Project Report on b2b Industry-Indiamart Intermesh

PROJECT REPORT ON

“ANALYSIS OF SUPPLIERS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS THE ONLINE PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES OF INDIAMART INTERMESH” Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Recognized by AICTE, Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India) By SUSHOVAN BANERJEE

PG10-092 Batch 2010-12 Under the guidance of Professor. KAMAL GUPTA Professor.(Marketing) INMANTEC, Ghaziabad

Integrated Academy of Management and Technology Ghaziabad 20.07.2011

“ANALYSIS OF SUPPLIERS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS THE ONLINE PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES OF INDIAMART INTERMESH” at

INDIAMART INTERMESH LTD By

SUSHOVAN BANERJEE Batch 2010-12

Under the guidance of Prof. Kamal Gupta INMANTEC, Ghaziabad

Integrated Academy of Management and Technology Ghaziabad JULY, 2011

CERTIFICATE FROM THE ORGANISATION

Acknowledg

It gives me imm SUPPLIERS’

Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary 2.

Introduction 2.1.

1.

Industry Overview 2.2.1

Service overview

2.2.2

Business Enhancements

2.2.3

Awards & Achievements

2.2.4

Corporate Websites

Research Objectives

2. Literature Review 2.1. IndiaMart- Value Proposition 2.2. Value Propositions 2.3. Benefit to Buyers 2.4. Benefit to Sellers 2.5. Online directory 2.6.

Trade Leads

3. Conceptual Framework 5.1

E Commerce Solution

5.2

Dynamic Product Catalogue

5.3

Enterprise Mailing Solution

5.4

Lead Management Service

4. Research Methodology 4.1.Research Design 4.2.Data Requirements 4.3. Data

Collection Method and Instrument

4.4.Sampling and Sample Size

4.5.Data Analysis Techniques 5.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

6.

Findings of the Study

7. Recommendations 8.

Conclusions

References........................................................................... Annexures........................................................................... Annexure A Annexure B

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Working with INDIAMART INTERMESH LTD was a great opportunity and a great pleasure to me. During the whole research I was considered as the part of the IndiaMART family and this proves the co operation among the various departments and the employees of IndiaMART. The main objective of the research was to study the efficiency of the marketing strategy of IndiaMART and to judge its marketing position,its strength over the competitors and the way to utilize it to have the benefit .Since Indiamart is a prominent B2B industry , it actually acts as a platform where the buyers and the sellers meet to perform their business. The research was conducted keeping the objective as the main and the conclusions drawn were that the IndiaMART holds a very good position in B2B industry. The marketing strategy of the company was also fulfilling its aims and was up to the mark. The main strength of the company was its customized solutions and the weakness was that it holds a good service range but is costly as compared with the competitors. The company performance graph is rising day by day showing its progress which could also be justified on the basis of the valuation provided by Alexa.com. In this project the suppliers’ perception over the online products’ promotion is highlighted. What the suppliers think and what are their adequate strategies through which their product is exposed online through IndiaMART is being researched. During the course of this project I was also fortunate enough to be able to study the promotional activities like coupon distribution ,participation in trade fair ,etc.The report contains the findings arrived after detailed analysis of the data received through filling the questionnaires by the different suppliers.I went to several suppliers’ organization and had a detailed discussion about their promotion of products by Indiamart.com.

CHAPTER

2 INTRODUCTION

COMPANY PROFILE IndiaMART.com is the India's largest online B2B marketplace for Small & Medium Size Businesses, connecting global buyers with suppliers. The company offers a platform & tools to over 1 million suppliers to generate business leads from over 5 million buyers, who use the platform to find reliable & competitive suppliers. The company has over 4000 employees located across 75 offices in the country. Its existing investors include Intel Capital and Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.

IndiaMART.com offers services that enable small & medium size businesses generate business leads (online catalogs/store-fronts), establish their credibility (third party verified trust profile) and use business information (finance, news, trade shows, tenders) for their business promotion.

IndiaMART.com has won numerous awards over the years, which include coveted ‘Red Herring Award’, ‘Emerging India Award’, and many others. The company has also been widely covered by media for its pioneering role in promoting SME business in the country.

SERVICE OVERVIEW It provides a comprehensive online marketing program that provides enhanced enquiry generation of different products through their DYNAMIC CATALOGUE of products. With star suppliers , it helps to give a premium positioning among suppliers in all relevant categories.

It provides TRUST SEAL which is a business verification service that checks suppliers records of existence, credibility and trustworthiness for the benefit of the buyers. It provides leading suppliers which are the right choices for the companies who have a right mixture of infrastructure ,management capabilities and experience in servicing global buyers. It also provides banner advertising to build the brand so as to attract the buyers. In short it is a BUSINESS PROMOTION COMPANY offering services and solutions to small and medium level business in India for increasing revenues or reducing cost using internet & internet technology.

CORPORATE INFORMATION We have built ourselves to be self-sufficient. Our guiding principles are a mélange of traditional business ethics and contemporary good governance needs. We set higher and tougher performance & governance benchmarks in our industry as we move ahead. Our customers have always found an integrated business promotion solution more valuable than a simple web presence. Driven by this preference of our customers, we have built ourselves on the key pillars of smart people & smart solutions for business promotion. We have developed an integrated solution delivery framework which incorporates B2B marketplaces, Internet technology and industry knowledge. . IIL’s first B2B marketplace - IndiaMART.com, marked the beginning of online presence of Indian businesses for a global exposure. The diversities of businesses makes it imperative for us to custom delivers our solutions. This presents a great challenge of accumulating & using industry knowledge to deliver high quality solutions.

ABOUT INDIAMART INTERMESH LTD

We endeavor to maximize value for our customers by offering those efficient and costeffective solutions for business promotion, process support and transaction accomplishment. Our customers have always found an integrated business promotion solution more valuable than a simple web presence. Driven by this preference of our customers, we have built ourselves on the key pillars of smart people & smart solutions for business promotion. We have developed an integrated solution delivery framework which incorporates B2B marketplaces, Internet technology and industry knowledge. IIL's first B2B marketplace - IndiaMART.com, marked the beginning of online presence of Indian businesses for a global exposure. We today serve our customers through a network of over 50 industry / product marketplaces, making us the largest integrated B2B marketplace network from India. We have always seen Internet as a business facilitator rather than a technology phenomenon. Our usage of Internet technology has therefore been directed towards business promotion of our customers. Today, we cater to over 8,000 customers and make Internet technology work for their business. The diversities of businesses makes it imperative for us to custom delivers our solutions. This presents a great challenge of accumulating & using industry knowledge to deliver high quality solutions. IIL has developed and established standards for solution delivery and is India's first organization of its kind to receive an ISO certification. TEAM IIL is poised to maximize the value delivered to our customers through continuous innovation and learning.

Vision and Mission We endeavor to maximize value for our customers by offering those efficient and costeffective solutions for business promotion, process support and transaction accomplishment.

VISION

We strive to become an integral part of every organisation’s business promotion plan. We envision providing complete business enhancement and promotion services to our clients. MISSION With firm belief in our vision and with complete dedication integrity and honesty, we endeavor to generate profitable returns for our customers through high quality business promotion services and solutions that enhance revenues and are cost effective at the same time.

Fact Sheet IIL started its operations in 1996 and has stood its ground even in the toughest times. We had a profitable business even when other companies in this domain found it hard to sustain. Today, we operate from a 18,000 sq. ft. office in Noida (near Delhi), and have 20 branch offices spread all over the country. Our team includes over 550 professionals from diverse background, bound together to serve over 8000 customers.

