as well as employees. And in both the
cases, the objective is to improve the Work home Work life as well as quality of
personal life.

The task force of American Society of Training and Development defined

QWL as a value-based process of work organizations which enables its members at
all levels to actively participate in shaping the organization’s environment where
they are motivated to perform well and are satisfied with their work.

Criteria which constitute the broad realm of QWL:

1. Adequate and fair compensation i.e., balance between effort and reward. This
includes:
Fair job evaluation
Training to perform the job effectively Ability of the organization to pay Demand
and supply of talent and skills Profit sharing

2. Safe and healthy working conditions. This includes among others: Reasonable hours of
work Zero-risk physical conditions of work Age restrictions on both lower and upper
side

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3. Immediate opportunity to use and develop human capabilities. That is the job should: dAllow sufficient
autonomy and control Permit the use of wider range of skills and abilities Provide immediate feedback
to workers to take corrective action

4. Opportunity for continued growth and security which focuses on: What are the career opportunities as
against the job? How much and what kind of opportunities are available to develop new and expand
existing abilities to avoid obsolescence? Whether the newly acquired talent could be put to some use
and hence lead to personal growth and security?

5. Social integration in the work organization. This includes: Absence of hierarchical status
Opportunity of upward mobility Openness and trust

Sense of community feeling on the job

Freedom from prejudice based on sex, caste, race, creed and religion
Constitutionalization in the work organization which refers to ensuring zero violation of the
constitutional guarantee by executive decisions and includes right to personal privacy, free speech,
equitable treatment and governance by the rule of law.
Work and the total life space which refers to avoiding heavy and unreasonable demands of the
work like late hours, frequent travel, quick transfers. Unreasonable demands of the work are costly
socially and psychologically and depressing to the employees and their families.

Social relevance of work life which refers to the fact that social responsibility of the organization is
an important determination of QWL.

Humanization of work:

The basic concept underlying QWL is ‘humanization of work’. It involves basically the
development of an environment of work that stimulates the creative dabilities of the workers,
generates cooperation and interest in self-growth. It is based on the following four basic
principles: The principles of security, freedom from anxiety, fear of loss of employment

The principle of individuation which refers to work environment in which employees are
encouraged to develop themselves to their utmost competence, a system of work that facilitates
blossoming of individual potential.
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The principle of democracy which refers to greater authority and responsibility vested into the work
force.

Goals of QWL:

The main goal of QWL program is to make the work moe fulfilling and productive.
Specifically, the goals of QWL are:

To improve quality control To improve work schedules

Improve compensation systems Improve self-fulfillment

There is an increasing demand by workers for QWL programs. Companies such as GM,
Procter and Gamble, Exxon, General foods, Eastman Kodak and Polaroid are all trying such
programs.

Change in technology and Work home Work life:

Although it is true that technological innovation paved for the standard of living. It is also
true that the quality of ours has not been always enhanced by those changes. The environmental
and ecology movements that have sprung up in the past decades are but one indication that
growing numbers of people no longer believe that unchecked technological growth is the wisest
course to follow. Possibly, in the near future we may see the entire direction of change focus less
on technological innovation and more on technological ‘containment’ and on

16
interpersonal, inter-group changes in human behavior. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the
major issue in information technology is not technology-based, it is management-based. Today,
ideas are being aired to preserve the environment call for changing our notions of the value of
technological growth. Progressive social change may come to mean greater emphasis on the kinds
and quantities of the products we produce.

We can see that sometimes there is a conflict between personal and social values. For
example, our lifestyle is seen as an outward evidence of our own values, beliefs, and perspectives.
Certainly, our own lifestyles affect and are affected by company-related issues. Companies are
aware of the influence and many are careful to hire only those with compatible lifestyles. Large
companies have installed QWL programs in an attempt to see what degree members of the
workforce are able to satisfy important personal needs through their experiences in the company.
The more satisfying the Work home Work life, the more similar the employee and the company
lifestyles.

QWL in Indian Scenario:

It is indeed hurting to see a majority of Indian companies’ still wedded to the old style
presenteism philosophy instead of offering the employees opportunities to strike a healthy work-
life balance. Call it market pressure of the pre-industrial mindset of Indian corporates, the change
has been pretty sluggish. It is not surprising that the General X or a Geek is more loyal to their
careers than to the company.

Globally, however, the two-decade-old work-life balance debate has made much progress.
From a one-sided employees’ attempt to change the hearts and minds of the company chieftains,
the debate now centers around developing tools that help employers gain in productivity, customer
retention and the bottom-line- in that order- by employing an effective work-life balance approach.

It appears that the snailish pace in India is also to do with the submissive nature of the
Indian managers. This is clearly evident when Indian managers go
17
abroad to work. Instead of enjoying the long-weekends and the 9 to 6 work hours, Indian managers
typically stay in late more often than others.

Fortunately big IT companies in India are leading the trend in providing an enjoyable work
environment and flexible work hours. But the real test of their commitment comes when market
conditions turn unfavourable. Companies are investing in recreational and sports facilities on work
sites but people stay longer hours in such places, which is not what managers’ families would want.

Flexi-time, touted as a panacea for stressed out managers, is no loner in fashion in the post
dotcom era. Many high flying managers, especially women, fear that their career prospects may be
hurt if they insist on working flexibly especially in organizations where they are seen as lacking in
commitment.

Clearly, many companies are beginning to see work-life balance as an enabler of diversity,
and diversity is critical to their existence. “We have to have diversity of thought and diversity of
connections with our clients, or we become irrelevant,” says an HR head of an auto company in
Chennai .

Managers with better work-life balance develop into well-rounded personalities, not one-
dimensional blokes they are forced to become in old- fashioned companies. And managers who
pursue hobbies and enjoy a satisfying family life are known to be sharper and more creative-
attributes that companies pay dearly to acquire.

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 Introduction
In this chapter, the background to the influence of working from home on employees’ productivity is
addressed. Purpose of the essay is described and the intended target group for the essay is defined.
Problem formulation and delimitations are also addressed. The outline of the essay including the
content is presented.

1.1 Problem background

It is getting more common for organisations to offer their employees the option to work from home
for various reasons, such as decreasing office rent costs, balancing work life for the employees and
saving time on commuting. Working from home alternative has gained importance with the
quarantine period during pandemic Covid-19 as many countries apply physical distancing strategy to
avoid the pandemic. Therefore working from home has become the only alternative for some
employees. As one of the most important business factors for organisations is the productivity of
their employees, it is important to find out whether working from home has an influence on
productivity, whether the influence is positive or negative and whether there has been a change in
the factors since 2000.

1.2 Purpose and intended target group

The purpose of this essay is to have a broader understanding of the connection between working
from home practice and productivity of the employees and to discover whether there has been a
change in the productivity factors for the last 20 years.

The target group is primarily both public and private organisations, which offer or consider offering
their employees to work from home and employees who work from home or consider working from
home.

1.3 Problem formulation

The research questions are:

• Does working from home have an influence on productivity of the employees?

• What are the factors influencing productivity positively for the employees working from home?
• What are the factors influencing productivity negatively for the employees working from home?
• Has there been a change in the productivity factors between year 2000 and years 2019- 2020.

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1.4 Delimitations
Several delimitations are set to define the content and scope of the essay. The article search for the
academic articles included these keywords: “productivity”, “working from home”, “telecommuting”,
“teleworking”, “remote work”, “virtual organisations” and combinations of these keywords. As
these terms are used interchangeably, it is aimed to access as many sources as possible by the usage
of these keywords. Only academic articles were included in the search in order to exclude texts
including personal opinions which were not supported by any research. The language of the articles
was limited to only English. Moreover only relevant articles with the richest content written in years
2000, 2019 and 2020 were included in the study. The details of the delimitations can be found in the
section 3.1 Selection of The Material.

1.5 Outline of the essay

Chapter 2 presents Literature Review, which consists of selection of the literature, definitions of the
concepts relevant to the subject, the reasoning behind preferring working from home practices and
finally benefits and drawbacks of working from home. Chapter 3 presents the methodology of the
essay, which includes method design for data collection and for data analysis. It also includes
selection of the material. Chapter 4 presents results and findings of articles published in 2000 and
articles published in 2019 and 2020. Chapter 5 is the Analysis and Discussion chapter, which
presents the thematic analysis for year 2000 and for years 2019 and 2020. An overview of the
themes and differences between them for the abovementioned years are given. Chapter 6 presents
Conclusions, which includes the themes written about in year 2000 and years 2019 and 2020.
Differences in themes are also presented.

2. Literature review
In this chapter, the selection of the literature is specified, definitions of the keywords are given and
the benefits and the drawbacks of working from home are explained. Definitions of the keywords for
accessing the relevant academic articles are given to explain why different words and phrases are
used in different articles to refer to the same concept. The benefits and the drawbacks of working
from home are discussed separately from both the employees and the organizations’ point of view.

2.1 Selection of the Literature

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 The selection of literature is limited to the academic articles which are available in the online library
of Karlstad University and Google Scholar. Moreover only the relevant articles published in years
2000, 2019 and 2020 are included.

2.2 Definitions
As mentioned in section 3.2 Method Design for Data Collection, several keywords and key phrases
were used to access relevant academic articles. Some of the keywords need to be defined to clarify
the reason behind usage of several different words in different articles. These keywords are:
“working from home”, “telecommuting”, “teleworking” and “remote work”. Baker et al. (2007:38),
who prefer the phrase “remote working”, explain this problem as follows: “Reasons include that
remote working has been studied under various names (e.g., teleworking, telecommuting, working
from home), with no generally accepted definitions; terms are used differently and interchangeably
from study to study; and data gathering methods and definitions vary.”

The definition of “telework” proposed by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 1990 seems
to be the most accepted definition: “A form of work in which (a) work is performed in a location
remote from a central office or production facilities, thus separating the worker from personal
contact with co-workers there; and (b) new technology enables this separation by facilitating
communication” (Ruiz and Walling 2005, as cited in Beňo 2018:27). Blackwell et al.. (2002:76)
point out an issue, which is important for this essay. They quoted The International Telework
Association and Council (ITAC) as follows: “Telework is a much broader term that means using
telecommunications to work wherever you need to in order to satisfy client needs; whether it be
from a home office, telework center, satellite office, a client's office, an airport lounge, a hotel room,
the local Starbucks, or from your office to a colleague 10 floors down in the same building—
wherever (ITAC 2001, as cited in Blackwell et al. 2002:76). In other words, not all teleworkers are
necessarily employees working from home.

Thus, some of the articles on teleworking were excluded as they were concerned with employees
working out of the office, but not necessarily from home. The same exclusion process was also valid
for the term telecommuting. Shafizadeh et al. (2000:2-3) explain the two types of telecommuting:
home-based telecommuting and center-based telecommuting. Articles on center-based
telecommuting, which involve work from a local or regional satellite office, were excluded in the
search process for the data collection. They define home-based telecommuting as “working from

21
 home with communication to the office” (Shafizadeh et al. 2000:2-3). Blackwell et al. (2002:76) also
indicate that telecommute and telework are used interchangeably. Therefore, all these terms were
among the keywords and phrases and all the articles written about employees working from home
were viewed as relevant to the subject.

In this paper, the phrase “working from home” is used as it is precisely what the study is concerned
with. The terms “telework” and “remote work” are not preferred, as they can be performed in any
location except the office of the organisation and not necessarily at home. The term
“telecommuting” is not preferred, either, as it has two types, only one of which is concerned with
this study.

