Samenvatting

As an Argentinean eCommerce business, GoodPeople decided to acquire Avenida, an online platform that was owned by Flipkart, the Indian market leaders in eCommerce, in the end of 2017. Flipkart had to face a sharp decline in sales figures which was the reason the company decided to sell the marketplace. GoodPeople saw a lot of potential and now faces the issue of only slightly increasing revenues which the firm intends to solve by adjusting its current marketing strategy and implementing appropriate marketing measures.
In order to increase the Avenida sales figures, quantitative research has been conducted in form of a customer satisfaction survey and data mining. It has been made use of an online questionnaire to determine the level of satisfaction with several aspects and operations of the platform such as product quality, price, customer service or the website. By looking at past sales of the two most sold product groups “Home” and “Electronics”, it was aimed to identify top-selling products and forecast future revenues. Moreover, desk research has been applied to find out about current trends in global eCommerce and general problems that an internet start-up faces.
The research has shown that there are several reasons that cause customer dissatisfaction. Using sales forecasting uncovered product groups that will face a growing customer demand in the future whereas the sales figures of others will most likely face a sharp decline. The survey revealed that clients are unsatisfied with the customer service that GoodPeople provides for Avenida, the product descriptions published on the website, the ranking in search engines and the delivery time of orders. Moreover, additional payment options and pick-up branches are requested. By means of data mining, the most successful product categories, computers and bedroom articles, could be discovered and four product groups that are threatened by decrease in customer demand could be identified. Cellphones, TV’s, tools and garden and outdoor items are most likely going to generate less or no revenues at all, in the near future.
In order to increase the sales figures of the online platform Avenida, it is recommended to implement a live chat and attach more importance to the customer service in general. Contracts with local suppliers can help to shorten the long delivery times, an issue that has to be investigated in the future. It is further suggested following a mobile strategy and create an application to make the chopping experience easier and more comfortable for customers. Moreover, it is recommended adding “Todo-Pago” as a payment option and to conduct SEO. In order to improve product descriptions, a data sheets provider can be involved and complementary products for computers and bedroom articles can be promoted in particular to influence the purchase decision of all consumers that are interested in those two product groups. Finally, content marketing in form of videos or blog posts in social media networks and on the website itself, can help to make the marketplace more attractive to a higher number of potential customers.