Highlights: 1996-97 • Launched Indiamart.com as India's first online B2B directory • Successfully introduced the concept of free listing and free-query forwarding to familiarize Indian SMEs with the benefits of Internet for business promotion • Accomplished India's first e-commerce project for Nirula's (http://nirulas.com) • Broke-even within six months of launch 1997-98 Crossed 100 clients mark Launched Travel.indiamart.com (India's largest travel portal today) • Initiated franchisee network building

1998-99 • Launched Handicraft, Apparel and Finance channels • Workforce increased to 40 • B2B marketplace network crossed 1 million page views/month mark 1999-2000 • Accomplished 'Bharat On Line' - MTNL's online portal project • Launched auto industry channel • Opened branch office in Mumbai 2000-01 • Touched 5 mn page views/month • Crossed 1000 clients mark • Crossed 100,000 business queries/month • Accomplished Online projects for HHEC, Jindal Organization, ModiCorp, • Won Britannica (BIG) Award for Travel.indiamart.com • New Branch Office in Chennai • Profits increased by 12.8% over last year 2001-02 • Declared as "the only profitable Indian Dotcom, with positive cash flows" by Business World - Cover Story: 14 May 2001 issue • Added to its service portfolio - Electronic Trade Offers, and Request for Quotation / Request for Proposal • Recognized by CNBC India as one of the only profitable dotcoms in India based on report by McKinsey 2002-03

• Moved operations to state-of-the-art NOIDA development center • Launched Online Hotel Reservation System • Launched Exim.indiamart.com • Crossed 2 lakh business queries mark with 12 million page views 2003-04 • Launched Trust SEAL to bridge the trust gap in B2B trade • Crossed 3000-clients mark • Touched 26 million page views per month, generating more than 3 lac business queries. 2004-05 • Became the first ISO 9001:2000 company in its domain • Launched an online payment gateway ABCPayments.com • Crossed 8000 clients 2005-06 • IndiaMART.com completed ten successful years (1996-2006) • Crossed 10,000 clients mark • Launched MDC, a four-page online catalog for clients • Implemented corporate-wide WEBERP • Acquired new office at B-6, Sec 8, NOIDA • IIL's Indian Gifts Portal (IGP) team hit the charts with Rs. 1.3 crores

Future Growth Initiatives

IIL has been successfully serving businesses through its web-based business promotion services. We have been able to make a mark on the global trade map by assisting our customers reach out to their customers globally. While we innovate continuously to offer greater value through our business promotion services, we wish to model ourselves into a global, complete business promotion solutions organization. We are actively pursuing our way into the world of B2B publishing and Trade fairs. Our entire suit of solutions shall be given an international dimension to serve a truly global customer base. Using our experience of serving Indian businesses, we plan to scale our solution delivery framework to the international level and serve customers across national boundaries.

Core Values

For us they are simple and straight; Take responsibility, work with passion and commitment, move ahead as a team and conserve the integrity. We firmly believe that core values keep organizations stable and focused to the common goal. Our core values have helped us achieve our mission to bring measurable benefits to our customers.

• Responsibility

Responsibility, not just of quality work but also of continuous self-development, of our decisions and of our actions. This helps us think rationally and provides a sense of accountability to ourselves, our commitment to customers and to our colleague.

• Passion

Work at IIL involves constant innovation and creativity. It involves a continuous thought process to get tangible benefits to our customers, taking into account the uniqueness of their purpose. Passionate people with a determination to make the difference are the ones who make this possible.

• Team Work

"Together we can achieve the impossible" is our belief. Our success is a result of our teamwork. Experts from the field of management, marketing, IT, arts, content & various other disciplines work as a team on every project, every endeavor. Dedication, passion and teamwork are the true means to our mission fulfillment.

• Integrity We realize the importance of the job & information we handle. We understand the responsibility that each member of our team has to shoulder and we do that with highest levels of trust, honesty and integrity - of purpose and action.

• Performance Indicators IIL started with a team of 4 people in a 100 sq. ft. room in 1996 and launched India's first truly interactive online business directory. Since then, we have grown to a team of over 800 people operating from 25 offices in India today

Awards & Achievements Success of our customers is our greatest achievement. Their confidence in us and our innovation, to give them the best, has got us applauds from various sources • IIL's successful business model featured on CNBC India as analyzed by McKinsey • Declared as India's only profit-making dotcom company by Business World (Cover story) • Special footage for IIL's contribution in enabling e-business for exporters from Moradabad; Mr. Dinesh Agarwal interviewed (India Tomorrow - BBC News)

• Www.indiantravelportal.com bags eighth "BIG" Award from Britannicaindia.com • IndiaMART.com nominated for Britannica Internet Guide (BIG) Awards for excellence on Internet. • IndiaMART.com listed among Top Indian Websites under Business - to business category by Ecomready • The best India related yellow pages on the Net - Cosmopolitan • Top Indian Site by www.indiatimes.com • Termed as 'Online Gateway to Indian marketplace'- The Economic Times • Best Travel Site- www.indiantravelportal.com by India Online: DD News • Site of the day - Handicraft.indiamart.com by Zee News Listed in the Top Indian IT organizations survey by Dataquest. • Intermesh Systems listed in the top 70 Indian IT organizations by Communications World. • Indiamart.com, handicraft & finance top-rated amongst India's most wanted Sites - PC World • Intermesh Systems listed amongst Indian IT companies - Dataquest • Nominated amongst the Top 5 Indian Sites by Microsoft • Termed as The Most Interactive Trading Zone on the Net by The Economic Times

SOLUTION

"Smart Solutions for Business Promotion" is the guiding factor for our R&D and

solution innovation. Our approach to customer satisfaction is based firmly on our belief that we offer complete solutions vis-à-vis stand-alone services. We assist our corporate customers in realizing their business enhancement goals through our experienced, multi-discipline teams and a comprehensive set of services, all under one roof. We understand the factors influencing businesses, their markets and diverse needs. This helps us assist our customers by identifying the right solution and implement it in the best possible way. Unlike most cases where different components required for corporate websites are sourced from different companies, our customers find it convenient in dealing with a single entity for everything. Our main objective is to bring tangible and intangible benefits to our customers through professionally developed and well-marketed b2b product catalogs. We take into account individual needs and offer assistance in planning & implementing online marketing strategy. Each customer is assigned a project manager, with a team of proficient website designers, programmers, content writers and web marketing professionals. We also undertake the task of web promotion and ensure online visibility. An online buying process, B2B or retail, would never be complete without e-commerce deployment any ecommerce deployment requires three basic things; an online catalogue, a shopping cart and a payment gateway. We offer all three under one roof. We have our own payment gateway "ABCpayments.com" to provide single point solution to our customers.

BUSINESS ENHANCEMENT

We offer business enhancement solutions that can be customized to serve the interests of the SME segment as well as large enterprises, from diverse industries. We understand the factors influencing businesses, their markets and diverse needs. This helps us assist our customers by identifying the right solution and implement it in the best possible way. We assist corporate to interact with their customers, keep the stakeholders updated and augment their brand identity on the web. Working with customers from different industries helped us develop a multi-feature product that makes online product management easy. Designed for the SME segment, it

offers global exposure to manufacturers, suppliers & service providers to enhance their sales. We understand global buyer's information needs & behavior coupled with expertise in communicating the right message to them. We offer technical skills & tools along with good business process knowledge for online commerce setup, whether B2B or retail. We are geared to adapt to our customers' unique demands and offer customized solutions with equal ease. .

Corporate Websites

Corporate need to interact with their customers, have to keep the stakeholders updated, create and maintain a brand identity and project various aspects of business. Internet based communication & marketing is today an integral part of their strategic marketing & communication plan and therefore it needs a different treatment than a simple website for a business. We assist our corporate customers in realizing their business enhancement goals through our experienced, multi-discipline teams and a comprehensive set of services, all under one roof. Unlike most cases where different components required for corporate websites are sourced from different companies, our customers find it convenient in dealing with a single entity for everything. We take into account individual needs and offer assistance in planning & implementing online marketing strategy. Each customer is assigned a project manager, with a team of proficient website designers, programmers ,content writers and web marketing professionals. We also undertake the task of web promotion and ensure online visibility. With our experience in managing complex and multi- discipline corporate website projects, we ensure better results for our customers with least hassles.

.

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

To understand the online promotional activities of a product like - Trade fare ,Print media ,Electronic media. 2. To know how international buyers are able to access the largest database of Indian suppliers through INDIA MART.COM. 3. To gain knowledge about the various major components of online promotions like Online Directory/Indiamart Yellow Pages, Online Product Catalogs, Trade Leads , Product portals. 4. To understand how business promotions are done through online to attract customers through various portals. 5. To survey the market through questionnaire preparation and understand the customer's perception regarding the online promotional activities of the MSMEs 1.

CHAPTER

4 LITERATURE REVIEW Starting the journey from 1996, with a small member in the functioning process, IndiaMART has tried to give a smart proposition in the field of online promotional activities.

IndiaMART.com-

Shaping The Value Proposition

India needed to improve its foreign earnings. The liberalized International Trade decisions in 1996 included : • Incentives on Import and Export,

• Focus on small and medium business.

Opportunity for IndiaMART

• Internet was widely being used in US for business at a very low cost. • Global buyers saw India as a lucrative supplier in a number of industries, • Hardly any organized supplier information was available from India; Export Promotion Councils/Trade Agencies did not offer enough informations also. Based on the above ,the targeted market for us was:

• Business in India – matches with our geographical presence, • Small & Medium Size – willing to take more risk in order to achieve higher growth, • Interest in International Trade- high value proposition for sellers.