2.3 Benefits and Drawbacks of WFH

Both organisations and their employees have several motivations for preferring the practice of
working from home. There are also drawbacks of the practice for both the organisations and the
employees. These benefits and drawbacks are explained in the sections below:

2.3.1 The motivations of the organisations preferring WFH

As some of the countries have been applying full compulsory quarantine due to Covid-19 pandemic,
the only alternative organisations have in these countries is working from home. However, even
when there was no pandemic, some of the organisations preferred working from home practice for
their employees. The motivations of the organisations preferring working from home are as follows:

Lupu (2017:696) mentions the reduced expenses of organisations, such as “rent, maintenance,
computers, telephones, offices, utilities, equipment, etc”. Ford and Butts (1991:20) also make further
explanations about office space costs and indicate that companies can avoid leasing additional
offices through a telecommuting program. Beňo (2018:26) also mentions the reduced costs of
parking space for the employees’ cars. Another factor organisations have as a motivation is
increased workforce productivity. Both Lupu (2017:696) and Ford & Butts (1991:20) mention
productivity factor and suggest that the reason behind it, is long periods of uninterrupted time for
concentration on their tasks and “lack of interruptions, increased concentration, increased
motivation, employee satisfaction, a better employee dedication, increased work energy by reducing
time and disruptive elements” (Lupu 2017:696). The third factor is related to the possibility to
22
 employ people who may otherwise not be able to travel to the office, such as mothers, the
handicapped, employees who live far away from the office and do not want to be relocated (Ford
and Butts 1991:20). The fourth factor is concerned with reducing absenteeism. Lupu (2017:696)
claims that these factors reduce absenteeism: “diseases, family events, adverse weather conditions,
nervous breakdown”. Wienclaw (2019:2) adds the factor of caring for sick children or elders easily
without having to take time off from work into the list of factors reducing absenteeism. The fifth
factor motivating the organisations for preferring working from home practice is “reducing the
spreading of contagious diseases among employees, which causes interruptions in the working
process and additional expenses” (Lupu 2017:696). The sixth factor is related to reducing
employee stress of the employees.

Lupu (2017:696) claims that the stress may be manifested by reduced concentration levels, work-
related mistakes, insubordination, creating dissatisfaction among the members of the team and
developing diseases which are related to the occupation, such as stroke and heart attack.

2.3.2 Benefits of WFH for Employees

Some of the employees prefer working from home rather than working at an office and there are
various reasons for this preference, which are explained below:

One of the most influential reasons for preferring working from home is the flexible scheduling
options. Lupu (2017:695) states that flexible scheduling enables employees to have a certain
autonomy in planning their daily lives, including both employee and family activities according to
their needs, such as taking their children to school or go to the doctor. Ford and Butts (1991:20)
mention the possibility of the employees to modify their working schedule daily or even hourly.
Wienclaw (2019:2) lists the benefits of flexible scheduling option as follows: being free to sleep in
and work late, starting and ending early, working forty hours in four days instead of five or six days
a week, scheduling personal appointments (e.g. physician, dentist, hairdresser) during office work-
hours and completing the work later in the evening without using vacation days.

Another benefit of working from home for the employees is saving time in commuting to the office,
avoiding rush-hour traffic. Ford and Butts (1991:20) claim that eliminating the stresses of driving in
rush hour traffic may represent the most important advantage for many employees. Wienclaw
(2019:2) indicates that by not commuting, employees will have more free-time to spend with their
families.

23
There is also a financial benefit from many aspects for the employees working from home. They can
save money “by dispensing with the commute to the office” (Wienclaw 2019:2), such as “savings in
gasoline and vehicle wear” (Ford and Butts 1991:20), “costs for parking or other transportation”
(Wienclaw 2019:2). Employees can also save money by eliminating costs of appropriate office
clothing and lunches (Ford and Butts 1991:20). Another financial benefit they have is decreased cost
with “babysitting/kindergartens/nurses” (Lupu 2017:695) and “not having to pay for afterschool
programs” (Wienclaw 2019:2).

Working from home has benefits particularly for “new mothers or the physically handicapped who
find travel burdensome or are unable to leave the home but need or want to stay in the workforce”
(Ford and Butts 1991:20). Option of providing care to sick children or elders while working is
another benefit (Beňo 2018:26), (Wienclaw 2019:2). Moreover, working from home makes it
possible for people living in isolated areas to be employed (Lupu 2017:695), it reduces the chances
of getting sick, fatigue and work-related stress (Lupu 2017:695).

Drawbacks of WFH for Employees

There are also several drawbacks of working from home for employees. Lupu (2017:696) mentions
these drawbacks: “the technical problems that cannot be solved remotely, the unequal salaries
between employees working in the office and teleworkers; employee isolation, limitation of normal
interaction with the colleagues and difficulties in organizing union activities”.

Another important drawback for the employees is the hindrance of career advancement. Ford and
Butts (1991:21) claim that the saying “out of sight, out of mind” is valid for employees working
from home when it is time for promotions of the personnel. They claim that co-workers remaining in
the office have a higher chance to be known and get promoted quicker, as the management does not
know about the interpersonal communication skills and relationships of the employee working from
home. This situation affects his or her future employment as well, as the present employer or the
supervisors do not have a clear picture about the employee working from home and therefore have
doubts about making recommendations.

The final drawback of working from home for the employees is concerned with lacking opportunity
to have informal communication network with the colleagues. When the employees do not have such

24
 interactions, they may feel alienated from the colleagues and company goals and values (Ford and
Butts 1991:21).

2.3.3 Drawbacks of WFH for Organizations

Although working from home practice has become more common in many countries due to the
benefits mentioned above, organizations still have reluctancy to adopt this form of working because
of the drawbacks.

Ford and Butts (1991:21) claim that drawbacks of working from home practice are based on
perceived or actual loss of control of the organization. Organizations fear that employees may give
priority to personal errands over work or may “farm out the work to somebody else” decreasing the
control of the organisation even further. This may lead to data security problems, which Peters et al.
(2004:471) claim to the major drawback, ranking first among many other drawbacks according to
their study. Ford and Butts (1991:21) claim that security risks are caused mainly by “allowing
outside computer terminal connections and external access to company databases” when the
employees are allowed to work from home. They indicate that there is a risk of unauthorized access
to the system and privileged company data which can be used by their competitors.

Peters et al. (2004:471) state that productivity and work quality problems are ranked second among
the drawbacks of working from home for organisations according to their study. Greer et al.
(2014:98) mention distractions in the home environment of the employees, which was reported as a
drawback by supervisors. They also reported “lack of adequate work-related resources including
technological equipment and files stored at the main worksite that are required to perform work-
related tasks while teleworking” (Greer et al. 2014:98). Another reported drawback by supervisors
was “managing and monitoring teleworker performance” (Greer et al. 2014:98). One of the reasons
creating this problem is the “limited accessibility of employees” by the organisation (Lupu
2017:696). Even when the employees are accessed by their colleagues and supervisors, “lack of
face-to-face communication and the benefits associated with face-to-face communication” creates a
drawback for the employees (Greer et al. 2014:98). Efficient communication is especially important
for working from home practices as the team members are interdependent on each other and it is a
challenge for the supervisors to coordinate them, as each of them are physically in different places
(Greer et al. 2014:98). Peters et al. (2004:471) mention a survey conducted with 66 managers who

25
 were against working from home as they think the practice increases the burden of the managers
with additional responsibilities and decreases the interaction between employer and employee. As
mentioned above, being away from the colleagues and the office may lead to “lack of identity with
the company's culture and the absence of team spirit”, which has a negative impact on the
productivity (Ford and Butts 1991:22).

Other drawbacks of working from home for the organisation are technical, such as “the maintenance
and control of computer equipment placed in employee homes” (Ford and Butts 1991:21). The
drawback for the company is not only concerned with the damage or abuse of the office equipment,
but also the insurance problem which arises as the office equipment is off site (Ford and Butts
1991:21). Repairing and transporting of the broken office equipment, determining the responsible
party (either the organisation or the employee) for the repair and how the broken equipment should
be replaced can be listed as the other drawbacks (Ford and Butts 1991:21).

3. Methodology
The methodology chapter contains method design for data collection and data analysis. The method
design for data collection of the essay is document analysis. As source of data collection some
academic articles are used.

The method design for data analysis of the essay is thematic analysis in order to compare
determining factors of the employees’ productivity when they work from home and how these
factors have changed over time. The analysis is based on academic articles to cover the years
between 2000 and 2019-2020.

3.1 Selection of The Material

The article search for primary academic articles with the keywords mentioned in Section 2.2
Definitions, generated over 1000 results on the online library of Karlstad University. Approximately
70% of the results disappeared after refining the results by applying the necessary filters. The filters
that were applied were limiting the time interval of the publication dates between 1990 - 2020,
including only academic articles as the source type and excluding magazines, trade publications,
news, books and reviews and choosing only English as the language of the article.

The time interval of the publication was selected between 1990 and 2020 in order to detect the year,
in which the maximum number of articles were written. Only academic articles were selected as the
26
 source type in order to exclude texts including personal opinions which were not supported by any
research. After ensuring that all the results were academic articles that were published in English
between 1990 and 2020, more articles were excluded to ensure selecting the most relevant articles by
reviewing the titles, abstracts, introduction, and conclusions of the articles, which limited the number
of articles with total of 80.

All the relevant articles which remained after the second exclusion process, were added into the
articles list according to the year they were published. As a result, a full list of relevant articles was
created, which also indicated how many relevant articles were published in each year between 1990
and 2020. According to the list, it was year 2000, in which maximum number of articles were
produced. The average number of articles published each year is 2.6 and 7 articles were published in
year 2000. Thus year 2000 was selected as the starting point of the comparison and 6 of the articles
with the richest content were included in the study.

Almost as many articles (6) were published in 2012; which produced the second highest number of
articles. However, comparing the year 2000 with the year 2012 and discovering whether the factors
having an influence on the productivity of the employees who work from home have changed
between these years would not create any meaningful or useful information. Therefore, the ending
point of the comparison was selected as the recent years (2019 - 2020) to demonstrate

the changes in the factors. Articles published in 2019 were also selected, as the number and content
of the relevant articles published in 2020 do not offer sufficient material for a comparative study.
Therefore 2 articles published in year 2019 and 3 articles published in year 2020 are included into
the study.

3.2 Method design for data collection:

Study for the data collection started with a literature review to be able to identify the factors which
have an influence of working from home on employees’ productivity and how these factors changed
over the specified years. Relevant academic articles in the subject were searched and accessed via
the online library of the Karlstad University and Google Scholar. Searches were made with the
keywords and key phrases “productivity”, “working from home”, “telecommuting”, “telecommute”,
“teleworking”, “remote work”, “virtual organisations” and combinations of these keywords. Many
relevant articles were found. Some of these articles included relevant quotes from other articles,
which were accessed via the same search sources mentioned above.

27
3.3 Method design for data analysis (thematic analysis):
As the data analysis method, thematic analysis was adopted, which is defined as follows by Braun
and Clarke (2006:79): “Thematic analysis is a method for identifying, analysing and reporting
patterns (themes) within data.”

All the data sources mentioned above were read and the relevant codes were created by extracting
some sentences and phrases in these data sources, which later were put into various groups. Similar
groups were combined together to form the subcategories which are listed under two main
categories: Organizational and Employee-related. There were also Home-related factors which
formed another main category without any subcategories. The other factors which do not belong to
any of the three categories mentioned above were listed under Others.

After all the factors are listed under the relevant subcategories which are listed under the relevant
main categories, an overall chart is created (Chart 1). The chart displays the information about under
what subcategories the factors are mentioned in year 2000 and years 2019 and 2020. The chart also
displays whether these factors affect the productivity of the employee positively or negatively.

4. Results of Data Collection

This chapter presents summaries of all the selected articles for both year 2000 and years 2019 and
2020.

