Here I just want to list the most important advantages that companies can obtain using this type of online sales:

1. It’s a strategy that allows quick and profitable monetization of stocks: the margins, in fact, are quite high, certainly higher than those achievable by other methods of management of stocks

2. Opportunity to reach a greater amount of consumers that don’t have the possibility to buy the specific product through the usual channels. In fact there are consumers that have difficulty in finding designer clothes or luxury brands or just find them at higher prices.

3. No overlap with the traditional distribution network, thanks to the very short duration of the campaign without damaging the image of the brand.

4. Attention on the creation of a strong relationship with the final consumers. The major players in the industry invest a lot in the creation of trailers and shooting of the products that are offered online: websites are usually pleasant, friendly, accessible, engaging, highly interactive, designed for a sophisticated and demanding audience.

5. Mailing list:  this websites have devoted much effort in collecting a mailing list, even if all the e-tailer insist on the importance of “word of mouth. Who is invited by those who have already tried the service or by companies affiliated with the service (Born4Shop, for example, can count on partners such CartaSi, Fastweb, Sole24Ore, TicketOne, RCS, Gay.it) enters for free. Other website, such as Piustyle.com charges an amount of 15 euros on the first purchase. By contrary, to feed the crowd to its site, Privalia focuses on activities of viral marketing on the web through games and competitions that can capture the interest of the people of the Net: this strategy has allowed to intercept about 40 thousand new members. Currently, one third of the Privalia’s community comes from the “member get member”,that rewards those that have invited other potential buyers. The concept of “community” is central to this E-Business, so that some operators have even created their own blogs.

6. Creation of blogs: this tool has the aim of establishing direct contact with members and increases the transparency of services and operation of the portal. Every visitor has the possibility to voice his views and suggestions and sharing them with other members and with the company.

Every consumer relies on a specific type of social websites or company website for product and brand information. As a result, companies try to engage directly with them using this social network creating a great opportunity to not only reach more consumers, but also increase their likelihood of making a purchase. But companies should be very careful in using digital marketing tools because they have to consider the impact of online word-of-mouth that can affect the consumers purchase decision.

In Italy ecommerce websites struggling to get out the stage of comparison of products. In fact it is proposed an online consultation of the product for the next purchase in store, what in slang is defined infocommerce.
Today the sales strategies of company aims to consolidate brands. The ommunication of products put in the websites strengthens the brand and becomes a vehicle to test consumers behaviour and satisfaction of customers.

Companies not engaging in social media as part of their online marketing strategy are missing an opportunity to reach consumers.

“Applying digital technologies which form online channels to market to contribute to marketing activities aimed at achieving profitable acquisition and retention of customers through recognizing the strategic importance of digital technologies and developing a planned approach to improve customer knowledge, then delivering integrated target communications and online services that match their individual needs” (www.theidm.com)

In this post we what to analyses this definition in details:

Digital technologies: a lot of people have access to the Internet; there are a lot of platforms and communication tools that allow us to communicate and interact on the Web. The easiest ay to do that is to use a computer to visit a website, but think about the enormous amount of possibilities we have via email, wireless networks, TV and the Web 3.0.

Achieving profitable acquisition and retention of customers: e marketing has the same objectives of traditional marketing. We want to acquire new customers to enlarge our market but, in addition to this, we want to retain old customer. This has to be done in order to have profitable customers. We have to get rid of unprofitable customers.

Strategic importance of digital technology & developing a planned approach: Marketing is not rocket science. Everything has to be carefully planned and implemented through a pondered strategy.

Improve customer knowledge: this is the core competence of marketing: gain knowledge about your customers. No business is an island. We need our customers to sell our offerings (products or services), but we need to know what customers want, what are their needs and expectations. Marketing and digital marketing are a great way to do that.

Integrated target communications: there are many ways we can use in order to communicate to our customers and exchange information. Sometimes using only one mean of communication is not enough. We need to pick up different means of communication and mix them to make it more likely that the customer will be targeted correctly.