PURPOSE Thus the main purpose of us that, We are a business promotion company, offering SERVICES & SOLUTIONS, to small and medium sized level business in India for increasing the REVENUES and REDUCING COSTS using internet and Internet technology.

B 2B MATCHMAKER SELLERS

IndiaMART

BUY ERS

D BUSINESSES ATTRACTING LARGE NUMBER OF BUYERS AND SELLERS THUS PROVIDING A

LARGE NUMBER OF BUYERS LOW MARKETING COSTS TIME ( FAST SELLING)

LARGE NUMBER OF SUPPLIERS LOW MARKETING COST TIME (FAST SELLING)

RELIABLE BUYERS

B2B MARKETPLACE B2B Marketplace is a “platform” where manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and exporters meet through with the help of search engines. Search Engines are basically a web tool designed to search for information on the world wide web. List of search engines includes Google, Yahoo, MSN, ask.com etc. “B2B marketing” meaning information or databases of “business to business” marketing. B2B Marketplace is the hub of marketing tools through which search engine scrolls databases available on the net. B2B marketplace therefore provides immense knowledge about the products one wishes to buy or sell through or give information regarding their products, profiles, services etc. B2B Marketplace offers wide benefits to the manufacturers, suppliers, buyers, exporters as well as importers.

LARGE NUMBER OF SELLERS

These benefits are as follows: * One stop marketplace for sellers and buyers. * Makes Trading more easy and convenient. * Provides better opportunity for manufacturers, suppliers and convenient shopping for buyers. * Time saving and fastest mode of trading through online. * Cost saving and reduce elevated cost. * Increase sale volume by providing various online trading tools tools by web portals. * Increase productivity and hence generate revenue to the company by providing techniques and more advanced method of online trading. Therefore, B2B marketplace is a huge market hub for manufacturers, buyers, suppliers, importers and exporters. These provide an opportunity to trade better and avail new businesses or services by just browsing sites through online. Business nowadays involves many more complexities and intricacies include Govt. Rules & Regulations, Country Trading Laws, EXIM Policy and Other Trade Laws & Associations. So, business opportunities becomes very essential as it saves time and helps in avoiding business complexities.

B2b PORTALS

B2B (business-to-business) websites include all internet-based technical solutions which facilitate services in the establishment of new trading relationships between companies and supporting the existing relationships. It can be termed as an e-market for e-business transactions. A B2B portal primarily serves as a platform for wholesalers, retailers, distributors and manufacturers to carry out their business activities online. It allows electronic transfer of orders, invoicing and payments. B2B stands for business to business, so in B2B site the communication and transaction is between one business ventures to another business venture, here the targeted customers are not approached directly, it does not sell directly to the end user. B2B site has become one of the most sorts out and techno-savvy mode for business transactions as well as a platform for sales. It provides the user the opportunity to reach out to companies and businesses globally. Marketing done through the B2B portals is exclusively online thus there are no print, distribution or postage costs plus it is measurable through sophisticated tracking software. B2B online marketing is an essential part from buyer’s perspective as well as seller’s perspective. For buyers it facilitates in searching new suppliers, post buying requests, and search for used or new investment goods. For a seller point of view, it makes easy to find out buyers for their products, they could sell online new as well as used products. They could even access the information about their competitors.

IndiaMART.com & The Network-

Benefit to the Buyers

•

International buyers are able to access the largest database of Indian suppliers instantly.

•

IndiaMART.com is the only Indian marketplace which offers trusted supplier profiles, which makes it easier for the buyers to take an informed decision.

•

Largest variety of products, of desired quality from India, it is the fastest mode of communicating with a large number of sellers simultaneously, thereby reducing the total cost of purchasing.

•

Only Indian marketplace which offers single-point source of not just supplier data & catalogs but also offers industry and product information along with general trade and exim information.

•

Due to large number of sellers on the marketplace, buyers get the most competitive pricing.

This is how it gives most of the benefits to the buyers so as to get an international access of the suppliers according to the need of their products.

IndiaMART.COM & The Network- Benefits to The Sellers • • •

•

•

Indian suppliers get access to a large pool of international buyers instantly, Reduce the communication cost and International marketing cost which amounts upto 20% of the total turnover, Opportunity to the buyers and sellers to operate from a virtual office and access business enquiries without any need for proper official setup. Buyers and the sellers deal with each other directly, without any intermediary. Business queries generated are forwarded to the suppliers without any intermediation.

IndiaMART.com – MARKETPLACE FACTS

• • • • • • •

3 SERVICE PORTALS, 13+ Industry portals, 126+ product portals, 100+ Travel portals, 5 Lac+ registered companies, 5 Lac+ business enquiries every month, 50 Million + unique visitors every month,Most visited Indian B2B marketplaces

• • • •

• ONLINE DIRECTORY, ONLINE PRODUCT CATALOGS TRADE LEADS INDUSTRY VERTICALS PRODUCT PORTALS

• MAJOR COMPONENTS

ONLINE DIRECTORY

IndiaMART offers : •

Comprehensive business directory of Indian/Foreign manufacturers ,suppliers and service providers.

•

Facility of interviewing their company profile, product catalogs, verified business details,

•

Sending an online request for quote,

•

All the product/service categories have their own unique URLs which are individually promoted on internet as manufacturers, exporters/service providers of respective products/services,

•

Search engine optimization of company listing pages,

ONLINE PRODUCT CATALOGS IndiaMART has over 15000 business catalogs of Indian suppliers vahing more than 100000 unique product portals in total. This is the largest collection of products from India.

•

User friendly advanced search based makes it easy to find out any product,

• •

Information is well laid out and categorized in a way that it makes navigation through the platform easy and fast, Special identification for the latest catalogs added which helps the repeat visitors to easily identify new products,

•

Direct link to catalogs of related categories and products

•

Direct visibility of various product pages in search engine.

BENEFITS :

•

It is the largest aggregation of catalogs from India, thereby making it most comprehensive source of product information for the buyers,

•

Catalogs expedite the decisions making process of buyers thereby making it one of the most preferred sources for product sourcing by the buyers,

•

Customers can view all the products & its variation , allowing them to make informed decisions,

•

Routine tasks & queries such as downloading files & clarifying product specifications can be automatically handled on the websites,

•

Suppliers reach many new entities without the need for the typical marketing expenses & investment,

•

Enjoys top searches positions on all major search engines , because of which a good amount of buyer traffic is generated through online catalogs. You can search the catalogs online through catalogs.indiamart.com

•

TRADE LEADS

• • • •

•

It provides for the buyers/sellers to post/reply to offer for for buying & selling of products and establishing business association in India. Buyers and sellers can post their trade offers to either buy or sell a product/ service or to enter into a business association. Once an offer is posted, the interested buyer ,seller or potential business associate can reply to this trade offer online. The reply generated reaches the person who posted the original trade offer, thereby initiating a business dialog. Effective tool for faster business response.

BENEFITS • • • •

Buyers can search for vendors who can supply the products & services they need – both for ad hoc as well as regular purchase. If they do not find the product on their choice on sale ,they can post a buying requirement and get the quotations right at their desktop, rather having to search for a supplier. It is the fastest way for the buyers to access direct product information , put on sale by a seller, It also provides priority listing to the client offers

INDUSTRY VERTICALS • •

A complete marketplace in itself Focus on a specific industry or product only, ○ For eg- while IndiaMART.com covers all the industries,handicraft.indiamart.com focuses on the Indian handicrafts industry, ○ Aggregates disparate content and services of interest to a particular industry and makes it available to buyers and sellers from that industry,

•

In case of vertical portals the audience or participants may be smaller , but they possess higher interest as the audience is highly targeted,

•

Like IndiaMART.com, all its member vertical portals have a directory, catalogs, trade leads, newsletter, search and industry/product information section of their own.

BENEFITS • • •

It is the source of generating business enquiries, No other marketplace in India has such a wide and information rich portfolio of industry verticals, Offers multiple promotion to suppliers who build a website/catalog with IIL ,

•

It helps to get focused buyers, resulting in better quality enquiries

CHAPTER

5 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

B2B Product Catalogs Manufacturers, exporters, suppliers and service providers from the SME segment need domestic & international exposure to enhance their sales. A static b2b product catalog is an ideal first step for them for global presence. Our b2b products catalogs are fully managed, including designing, content editing, hosting, strategic web promotion and its annual maintenance. It is a cost effective tool that reduces time and costs involved in reaching out to a prospective buyer. An online b2b product catalog is not just a showcase of the company and its products, but also a great marketing tool to enhance revenue generation as it caters to the scattered domestic market as well as the international market. Our main objective is to bring tangible and intangible benefits to our customers through professionally developed and well-marketed b2b product catalogs

.