4.1 Articles published in 2000

In this section, summaries of the five articles published in 2000 are given with the important aspects:

Adjustment to Telecommuting: Role of Self-efficacy and Structuring

In their article “Adjustment to Telecommuting: Role of Self-efficacy and Structuring”, Raghuram et
al. (2000) write about the new demands telecommuting places on employees and the role of self-
efficacy of the employees in adjusting to these demands by structuring their behavior according to
the new working circumstances. They suggest that the likelihood of adjustments is higher if the
organizations prefer employees with high self-efficacy for telecommuting (Raghuram et al. 2000:5).
They also suggest that organizations can increase the adjustment for employees with lower self-
efficacy by developing appropriate training programs, such as specifying the rules the employees
should adopt while working from home. These rules are mostly concerned with having a boundary
between work and non-work time and ensuring there is an office set-up at home, where the
employee can work without distractions (Raghuram et al. 2000:5).

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Changing Times: The Meaning, Measurement and Use of Time in Teleworking
In her article with the title “Changing Times: The Meaning, Measurement and Use of Time in
Teleworking” (2000), Barbara Steward explores the telework experience in terms of calculation and
use of time of the employees working from home. She made in-depth interviews and a longitudinal
survey of 44 teleworkers to examine whether teleworking increases productivity and work
satisfaction via autonomous time management (Steward 2000:57). The study focuses on especially
issues about teleworking hours, keeping the work time and private-life separate, adapting to the
schedule of the colleagues working in the office, limiting the teleworking days and making new
calculations for justifying time worked at home. According to the findings of her study, teleworkers
were influenced by the old office conventions, managerial demands and individual work ethics
(Steward 2000:72). Teleworkers make new time calculations and new time management for
teleworking, which their managers are not aware of. This new calculation is for the advantage of the
employer as the teleworkers appear to have the tendency to work longer hours to be able to
compensate for the privilege of working from home.

Exploring the Telecommuting Paradox

In their article “Exploring the Telecommuting Paradox” Davidson and Khaifa (2000) explores the
reasons behind the paradox of low percentage of teleworkers despite the high percentage of
companies encouraging it. They describe telecommuters’ beliefs toward telecommuting and also
identify the important factors influencing their decision to telecommute by conducting semi-
structured interviews with 28 telecommuters. The interviews were based on Triandis model and
intended to explain telecommuters' intention of telecommuting (Davidson and Khaifa 2000:29).
Triandis model integrates four domains of factors: behavioral attitudes toward telecommuting,
perceived consequences of telecommuting, relevant social factors, and facilitating conditions.

“Perceived consequences, social factors, and facilitating conditions are all found to be significant in
explaining the respondents' intentions regarding the level of future telecommuting” (Davidson and
Khaifa 2000:30). According to the findings of the study, self- efficacy is the most influential factor
for the intention to telecommute. They found that the key factor of perceived consequences is
productivity and there are other important factors, such as “increased economic benefits; improved
quality of home, work, and social life; and an increase in work production.” They also found that the
key social factor is peer influence and there are other important social factors, such as the influence
of family, peers, superiors, and subordinates. Finally, the key factors of facilitating conditions are

29
“the suitability of work space at home, self-efficacy, access to the appropriate technology, and the
availability of technical and logistic support” (Davidson and Khaifa 2000:30).

Managing a Virtual Workplace

Managing a virtual workplace (Cascio, 2000) is an article, which is concerned with virtual
workplaces, drawbacks of working from home from both organisation and employees perspectives
and how to eliminate these drawbacks to be effective and productive. Cascio also

discusses the business reasons for virtual workplaces, such as reduced real estate expenses, higher
profits and increased productivity (2000:81) and potential disadvantages of virtual workplaces, such
as setup and maintenance costs, loss of cost efficiencies and cultural issues (2000:82). After
discussing when virtual work arrangements are appropriate, Cascio writes about virtual teams and
the importance of training these teams. Another important part of the article is the information about
teleworking, types of it and challenges for the managers to facilitate the teleworkers’ performance.

Teleworking: Benefits and Pitfalls as Perceived by Employees and Managers

In his article “Teleworking: Benefits and Pitfalls as Perceived by Employees and Managers” (2000),
Yehuda Baruch explores how employees perceive teleworking compared to office based
employment and investigate the expected mixed effects on productivity and satisfaction as perceived
by employees who experienced teleworking (2000:38). He conducted a semi- structured interview
survey with 62 teleworkers, examining the influence of effectiveness, quality of working and family
life. The study focused especially on past career development, future career perceptions,
performance, work attitudes, and stresses encountered in relation to work and family life (Baruch
2000:38). Respondents identified factors which have positive or negative influence on their effective
and productive teleworking.

According to the findings of the study, teleworking had a positive impact on family life and home
proved to be better than the office environment from the relationships and support aspect. Both
managers and teleworkers reported that they got better performance because of lack of interruptions.
Study results also indicated that teleworking had a negative impact on future career perceptions.
While time management skills were found to be crucial for productivity, technical skills were not
seen as an important factor by the respondents. Respondents also reported that they felt greater
satisfaction, higher performance and reduced stress (Baruch 2000:43-44).

30
4.2 Articles published in 2019 - 2020
In this section, summaries of the five articles published in 2019 and 2020 are given with the
important aspects:

Working from Home Phenomenon as an Effort to Prevent Covid-19 Attacks and Its Impacts
on Work Productivity
The aim of the article Working from Home Phenomenon as an Effort to Prevent Covid-19 Attacks
and Its Impacts on Work Productivity by Akbar et al. (2020) is to explore the influence of working
from home on the productivity of the employees. They used a qualitative method with an
exploratory approach (Akbar et al. 2020:15). 50 respondents were interviewed in-depth via phone
calls or video calls due to Covid-19 pandemic. The questions were concerned with work-life
balance, flexibility, saving time, quality time, comfort, multitasking, decreased work motivation,
additional cost, distraction and limited communication.

According to the results of the study, working from home has both benefits and drawbacks for both
the employees and their organizations. They claim that working from home is not a fully- acceptable
practice for all organizations as some parts of the business are not suitable to be performed from
home and it decreases the productivity of the employees.

Mechanisms to Improve Labor Productivity by Performing Telework

Kazekami (2020) studies the mechanisms having an influence on productivity of the employees
working from home. Several factors are examined in particular: the stress of balancing work and
domestic chores, life satisfaction, work satisfaction and decreasing time spent on commuting during
rush hours (Kazekami 2020:14). The article also lists the drawbacks of teleworking, such as
concentrating on work while caring for children or another family member.

According to the study results, there is a positive correlation between telework hours and
productivity. She claims that telework increases life satisfaction and work satisfaction; however
while life satisfaction improves labor productivity, work satisfaction does not have an influence on
productivity of the employees. The stress of balancing work and domestic chores decreases the
productivity indirectly, through decreasing the life satisfaction. Another factor increasing
31
productivity according to the study is the chance to avoid commuting to work more than 1 hour by
public transportation in rush hours.

Improving Remote Employees’ Organisational Productivity – Practical Guidelines for

Identifying and Managing Bottlenecks in Today’s World
Alghaithi (2020) investigates the drawbacks of the working from home in terms of the productivity
of the employees in his article “Improving Remote Employees’ Organisational Productivity –
Practical Guidelines for Identifying and Managing Bottlenecks in Today’s World”. The study is
based on other peer-reviewed journal articles and published reports. According to the article,
working from home increases the productivity, if their organizations offer them the necessary
support, such as enhanced communication and the provision of support services. It is claimed that
the productivity is mainly a result of the work-life balance of the employees and flexibility of the
work hours (Alghaithi 2020:72). Alghaithi (2020:73) claims that there are also drawbacks of the
working from home. These drawbacks are concerned with “the nature of an organisation, the
personality of an employee, family demands” (Alghaithi 2020:63). The study offers a guideline in 5
steps for eliminating the mentioned drawbacks.

Telework: Outcomes and Facilitators for Employees

Beauregard et al. (2019) review the academic articles written on teleworking in their article
Telework: Outcomes and Facilitators for Employees. They analyse articles about teleworking,
performance, job attitudes and being isolated professionally. After reviewing how teleworking affect
the well-being of the employees, they list the factors for successful teleworking as follows:
“characteristics of the job, characteristics of the employee, and characteristics of the employee’s
manager(s)” (Beauregard et al. 2019:26). They list the conditions for successful teleworking and
categorize them as technical conditions and teleworker-related conditions. They claim that “job
responsibilities must be able to be performed away from the office, and work spaces at employees’
homes should be safe, secure, and reasonably distraction-free” (Beauregard et al. 2019:34). They
suggest that “successful teleworkers need to be able to work without close supervision, should be
able to separate their work from their personal lives, and must be capable of overcoming the threats
posed by working in isolation” (O’Neill et al. 2009, as cited in Beauregard et al. 2019:34). They
recommend some guidelines for the organizations regarding selecting and preparing their employees
for working from home and giving support to the employees to increase productivity.

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 Does Remote Work Improve or Impair Firm Labour Productivity?
In their article “Does Remote Work Improve or Impair Firm Labour Productivity?”, Monteiro et al.
(2019) explore whether remote work increases the labour productivity or not. They use rich sample
data from firms over the period 2011-2016 to determine the effect of remote work

on productivity empirically. They claim that although it is empirically proven by many previous
studies, the hypothesis of “working remotely contributes to job satisfaction and motivation of the
employees” needs to be reviewed again. Therefore, they used “a longitudinal panel dataset of firms
in a sample that is representative of the whole economy, including manufacturing and services
industries” to broaden the analysis scope (Monteiro et al. 2019:25). They claim that their findings
change when they included time-invariant factors and non-observable constant characteristics of the
firm. According to the findings, remote work affects the average productivity negatively, which may
depend on the “substantial degree of heterogeneity across different categories of firms”. They claim
that non-exporting small firms with below-average skill level employees are more inclined to be
affected by remote work negatively (Monteiro et al. 2019:1).

5. Analysis/Discussion
This chapter presents thematic analysis for both year 2000 and years 2019 and 2020. It gives details
about how the factors are grouped under subcategories and main categories and how the charts are
structured. Each category is exemplified with some sample important factors. Charts displaying all
the factors can be found as appendix.

33
 Danger of selling on Amazon
Right Now, selling on Amazon is too easy. All you have to do is find the product with good
margins, list it on Amazon, and it will eventually sell because Amazon’s audience and reach is so
vast. Sales and revenue might be great right now, but things can turn on a dime and you have to
make sure you have a fall back plan just in case because Amazon doesn’t really care about you.

 AMAZON MAY BAN YOU FOR FACTORS BEYOND YOUR

CONTROL
If you do a little Google searching, you can easily find stories of Amazon entrepreneurs losing
their businesses practically overnight. But as with any thing on the internet, we like to take
everything we read with a grain of salt.

After all, the seller could have sold counterfeit goods or violated Amazon stumps of services and
got banned for legitimate reasons.

The threat of getting banned is quite real, can happen unexpectedly, and often times can be out of
one’s control. In fact, the number 1 threat of getting your Amazon seller account revoked is by
getting a string of negative feedback on product quality policy violations.

Amazon policy always favors’ the buyer in all most all cases. And savvy customers are well aware
that customer can bypass return shipping fees by stating their arrived damaged or that it did not
match the listing.

 AMAZON CAN FORCE YOU TO SELL YOUR GOODS AT

WHATEVER PRICE THEY WANT
Even if you sell your own branded product’s on Amazon doesn’t mean that you get to set your
own prices. Every day Amazon, deploys an army of computer bots who crawl a scrap other
websites for product and pricing info.

