The Hindu Business Line : ‘E-marketing vital for online commerce’

Mr Sabapathy N. , Marketing Head, Aspire Systems, at the BL Club meeting at the Seshadripuram Institute of Management Studies at Yelahanka, near Bangalore on Wednesday. —

Our Bureau

Bangalore, Nov. 9 The dotcom era has revolutionised the way we do business. Now, products and services are bought and sold over electronic systems such as the Internet and the amount of trade conducted electronically is growing at a rapid pace.

The emergence of ecommerce has significantly lowered barriers to entry. Many small business houses are able to sell their wares either through online auction sites or via large corporate Web sites, and reaping the benefits of exposure such sites provide.

Hence, a competent marketing team that can understand the market and operationalise strategies is vital for the survival of such ecommerce companies.

A guest lecture titled ‘IT in Marketing’, organised by The Hindu Business Line Club for MBA students of Sheshadripuram First Grade College, Yelahanka here on Wednesday, introduced them to the vision they need to possess to succeed in e-marketing.

Impact

The resource person, Mr Sabapathy N., Marketing Head of Aspire Systems, shared his experience, and discussed the advantages and disadvantages, the present as well as the future of e-marketing.

“E-marketing is the result of technology applied to traditional marketing. It affects traditional marketing in two ways — increases efficiency in traditional functions, and the technology in e-marketing transforms many marketing strategies,” Mr Sabapathy said.

This in turn will result in new business models that add customer value and/or increase company profitability.

Later, interacting with students, Mr Sabapathy said that although no special skills are needed to join ecommerce companies, possessing analytical abilities as well as soft-skills is a must.

Transactions done through e-banking services are safe, he said, and remarked that problems arise only because of lack of awareness among consumers. “If you provide your account details to an unsolicited mail, then you will surely land in problems. The transaction process is safe and it is done through a special server protocol connection that encrypts confidential data for customer protection,” Mr Sabapathy said.

Looking ahead

He said that India is rapidly adopting e-marketing and according to a Nasscom report, by 2012, 80 per cent of business done in the country will be through ecommerce. Mr Sabapathy called on students to devise strategies that will reach rural markets as ecommerce will not only involve virtual items but also physical items.

Mr G. Kannan, Deputy Regional Manager of The Hindu, Bangalore, and Ms Meera Dixit, Director, Sheshadripuram Institute of Management Studies, were present.

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