E- Commerce Solution

An online buying process, B2B or retail, would never be complete without e- commerce deployment. Though the most common form of online shopping is reflected in retailing of goods and services, our e-commerce solution is suitable for the B2B segment (for negotiated prices, bulk deals, sample exchange) also. For an e-commerce setup, businesses usually approach different service providers to consolidate all components required. We make it easier for our customers by offering fully-managed, consolidated e-commerce solutions. Any e-commerce deployment requires three basic things; an online catalogue, a shopping cart and a payment gateway. We offer all three under one roof. We have our own payment gateway "ABCpayments.com" to provide single point solution to our customers.

Dynamic Product Catalogs

Working with customers from different industries helped us develop a multi-feature

dynamic product catalog that makes online product management extremely easy. Some companies change their product catalogs frequently as their product designs change fast or they have new products to offer. The cost of updating & sending the updated static/printed catalogs in such cases is very high. A dynamic product catalog, is a cost-effective innovative solution that allows a company to develop/update its online product catalog with full control over its product navigation and product information. Our dynamic product catalog offers following features

• Display management system that allows personalized design and presentation of the catalog. This involves development of a homepage, profile page, enquiry form, static information pages and product presentation layout, based on which the product catalog is displayed. • Product management system that allows clients to update and display products and details. It allows adding or editing product and product details, and upload the changes. • Enquiry basket that allows visitors to select multiple products & add to the virtual cart to send a consolidated order / enquiry and request a quote for the same . It is a system that replicates the physical catalog and at the same time offers the flexibility of updating it as per the customer's convenience of time and location

Multimedia CD Presentation

Interactive presentation about an organization or its products is amongst the best ways to garner attention of prospective buyers and customers. With increasing competition, suppliers recognize the value of positioning themselves ahead of their competitors. Multimedia CD presentations are an ideal way to achieve the same. Our team’s expertise in delivering business enhancement solutions gives us an edge while we develop multimedia CD presentations for our customers. We assist our customers through planning, designing and content management to Our main objective is to bring tangible and intangible benefits to our customers through professionally developed and well-marketed b2b product catalogs. E- Commerce Solution: An online buying process, B2B or retail, would never be complete without e- commerce deployment. Though the most common form of online shopping is reflected in retailing of goods and services, our e-commerce solution is suitable for the B2B segment (for negotiated prices, bulk deals, sample exchange) also. For an e-commerce setup, businesses usually approach different service providers to consolidate all components

required. We make it easier for our customers by offering fully-managed, consolidated ecommerce solutions. Any e-commerce deployment requires three basic things; an online catalogue, a shopping cart and a payment gateway. We offer all three under one roof. We have our own payment gateway "ABCpayments.com" to provide single point solution to our customers. Dynamic Product Catalogs: 14

Working with customers from different industries helped us develop a multi-feature dynamic product catalog that makes online product management extremely easy. Some companies change their product catalogs frequently as their product designs change fast or they have new products to offer. The cost of updating & sending the updated static/printed catalogs in such cases is very high. A dynamic product catalog, is a cost-effective innovative solution that allows a company to develop/update its online product catalog with full control over its product navigation and product information. Our dynamic product catalog offers following features: • Display management system that allows personalized design and presentation of the catalog. This involves development of a homepage, profile page, enquiry form, static information pages and product presentation layout, based on which the product catalog is displayed. • Product management system that allows clients to update and display products and details. It allows adding or editing product and product details, and upload the changes. • Enquiry basket that allows visitors to select multiple products & add to the virtual cart to send a consolidated order / enquiry and request a quote for the same . It is a system that replicates the physical catalog and at the same time offers the flexibility of updating it as per the customer's convenience of time and location Multimedia CD Presentation:

Interactive presentation about an organization or its products is amongst the best ways to garner attention of prospective buyers and customers. With increasing competition, suppliers recognize the value of positioning themselves ahead of their competitors. Multimedia CD presentations are an ideal way to achieve the same. Our team’s expertise in delivering business enhancement solutions gives us an edge while we develop multimedia CD presentations for our customers. We assist our customers through planning, designing and content management to 15 create and impressive and engaging presentation. Our customers would commonly use these CD presentations for trade shows and exhibitions, buyer presentations,product catalog or as give away reference material. Multimedia CD presentations are not just convenient means of presentations, they are handy, have a longer shelf life and can easily relate to the company's brand image

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Customized Solution

We offer business enhancement solutions that can be customized to serve the interests of the SME segment as well as large enterprises, from diverse industries. Some of our customers have specific requirements that cannot be served with our standard solutions. Their requirements are highly specific to their business and are unique in nature. Such requirements need special inputs and custom solution development. For such instances we customize our solutions or even create new ones, if need be.We have been able to use our expertise in business enhancement combined with expertise in areas like IT, content editing, designing and online marketing to successfully implement customized solutions for our customers.

MAILING/COMMUNICATION

We offer "fully managed" mailing solutions that encompass management of mailing system, online virus blocking & Spam protection and streamlining of business communication process. Emails have become an integral & critical part of every organization’s external as well as internal communication system. Organizations are finding it extremely difficult to fulfill their

need for secure, reliable & multi-discipline mailing from basic facilities offered by ISP and Webbased services.

Our solutions are aimed reducing communication costs apart from offering a secure and reliable communication solution. We are experienced in serving mail users across small, medium & large enterprises and have developed the most inexpensive email management system, with flexible utilities. We offer the best telephonic and online support to our customers as and when required. "Fully-managed" enterprise mailing solutions are aimed at offering hassle free mail management for medium and large enterprises. A web-based, easy-to-use tool for structured business communicationmanagement, it comes with power-packed smart reporting features.Online Anti-Spam & anti-virus enabled roaming POP a/c's with web mail offers peaceof mind to business users.

Enterprise Mailing Solution

It is an established fact that almost 80% of the virus attacks are through e-mails and over 60% of the mails are Spamming. Imagine what havoc a virus attack can cause to an enterprise where each individual is handling crucial data. Add to it the work hindrance due to heavy Spam and server downtime. With our experience and technical skills, we have developed an enterprise mailing solution that skillfully tackles these issues. This system can work with your existing mailing system as well, with advanced features. Apart from ensuring 99% uptime for the mail servers, we also power our managed enterprise mailing solution with online virus scanner & Spam controller that enables users to work more efficiently. We offer managed mail servers for companies with large setup and heavy mail traffic that are secure, maintain privacy & confidentiality and are able to handle as many users as an enterprise may have. Our managed mail server solution also allows all internal users to communicate over LAN with other cost-effective features like Auto Dialing, Address Mappings, Auto Reply, Forwarding, and Mailing lists etc. Our solution also lets our customers retain control over certain functions, e.g. creating a new user or maintaining mailing lists etc., giving sufficient independence to them.

POP A/c's with Web mail POP accounts with web mail are a perfect solution for people constantly on move. Our pop a/c's with web mail service allows the users to check mail from anywhere, using e-mail programs

such as Eudora or Outlook. All you need is a computer and access to the Internet. Apart from the standard features, our pop accounts are powered with online virus and Spam protection software that enables the user to work more efficiently. Some of the other features of pop accounts are: • Multi featured web mail interface, accessible worldwide. • Regular technical support • 99.9% uptime.

Lead Management System

Since our inception, we have been offering business enhancement solutions for generating high quality business enquiries. To ensure that suppliers have higher conversion rates, we have developed an effective lead management system (LMS). The LMS automatically organizes all incoming mails and maintains a threaded history of the entire communication. The users have the facility to set the schedule for follow-up. They can compose mails with pre-defined content and use it for regular responses. The users can also feed offline leads received from any other source like phone etc. and maintain a complete history of communication. LMS also generates useful MIS reports that assist individual users to measure the effectiveness of their responses and gives the administrator a complete overview of what is happening at the lead management front in the organization.

B2B MARKETPLACE SERVICES

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We have the privilege of launching India's largest B2B marketplace - IndiaMART.com and more than 50 other industry specific marketplaces. These attract focused business visitors and generate business enquiries for their members.