If Amazon determines that your products are priced to high, they may take away or buy box which
will basically kill your sales. In addition, if you have previously priced your goods at low prices
during a lightning deal or a sale, Amazon may not let you raise your prices back up to where they
were prior to the sale depending on their algorithm.

 AMAZON CAN FORCE YOU TON SELL YOUR GOODS ON

VENDOR CENTRAL
There are 2 ways to sell on Amazon. One, you can sell as a 3 rd party vendor where you
control your products, inventory and listing.

3rd party selling is by far the most desirable way to sell on Amazon today because you have
full authority over your listing and your marketing.

34
The other way to sell on Amazon is as 1st party seller on vendor central. As an Amazon
vendor, you sell your goods directly to Amazon at a wholesale price that they set and you
have zero control over anything.

Colleagues of mine who have converted products over to Vendor Central in the past have
all had terrible experiences where Amazon totally destroyed their products listings and
their sales.

There have been reports of Amazon forcing popular vendors to convert from being 3 rd
party sellers to 1st party sellers.

 AMAZON EMPLOYEES MAY SELL YOUR DATA

Earlier in the year, Amazon employees in China and India were caught selling confidential
information regarding 3rd party sellers on Amazon. And this information was used to give
independent merchants an advantage over others on the sale.

Dirty sellers are also buying Amazon vendors central accounts on the black market to gain
access to others people’s product listings.

Bottom line, Amazon is growing so quickly that it’s wild west out there. There is mass
corruption everywhere and it’s tough for Amazon to control

 OTHERS SELLERS WILL COPY YOU

One day, he was checking up on his listings when he noticed that products from our online
store were being listed on Amazon without my permission. When he took a closer look, he
discovered that a seller under the name “bee” had stolen all our product photos and all of
our product descriptions and were selling our items on Amazon!!!

They literally ripped everything off! They stole their photos, our verbiage and even our
products numbers. It was wholesale piracy on a large scale with over 400 SKUs.

When we sent an email to Amazon, they sent us an automated response asking us for
documentation on each and every product to show proof that we owned the photos and
descriptions.

To put together a through response would have taken a ton of work and time and we were
unable to get a human to take care of this for us. Fortunately, we politely reached out to the
vendor and they took everything down without a fight.

While it’s for a customer to file a complaint on a seller, it’s much harder for a seller to file
a complaint against another seller. Be aware!

 OTHERS SELLERS WILL HIJACK YOUR LISTINGS WITH

COPYCAT GOODS
While getting all of your products copied and stolen doesn’t happy very often, there is
rampant piggy backing of Amazon listings happening all the time.
35
Even if you sell a private labeled product under your own brand and ASIN on Amazon,
there is nothing stooping Amazon seller from piggy backing on your listings and
undercutting you on price with a counterfeit item.

For example, let’s say I sell linen napkins that are clearly labeled with my brand and label.
An unscrupulous seller could sell poorer quality linen napkins under my same Amazon
product number and undercut me on price even though it’s not the same item.

In the worst case scenario, a customer might buy this counterfeit product, be unsatisfied
with the quality and leave bad feedback on my product even though it’s counterfeit!

The best way to fight this is to actually purchase the product yourself as the customer and
then file an A to Z complaint against the fraudulent seller.

Unfortunately, this process is a major pain in the butt and Amazon has been known to take
its time before taking action.

 UNDERHANDED TACTICS EVIL AMAZON SELLERS ARE

USING TO CHEAT AND GET AHEAD
In just the past few years, Amazon has become such a cutthroat marketplace that
unscrupulous sellers have been purposely trying to sabotage their competitors. As a result,
most sellers are hush hush about their product and never talk about their winners in the
public.

In fact Amazon is so competitive today that if you have a product that is even mildly
successful, you will eventually get piggybacked by multiple sellers if you haven’t been
already.

Here’s a sampling of some of the insidious activities that are happening on the platform
right now:

Evil strategy #1: Tying up all of your inventory

First off, they buy all of your inventory to steal the buy box. Then they sell your exact
same goods on the same Amazon listing and on EBay.

Finally at the end of the season they return the excess inventory!

I wish that there was a good way to combat this but there’s nothing you can really do
except to be wary of any large order that you receive and to contest any large returns
complaints.

Evil strategy #2: Changing your product photos

If you are an Amazon seller who has not registered your brand (which now requires a
trademark) you need to be very careful about others seller changing out the photos on your
listings. Here’s what sucks: when someone changes the photo on you listing, you don’t

36
 even get a notification! So the only way to know that this happened is to constantly watch
your listings like a hawk.

Basically, a competitor will have someone buy your product and then leave you negative
feedback claiming that your product is counterfeit or fake.

Amazon’s bots will then take notice of these “trigger keywords” and immediately ding
your account.

Evil strategy #4: Leaving false positive feedback on your products

Now you would think that getting a bunch of positive reviews on your listings would be a
good thing.

But because Amazon’s have been cracking down on sellers who buy 5 star reviews,
Amazon now has algorithm in place to detect unusual spikes positive review activity.

If your listing all of sudden gets 100 5-star reviews, Amazon will detect this anomaly and
instantly suspend your account.

Evil strategy #5: Orchestrating multiple returns and simultaneous

negative feedback
If you have too many returns or too many bad feedbacks on your products in a short period
of time, you risk getting your product or account suspended.

For Example:

 Order defect rate of less than 1%

 Negative feedback less than 6%

 Customer response time less than 24 hours

 A return rate of less than 3%

37
Don’t get me wrong. There is still a ton of opportunity to be found from selling on Amazon. But I caution
you to not pull of your eggs in one basket. With Amazon you do not own the platform. You do not own
your own brand. You can be banned at any time and there and unscrupulous sellers and customer
everywhere.

 Amazon biggest failure

Amazon’s most successful initiatives would never have happened without some element of risk.
“I’ve made billions of dollars of failures at Amazon.com. Literally billions of dollars of failures,”
Bezos told blodget. “None of those things are fun. But they also don’t matter.”

And the size of those failures should only be growing. Bezos said in his 2018 letter to
shareholders in April.

“If the size of your failures isn’t growing, you’re not going to be inventing at a size that can
actually move the needle,” he wrote. “Amazon will be experimenting at the right scale for a
company of our scale for a company of our size if we occasionally have multibillion dollar
failures”.

We have catalogued some of Amazon’s more high profile failures through the years:

Amazon Spark
Amazon launch it’s Instagram like visual shopping platforms, Amazon spark, in 2017.The idea
was that customer would a photo heavy feed, with products featured in the photographs, has a new
way to shop and discover the huge array of items sold on Amazon.com .

Amazon shut down the project in mid 2019. “Spark is not gone entirely, we’ve pivoted and
narrowed the experience bases on what resonated with customers”, a spokesperson for Amazon
told Business Insider’s Mary Hanbury.

Amazon Restaurants
On June 11, Amazon told Geekwire in an email that its Amazon restaurants service would be
shutting down.

First launched in 2015, service delivered freshly prepared from local restaurants to customers via
Amazon’s same-day delivery network, which it also uses for prime now deliveries. It later
expanded to 20 US cities and London before its demise.

In London, the service launched in 2016 and stopped in late 2018.

The last day of the services in the US will be June 24.

Amazon Storywriter
38
 On May 4, Amazon sent an email to users saying that it would be shutting down its story writer
and Amazon Story builder features, effective June 30.

Combined, the services enabled TV and film Writers to easily create scripts, which could then be
submitted directly to Amazon studios for consideration. It previously shut down the script
submission program in 2018, putting the future of story builder and Storywriter into question.

Pop- Up Stores
Amazon has closed all 87 of its pop-up stores and discontinued the program, it told Business Insider in
March.

“After much review, we came to the decision to discontinue our pop-up kiosk program, and are instead
expanding Amazon books and Amazon 4-star, where we provide a more comprehensive customer
experience and broader selection,” a spokesperson for Amazon said.

The stores were a place where a customers interested in smart gadgets, such as Amazon’s echo and Fire
TV products, could see how they worked in the real world before purchasing them.

Dash Buttons

39
 Dash Buttons offered a way to reorder a consumable item on Amazon without having to think
about it. Customers could link an item and preferred quantity to the button, and press it whenever
they needed more. The buttons could be mounted in cupboards or on top of washing machines.

Amazon stopped offerings them for sale this year, but a spokesperson told CNET they were a
rousing success in that they got customers used to shopping without a screen.

“Dash button was an awesome stepping stone into the world of connected home,” Daniel Rausch,
an Amazon vice president, said, later adding. “We never imagined a future where customers had
500 buttons in their home. We imagined a future where the home was taking care of itself,
including replenishing everyday items that customers would rather not worry about.”

Now that the Amazon Basics Microwave can automatically recorder popcorn, there’s simply no
need for a separate $5 button.

Amazon Tap

The first Amazon Echo device to be discontinued by Amazon without a replacement, the Amazon Tap
was a mobile version of its ultra-popular Alexa-enabled smart speakers.

Amazon stopped selling the device near the end of 2018, and its product page on Amazon.com tells the
customer: “This device is no longer available however, Certified Refurbished tested and certified to look
and work like new.”

But as Amazon puts Alexa functionality in nearly everything, a portable device probably isn’t as useful.

Instant Pickup

40
In 2017, Amazon debuted a new way to pick up items within minutes of ordering them, calling it Instant
Pickup.

Customers could order items such as snacks, drinks, and basics essential from the Amazon app and use a
barcode to access their purchase at designated Pickup locations. An Amazon employee would fill an
Instant Pickup locker within minutes of the order being placed.

However, Amazon pulled the plug on the service, a company spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider
in 2018. The Company did not specify when the service ended.

Amazon Tickets

41
Amazon Tickets launched in 2015 in the UK, a market with fewer exclusive contracts than in the US,
potentially giving the retailer to muscle in. It closed by 2018. A planned rollout in the US was also
cancelled in 2017. However, Billboard reported in 2018 that a new ticketing program could relaunch in
2019.

Whole Foods 365

Whole Foods, a wholly- owned subsidiary of Amazon, announced earlier this year that it would not be
moving forward with its Whole Foods 365- branded stores.

These stores were designed to cater to younger shoppers with aisles full of budget-friendly private-label
goods.

Business Insider’s Harley Peterson reported in January that the brand would carry the 365 name. The
company cited a diminishing price difference between 365 stores and regular Whole Foods stores as a
reason for the change.

Permitted Listings include:

 Wine sold by pre-approved sellers

 Wine and beer making kits and products that do not contain alcohol

 Alcohol-related accessories and products, including corkscrews, decanters and containers

 Alcohol-related memorabilia and collectibles that do not contain alcohol

Prohibited Listings include:

 Alcoholic beverages (except from pre-approved wine sellers)

 Liquor licenses

 Any product marketed for customers over 21 years of age

 Any product that encapsulates raw alcohol

42
Animal and Animal products

Permitted Listings:

 Live shellfish and crustaceans

 Live insects and worms used for agricultural purposes, bait, or pet food

 Products made to resemble prohibited animal parts or products, but which are not made from
those animals. If the listing includes a clear title and description that the item is not genuine; for
example, faux tortoise shell is permitted if the listing states the item is fake or artificial.

 Animal parts or products that are not otherwise restricted, such as:

 Shark teeth jewelry

Prohibited Listings:

 Animal feces

 Most live creatures, such as: pets, livestock, or marine mammals

 Illegal wildlife products

 Fish or wildlife that are taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of the Lacey Act

 Insects or other creatures designated as “plant pests”

 Parts or products, including fur and feathers, from federally endangered or threatened species

Art- Fine Art

43
According to Amazon, whether you’re selling an edition of lithographs, 18th century oil paintings, or
contemporary mixed media work, accurate data is crucial to discoverability and sales in Amazon Fine
Art.

Providing a clear and concise listing while following a consistent format will better inform customers and
enhance discoverability of your art.

For this category in particular, sellers are required to obtain approval from Amazon before listing in this
category.

Permitted Listings:

 One of a kind paintings, watercolors, drawings, and two-dimensional mixed media

 A print or photograph in a limited edition with the following requirements:

 In an edition of 200 or less

 The only edition of the work published in that size (the same image can also have editions
of up to 200 in other sizes)

 The prints should be numbered (X/XX) and signed, or accompanied by a certificate of

authenticity signed by the artist and stating the number of the print (X/XX)

 Artist proofs or color test proofs (CTP) are allowed for editions of less than 200

 Secondary-sale works (artwork with a sales history): Works must be authenticated by the
seller; the seller must have proof of purchase or title for the work and provide it to the
buyer; listings should include provenance (with sales history) where applicable.

44
  Ex-libris prints are qualified for the site, but they must have a named artist, be hand-signed
or numbered and from an edition of less than 200.

Prohibited Listings:

 Three dimensional artwork, such as sculptures

 Textile or anthropological or archaeological-based art (for example, Navajo blankets or Arts and
Crafts textiles )

The following types of artworks do not qualify for the Amazon Fine Art category:
 Artwork without a named artist

 Artwork that is a mass-produced or commercial work that has been hand-painted (also called
“brush to canvas”)

 Artwork that was created as a reproduction of an existing work; the artist did not deliberately
make more than one version of the same artwork (such as artist Edvard Munch did with The
Scream) even if there is a named artist or the artwork otherwise meets the requirements above.

 Giclée print on canvas

 Promotional posters or advertisements even if they otherwise meet the requirements above

 Artwork in a limited edition that consists of any of the following:

 Estate signed or estate editions

 Plate signed editions

 Creative Commons images or editions: CC

 An edition of over 200, even if numbered and hand signed or otherwise meeting the requirements
above

 Open editions, even if hand signed or otherwise meeting the requirements above

 Products related to art, but that are not artworks themselves (for example, books about or
containing art, posters of artwork, artwork printed on clothing, and decorative mouse pads)

45
 Future Plans of Amazon for India
An Amazon spokesperson told TechCrunch the investment would “enhance Amazon’s existing portfolio
of investments in the payments landscape in India.” The spokesperson added, “Amazon has agreed to
invest in Future Coupons Limited, which is engaged in developing innovative value-added payment
products and solutions such as corporate gift cards, loyalty cards, and reward cards primarily for
corporate and institutional customers.”

Future Coupons owned warrants that would give it a 7.3% stake in Future Retail as of early this year, according to
prior regulatory filings. This means that today’s deal would give Amazon a 3.58% stake in Future Retail. Financial
terms of the deal were not disclosed, though based on Future Retail’s current market cap — about $2.9 billion — a
3.58% stake in the company would cost about $104 million. “ Pursuant to these agreements, Amazon has
agreed to make an equity investment in Future Coupons Limited for acquiring a 49% stake comprising
both voting and non-voting shares. As part of the agreement, Amazon has been granted a call option,”
Future Retail said in a filing (PDF) to the local stock exchange.

As part of the agreement, Amazon will have the right of first refusal to purchase more stakes in Future
Retail both directly as well as via entities. “The Promoters have also agreed to certain share transfer
restrictions on their shares in the Company for same tenure, including restrictions to not transfer shares to
specified persons, a right of first offer in favor of Amazon, all of which are subject to mutually agreed
exceptions (such as liquidity allowances and affiliate transfers). The transaction contemplated above is
subject to obtaining applicable regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions,” Future Retail
added.

Amazon has been reportedly looking to acquire as much as a 10% stake in Future Retail, which operates
more than 1,500 stores, including “Big Bazaar” retail stores, across 400 cities in India.
Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Future Retail was seeking a valuation of about $281 million
for selling stakes in the firm. Future Retail runs a wide swath of retail brands in India, covering a range of
things from grocery to perishables to electronics to fashion apparel. On Thursday, Amazon India
announced it was launching Amazon Fresh in parts of Bangalore. Amazon Fresh is currently offering
5,000 kinds of items, including fresh fruits, vegetables and meat, as well as some items from home and
personal product categories.

According to earlier media reports, the company is also in talks to acquire a more than 25% stake in
Reliance Retail, the largest retail chain in the country. Brick and mortar stores continue to drive much of
the sales in the country. Amazon also owns stake in the Indian supermarket chain More, and department
store chain Shopper’s Stop.

46
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

47
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This section aims at exploring detailed information on major domains of the dissertation topic by
reviewing past research, books and related articles. Modern studies and past theories concerning these
domains are presented.
Literature on online marketing:
Online services will drive marketing to the opposite end of the spectrum from “mass” marketing to
customized “one-to-one” marketing. Online marketers communicate instantly and directly with the
prospective customers and can provide instant fulfillment as well. Marketers with carefully designed
World Wide Web sites are already interacting computer to computer, with prospective customers or an
individual basis, much as ATM does in very primitive fashion. Online one to one approaches while
innovative and still glamorous in their pioneering aspects, offer significant new challenges. The
significant aspect is the access with the customers. Communication and information technology
development has encouraged the emergence of new communication channels that have increased the
options available to organizations for building relationships with clients.

How important is Internet marketing to the success of an organization?

There are no exact answers for this question. It depends on the nature of one company business line.
There are many companies currently using the Internet as their main business transaction such as
Amazon,flipkart,snapdeal,Alibaba .However, companies such as UPM, the world’s leading forest
products producer only uses the Internet as a media to introduce the company and its products to
customers via its website.
Besides that, during the whole purchasing decision making process, customers not only use the Internet in
isolation to search for products but other media such as print, TV, direct mail and outdoor as well. These
media still play an extremely important role for the marketers to communicate with customers, for
example, direct or face – to – face marketing more or less helps marketers build up the trust in customers
and encourage them to purchase the products. Therefore, it is better to use the Internet as part of a multi-
channel marketing strategy which “defines how different marketing channels should integrate and support
each other in terms of their proposition development and communication based on their relative merits for
the customer and the company.”
Mohan Nair takes social media as a complex marriage of sociology and technology that cannot be
underestimated in its impact to an organization marketing communication, choice as to when to engage,
how to manage and measure, and whether to lead or to follow is complex but not an impossible task.
These cannot be answered simply by one formula because the context and the market dynamics are strong

48
variables in these decisions. Even though the interest for social media is huge, few companies understand
what the term social media can mean to their businesses.

According to research conducted by Nielsen, we know that 92% of Employee report that “word-of-mouth
and recommendations from people [they] know” are the leading influence on their purchase behavior.
Only 37% trust search engine ads, and just 24% trust online banner ads. They trust their friends and
family the most when looking for brand recommendations.

It is important to understand the relationship between digital communication and traditional

communication in the old media; for example, TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and billboard ads, the
communication model was and is one-to-many compared to one-to-one or many-to-many communication
model in digital media like blogs, social networks, wikis and other social media (Chaffey, 2003).

Foux (2006) suggests Social media is perceived by customers as a more trustworthy source of
information regarding products and services than communication generated by organizations transmitted
via the traditional elements of the promotion mix.

Johnson and Greco (2003) explain that desires and different hopes from different clients can sometime
require certain unique information and contact strategies. Communication channels and strategies now
differ broadly from the ones in former times or offline times.

Online marketing is today seen by many practitioners as the new arena for market communication and on
top of the list of users of the different mediums is Face book, Blogs, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn
(Steltzner, 2009).

Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) define social media as ―a group of Internet-based applications that build
on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which facilitates the creation and exchange
of user-generated content. It consists of different Internet applications such as blogs, social networking
sites, content communities, collaborative projects, virtual game worlds and social worlds. Russell S.
Winer (2009) affirms that many companies today are using some or all of the new media to develop
targeted campaigns that reach specific segments and engage their customers to a much greater extent than
traditional media.

49
Mangold&Faulds (2009) argue that marketing managers should comprise social media in the
communication mix when developing and executing their Integrated Marketing Communication strategies
and they presented the social media as a new hybrid element of promotion mix.
Forbes Magazine reports retail is down and e-commerce is up. One clear example of the power of e-
commerce comes from Macy’s recent returns. Forbes reports the 154-year-old retail chain saw online
sales rise 40% in 2015 while same-stores sales grew just 5.3%. Maybe you’re not a billion-dollar business
like Macy’s, but the numbers don’t lie. Online sales are overtaking retail sales. Safe to say e-commerce is
trending upward more and more each year. It’s not too late to jump onboard the e-commerce train.

The internet has become a mass media vehicle for consumer sponsored communication. It now represents
the number one source of media for customers at work and the number two source of media at home.
Customers are turning away from the traditional sources of advertising: radio, television, magazines, and
newspapers. Customers also consistently demand more control over their media consumption. They
require on-demand and immediate access to information at their own convenience. Customers are turning
more frequently to various types of social media to conduct their information searches and to make their
purchasing decisions.
Nowadays, the concept of Internet marketing has expanded and brought
more opportunities for companies to approach their customers. In the past, the Internet was only used as a
tool to contact customers, part of direct marketing. Nowadays, the Internet, particularly websites has been
becoming a popular media for any firms to introduce their products and services. The Internet is
considered as an independent and effective marketing tool. During eight years, from 2008 to 2015, the
number of Internet users has increased by 4 times from about 361 millions to more than 1, 46 billion
(http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm ), in which, Asia, the continent with the biggest population
accounts for 39.5% of World Internet Users. Thus reaching such huge population in a quick time
efficiently online marketing media and online shopping organization had proved themselves as a major
source. Integrated Marketing Communication strategies and they presented the social media as a new
hybrid element of promotion mix. The internet has become a mass media vehicle for consumer sponsored
communication. It now represents the number one source of media for customers at work and the number
two source of media at home.. Thus reaching such huge population in a quick time efficiently online
marketing media and online shopping organization had proved themselves as a major source. Customers
are turning more frequently to various types of social media to conduct their information searches and to
make their purchasing decisions and the communication mix when developing and executing their
Integrated Marketing Communication strategies and they presented the social media as a new hybrid
element of promotion mix proved to effective way to communicate with digital world.
50
 Objective of the study

1. To examine the mechanism of QWL and relate it to “life beyond work” in high-
tech/ high-touch companies where balancing the work and life space is hard.

2. To develop and formulate appropriate guidelines for operationalizing the QWL

concept so that the work becomes meaningfully productive and the worker
achieving incredibly.

3. To study history about Amazon

4. To know Amazon plans for women improvement

5. To know success story of amazon

51
RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY

52
RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY
Online marketing refers to a set of powerful tools and methodologies used for promoting products,
business, brandfactory,household businesses and services through the Internet. 
Online marketing includes a wider range of marketing elements than traditional business marketing due to
the extra channels and marketing mechanisms available on the Internet. 

Work From Home Amazon benefits such as:

 Growth in potential
 Reduced expenses
 Elegant communications
 Better control
 Improved customer service
 Competitive advantage

Research problem

This study focuses on following problems

 Should companies integrate various marketing tools to communicate about its brand?

 How do Employee get awareness about different brands?

 How online marketing plays important role in companies’ marketing strategy?

 What are the reasons for growing popularity of online marketing among Employee?

 How is online marketing advantageous over traditional marketing?

 What are the loopholes in online marketing?