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We use our network of B2B marketplaces to assist businesses gain global exposure and do business with global buyers. These marketplaces have a membership of more than 300,000 companies. They together generate more than 40mn page views and over 350,000 trade enquiries every month. They are therefore best positioned to offer maximum exposure and visibility to suppliers to reach out to global buyers with their products/services. Highly targeted, animated banners to get high profile buyers and generate quality business enquiries assured genuine business enquiries, exclusive access to complete advertising space and a customized product catalog. Top position in business listings to drive high-volume, high quality buyers from across the globe 20,000+ government and corporate tenders from India, with easy access on the web or through e-mail. Sellers gain instant credibility with Trust Seal and get qualified enquiries from high volume buyers. The wide range of B2B market place services include the following services offered by the India mart intermesh limited:

Banner Advertising

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A banner is the most conventional and popular mode of reaching out to the target audience on the Internet. It works both as a brand building and traffic generation tool for the advertiser. With our 50-plus industries oriented B2B marketplaces, which garner highly targeted viewership from global buyers and Indian sellers, we are best positioned to serve the business generation & brand building needs of large and small businesses. Our industry experts work with the advertisers to identify strategic locations for banner placement and ensure highest click-throughs. We firmly believe that a meticulously planned advertising campaign is the only way to deliver better value for our advertiser's money. We have well defined positions on almost every page of our network; usually in the first screen itself. We serve animated and real media banners in the standard sizes of 468 x 60 pixels and 120 x 90 pixels and are equipped to handle custom sizes for specific campaigns.

Premium Listings

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The premium listings are an important element that draws high quality traffic to a supplier's website / product catalog, thereby generating effective business enquiries for the supplier. It is one of the best ways to reach out to potential global buyers and get them to view products and services offered by the supplier.

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Packed full of features, it offers top positions to a company's listing in business directory, catalogs and trade leads. Studies have proven that top ranked listings get a higher click rate than the rest. According to our internal assessment, these top ranked listings receive 3-5 times as many clicks as the normal business listings, thus creating an opportunity to garner better quality and quantity of business enquiries. We offer two versions of premium listings - Featured and Normal. The first three listings in a category are reserved for Featured Premium Listings and the next three for Normal Premium Listings. Every listing contains the company name, brief profile, contact information, and direct link to catalog and a link to online enquiry form.

Portal Sponsorships

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Portal sponsorship is a specially designed online promotion program that assists buyers in reaping maximum benefits from a product / industry focused marketplace with least time & cost. As global buyers prefer to visit focused and comprehensive portals for their product sourcing needs, hence these portals garner a niche target audience, most relevant for a supplier. By offering the complete advertising rights of the portal to the sponsor, we make sure that no buyer misses out the sponsor. Along with the sponsorship, we also develop a customized product catalog section for the sponsor within the portal, which can be referenced by the buyers for sending enquiries. This leads to high quality enquiries being generated for the sponsor.

Online Tenders

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Thousands of tenders are floated in India by different organizations and through different media. To keep a track of them is a monumental task for any individual. To facilitate access to all tenders floated by the government and private organizations all over India, we started online tenders service. We collect tenders from multiple sources and categorize them to feed it in our classified database. We provide access to over 20,000 current government, corporate tenders and procurement notices from India.

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The subscribers can view a tender on http://tenders.indiamart.com using a username and password or can get the notifications e-mailed to their mailbox.

Trust Seal

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Success in business is all about making right & informed decisions. Availability of relevant, verified information is therefore a key requirement. With greater uncertainties associated with international trade, the importance of this information is further enhanced. In order to offer end-to-end solutions to global buyers and sellers, buyers need relevant, unbiased information about the business status of the sellers. And here steps in Trust Seal. Trust Seal is an indication of trustworthiness of a business based upon its verified record of certified documents pertaining to proof of existence, legal status, statutory approvals, affiliations and quality certification. It aims at serving the dual purpose of:

• Offering international buyers the desired business information about the suppliers so that they can make a more informed decision, and • Assisting the sellers market themselves better to the global buyers.

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Trust Seal is not an evaluation service but is a symbol of authenticity to the information provided by the supplier. It denotes that information provided by the client has been authenticated and verified by a third party with document proof. This information is available to the buyer on request. A Trust Seal can be offered only to those companies, which qualify the minimum defined parameters of business evaluation.

ONLINE PAYMENT GATEWAY

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We offer end-to-end online payment solutions that are as feasible for B2B transactions as for retail. We offer online payment solutions to our customers through ABCpayments.com. It is a fully managed online payment solution that facilitates member companies transact with their customers. It has been developed to serve the needs of B2B as well as retail transactions. Member users can select from multiple payment acceptance options to suit their requirement. They can integrate it with their shopping cart or can use options such as: online invoicing, quick pay etc. to receive payments from their buyers.

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ABCpayments.com has a solution for almost every online payment requirement, including : Small value payment for samples or an advance Payments for custom made products, Negotiated price payment. ABCpayments.com is one of the most secured platforms in the world, which accepts payments through major credit cards (MasterCard, Visa, Diners) and e-banking from almost all the major Indian banks. We adopt stringent security measures to ensure that critically sensitive information, such as your customer’s personal information and their credit card/ debit cards/ net banking details are protected.

Some of the main features of ABCpayments.com are:

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• Fraud detection tool. • No merchant account required. • Prompt payments, short payment cycles. • Compatible with third-party shopping carts. • Multiple transaction services. • Highly secure – 128 bit SSL encryption. Highly secure – 128 bit SSL encryption Single Gateway with Multiple Payment Options:

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ABCpayments.com is a complete online payments solution for your business enhancement. This is one of the most secured platforms available anywhere that also enables you to receive online payments by most of the major credit cards and through e-banking from all the major

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Banks providing online banking facility. KEY FEATURES; • All major online payment modes accepted. • Highest level security available in India. • Multi currency support. 22 • Online and off line technical support. • Online invoice management system. • Online payment acceptance interface.

SECURITY

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ABCpayments.com offers the highest level of Security. Thawte Certified 128bit SSLEncryption Suspect Alert & Risk Minimization System also facilitates the security systems.

QUALITY

We are the first Indian company in our domain to have received ISO 9001:2000 certification for overall quality management and the organization’s ability to successfully "meet customer, regulatory and statutory requirements". •

“ISO CERTIFICATION HAS ENDORSED OUR POLICY OF ENHANCING THE VALUE DELIVERED TO OUR CLIENTS BY CONTINUALLY INPROVING THE QUALITY OF SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH STRUCTURED SYSTEMS AND INTERNAL DESCIPLINE.”

• Our approach to quality has a customer focus philosophy. Our focused approach towards quality ensures profitable returns for our customers.

• We are accredited with ISO 9001:2000 for our business processes and management system, the first of its kind in its domain in India . • We utilize our technical skills and business acumen to bring the best business solutions to our customers.

OUR APPROACH We are the first Indian company in our domain to have received ISO 9001:2000 certification for overall quality management and the organization’s ability to successfully "meet customer, regulatory and statutory requirements".

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We have teams that include professionals from the field of management, sales & marketing, data management, graphic design, content editing, online marketing and IT. We use our multi-discipline skills to determine customer needs, convert them into requirements and fulfill them with an aim of achieving customer satisfaction.

CERTIFICATIONS

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We are the first Indian company in our domain to have received ISO 9001:2000 certification for overall quality management and the organization’s ability to successfully "meet customer, regulatory and statutory requirements".

Our quality management system involves a set of procedures to follow: •

We have a well-defined system of recruiting people based on the requirement. The basic criteria for this are adequate education and training or experience as necessary.

• We have prescribed training schedules for the newly recruited as well as the existing depending upon their competency requirements,

• Our customer related procedures involve requirement identification, review, and product implementation and customer communication, • The processes are planned as per the customer requirements. • Set procedures are followed for design and development. • Internal software’s are used to check the correctness of the designed product. • Each stage of work progress is monitored and measured to evaluate performance. •

HOW WE ENSURE QUALITY

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We are the first Indian company in our domain to have received ISO 9001:2000 certification for overall quality management and the organization’s ability to successfully "meet customer, regulatory and statutory requirements". We utilize our technical skills and business acumen to bring the best business solutions to our customers. Since our services are human resource oriented, we need to work with a proper plan to get the best. There are prescribed set of procedures that we follow right from recruiting people to delivering the services and their further evaluation and improvements. Training and development of the employees is well taken care of to enhance employee skills. We devote extra man-hours by involving more professionals for each project. The project team generally includes professionals from varied fields such as sales and marketing, data management, software development, graphic designing, content editing and online marketing. Our clients get a consistent input of work progress through the team manager. We ensure that each team member follows the set procedures and checks at every stage of project development and implementation. With all our efforts we deliver solutions that delight our customers by their quality, presentation and profitable returns.

STRATEGIES UNDERTAKEN DURING THE TRAINING

I have used following strategies to achieve our sales and lead generation target.