53
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The first step is to formulate a research design. This means planning a strategy of conducting research. It
is a detailed plan of how the goals of research will be achieved. Research design is exploratory,
descriptive and/or experimental in nature. It is helping the investigator in providing answers to various
kinds of social/economic questions. After collecting and analysis of the data, the researcher has to
accomplish the task of drawing inferences. Only through interpretation researcher can expose relations
and processes that underlie his findings and ultimately conclusions. Interpretation refers to the task of
drawing inferences from the collected facts after an analytical study.
In the present study, researcher has followed Descriptive research. Descriptive research is usually a fact
finding approach generalizing a cross - sectional study of present situation. The major goal of descriptive
research is to describe events, phenomenon and situations on the basis of observation and other sources
through survey :
Survey Method:
 The survey method is the technique of gathering data by asking questions from people who are

thought to have the desired information. Every effort should be made to state the objectives in

specific terms.

 The survey design can be defined as: “gathering information about a large number of people by

interviewing a few of them

 The definition can be modified by stating that collecting information with other data collection

alternatives available to survey researcher in addition to interviewing i.e. questionnaire, personal

observation etc.

 Surveys are conducted in case of descriptive research studies with the help of questionnaire

techniques in most appropriate manner. Survey type of research studies usually have larger

sample. It is concerned with conditions or relationships that exists, opinion that are held, processes

that are going on effects that areevident or trends that are developing. Thus in surveys variables that

exist or have already occurred are selected and observed. It is the example of field research.

54
 EXPLORATORY RESEARCH DESIGN
Exploratory research study is also termed as formative research studies. The main purpose of such study
is that of formulating a problem for more precise investigation orof developing a working hypothesis
from an operational point of view. The major emphasis of such studies is of the developing of discovery
of idea and insight.

SAMPLE DESIGN
A Sample Design is a definite plan for obtaining a sample from a given population. It
Refers to the technique to the procedure adopted in selecting items for the sampling designs are as below:
Types of research study (pending)

SAMPLE SIZE:
The substantial portions of the target customer that are sampled to achieve reliable
result are 100.
Universe
Online Shoppersof India

SAMPLING METHOD:
 Non-probability sampling method : Convience Sampling
SAMPLE TECHNIQUE:
 Percentage analysis

 Tabulation

 Graphical

 Average mean

55
Brand Research

What it is
Brand research helps with creating and managing a company’s brand, or identity. A company’s brand is
the images, narratives, and characteristics people associate with it.

When to use it
Brand research can be used at every stage in a business’s lifecycle, from creation to new product launches
and re-branding. There are at least seven types of brand research:

• Brand advocacy. How many of your customers are willing to recommend your brand?

• Brand awareness. Does your target market know who you are and consider you a serious option?
• Brand loyalty. Are you retaining customers?

• Brand penetration. What is the proportion of your target market using your brand?

• Brand perception. What do people think of as your company’s identity or differentiating qualities?

• Brand positioning. What is the best way to differentiate your brand from others in the consumer’s mind
and articulate it in a way that resonates?

• Brand value. How much are people willing to pay for an experience with your brand over another?

How it’s done

A researcher will use several types of market research methods to assess your and your competitors’
strengths and weaknesses. Generally, they will conduct competitor research to get a picture of the overall
marketplace. Focus groups and interviews can be used to learn about their emotions and associations with
certain brands.

56
Market research surveys are useful to determine features and benefits that differentiate you from
competitors. These are then translated into emotionally compelling consumer language.

Campaign Effectiveness

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half” — John
Wanamaker
What it is
This type of market research is designed to evaluate whether your advertising messages are reaching the
right people and delivering the desired results. Successful campaign effectiveness research can help you
sell more and reduce customer acquisition costs.
When to use it
If the folks at market research firm Yankelovich, Inc. are correct, people see up to 5,000 advertising
messages each day. That means attention is a scarce resource, so campaign effectiveness research should
be used when you need to spend your advertising dollars effectively.
How it’s done
Campaign effectiveness research depends on which stage of the campaign you use it in (ideally, it’s all of
them!). Quantitative research can be conducted to provide a picture of how your target market views
advertising and address weaknesses in the advertising campaign.

Consumer Insights

What it is
Consumer insights research does more than tell you about who your customers are and what they do. It
reveals why customers behave in certain ways and helps you leverage that to meet your business goals.

When to use it
Knowing your customers deeply is integral to creating a strategic marketing plan. This type of market
research can help you anticipate consumer needs, spark innovation, personalize your marketing, solve
business challenges, and more.

57
How it’s done
Consumer insights research should be specific to your business—it’s about getting to know your
customers and your target market. Various market research methods can be used, such as interviews,
ethnography, survey research, social monitoring, and customer journey research.

Here are some of the characteristics you should understand through consumer insights research:

• Purchase habits

• Interests, hobbies, passions

• Personal and professional information

• How they consume media and advertising

58
 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
In attempt to make this project authentic and reliable, every possible aspect of the topic was kept in mind.
Nevertheless, despite of fact, constraints were at play during the formulation of this project. The main
limitation are as follows:

1. This study is purely based on the responses received from the respondents.

2. Since I was not the authorized researchers so this study is made keeping in view utmost cost
effectiveness.

3. This study is done in limited time span.

4. Mixed responses were there among different age group of respondents.

5. People were some time unwilling and hesitated in replying questions.

6. The consumer behavior being dynamic in nature, there is every possibility that over the time
findings of today may become invalid tomorrow.

59
 Data analysis & Interpretation
Do you use amazon app?

Attribute i2 Apps Amazon Appshop Oracle Infosys Msource HP Acce

hop sample nture

% of people 83 58 51 50 50 50 50 34 33
who said
employee
interaction
was good

90

80

70

60

50

40

30
Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

83% in i2 said employee interaction was good.

58% in Appshop said employee interaction was good.

51% in Amazon said employee interaction was good. 50% in Appshop sample said
employee interaction was good. 50% in Oracle said employee interaction was good.

50% in Infosys said employee interaction was good. 50% in Msource said employee
interaction was good. 34% in HP said employee interaction was good.

33% in Accenture said employee interaction was good.

60
Attribute Appshop Oracle HP i2 Accentu Apps Infosys Msourc Tata
sample re hop e Teleser
vices

% of 84 83 67 67 60 59 57 50 38
people
who said
TBP were
held
regularly

90

80

70

60 % of
employees
50 who said
Team
40
Building
30 Programs
were held
20

10

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

84% in Appshop sample said Team Building Programs were held

regularly.

83% in Oracle said Team Building Programs were held

regularly. 67% in HP said Team Building Programs were held
regularly.

67% in i2 said Team Building Programs were held regularly.

60% in Accenture said Team Building Programs were held

regularly. 59% in Appshop said Team Building Programs were
held regularly. 57% in Infosys said Team Building Programs were
held regularly.

61
50% in Msource said Team Building Programs were held
regularly. 38% in Amazon said Team Building Programs were
held regularly.

62
Attribute Appshop i2 Appshop Infosys Oracle HP Msour Tata Accenture
sample ce Teleser
vices
% of 100 100 94 86 83 83 83 38 20
people
who liked
their work
timings

120

100
%of
people
who
liked
their
80
work
timings

60

Source: Field Investigation

40
Interpretation:

100% in Appshop sample liked their work timings. 100% in i2 liked their work
timings.
20
94% in Appshop liked their work timings. 86% in Infosys liked their work timings.
83% in Oracle liked their work timings.

83% in HP liked their work timings.

0

83% in Msource liked their work timings.

38% in Amazon liked their work timings. 20% in Accenture liked their work timings.

63
 Graphical representation of Appshop Employee Satisfaction level

Time expected to be at work

Attribute 8- 10 hrs 8 hrs 10-12 hrs

Time expected to 78 14 7
be at work (%)

8-10 hrs

8 hrs

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

78% say time expected to work is around 8 – 10

hours. 14% say time expected to work is 8 hours.

7% say time expected to work is around 10 – 12 hours.

64
 Time spent at work

Attribute 8-10 hrs 10- 12 hrs flexible

Time spent at 54 30 16
work (%)

8-10 hrs

10-12 hrs

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

54% say they spend 8 – 10 hours at work.

30% say they spend 10 – 12 hours at
work. 16% say they work flexible hours.

65
 Convenient work timings?

Attribute Yes No

Convenient work timings? (%) 94 6

Yes

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

94% say work times are convenient.

6% say work times are not
convenient.

66
 Frequency of stress

Attribute Sometimes Hardly Never Very often

Frequency of stress 57 26 9 8
(%)

sometimes
rarely

never

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

57% say they are sometimes prone to

stress. 26% say they hardly get stressed.

9% say they never get stress.

8% say they get stressed very often.

67
 Causes of stress

Attribute Work Lack of Priority Work People Sleepin Perform Perso Intern
load man issues atmosph around g ance nal al
power ere disorder related admin
istrati
on
Causes of 48 13 11 10 7 6 5 4 1
stress (%)

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

48% say workload causes them stress.

13% say it is due to lack of manpower.
11% say priority issues give them stress.

10% say work atmosphere causes them stress.

7% say people around them stress them out.
6% say stress is due to sleeping disorder.

5% say stress is related to performance in one’s job.

4% say their stress comes from personal issues.

1% say it is due to inadequate internal administration

68
 Management of stress

Attribute Yes Sometimes No

Management of stress 81 14 0

Yes

Sometimes

No

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

81% say they can manage stress.

14% say they can sometimes manage stress.

69
 Attribute Confide in Peers/ superiors/ Recreational activities Resolve Sports Take a Yoga/
Family/ Friends issue break Meditation
Ways of 37 32 15 13 12 6
managing stress

Confide in Peers/
superiors/ Family/

Friends
Reacreational

activities Resolve

issue

Sports

Take a break
Source: Field Investigation
Interpretation:

37% relieve their stress by confiding in peers/ superiors/ family/ friends.

32% manage stress through recreational activities.

15% resolve the issue that causes stress.

13% relieve their stress by playing sports.

12% take a break from the situation that is stress

prone. 6% resort to Yoga/ meditation to reduce getting
stressed.

70
 Only my
Attribute Almost all A few Yes team
Community Interaction 58 26 13 3

Community Interaction

Almost all
A few Yes

Only my team

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

58% say they know almost all the employees of

Appshop. 26% say they know only a few of the Appshop
employees. 13% say they know everyone in Appshop.

3% say they only know their team members in Appshop.

71
 Attribute Quarterly / monthly gatherings Not required Updation of Team Induction
employee building programs
information activities
Ways to interact better with 81 14 3 3 1
employees

Ways to interact better with employees

Quarterly /
monthly
gatherings
Not required

Updation of
employee
information
Team building

activites

Induction
programs

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

81% say to conduct quarterly/ monthly gatherings.

14% say nothing is required to be done to assist good

interaction. 3% say employee information should be updated.

3% say Team Building activities should be conducted.

1% say Induction programs should be made more efficient for effective

interaction.

72
 Donation Help
Attribute Not aware Blood banks of clothes handicapped
Social services in Appshop 81 17 15 1

Social services in Appshop

Not aware Blood

banks

Donation of clothes

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

81% are not aware of any social services.

17% say blood banks are organized.

15% say they donate clothes to the poor.

1% say they assist the handicapped in the form of cash and kind.

73
 Activities to be included
in future
Sponsor NGO 29
Not required 25
Donate to orphanage 24
Provide education 22
Blood donation 15
Help old age homes 9
Free medical services 5
Life saving drugs 3
Environmental activities 2

Activities to be included in future

Sponsor NGO

Not required

Donate to orphanage

Provide education

Blood donation

Help old age homes Free

medical services Life

saving drugs

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

29% say Appshop could start sponsoring NGOs.

25% say no activities are required to be organized for social cause.

24% say donation should be made to the orphanage.

22% would like to provide education for the illiterate

slums. 15% say to organize blood donation camps.

9% says to assist old age homes.

5% say to provide free medical service to the poor and slums.