COLLECTION OF RELIABLE DATABASE Indiamart provided us already registered client detail of indiamart.com, tradeindia.com, allibaba.com and others.

We got client database from website of indiamart.com of free listed, paid up and drop out clients of tradeindia.com and alibaba.com. The directory of indiamart.com has provided us renewable client list from dir.indiamart.com website. Also I referred the yellow pages, telephone directory of notified area of Naihati, kamarpukur, Garia, Baghajatin , to sort out the prospect clients. I was given proper guidance and details about the clients of small manufacturing industries of Kolkata, who were either dormant or inactive. The frequency of the purchases was very much less. Then I was asked to identify my prospects and then sell them promotional services and generated leads by applying our own methodology and knowing the suppliers perception towards our methodology.

CLIENT SEGMENTATION As the given database was huge it was not possible to do cold calling for each and every customer. For this purpose I identified eligible clients and most interested persons. This category of customers had a great potential for investments in online marketing of their products and were much easier to convince. For example I have identified Maktel Control System and Pvt Ltd, Garia Texway, Shiv Shakti Chemicals and Shimmer Chemicals, who are able to spend money to get the online promotional services for their product to enhance their sales activities ultimately which leads to increase business volume and revenue of organization.

As per my market research by questionnaire tool I derived that the clients who have already participated in exhibitions and further willing to do mass marketing through advertisement and internet. Industries situated at Haldia like Advance Syntex and Finex Pvt Ltd had participated in the tradefair which were organized earlier in the Rabindra Sadan ground. And they are willing to participate once again in mass marketing like tradefair and also we would like to cater online promotion services after our approach. For the segmentation of interested clients I used questionnaire to be filled up by clients. I have adopted door to door policy to make them aware and to get their responses about online marketing through www.indiamart.com, www.tradeindia.com, www.alibaba.com, www.indianexporters.com, etc.., mass advertisements through exhibitions, tradefair and print media of indiamart.com and any more B2B business portals. During this market survey, I differentiate interested clients who have given the positive response to me and non-interested as

well as not eligible to serve them online promotional services who have given negative responses towards the online marketing policy. I have sort listed Jay Industries, Hi Tech Engineering, Ambrodia Remedies Pvt Ltd, Danke Electrical Power Pvt Ltd, Econix Hi Tech Components Pvt Ltd, Heat Technologies Pvt Ltd and Arihant Industries, which are the non interested and not eligible to register in the online marketing business portals like www.indiamart.com, www.tradeindiamart.com ,etc. On account of their budget constraint, demand of product in local region only, so they are not required to serve this kind of online marketing of their product at international and national level. I have differentiated small scale industries on the basis of their sales like global sellers by imports- exports, local sellers or national sellers. As per these criteria I must approach industry which plays roles in selling activity at global and at least at national level like Climax Synthetic Pvt Ltd, Kaps Engineers and Sameer Linkages (export) Pvt Ltd generate sale order on international level from different country like U.K., European countries and in India too. The Prime Components Company is supplier to Government only, so I ignore this company on an account of his local selling activity or due to fixed buyer.

AWARENESS OF THE PROSPECT CLIENTS After identifying the prospect I do a little analysis of profile of that client. I studied his level of turnover, production capacity, current status of his business, his needs for generating sales volume, range of products, product category, competitors of his business, other manufacturing units of same client, his marketing policy, awareness about online promotional services, knowledge of indiamart.com and many more organization which provides online marketing of his product, his product’s consumption in various field, his expenditure towards the marketing of his products, his future planning of action, his client database, etc. Because these are the factors which decide what type of proposals or best offer would be suitable for satisfying his needs. If the client is having more than 50 products then I offered him to display all kind if products i.e., unlimited numbers of product on www.myindia.com portal which is another B2B portal of indiamart.com. So he would be able to attach his 300 no. of product at time and we provide him zoom up facility to observe each product individually on website of indiamart.com.

Also I offered them to launch their own website followed by www.indiamart.com portal and others more than 100 B2B portals which are sister concern of indiamart.com portals as well as their e-mail id to create transparency between seller and purchaser to keep confidentiality due to their monopoly in the plastic industries. Similarly for new clients and old manufacturers willing to take little risk, I advise them to develop websites by IT professionals of indiamart and register for the premium listing to get the very first presence among all other listed companies and rotatory advertisement banner in their product category website on www.indiamart.com to ensure maximum traffic and more hits on their own organization’s online platforms.

FRESH CALLING AND COLD CALLING After identifying prospects I did cold calling to these customers. I kept my target as 8 calls per day. I approached to them as customer service executives and asked them whether they are satisfied with the services given by INDIAMART.COM or are, they facing any problems? Then I also asked them the reason for their less investment in online marketing services, if any .After listening to their arguments, I gave them information regarding new online promotional proposal launched by indiamart.com and tried to convince them to give me an appointment. I was succeeded by applying this strategy of fresh calling and cold calling in case of Shimmer Chemicals and Maktel Control Systems and Pvt Ltd. to generate the leads. We called those clients who are not able to give us time from their busy schedule and try to make them aware about online promotion of their product and how much it would be beneficial for their business if they once login into www.indiamart.com B2B portals. I informed clients that if they are free listed on indiamart.com portal, how much benefits they can receive due to relevant business inquiries generated. We also try to collect the experience of those client who have opted for free listing registration and try to know their interest for the online marketing services so that it would be easier for us to convert them into paid clients to show them more benefits and the benefits of guaranteed 25 no. of buyers free list and 70 to 80 business inquiries after login into the www.indiamart.com platform. Some clients do not permit us to meet them in their office; at that time we try to be very flexible with their time convenience approaching and convincing the project. After getting appointment, I would visit customers working area or his administration offices and start solving his queries or giving him the information of various promotional services which is more beneficial to him. I would always equip myself with all the documents like product brochure includes product detail, print media like magazine of indiamart.com, Performa

invoices, and my log book. I always inform the customer the best offer available according to his requirements. I would then give a detailed fundamental and technical analysis of those online promotional services which is beneficial and interesting to customer. This fundamental analysis has helped me a lot as it creates an impression in mind of customer about the online marketing field. But this fundamental analysis has to be more clear and precise. Customer becomes very much happy if he gets comparison of various fundamental and technical aspects of different companies like tradeindia.com and alibaba.com from alexa.com and ranking.com to do the comparative analysis. As it makes the online promotional services self explanatory and easy to compare. This type of information creates confidence and positive impact in the mind of the customer which helps in convincing the prospect easily. Moreover I also leave my contact number to each customer I visit, so that he can contact me in case of any queries at later stage.

CLOSING THE MEETING At the end of the meeting, the customer would fill up questionnaire form for generating leads and if they show more interest then I offer new proposal of online promotion services. I asked them if I can approach them in near future for dealing with indiamart.com The success ratio for me to generate a prospect into a customer is around 53%. The main aim of selecting relevant clients is that they have a lump sum business inquires at their online platform. So if I get a single application, it will help me to accomplish my monthly target.

SALES SUPPORT SERVICE

Once the customer purchases online promotional services I always give him a feedback call if he has some doubts regarding his product catalogs or whether he is really feeling comfortable or not with our workouts. Sometimes customer demands inquiry statements during mid of the period for which I am always ready to serve. If client requires any editing in web pages like adding more products or adding details of the products, changes in some important information. These all queries are given first priority and always try to maintain their level of satisfaction.

ACHIEVEMENTS

1. understood the concept of “online promotional services” 2.

Types of schemes available in online marketing

3. Got knowledge of how the organization functions 4.

How to interact with clients.

5. Understanding client’s perception. 6.

Handling client queries and objections.

7. Filling up questionnaire forms, Performa invoices, Know your client (KYC) Requirements. 8. Understood concept of B2B portals, online marketing and mass advertising. 9. Understood functioning of organizational hierarchy 10. All formal communication channels used in organization

11. How organization measures performance of their employees,

12. How to develop and maintain corporate relationship, etc

CHAPTER 5

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research refers to „a search for knowledge‟. It can be defined as a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic. Research comprises defining and redefining problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions; collecting, organizing and evaluating data; making deduction and reaching conclusions; and at last carefully testing the conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulating hypothesis – Clifford Wood.

• RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

It is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various steps that are generally adopted by the researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic behind them. In general methodology is an optional framework within which the facts are placed so that the meaning may be seen more clearly. The sources of data shown that designing of a research plan calls for decision on the data sources are research approaches (primary and secondary data) research instruments (observation survey experiment) sampling plan and contact methods(personal interviews).

RESEARCH DESIGN

A research design is the determination and statement of the general research approach or strategy adopted for the particular project. It is the heart of the planning. If the design adheres to the research objectives, it will ensure that the client need will be served. Research design is a plan structured and strategies of investigation. It is the arrangement of condition and analysis of data in a manner to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure. In order to achieve the objective it was necessary to talk to the suppliers and public to draws the conclusions regarding the objective. For visiting the suppliers and publics to collect the relevant information; a questionnaire has to be designed. The questionnaire was designed in such a manner to achieve the objective of the research. The sample size taken is 50 respondents.

TYPE OF RESEARCH

In this project , Descriptive Research has been used.

Descriptive Research

This is a kind of research structure which is concerned with describing the characteristics of the problem. In this way the main purpose of such a research design is to present a descriptive picture about the marketing problem on the basis of actual facts. For this it is important to obtain the complete and actual information about the subjects.

NATURE OF RESEARCH Quantitative type of research has been used. As all the data was based on numerical figures obtained in the survey.

TYPE OF QUESTIONS The questions were self-administered, with a view to obtain maximum information from the respondent that is why the questions were straightforward.

TYPE OF QUESTIONNAIRE The entire questionnaire was standardized and formalized.

TYPE OF ANALYSIS As all the data found in the survey are totally numericals so the type of analysis was statistical.

SOURCE OF DATA PRIMARY DATA The data which is collected fresh and for the first time and thus happen to be the original one characteristic is called primary data. SECONDARY DATA The data which is already collected by someone else and which have been passed through the statistical process is known as the secondary data.

METHODS OF COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA

Interview Method

In this project I have taken the questionnaire method for collecting necessary information. In this method a questionnaire is given to the person concerned with question to answers the question and return the questionnaire. A questionnaire consists of number of questions printed in a definite order on a form or a set of forms.

SELECTION OF THE SAMPLE/SAMPLING PLAN This is one of the most important steps of a research design procedure. Generally in most of the marketing studies on sample or most of the sub group of the total population pertaining to the subject is included on place of the universe. The following things are primarily considered in the sample:-

Sample Size The sample size of the population was 50 respondents. Sample Extent

➢ East Kolkata ➢ West Kolkata Sampling Methods

The sampling method for the survey was random sampling. Random sampling suggest a way of sample selection where in any item of the population is likely to be selected in a sample as any other item it means that all items of the population have equal probability of being selected in the sample.

SECONDARY DATA COLLECTION

The report mainly consists of data from the primary source gathered through the schedule of questions and from other sources of websites,newspapaers,etc.

TABLE SHOWING PRECISELY THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Project Research Type:

Descriptive Research

Data Sources:

Primary Data , Secondary Data

Research Approach:

Survey Method

Research Instrument:

Questionnaire

Data Analysis:

Logical analysis

Sampling Procedure:

Random Sampling

Sample Size:

50 Respondents

Geographical Coverage:

East and West kolkata

Duration of the Survey:

6 weeks

CHAPTER

7 ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

FOR HOW LONG YEARS YOU ARE USING INTERNET? INTERPRETATION: I wanted to know the duration of using internet of the suppliers.After calculating the options I found that it was only 5% of the suppliers who are using internet for a year.Most of them are familiar with the internet for more than 3 years which is about 27% out of the 50 respondents.

HAVE YOU DONE ANY TRANSACTION OVER INTERNET?

INTERPRETATION: While asking the question of the usage of internet, 85% of the suppliers have done several transactions over internet. It implies the fact that as internet is very popular among the business,so a brief knowledge of that is also present with them.

WHICH TRANSACTION HAVE YOU MADE OVER INTERNET?

INTERPRETATION : Through this question I can clearly formulate that ,many of the suppliers use internet in their business purpose,others use for recharging mobile,ticket reservation and enquiries.It is clearly evident that internet usage is of vast importance in their business transactions.

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF YOUR BUSINESS?

INTERPRETATION: Through this question I wanted to know the nature of the business of the suppliers, and found that 55% of the suppliers are into manufacturing, and a very little percentage is in other types.So

the nature of the business is a very essential criterion which is required to know to carry out my project.

IS YOUR BUSINESS GLOBALLY RECOGNISED?

INTERPRETATION 25% of the suppliers’ business are globally recognized are not 75%.Through this I have come to know that most of their business are not having a global exposure. Lack of promotional strategies may be a factor as accepted by many and also the competition in the existing market.

LEGAL STATUS OF YOUR BUSINESS

INTERPRETATION About the organization 30% was partnership,20% was HUF and private ltd and LTD CO, and 10% was proprietorship. The nature of the business gives a clear idea about their dealings.

WHERE DO YOU CURRENTLY GET THE MAJORITY OF SALES LEADS?

INTERPRETATION

Through this it is very evident that most of the suppliers earn their revenue through sales networking(45%),some use cold calling(10%),Trade shows(30%), and the rest use websites.So there is a definite urge of the e commerce for them.

ADVERTISEMENT MEDIUM OF YOUR COMPANY

INTERPRETATION: Out of the various respondents,maximum number of the suppliers use TV, and the others use newspapers, magazines and they also participate in Trade shows and Exhibitions.

ADVERTISING BUDGET OF YOUR COMPANY

INTERPRETATION: There are various suppliers whose advertising budget exceeds 20000(35%), and the others range in between 10000-20000 margin.A lot of money is spend on the promotional of their products.

HAVE YOU EVER USED ANY PORTALS FOR THE PROMOTIONS

INTERPRETATION 45% of the suppliers have used portals for their promotions of the products, and 55% have not used yet. The reasons are inadequate informations, high costs,etc

RANK IN ORDER OF YOUR PREFERENCE THE VARIOUS PORTALS PROVIDED BY THE COMPANY(RANK 1 FOR THE BEST) INTERPRETATION Around 58% of the suppliers think that indiamart.com provides the best online promotional services, 38% thinks it is Tradeindia.com, and the rest opts for alibaba.com.

DO YOU THINK THAT PROMOTING A BUSINESS THROUGH DEFINITE BUSINESS PORTALS WILL ULTIMATELY GIVE YOU THE GLOBAL EXPOSURE?

INTERPRETATION

In this case around 65% of the suppliers think that online promotions do definitely help in getting a vast global exposure, and 35% think it does not.

WHICH IS THE BEST MEDIUM OF PROMOTING THE PRODUCT’S FEATURES THROUGH ONLINE?RANK IN ORDER OF YOUR PREFERENCE(I FOR THE BEST)

INTERPRETATION: Most of the suppliers are of the opinion that trade fare and print media can be the best medium of promoting a product’s features through indiamart.com.They think that it is a very user friendly format provided by indiamart in order to advertise the suppliers’ products.

CHAPTER

7 FINDINGS

After I completed my training in indiaMART, I had a very mixed experience regarding the online promotions.Indiamart is having a very good standing in the market at the present market outset. Being an online promotional company , they have taken subtle online promotional strategies which is fruitful for the company.During this session ,I had managed to interact to many suppliers ,prepared the questionnaire for their suppliers’ perception towards the activities of Indiamart.com and I come up with the company’s positive and the negative aspects alongwith some limitations. 1. Some of the important findings in Indiamart was that most of the suppliers were very reluctant to spend money on the online promotions of their products. 2. They have a very good knowledge of the online promotional tools which are prevalent in the market and they are interested also. 3. They are also aware of the other competitors in the market like alibaba.com, tradeindia.com, etc 4. Most importantly they have enough faith on indiamart.com and they are very much interested in promoting their product through the indiamart as they know the number of clients in Indiamart are very high. 5. They are also in the belief that if they want to promote their business globally, online promotions are necessary. 6. The suppliers are also in the opinion that print media, trade fares are very much beneficial in the online promotion activities. 7. During the interaction with the suppliers,it was very much clear of the fact that the service rendered by indiamart is of supreme quality and they want to be the client of the company.

SWOT ANALYSIS

Organization performs SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threats) analysis to identify and evaluate their competitive position.