3% say to provide life saving drugs to people who cannot afford them.
2% say to conduct environmental activities like making the city
more green.

74
 Attribute On occasions Quarterly Not aware Annually Monthly Half Frequently
yearly

Frequency of 42 21 15 14 5 3 1
organizing
Social events

Frequency of organising Social events

On occasions
Quarterly

Not aware
Annually
Monthly
Half yearly

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

42% say social events are held on

occasions. 21% say they are held quarterly.

15% say they have no idea about social events being

held. 14% say they are conducted annually.

5% say it is held monthly.

3% say social events are held half-
yearly. 1% say they are held quite
frequently.

75
 Attribute Family outings/ Recreational Festivals Not required Birthdays Corporate
Resorts activities interaction
Social events to be organized 61 40 21 10 7 1

Social events to be organized Family outings/

Resorts

Recreational
activities

Festivals Not

required

Birthdays

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

61% say family outings to resorts could be

organized. 40% say recreational activities could be
planned.

21% say festivals could be celebrated.

10% say nothing is required.

7% say birthdays could be celebrated.

1% say corporate interaction should be conducted informally.

76
 Attribute Yes No Not
applicable
Team building programs conducted 59 34 6

Team building programs conducted

Yes

No

Not applicable

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

59% say Team Building programs are conducted.

34% say they are not conducted.

6% say they are not sure as they are new employees.

77
 Attribute Technical Communication PDP Not aware Cross skill
Training programs conducted 62 53 37 14 5

Training programs conducted

Technical

Communication
PDP

Not aware Cross

skill

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

62% say technical trainings are

conducted. 53% say communication
training is given.

37% say Personality Development Programs are conducted.

14% are not aware.

5% say cross-skill trainings are conducted.

Attribute Regular Not required In-depth Cross training Training for

knowledge communication new
updation employees
Training programs suggested 61 22 18 7 4

78
 Training programs suggested

Regular knowledge
updation

Not required

In-depth
communication

Cross training

Training for new

employees

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

61% would like regular knowledge updation.

22% do not require anything.

18% require in-depth communication.

7% would like to undergo cross-skill training.
4% say to conduct training for new
employees.

79
 Attribute Not aware Quarterly Annually Half- Frequently When Monthly At ISO Weekly
yearly needed audit
Frequency 31 23 14 13 8 6 3 1 1
of
employee
feedbacks

Frequency of employee feedbacks

Not aware
Quarterly
Annually
Half-yearly
Frequently

When needed
Monthly

Source: Field Investigation At ISO audit

Interpretation:

31% are not aware.

23% say it happens quarterly.

14% say they are conducted

annually. 13% say it is held half-
yearly.

8% say they are done frequently.

6% say it happens as and when
needed. 3% say they are held
monthly.

1% each say during ISO audit and weekly.

80
 Attribute Not Good QWL Good Work Technical Job ESOP Empowerm Flexible
aware pay Culture opportunities enrichment/ ent of timing
Rotation employees
Retaining of 50 23 16 14 8 7 4 4 1
employees
at Appshop

Retaining of employees at Appshop Not aware

Good QWL

Good pay Work

Culutre

Technical
opportunites
Source: Field Investigation
Job enrichment/
Interpretation: Rotation

50% are not aware.

23% say the QWL is good.

16% say they have good pay structure.

8% say they provide technical opportunities.

7% say there is job enrichment and
rotation. 4% say they provide ESOP.

4% say there is empowerment of employees.

1% say work times are flexible.

81
 Attribute QW Better Build Out Not Job Understan Regular Knowledge Regular Good
L Options brand bound required Satisfaction ding hikes sharing PA HR
image training mangers policy
recruitm
ent
Ways to 35 24 21 18 16 14 12 11 10 9 8
retain
employees

QWL
Ways to retain employees

Better Options Build

brand image Out

bound training Not

Source: Field Investigation
required
Interpretation:

35% say to improve QWL.

Job Satisfaction
24% say better options can help retain employees.
Understanding Managers
18% say outbound training helps to reduce attrition
Regular hikes Knowleged rate. 16% say nothing is required.

shaing Regular PA 14% say providing job satisfaction will help retain employees.
12% say managers should be understanding to help retain employees.
Good HR policy & 11% say to provide regular hikes.
10% say knowledge sharing should be encouraged to facilitate job
rotation 9% say performance appraisals should be held regularly.
8% say good HR recruitment policy helps in retaining employees.

82
 Attribute Good Excellent Fair Poor
Rating of ambience 73 13 12 2

Rating of ambience

Good
Excellent
Fair

Poor
Source: Field Investigation
Interpretation:
➢ 73% say ambience is good.
➢ 13% say ambience is excellent.
➢ 12% say ambience is fair.
➢ 2% say ambience is poor.

Attribute Good Excellent Fair

Rating of Workspace 65 23 12

Rating of Workspace

Good
Excellent
Fair

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

65% say work space is good.

23% say work space is Excellent.
12% say work space is fair.

83
 Attribute Good Fair Excellent Poor
Rating of Chairs, Utilitites 54 24 12 10

Rating of Chairs, Utilitites

Good Fair
Excellent
Poor

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

54% say chairs & utilities are

good. 24% say chairs & utilities
are fair.

12% say chairs & utilities are

excellent. 10% say chairs & utilities
are poor.

Attribute Good Excellent Fair Poor

Rating of people 39 37 18 6

Rating of people

Good
Excellent
Fair

Poor

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

39% say people are good.

37% say people are
excellent. 18% say people
are fair.

84
6% say people are poor.

85
 Attribute Fair Good Poor Excellent
Rating of Food 38 30 26 6

Rating of Food

Fair Good
Poor
Excellent

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

38% say food is fair.

30% say food is good.
26% say food is poor.
6% say food is
excellent.

Attribute Fair Good Poor Excellent

Rating of Transport 41 33 23 3

Rating of Transport

Fair Good
Poor
Excellent

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

41% say transport is fair.

33% say transport is good.
23% say transport is poor.

86
3% say transport is
excellent.

87
 Attribute Good Fair Not aware Excellent
Rating of HIS 58 21 9 5

Rating of HIS

Good
Fair

Not aw are
Excellent

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

58% say HIS is good.

21% say HIS is fair.
9% are not aware.

5% say HIS is excellent.

Attribute Good Fair Excellent Poor Not aware

Rating of Mentoring 63 19 12 5 1

Rating of Mentoring

Good Fair
Excellent
Poor

Not aw are

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

63% say HIS is good.

19% say HIS is fair.
12% say HIS is excellent.
5% say HIS is poor.
1% is not aware.

88
 Attribute Good Fair Excellent Poor Not aware
Rating of HR 45 38 6 6 4

Rating of HR

Good Fair
Excellent
Poor

Not aw are

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

45% say HR is good.

38% say HR is fair.

6% say HR is excellent.
6% say HR is poor.

4% are not aware.

Attribute Good Fair Poor Excellent Not aware

Rating of Recruitment 62 17 12 8 1

Rating of Recruitment

Good
Fair
Poor

Excellent
Not aw are

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

62% say recruitment is good.

17% say recruitment is fair.
12% say recruitment is poor.
8% say recruitment is excellent.
1% is not aware.

89
 Attribute Good Fair Poor Not aware Excellent
Rating of Induction program 45 27 11 9 3

Rating of Induction program

Good
Fair
Poor

Not aw are
Excellent
Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

45% say induction program is good.

27% say induction program is fair.
11% say induction program is
poor. 9% are not aware.

3% say induction program is excellent.

Attribute Good Fair Not aware Poor Excellent
Rating of employee feedback 56 20 17 5 2

Rating of employee feedback

Good

Not aw are
Fair

Poor
Source: Field Investigation Excellent

Interpretation:

56% say employee feedback is

good. 20% say employee feedback
is fair. 17% are not aware.

5% say employee feedback is poor.

2% say employee feedback excellent.

90
 Attribute Good Excellent Fair Poor
Rating of organization structure 65 29 4 2

Rating of organization structure

Good
Excellent
Fair

Poor
Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

65% say organization structure is good.

29% say organization structure is
excellent. 4% say organization structure is
fair.

2% say organization structure is poor.

Attribute Good Fair Excellent Not aware Poor
Rating of Career growth 57 18 18 6 1

Rating of Career grow th

Good Fair
Excellent

Not aw are
Poor

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

57% say career growth is

good. 18% say career growth
is fair.

18% say career growth is

excellent. 6% are not aware.

1% say career growth is poor.

91
 Attribute Good Excellent Fair Not aware
Rating of Company growth 57 28 8 6

Rating of Company grow th

Good

Excellent

Fair

Not aware

Source: Field Investigation

Interpretation:

57% say company growth is good.

28% say company growth is excellent.
8% say company growth is fair.

6% are not aware.

92
 RECOMMENDATIONS

After having tabulated and analyzed the data collected from the internal and external
‘Employee feedback survey’, it has been found out that Appshop needs to improve on a few
areas when compared to the other IT companies like Oracle, HP, Infosys to name a few. The
areas according to priority are given below:

1) Employee feedbacks should be done on a regular basis and in a more effective way.
2) Work place should also be improved. The following are the categories according to the level of
importance.
a) Food needs to be standardized.
b) Transport facility should be made more efficient.
c) Chairs and utilities could also be improved.
3) Employee Welfare Schemes should be improved, for instance-
a) Introduction of personal loans.
b) Effective tax saving schemes.
c) Food discount coupons (sodexo passes).
d) Getting listed in banks for easy loans and credit card facilities.
e) Guest houses for outstation employees for more than 15 days.
f) Life Insurance Scheme.
g) Cover Parents under Health Insurance Scheme.
4) Social services need to be conducted-
a) One day health program in a village and provide free medical facilities to them.
b) Donation of clothes to the poor/Orphanages/ Old age homes.
c) Sponsor NGO’s.
d) Conducting environmental activities.
e) Organize blood donation camps.
f) Literacy programs.
g) Help the handicapped/ diseased.

91
FINDING AND DISCUSSION

92
 Presentation of the Findings and discussion
The main research question that guided the study was as follows: How can small business
owners develop and implement a successful Internet marketing strategy? I used semi-
structured interviews to gain an understanding of how small business owners developed and
implemented an Internet marketing strategy. In addition to semi-structured interviews, I
reviewed companies’ online marketing presence such as social media pages, company
website and search engine rankings. I also evaluated their online marketing materials such as
ads and email templates as well as web analytics. I scheduled the 62 interviews in
participants’ places of business in a private meeting room. Interviews lasted approximately
60 minutes. Following the compilation and analysis of data collected through semi-structured
interviews and a review of company documents, five themes emerged. The five main themes
encompassed, (a) unstructured planning, (b) limited Internet marketing knowledge and
expertise, (c) use of Internet marketing channels and tools, (d) lack of systematic approach to
the management of Internet marketing, and (e) inadequate measurement of Internet marketing
efforts. I will provide an overview of each case before describing the five themes. Each small
business evaluated in this study operated in a different industry, had varied Internet marketing
goals, and possessed distinct resources. The case overviews include description of the
business, owner’s experience, target audience, Internet marketing goal, marketing budget,
channel mix, management of online marketing, Internet marketing tools, and Internet
marketing performance. The conceptual framework of this research project was RBV. RBV
helps to understand how firms leverage their investments in online marketing to develop
capabilities that are valued, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable (Barney, 1991). Internet
marketing capabilities and resources can provide a competitive advantage to the firm and
positively influence the firm’s performance. I will discuss the findings as they relate to the
conceptual framework and the presentation of the emergent themes.