STRENGTHS The most power full point in hand of the company is that they provide the customized solution to the customers. 1) The company has excellent distribution system. 2) The company has built a strong image among the customers. 3) The company experiences excellent Brand loyalty for its Products from the

customers. 4) The company has made its Product range attractive, which lures the customers, and consequently the products are favorite among the customers . WEAKNESSES 1) Some products have high prices as compared to the other products. 2) The company branches are not spread through out the region; as a result load of the work at the head office is tremendous. 3) The company pays less attention towards the matured clients . OPPORTUNITIES 1) India has a vast potential market, which the company can get hold up. 2) The company can prove to be major threats for its competitor’s if it increases its marketing efforts. 3) IIL should concentrate on the premium segment market. THREATS

1) The major threat that company faces is from its competitors who are introducing products with lower cost backed by aggressive promotional schemes to attract the customer. The arrival of the MNC is a major serious threat for the company. ANALYSIS Most of the businessman is aware of the Internet or online business. But they are not aware of the exact process neither they are in a mood to know until nor unless they are being told of the benefits they can have by entering into this business promotion. It was also concluded that Indiamart is the most known company in this kind of industry. The major hand to achieve this goal is because of the strategy followed by Indiamart that is their mode of calling the potential clients and generating awareness about them. The

follow up process made by the company also has a good hand in the awareness about the Indiamart. The good percentage of satisfied clients is also an additional factor for its publicity. Most of its clients are satisfied and they place Indiamart as the best company in this industry. The appraisal made by them proves an addition to its image in the market. The wide range of products offered by the company helps the customer to have the product of his choice and the very tool of the customized solution in an additional factor, which attracts towards Indiamart. Thus it could be said the company is in a good position in the market and is expected to have a bright future ahead.

LIMITATIONS OBSERVED

Following are some limitations which affect our performance in the organization. Indiamart.com is providing eminent facilities so as to increase and maintain the performance of each and every employee in the organization.

1. The basic problem that everyone faces today is of recession. The same case is with small scale sectors. The most likely argument is not getting enough return on their investment so it’s difficult for them to invest at this point of time. 2. Some of the suppliers are satisfied with the present status of their business. They don’t want to expand further due to limited resources or lack of vision and like to avoid risk. For e.g. if company gets regular order from government, shows no interest to online promotional services.

3. The price factor also plays key role in generating leads because aware customers are likely to respond to that services which offer maximum advantages at minimum cost. For e.g. tradeindia.com provides almost same services but at considerably low amount as compared to indiamart.com.

4. Some of the clients are not able to afford the cost or price that indiamart.com offers. It necessitates keeping record of their status at regular interval. For e.g. with the help of appointment at regular intervals, the probability of converting the prospect into regular client can be found out. 5.Many of the clients had bad experiences as a result they have withdrawn from it. The most likely reasons are unsatisfactory inquiries and fake inquiries. Some of them had suffered heavy losses by accepting those fake inquires . 6. Most of the organizations are controlled from their respective headquarters as a result the decision remains pending for a long period of time. Regular follow up is required to maintain their proper status. 7. The absence of respective departmental head because of meetings or on leave requires follow up on continuous basis. 8. Some of the clients are very satisfied with their business as they are generating enough business locally and so they donot go for online marketing.

9.Few clients are satisfied with their present service provider in all respect so they don’t want to change it. 10. Some of the organizations are positive about online promotional services but they can’t afford it at present due to low turnover or profit . 11. Many of the clients are not willing to fill up the questionnaire because they feel that it will result into leaking out important information which is harmful to their organization at later stage. Some of them neglected to fill up such questionnaire without the authority of their respective superiors 12. Some of the organizations have their own web pages and also have contacts of website developers who help them to develop website for companies in more cost effective way.

CHAPTER

8

RECOMMENDATION S

RECOMMENDATIONS :

For an effective online promotional marketing strategy for a manufacturer, there are some recommendations which need to be followed so as to increase the revenue of the company.

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REGISTRATIONS AT B2B MARKETPLACES Leveraging services of an online B2B marketplace opens up numerous doors of opportunities. It offers both options for registrations –free and paid. The latter offers additional features to enhance business prospects. To gain maximum exposure manufacturing companies should register at many online B2B marketplaces as possible and be visible to buyers visiting from across the globe.

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BUILD A WEBSITE A website that covers complete product and company information alongwith client testimonials has become a prerequisite for manufacturers looking for web presence. Updating the product catalogue and other latest happenings such as trade fare participations at regular intervals is also essential to keep the customers and visitor’s interest. The company must be prompt in replying to business queries from buyers over email or phone.

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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION A specialized company needs to be engaged to undertake the SEO activities for your company. Also the manufacturer firms should register themselves at Google Local , Google Maps, and similar services across all search engines, both major and minor.

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EMAIL MARKETING A concrete database of the target customers from a reliable source should be obtained and send mailers using a service that gives detailed statistics of its rate ,click through ,etc.

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BUILD TRUST Online marketing is mainly based on trust.You can capitalize on mechanism which bridge the trust gap associated with the online medium and enhance your

credibility.Indiamart.com has a business verification service ‘Trust Seal’ and that needs to be used in a very fair way to obtain the customer’s trust.

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SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: It is a powerful tool to speed the word about your company and increase network possibilities , social media , holds immense potentials. Sending regular update messages in your LinkedIn network , updating company’s products at various blogs,uploading product pictures on photo sharing sites like Flickr,putting product videos on all video sharing siteslike You Tube, placing company presentations and documents on document sharing sites, such as Slide shares, Scribd,etc can improve the suppliers’ perceptions over the online promotional products.

CONCLUSION

The main purpose of Summer Internship Program (SIP) is to gain practical knowledge and apply our skills in practical and real environment. It is the time when we have to sharpen our skills, abilities and knowledge which would help me in getting final placement. In Indiamart.com, I have got an opportunity to explore my potential. By preparing extensive research reports I have attained fundamental knowledge of online promotional services, its scope, the suppliers’ perceptions towards the different online promotional tools provided by the company and its importance in coming years. I have also come across various technicalities related to online promotional services. I am very confident that after completing my internship in Indiamart.com Company I would have mastered in various online promotional services.

REFERENCES & ANNEXURE

QUESTIONNAIRE NAME: COMPANY’S NAME: ADDRESS: PHONE: 1. For how long years are you using the internet? a. 1 year , b. 2 years, c. 3 years,

d. More 2. Have you done any transaction over internet? a.Yes b. No 3. Which transaction have you made over internet? a. Recharging mobile b. Railway ticket reservation c. Flight reservation, d. Others 4. What is the nature of your business? a. Manufacture b. Direct sales c. Exportd. Buying agent

5. Legal status of your business. a. HUF, b. Partnership, c. Private LTD. d. Proprietorship 1. Is your business globally recognized? a. Yes b. No 2. Where do you currently get the majority of your sales leads? a. Sales networking b. Cold calling c. Trade shows d. Websites, 3. What is the advertisement medium of your product? a. Newspaper, b. TV c. Magazines, d. Exhibition/ trade shows

4. What has been your advertising budget for your product’s promotion? a. 10000, b. >15000 c. >20000, d. 20000 or more 5. Have you ever used any portals for your product’s promotion? a. Yes b. No 6. Rank in order of your preference the various portals provided by the company.(rank 1 for the best one……..) a. Indiamart.com b.Tradeindia.com c. Alibaba.com

7. Do you think that promoting your product through a definite business portal will ultimately help in exposing your product globally? a. Yes b. No . 8. Which is the best medium of promoting the product’s features through online?(RANK IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE)1-BEST… a. Trade fare b. Print media, c. Electronic media

REFERENCES:

References:Kotler, Philip “Marketing Management” published by Vikas publishing house Pvt. ltd. New Delhi. Kothari, C. R. .“Research Methodology”. (third. edition 2007) published by. new age international (P) ltd. “CMA Magazine (Cement Manufacturers Association)” Aaker, D.A. and Shansby, J. (1982) “Positioning your Product,” Business Horizons, 25, (May/June), 56-62 Crawford, C. M. (1985) “A New Positioning Typology,” journal of Product Innovation Management, 4 , 243-253 Domzal, T. and Unger, L. (1987) “Emerging Positioning Strategies in Global Marketing,” journal of Consumer Marketing, 4 , 23-40 Hooley, G., Saunders, J. and Piercy, N. F. (1998) Marketing Strategy and Competitive positioning (2nd edi), Hemel Hempstead: Prentice-Hall Kotler, P. (2000). Marketing Management, (Millennium Ed), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall Park, C. W., Jaworski, B. J. and McLnnes, D. (1986) “Strategic Brand Concept-Image Management,” .journal of Marketing, 50 (October), 135-145 Muhlbacher, H., Dreher, A. and Gabriel-Ritter, A. (1991) “MIPS-Managing Industrial Positioning Strategies,” Industrial Marketing Management, 23, 287-297 News Papers:Times of India Hindustan Times Economic Times Web Based References:http://www.birlacorporation.com http://www.amzon.com http://www.wikipedia.com http://www.answer.com http://www.cma.com http://www.scribd.com