93
 SUGGESTION
Hypothesis of study
In this highly competitive world, it is not only the quality of the product or service but also
effective utilization of online marketing channels is very important. To satisfy the growing
demands of Employee, to increase sales, retain existing customers through online marketing,
following Digital strategies and consultancy services plays major role :

Display advertising:
Display advertising conveys its advertising message visually using text, logos, animations,
videos, photographs, or other graphics. Display advertisers frequently target users with
particular traits to increase the ads' effect.
Web banner advertising:
Web banners or banner ads typically are graphical ads displayed within a web page. Banner
ads can use rich media to incorporate video, audio, animations, buttons, forms, or other
interactive elements using Java applets, HTML5, Adobe Flash, and other programs.Search
Engine Optimization, or SEO, attempts to improve a website's organic search rankings in
SERPs by increasing the website content's relevance to search terms. Search engines
regularly update their algorithms to penalize poor quality sites that try to game their rankings,
making optimization a moving target for advertisers. Many vendors offer SEO services.

Frame ad (traditional banner) :

Frame ads were the first form of web banners. The colloquial usage of "banner ads" often
refers to traditional frame ads. Website publishers incorporate frame ads by setting aside a
particular space on the web page.
Pop-ups/pop-under:
A pop-up ad is displayed in a new web browser window that opens above a website visitor's
initial browser window. A pop-under ad opens a new browser window under a website
visitor's initial browser window.

94
Floating ad:
A floating ad, or overlay ad, is a type of rich media advertisement that appears superimposed
over the requested website's content. Floating ads may disappear or become less obtrusive
after a preset time period.

Expanding ad:
An expanding ad is a rich media frame ad that changes dimensions upon a predefined
condition, such as a preset amount of time a visitor spends on a webpage, the user's click on
the ad, or the user's mouse movement over the ad Expanding ads allows advertisers to fit
more information into a restricted ad space. The study was conducted by the means of
personal interview with respondents and the information given by they were directly recorded
on questionnaire. For the purpose of analyzing the data it is necessary to collect the vital
information

Interstitial ad:
An interstitial ad displays before a user can access requested content, sometimes while the
user is waiting for the content to load. Interstitial ads are a form of interruption marketing.

Text ads:
A text ad displays text-based hyperlinks. Text-based ads may display separately from a web
page's primary content, or they can be embedded by hyper linking individual words or
phrases to advertiser's websites. Text ads may also be delivered through email marketing or
text message marketing. or the user's mouse movement over the ad Expanding ads allow
advertisers to fit more information into a restricted ad space.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM):
Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is designed to increase a website's visibility in search
engine results pages (SERPs). Search engines provide sponsored results and organic (non-
sponsored) results based on a web searcher's query. Search engines often employ visual cues
to differentiate sponsored results from organic results. Search engine marketing includes all
of an advertiser's actions to make a website's listing more prominent for topical keywords.

95
Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, attempts to improve a website's organic search
rankings in SERPs by increasing the website content's relevance to search terms. Search
engines regularly update their algorithms to penalize poor quality sites that try to game their
rankings, making optimization a moving target for advertisers. Many vendors offer SEO
services.

Sponsored search:
Sponsored search (also called sponsored links or search ads) allows advertisers to be included
in the sponsored results of a search for selected keywords. Search ads are often sold via real-
time auctions, where advertisers bid on keywords. The study was conducted by the means of
personal interview with respondents and the information given by them were directly
recorded on questionnaire. For the purpose of analyzing the data it is necessary to collect the
vital information.
Mobile Advertising:

Mobile advertising is ad copy delivered through wireless mobile devices such as smart
phones, feature phones, or tablet computers. Mobile advertising may take the form of static or
rich media display ads, SMS (Short Message Service) or MMS (Multimedia Messaging
Service) ads, mobile search ads, advertising within mobile websites, or ads within mobile
applications or games (such as interstitial ads, “averaging,” or application sponsorship).
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, attempts to improve a website's organic search
rankings in SERPs by increasing the website content's relevance to search terms. Search
engines regularly update their algorithms to penalize poor quality sites that try to game their
rankings, making optimization a moving target for advertisers. Many vendors offer SEO
services.

Email Advertising:
Email advertising is ad copy comprising an entire email or a portion of an email message.
Email marketing may be unsolicited, in which case the sender may give the recipient an
option to opt-out of future emails, or it may be sent with the recipient's prior consent (opt-in).

96
Benefits of Online marketing:
Internet gives you a wide access of your potential customers. It has been estimated that a
couple of billion people around the world use the Internet, and more are becoming aware of
Internet with each passing day. So, marketing your business to such a large group of people is
only possible through Internet

 Internet is the only medium that is able to cross geographic and national boundaries.

 The cost of promoting your business on the Internet is cheaper than other mediums of
marketing. This makes it easy for small and mid-sized businesses to advertise their
products.

 Internet allows the ability to stay connected with customers on a real-time basis. If
any discount going on, then it is easier to send an email to customers and they can buy
the product instantly. Internet also allows to send multiple messages at the same time,
which saves the tedious task of sending a newsletter to every client.

 Internet marketing facilitates an instant feedback from the customers. Customers can
share about their experience after using the product.

 Internet marketing saves a lot of time and effort. Instead of having a customer service
representative to answer the queries of customers, one can put all the information
about the product or service on the Internet so that customers can go through it. The
most common way of doing it is to have a section dedicated to frequently asked
questions (FAQs) about the product so that customers get all the required information
about the product or the service.

 Internet marketing allows your business to be available 24/7, which means increased
sales and profits.

Data Collection:
Data collection means to a purposive gathering of information relevant to the subject matter
of the study from the units under research. Primary data are empirical observations gathered

97
by the researcher or his associates for the first time for any research and used by them in
statistical analysis. There are several methods of collecting primary data particularly in
descriptive researches.

 Telephone enquiries

 Postal/mail questionnaire

 Personal interviewing

 Panel research

 Special survey techniques

Telephonic inquiries and mailing questionnaires are the best’s method for gathering quickly
needed information at the cheapest way.
Secondary Data:
Secondary Data is the data collected by others in the past and used by others. It may be
either being published or unpublished data. It includes the following:
1. Various publications of central, state and local governments.
2. Various publications of foreign governments or international bodies.
3. Technical and trade journals
4. Books, magazines, and new paper.
5. Reports prepared by research scholars, university economists etc.

Below section describes the World’s leading E-commerce /online shop platform
:

Alibaba Group:
Alibaba Group Holding Limited is a Chinese e-commerce company that provides consumer-
to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business sales services via web portals. It
also provides electronic payment services, a shopping search engine and data-centric cloud
computing services.

98
Alibaba has been the most dominant retailer in the world, generating more gross merchandise
volume (GMV) than Amazon.com and eBay combined. Its online sales & profits surpassed
all US retailers (including Wal-Mart, Amazon and eBay) combined in 2015.[9] It has been
expanding into media and entertainment industry, with revenues rising 3-digit percents year
on year.

99
LIMITATIONS OF RESEARCH

 People were not ready to fill in the questionnaire

 Many of the surveyed people did not reply all the questions.

 The time period given for study was very limited.

 The sample size was very small which is may not represent the entire population

 of Indian women.

 Many of the people did not even know the working of a computer

100
CONCLUSION

101
 CONCLUSION
 The most preferred product of online buying is travelling tickets and clothing remains
the least preferred choice of online shoppers.

 Among the payment options, Payment on delivery through cash in the safest choice of
payment, while credit card are next preferred choice, online bank transfer is least
preference choice.

 Online shoppers seek for clear information about product and service, timesaving,
convenience, security and delivery on time are all important factor for online
shopping. The offers with punch lines “Attractive offers” do not attract online
shoppers.

 Most of the Employee who have experienced online shopping are very satisfied.

102
LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

 Employee should be educated on online shopping procedures with proper stepsto be

following while online shopping.

 Transactions should be safe and proper security should be assured to the people
making online purchases.

 Government should play a pivotal role in encouraging online shopping

 E-marketers must give a thought to secure, time saving, information about product
and services factors when they design there online product strategy.

103
 REFFERENCE
A) BIBLIOGRAPHY:

 Book: The Art of Digital Marketing by IAN DODSON

 Book: Digital Marketing by VANDANA AHUJA

 WILLIAM G. ZIKMUND,(Business research method) , published by THOMSON,

SOUTH WESTERN, 2006 , 5TH EDITION.

 S.A. CHUNAWALA , (Foundation of advertising), Himalaya publishing house , 2008

7th edition

 The Michael Jordan phenomena, journal of advertising research. Indian streams

research journal- Dr. G.l.pedhiwal.

B) WEBLIOGRAPHY

www.wikipedia.com

www.techopedia.com,

www.webopedia.com

www.flipkart .com

www.facebook.com

www.snapdeal.com

www.naaptol.com

www.limeroad.com

104
 APPENDIX

RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE

Respondent’s details
Name: ______________________________________(optional)

Gender:  Male (   )   Female   (   )

Occupation:
Student   (   )
Service    (   )
Self employed   (   )
Age: Between 18 to 25   (   )
Between 25 to 35   (   )
Between 35 to 45   (   )
Contact detail ;_________________________________(optional)
(Please tick √ in the box besides option/s matching your response)

Q1.Which of these websites have you already used or visited?

(Several answers possible)
*For the Respondent - The different possible answer choices are presented in random
order.
Amazon
eBay
ebuyer
I have never used or visited any of these websites
*Filter forwarding to the associated page :
If the respondent has never used or visited Amazon, the respondent is forwarded to
the conclusion
*Next step for the respondent : Next Page
2. Page 1

105
Back to summary
This short survey looks at a number of questions which are mainly related to people's
online shopping experiences. Please complete it in full for your submission to be
valid.
Q2.Where do you mostly use the Internet?
At home
At work
Other, please specify:
Q3.What is your main purpose for using the Internet?
Shopping
Work
Education
Hobby
Q4.How much do you spend on average for Retail shopping per month in GBP (High
Street / Malls etc)?
£0 - £30
£30 - £90
£90 - £120
£120 +
*Next step for the respondent : Next Page
3. Page 2
Back to summary
Q5.How much do you spend on Online shopping per month in GBP (Website
Shopping)?
I never buy online
£0 - £30
£30 – 90
£90 - £120
£120 +
*Filter forwarding to the associated page :
If the respondent never buys online, the respondent is forwarded to page 4
*Next step for the respondent : Page 5
4. Page 3
Back to summary
106
Q6.What is the reason you have never bought online?

*Next step for the respondent : Next Page

5. Page 4
Back to summary
Q7.How would you rate your Internet connection?
Bad
Good
Very good
Excellent
Q8.What type of Internet Connection do you use?
Broadband
Dial-up
Mobile devices
Other, please specify:
Q9.What is your favourite E-commerce website? and Why?

Q10.How often do you visit www.amazon.co.uk?

Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Annually

107
 Questionnaire
1. Do you use amazon app?

Yes □

No □

2. Did you shop anything from Amazon?

Yes □

No □

3. How was your shopping experience?

Good □

Bad □

Ok □

4. What payment method you use?

cash on delivery □

Net banking □

Paytm □

Other □

5. How was your delivery service?

Good □

Bad □

6. Which app do you prefer for shopping?

Flipkart □

Amazon □

Myntra □

Other □

7. Are you going to use amazon in future also?

Yes □

No □
108
 8. What is the most important to you when shopping on Amazon?

Ease to use □

Reliability □

Price □

Free shipping □

Other □

Have you ever heard of Amazon prime?

Yes □

No □

Do you have subscription of Amazon prime?

Yes □

No □

How often do you shop for products on Amazon?

Once in a week □

Once in a month□

Once in a year □

Never □

Please describe your overall feeling toward the Amazon company as a whole?

Positive □

Negative □

Neutral □

109